GREAT WEEKENDS

great weekends Tourists Discover a New Kind of Pay Dirt in the Old Mining Town of Wickenburg

In Wickenburg, this town known for its boom and bust gold mining days, the Apache wars, cowboys, and dude ranches, you wouldn't think homemade ice cream would make much of an impression.

Or shopping for antiques. Or having lunch in a tearoom.

Or savoring the views from a hilltop bed and breakfast.

But for my wife, Gail, and me these diversions highlighted a great weekend getaway. And the homemade ice cream was the cherry on top of the whole confection.

Wickenburg blossomed as the United States ravaged itself in the Civil War, siphoning soldiers from the West. In the Apaches marauded, and the undermanned Army seemed unable to stop them. Still, the enchantment of gold drew the prospectors.

When Henry Wickenburg, the Prussian expatriate, discovered gold in 1863, the settlement boomed. First came the miners, then the ranchers and cowboys, and, much later, the dude ranches and the dudes.

Today the town thrives on its past. Visitors tour the Vulture Mine and meander the shaded trails at The Nature Conservancy's Hassayampa River Preserve. They amble downtown, visiting the Jail Tree where criminals were chained before the jail was built the Old Wishing Well, and, especially, the renowned Desert Caballeros Western Museum.

And the lucky ones find the homemade ice cream at the Chaparral Cafe, just a few steps from the Jail Tree.

For my wife, the antique stores Antique Village and An Antique Store in particular provided the greatest adventure, especially rummaging through hundreds of copies of old sheet music dating to the Roaring '20s. She found a copy of "Cruising Down the River" which, for her, was more valuable than an old painting by Grandma Moses.

She also found a 1950s'-style bank in the shape of a blue frog like one we sold at a garage sale a few years ago. The one in the store was priced at $13.

My preference at the Antique Village carried me into a room with a large section of books. There I found a great layman's theology book by Frank Sheed. Who would expect to find a theology book in a town once known as the "Dude Ranch Capital of the World"?

The Wickenburg Library proved another great place to buy good books cheaply. Books for sale filled shelf after shelf: 50 cents for hardcover; 25 cents, softcover.

But we discovered much more to do than shop.

Our trip began Friday morning with the hour and a half drive to Wickenburg from our home in Phoenix, arriving just in time for lunch.

After eating at one of the several downtown diners, we headed for the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. Outside, Joe Beeler's bigger-than-life bronze sculpture of a cowboy kneels beside his horse giving "Thanks for the Rain."

THE BEST OF WESTERN ART

This is the kind of museum one would expect to find in Arizona: inestimable Western art, both historic and modern; prehistoric Indian arts and crafts; displays of Arizona's rich lode of gems, minerals, and petrified wood; dioramas of frontier life in Wickenburg; and a variety of changing exhibits.

While the works of such artists as Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, Howard Terpning, George Phippen, and Solon Borglum draw visitors from around the world, the changing exhibits add spice. On our visit, the museum displayed the poster art introduced during World War I to stir a patriotic fervor. The great illustrators of the day Joseph Pennel, Howard Chandler Christy, Harrison Fisher, J.C. Leyendecker, and W.T. Benda turned the propaganda pieces into artwork treasures.

The dioramas in the museum basement depict a general store, a gun store, an optician's shop, a bar, and other early Wickenburg scenes. One display had a portable threeby four-foot pump organ that provided music in hogans, schools, small meeting houses, and churches on the Navajo reservation around the turn of the century.

Toward evening we headed to the Sombrero Ranch, a hilltop bed and breakfast that overlooks the town. The "ranch" is really a house built in 1937, but you would never guess its age by looking at it. Dressed in Southwestern decor, the house sits on 47 acres. Birds and rabbits abound.

After a stroll around the grounds enjoying the wildlife and the views, we headed back down the hill to Brian Deveny's Saguaro Theater for an earlyevening movie.

The 320-seat theater, though built in 1948 when separate smoking and "crying rooms"

were in vogue, has a large screen and a modern sound system, and shows first-run movies. The smoking and crying rooms are still there, but they are no longer used. What the theater doesn't have is high prices. Even the snack bar items cost less than you would pay in the big cities.

