Show Low?

We took a trip to Show Low, AZ this weekend.

Yes, that's right, Show Low. Strange name right? We thought is was too. But its a real town up north about 3 hours. Its at about 6,000 feet elevation so it was great for getting out of the heat. Some of the people we know own cabins up here. Can you guess from this picture where it got it's name?




We went to a history museum to find out. And we found out lots of things besides. Like that the town was founded by Mormons (no big surprise out here). And that they did a fabulous job documenting everything, I mean everything. They even had a cool working miniature train exhibit. And Andy would have liked this one...



An entire display on old surveying equipment! We also had to ask about this very strange phenomena that we noticed right away at just about every street corner. Couldn't explain it but we had our guesses...



You probably guessed - this is a camera for catching people who ran the traffic lights (like I said they had lots of them). But why were they all covered up?

The curator confirmed our suspition...the police installed them but the town's people had such an outcry because they hated them. so they covered them all till they could figure out what to do. Oh well. Out for Mexican food in the evening (btw we have eaten more Mexican food in the last 4 years than we did our entire lives!)

We spent the night and then went to this wonderful recreation area called Fool's Hollow Lake (another funny name).









Really nice and had a great walking path that surrounded the lake. Even with the temperature being cooler (80's) the sun was still strong. So we packed up and headed home via Payson.

So did you guess? The name Show Low came from a card game - apparently some epic game to settle a dispute between two men over who would own the ranch they lived on. The game, seven-up, was to be used and went late into the night...until finally one of them supposedly said - whoever can "show low" will win. The deuce of clubs (also the name of the main street in town) has become the symbol in the town logo.

So they say this is the Wild West, then this must be how the West was won!


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