Memories of Apache Land

I tend to stay away from long highway trips on a holiday weekend so instead I looked for something a little closer to home to explore.  I found an interesting reference to a "ghost town" on my Arizona Atlas and it was located just on the edge of Apache Junction, a city on the very eastern edge of the collections of cities that make up the Phoenix metropolitan area or The Valley of the Sun as it is commonly known.
So I headed in that direction and when I arrived in Apache Junction I found a museum I had never seen before.  They have gathered up the remnants of an old movie set/tourist site called Apache Land, a very popular movie location from 1959 to 2004.

There were displays like the above depicting a vintage western cabin and there was a wall of photos of many of the famous movie stars who made movies at the old location.  I enjoyed seeing those photos and reading some of the old newspaper coverage about the star's arrival in Arizona.  This place was an unexpected surprise.

On to the "ghost town" tomorrow.