Something special takes place when going to a small town movie theater with the locals. Maybe it's a reminder of growing up in less chaotic times. Or maybe it's the feeling of wholesomeness that smaller places hold onto.

The next morning, we arose early, had a light breakfast of peaches and muffins at the Sombrero, and headed for the Hassayampa River Preserve.

By midmorning we were ambling through dense tangles of cottonwoods and willows, watching lizards scatter and leap into tall grass. As we approached a mesquite bosque, we could hear the gurgling Hassayampa River, but we could not see it.

All around us, mostly hidden, lay mule deer, gray foxes, javelinas, quail, even Gila monsters and snakes, but their signs appeared everywhere.

Great shade trees lined a vast pond's edge and reeds, brown-tipped and pointed like candles on a cake, protruded from the banks.

The 100-mile-long Hassayampa runs mostly underground, but along this stretch the granite bedrock rises, forcing the water to the surface. What you find amazes: a mesquite bosque, fig trees left over from an 1880s' farm, mulberry trees, night-blooming jasmine, California fan palms, and more than 300 other kinds of plants.

But you don't have to be a naturalist to enjoy strolling along the shaded trails. You can spend hours just enjoying the outdoors.

Following the river walk, we had lunch at The March Hare, the tea shop. Set in an old house, the various dining rooms are small and intimate, and the sandwiches and sal-ads were tasty.

That afternoon we went on another hike of sorts, this one at the Vulture Mine, where the terrain differs vastly from that along the Hassayampa. The drive there took us through a lush desert of saguaros, hedge-hogs, ocotillos, and other cactuses. But the mine grounds themselves are severe, cleared of most desert plants.

If you enjoy ghost towns, this is the place to be. Here you will see remnants of the most successful gold mining operation in Arizona. Most of the buildings, the tailing ponds, even the diesel generator imported from Germany remain, though in various stages of disrepair.

When you look at the one-room adobe Henry Wickenburg once occupied, and the old ironwood tree that served as a gallows for some 18 law-breakers, and the windblown landscape, you realize plucking the gold from the ground

WHEN YOU GO

amounted to torturous labor under some pitiless conditions. And no question: A couple of hours of rummaging around The Vulture grounds puts you in the mood for ice cream. Make mine cinnamon-apple, please.

LOCATION: 58 miles northeast of Phoenix.

WEATHER: Average temperature in January: high, 63° F.; low, 30°.

LODGING: Sombrero Ranch B&B, (520) 684-0222, offers an intimate Old West setting. Merv Griffin's Wickenburg Inn, Dude Ranch and Tennis Club, (520) 684-7811, is among the area's resortlike guest ranches. Many other overnight options include other bed and breakfast inns, guest ranches (including some splendid Old Arizona landmarks), and motels.

RESTAURANTS: There are a number of good places to eat, but don't miss the Wickenburg Inn Restaurant (especially the steak and chicken cookouts on Tuesdays and Saturdays; you can horseback ride to them if you want to). For reservations call (520) 684-7811. Also try the European cuisine at the House of Berlin, 169 Wickenburg Way, (520) 684-5044 for reservations; and Mexican food at Anita's Cocina, 57 N. Valentie, (520) 684-5777. Enjoy homemade ice cream at Chaparral Cafe, 45 N. Tegner, and tea and sandwiches at The March Hare, 170 W. Wickenburg Way.

ATTRACTIONS: Saguaro Theater, 176 E. Center St.; (520) 684-7189.

Desert Caballeros Western Museum, 21 N. Frontier St.; (520) 684-2272.

Jail Tree and Old Wishing Well, Interstates 60 and 93 behind the Circle K.

Hassayampa River Preserve, 49614 Highway 60; (520) 684-2772.

Vulture Mine, approximately 15 miles south of Wickenburg on Vulture Mine Road; call (602) 859-2743 Friday-Sunday, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce, 216 N. Frontier St., P.O. Drawer CC, Wickenburg, AZ 85358; (520) 684-5479.