Hi everybody. My wife and I are just beginning our investigations on where we may like to retire in about three or four years and we’ve heard good things about the Flagstaff/Prescott, AZ area. Can anybody comment about living there? I know there is lots of railroad action in Flagstaff but not sure about Prescott. Any and all information and opinions about either spot would be appreciagted. Thanks.
Went to college in Prescott some 20+ years ago … [:-^]
Great area … main line through town has been abandoned for several decades, but there is the occasional train to the west on the Peavine. http://www.geocities.com/~aeromoe/Peavine.html
Prescott is a good balance between Flagstaff and Phoenix at about 5300’ in elevation the snow is more decorative .
Robert
Calling diningcar!
See the current (June 2012) issue of Trains - the “Trackside Guide” on page 65 by Elrond Lawrence is about Flagstaff, Ariz.
When we were there in Jan. 2010 righht after New Years, “Flag” had about 36" of snow on the ground, and lots of piles along the streets, temp. about 40 degrees - reminded me of home here in Pennsylvania (and Illinois for you).
A few miles east is the Canyon Diablo bridge and Meteor Crater, and there are 3 tourist/ scenic railroads within a couple miles.
About 20 - 30 miles southwest of Flagstaff is Sedona, which has a . . . different culture, let us say. But the country around there is very pretty.
- Paul North.
…I believe Flagstaff is about 7,000 ft. in elevation. Plenty of snow up there in Winter.
I worked in the Kingman area, 3,300 some ft. in elevation, many years ago {automotive transmission testing}, and not much snow there. Very hot and dry in the Summer. 100 plus…
Also, most of the railroad action going thru Flag, also goes thru Kingman. Double main of BNSF of course. And the east / west routes take slightly different routes up thru “perfume pass”, just southwest of Kingman, and on up thru Kingman, then come back together again just on the east side of that area.
I was there with my family less than a month ago - very pretty country accompanied by snow in the morning (this was two days after getting snowed on at Cascade wye on the D&S. I did note that there are some very normal people living in the area along with some of the more exotic types.
Sedona is not that far from Jerome, which was the focus of Myrick’s last book (RR’s of AZ vol 6), though there have been reports of his working on a volume 7 before he died. I do wonder if he was planning to write in depth about the Arizona Mineral Belt which he mentioned in Vol1 of the series.
- Erik
I am a retired railroader who has chosen to live in Prescott. Please email me with specific questions if you choose.
EriC: Myrick’s papers and research collection are now at CRRM-Golden in the Richardson Library. Helped catalog-in some of it and there was a book in-process. After the CRRM archivist had health problems of his own, I don’t know what the status is on that unfinished work.
MC,
Thanks for the update, confirms that my memory about Myrick working on a 7th volume wasn’t a hallucination. Sorry to hear about the CRRM archivist.
- Erik
P.S. My name is spelled with a “k” (like Bergie), not a “c”.
My in-laws hail from Paulden, north of Prescott. Prescott has its charms, but it’s essentially the “biggest city in Arizona no one outside of Arizona has heard of,” as it’s centrally located but off the two major transcontinental rail/road corridors. The suburbs surrounding Prescott–Chino Valley, Prescott Valley, etc.–are rapidly developing with folks that want to get away from the heat of Phoenix, so it may well be developing into “suburbab/exburban Hades” if you are disinclined to like huge residential developments and suburban sprawl. Downtown Prescott itself still feels like your “Mayberry” small town in many ways, but it’s surrounded by its fair share of malls, shopping centers, new high schools, and another development every time you turn around.
Flagstaff has its own charms and development, but is surrounded by hills and forests and feels much more like a mountain town. And I’ve heard of folks adjusting badly to 7000’ altitude.
Those generalities aside, from there it depends on how much “civilization” you like. Those who like popping down the street to get the latest wine from France and the New Yorker can find a place to live just as easily as the person who wants to live on a hillside 20 miles from the nearest pavement. (Look up Crown King for the latter–and, yes, they have high-speed internet available there, too, and you drive there on a former railroad grade from Cordes Junction.)
