Event of the Month

vent of the Month The Welcome Mat Is Out at Florence, a Town with a Zesty Past

You like old things? More to the point, old and deliciously historic? Florence may be just to your taste, then, especially on the first Saturday in February. That's when this comfy Gila Valley county-seat town of some 3,500 souls (not counting the 5,000 reluctant residents in the adjacent state penitentiary) holds its annual historic buildings tour. There are trolleys that take you from place to place, and knowledgeable guides are happy to share fascinating facts about their town. There are different places on the tour each year, but hereabouts there's plenty to choose from. Bear in mind that Florence is the fifth-oldest town in Arizona (after Tucson, Tubac, Yuma, and Prescott). It boasts more than 130 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.Florence's origins are in agriculture, but after silver was discovered in the nearby Superstitions, the town began to resemble Tombstone, with people doing a rather substantial amount of shooting at each other. As when the sheriff and one of his deputies got into a gunfight at a local saloon. The deputy died. The sheriff survived. And in the Juan Martinez House, which was on last year's tour, you would have seen, from that selfsame saloon and shoot-out, an eight-foot mirror with a bullet hole in it. Eddie Taylor, who used to be the town's street superintendent, owns the 115year-old house and mirror and is supremely proud of both. The Truman-Randall House, a Sonoran-style adobe, which gets included in the tour now and again, is another that's evocative of frontier rambunctiousness. Sheriff W.C. Truman built the house in the late 1880s, and a couple named Randall later acquired it. But its historic interest owes more to Sheriff Truman, for it was he who captured the notorious lady stagecoach robber, Pearl Hart. In 1899 east of Florence, she and her buddy, a guy named Joe Boot, committed what is said to have been the Southwest's last stagecoach holdup. Sheriff Truman flushed them out of a cave and sent them scatting off to that well-known hellhole, the Yuma Prison (see Arizona Highways, March '93). The courthouse where Pearl and Joe were tried is one of three in Florence, two of which are very old and well-preserved and rate inclusion in every tour. The oldest of the three courthouses is where, on a hot August night in1887, jailer Mike Rice took the considerable risk of giving guns to his prisoners so that together they might hold off a mob bent on lynching the miscreants. Then, more or less tractable and relieved of the weapons, they returned to their cells. In 1891 a new courthouse was built and the old one became the county hospital, which it remained for 50 years. Not long ago, it was acquired and given to the state parks system by Ernest W. McFarland, an ex-Florentian said to be the only politician in the U.S. to serve in a state's three highest offices: as U.S. senator, governor, and chief justice of the state Supreme Court. It's now known as McFarland State Park.The second-oldest courthouse is a grand Victorian-style red brick building with a phony tower clock. Its painted hands Perpetually inform onlookers that the time is 11:46 (or about 8:55 no one knows for sure). Florence even has a citizen older than that courthouse. She's Billy Earley, who's 106 but looks about 70. God gave her durable genes, she says, and she's tried to take as good care of her body as she takes of her 126-year-old house. Florence overall is doing much the same thing with its old buildings. John Swearingen, who has written a book about Florence titled Good Men, Bad Men, Lawmen and a Few Rowdy Ladies, says this is good. It means, he says, that Florence isnt "just some little old dusty town out in the country." And it's not just a "prison town." It's a town with a zesty past, a genuine dyed-in-the-wool heritage. It's truly one of Arizona's historic places, and the yearly tour offers a great chance to check it out.Florence is 61 miles southeast of Phoenix. To get there go east on U.S. 60 to Florence Junction. Turn south onto State Route 79 and follow it until you get to Florence, 16.1 miles later. Or, for a faster trip, leave Interstate 10 at Exit 185 to reach Florence via State 387 and then State 287.

WHEN YOU GO

This year's Florence Historic Home Tour will take place February 4 from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. Tickets cost $5 and can be obtained from the Florence Chamber of Commerce. Trolleys depart from the chamber at Eighth and Bailey streets and will visit five or six buildings, allowing you to get on and off wherever your fancy leads. For more information, contact the Florence Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 929, Florence, AZ 85232; (602) 868-9433.