Month: December 2013

Not Norman Rockwell

/ Mike Adams / 2 Comments
Source: Terry Edwards Date and Photographer Unknown
Source: Terry Edwards
Date and Photographer Unknown

This first picture looks like something out of a Normal Rockwell painting. My first thought was that it was the original Exxon (Enco) gas station on the corner of 7th Avenue and Elm, but the wall under construction on the right side of the photo would have to be the Empire House, and that’s not the Empire House. Plus, other pictures of the old Exxon station show a completely different layout with two garage bays on the left side of the building. That’s how I remember it.

After digging a little further, I realized this is the old Richfield station that was on the corner of South Navajo and 7th Avenue (Lake Powell BLVD). You can see 7th Avenue starting to curve toward church row. The building under construction on the right is the First Baptist Church. The last time I was in Page, this gas station had been turned into a fast food restaurant. The quality of this photo is amazing. So are the two pickup trucks! The MCS apartments are visible on the left behind the small trailers. It looks like they’re under construction. The white building further back is probably the American Legion building and beyond that, the original trailer court. This is a good shot of Tower Butte and Navajo Mountain in the background. I’m not sure what that billboard says in the background. Even zoomed in, I can’t read it.

The bottom picture is of the same building some time later. I wonder if the Cadillac was pink. Neither picture is dated and I don’t know who the photographer was.

Source: Terry Edwards Date and Photographer Unknown
Source: Terry Edwards
Date and Photographer Unknown

-Mike

First Things First

/ Mike Adams / 2 Comments
First Buildings
Photo: USBR, date and photographer unknown.
Source: Terry Edwards

It took me a few minutes to figure this one out, but I eventually did. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so that explains a lot. This first pic is an early shot of two of the first buildings that went up in Page, if not THE first two.

There weren’t any landmarks in the picture to go by, so it kind of leaves you on your own. Give up? This is the corner of Vista Ave and North Navajo Drive. The larger building is the hospital and the smaller building originally served as the USBR admin building. It’s been a number of other things since then. I talked about it and shared a really nice photo of it with you in a previous post [HERE]. Be sure to click that link if you haven’t already seen it. It’s worth the click! The dirt road between the two buildings is Vista Ave. The nicely graded road to the left is Gum Street. For reference (and because I have awesome moments) the picture below is how that same area looks today. I rotated it to match the angle of the picture above as much as possible, and I circled the same two buildings. The hospital’s grown from it’s original size, so the area I circled is the original footprint of the building.

Page Now
The same two buildings are circled in red.

Enjoy!

-Mike

Route 66: Season One, Episode Nine

/ Mike Adams / 2 Comments
Route 66
A scene from season 1, episode 9 of Route 66 filmed in Page.
Photographer and date unknown.
Source: Terry Edwards

There were a lot of movies and a handful of TV episodes filmed in the Page area in those early years. The ones that stand out to me while growing up there were The Greatest Story Ever Told, Planet of the Apes, Easy Rider, and later, The Outlaw Jose Wales. But who could forget the epic TV series, Route 66, starring Martin Milner of Adam-12 fame and…. that other guy. What was his name? Oh yea, George Maharis. In the series, they were Tod (with one d) and Buz (with one z). They drove the old Route 66 in that cool Stingray and did things.

Season 1, episode 9 was filmed in Page. The first picture below captured the filming of one of the scenes at or near the airport. The cool Stingray is sitting there, waiting for action. This episode aired on November 2, 1960 and was entitled, Layout at Glen Canyon. If this scene was shot at the airport, I lived a stone’s throw from where it was filmed. Check it out…

I grabbed the screen shot below from the IMDB web site when I searched for Route 66. It filled in some of the gaps for me. Unfortunately, I can’t find that episode anywhere. Netfix only has the first two episodes of season one. I sure would like to watch it. If any of you come across it, please let me know.

I know I said I wasn’t going to blog anything here until after December, but this was too good to wait. Enjoy!

-Mike

The Leap to Facebook

/ Mike Adams / 1 Comment

Well, I did it. I made the leap to Facebook! If you’re on Facebook, please hook up with me there too and feel free to like my page. Send your Facebook friends there too. I just built the page today, but all of my blog posts are there. I’m using Facebook to mirror this site, not replace it. I’ll still be posting all my stuff here and mentioning my posts there. Check it out and jump right in:

https://www.facebook.com/pageaz

-Mike

December Break

/ Mike Adams / 11 Comments
Photo: A. E. Turner, USBR
12/16/1961
Source: The LeGate Family

Hey all, I’m taking a break from blogging for the month of December and I’ll pick back up again in January. I want to leave you with a Christmas picture of early Page. Check it out…

There isn’t anything written on the back of this picture except the name of the photographer and the date. I don’t know who that was dressed up as Santa. At first, I thought this was in the school gymnasium, which would have been new that year. But the more I look at it, I think it was somewhere else. That door in the background has a big window in it and the doors to the gym weren’t like that, at least not that I remember. I also thought at first that those were bleachers along the back wall, but I think it’s only a bench of some sort. Does anyone know what building this was in? There are two faces that I recognize, but I don’t have names to go with them.

How about you? Do you see any familiar faces in this shot? If so, let me know.

Enjoy your holidays and I will “see” you next year!

-Mike