The ATSF Williams Junction-Phoenix line, called the “Peavine” locally, has its own Yahoo Group which is fairly active. The line basically sees three trains each way a 24-hour day–a Chicago-Phoenix intermodal, an auto-carrier train, and a Clovis, NM-Phoenix mixed merchandise train. The latter has but two reason to slow down on the entire Peavine between Williams and Phoenix–an interchange with the Arizona Central at Drake (with a gypsum plant also under construction there, though now stalled by the bad economy), and the interchange with the Ari
Lived in Prescott for many years, just moved to northern Oregon first of this year for a job. There is no RR activity in the Prescott area. There used to be, but all track removed, most of the right-of-way converted to trails. You’re right about lots of activity in FLG, as the Continental mainline goes right through town, Amtrak Southwest Chief from Chicago stops in FLG. About 1 in 3 people in PRC retired. Center of downtown is Yavapai County Courthouse Square, wonderful gathering place, there are events there most weekends, especially in the summer, and a “courthouse lights ceremony” at Christmas. It really does have a small-town feel, PRC calls itself “Everybody’s Hometown” and most everybody is quite friendly, even the attorneys! Prescott gets hot in summer, around 15 or so degrees cooler than Phoenix, so it’s not unusual to hit 100, though mostly stays in the 90s. Overnight lows in winter teens and low 20s, some snow but usually doesn’t last more than a day. My favorite place to eat is Pasquale’s Place at the corner of Montezuma and Willis, sort of a Euro style deli, really good food and great staff, especially Sandi! There are 2 Wal-Marts in town and a Costco. PRC is home of “World’s Oldest Rodeo” July 4 weekend. Flagstaff is about 90 or so road miles from PRC, 3 ways to go none of them direct. One way goes E on hwy 69 to I-17 then N to FLG, another is 2-lane hwy 89A which is mountainous, goes over Mingus pass at 7100 ft, then through Jerome and Sedona then the magnificent Oak Creek Canyon, and the third is to take hwy 89 N to I-40 at Ash Fork, then E to Flg through Williams (home of the Grand Canyon Railway). There are lots of assisted-living places in PRC, FLG typically has highest gas prices in all of AZ. FLG gets plenty of snow at 700ft.
One other thing to mention: the humidity. PRC and FLG are high elevation, as mentioned before, so the summer temps are bearable, but it is dry there with relative humidity that commonly dips into single digits and stays below 25% unless there
The boys and I used to go to Phoenix for spring training during March and always head up to Flagstaff to cool off. What a great town. I have always thought about living there. Lots of snow, but also sunshine.
As a train watcher, it is “like fish in a barrel” as previously mentioned. The last time out, my son and I went west to the Arizona Divide about 10 miles out of town and ended up at an observatory. Lowell Ob is also there, as are a number of overnight telescope observatories for amateur astronomers (another of my hobbies). Sort of like a bed and breakfast…in reverse. Stay up all night with a telescope and then sleep during the day.
I have often thought that Flagstaff Az and Asheville NC would be good retirement communities. Quite a bit in common.
Ed
Lived from 2000-2006 in FLagstaff and still visit durring the summers and christmas to the family.
Yes it snows with something of just shy of 100 inches a year (give or take i cant rememebr) but its AZ so the snow is gone within 2-5 days depending on how much they get unlike the midwest where once it hits the ground it stays until spring. You will see people after a blizzard dumping 2-3 feet of the white stuff walking around the next day in short sleves bc its too “hot” (50-60). SUmmers are awsome with it hardly breaking 90, summer monsoons, and at night dropping to 40s.
Prices are expensive up there too…Flag is called “poverty with a view” bc groups of people long fought development in the town and the city council tried to keep that small mountain/college/research setting…so most everything that wanted to be in Flagstaff went to Prescott…you can feel the hippy affect on the downtown area but its still fun to go down there to the dinners and bars
Further:
Weather: I don’t know the snow firsthand, but I’m told Prescott and Paulden have SUBSTANTIALLY less snow than Flagstaff. Down there you’ll get some serious snow but not a lot or that often, and the wind is often a bigger factor (drifting) than the actual accumulation. (Note: Paulden is at 4,400 feet, a bit of a valley compared to 5200-foot Prescott, 6000-foot Williams, or 7000-foot Flag.) In Flagstaff, you WILL get snowed on, and it WILL matter. Roads to rural locations may or may not get plowed; if you’re off the beaten path, plan for being snowed in for several days.
“It’s not the heat; it’s the humidity.” So true. I’ve been more comfy in 95-100 degree Paulden/Flag than I ever was in 85-90 degree Chicago, and boarding in Phoenix at 110 degrees was far better than stepping off the same plane into 94-degree tropical-swamp-humidity Baltimore.
The Gladiator Fire in central Arizona, which you may have seen on the TV news, is currently burning its way down the right-of-way of the former Bradshaw Mountain RR from Crown King towards Cleator, having burned through both old RR “switchbacks” on the route. It’s likely a few last remnants of one of the mines, as well as the wooden aerial tramway that eased the ore down the mountainside to the railroad from the mine, have perished in this most recent blaze. Thus far the “ghost town” of Crown King (300 or so year-round residents, with many weekend cabins surrounding) has been spared, though they’ve been evacuated for six days straight and power has been out because of the loss of the power lines in the fire.