Do You Know Mesa? Buckhorn Baths
28
Hidden Mesa: Rediscovering the West Art from the Buckhorn Baths Collection Alice and Ted Sliger’s Buckhorn Baths and Wildlife Museum is important to the history of Mesa for many reasons. • e Baths, a 10-acre property at Main Street and Recker Road, is the best-preserved hot mineral-water springs resort in Arizona. In its heyday, the Buckhorn’s bathhouse contained twenty-five hot tubs, several massage rooms, a café, and a beauty parlor. • e Baths also attracted numbers of well-known visitors to Mesa who came for their health. • Amateur taxidermist Ted Sliger filled its public rooms, floor to ceiling, with Arizona-wildlife specimens. • Most famously, e Baths played a huge role in attracting the Cactus League to Arizona. In 1947 the New York Giants made it its spring training base camp so players could soak their aching bodies in the hot mineral water, and other teams soon followed. • Alice and Ted Sliger also collected the work of Western artists—most notably that of George Frederick and Arnold Krug, both of whom were living at the Buckhorn Baths up to the time of their deaths. Hidden Mesa offers a representative, never-before-exhibited selection of their artwork.
description
Buckhorn Baths exhibit by the Mesa Historical Museum (was up in Mesa Public Libraries)
Transcript of Do You Know Mesa? Buckhorn Baths
Hidden Mesa: Rediscovering the WestArt from the Buckhorn Baths Collection
Alice and Ted Sliger’s Buckhorn Baths and Wildlife Museum is important to the history of Mesa for many reasons. • The Baths, a 10-acre property at Main Street and Recker Road, is the best-preserved hot mineral-water springs resort in Arizona. In its
heyday, the Buckhorn’s bathhouse contained twenty-five hot tubs, several massage rooms, a café, and a beauty parlor.
• TheBathsalsoattractednumbersofwell-knownvisitorstoMesawhocamefortheirhealth.
• AmateurtaxidermistTedSligerfilleditspublicrooms,floortoceiling,withArizona-wildlifespecimens.
• Mostfamously,TheBathsplayedahugeroleinattractingtheCactusLeaguetoArizona.In1947theNewYorkGiantsmadeititsspring training base camp so players could soak their aching bodies in the hot mineral water, and other teams soon followed.
• AliceandTedSligeralsocollectedtheworkofWesternartists—mostnotablythatofGeorgeFrederickandArnoldKrug,bothofwhomwerelivingattheBuckhornBathsuptothetimeoftheirdeaths.HiddenMesaoffersarepresentative,never-before-exhibitedselectionof their artwork.
Alice Annette O’Barr Sliger
Alice Annette O’Barr Sliger lived her whole long and eventful life in Mesa, attending Old Alma School, Mesa High School, and working her way through Tempe State Teacher’s College,laterASU.Inthelate1920s,shetaughtalleightgradesataschoolinSasabe,AZ.WhenAlicereturnedtoMesa,shetaughtatOldAlmaSchoolfrom1930to1935.
AlicemarriedTedSligerin1935,andin1939theirBuckhornBathsadventurebeganwiththeir discovery of the hot mineral springs. The Sligers had two children, Marilyn Alice andTheodoreNewton.Activeinherchurch,AlicewasalsoafoundingmemberoftheSoroptimist International of Mesa Club, and, all through her life, she admired and nurtured artists.AliceO’BarrSligerdiedattheageof103onNovember9,2010.
Ted Sliger and Alice Annette O’Barr SligerPhoto courtesy of the Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Alice Sliger
GeorgeFrederick
Oilonboard1961
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Marilyn Sliger
GeorgeFrederick
Oilonboard1960
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
“The Tiger”TeddySliger0.1875in
GeorgeFrederick
Oilonboard1960
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Theodore William “Ted” Sliger
TheodoreWilliam“Ted”SligerwasborninTexas,butwasraisedinNewMexico.HemovedwithhisfamilytoArizonain1923wherehehomesteadedandbuilttheDesertWellsgasstationontheApacheTrailin1926thatincludedasmalltaxidermistbusiness.In1935TedandAlicemovedtothesite of what was to become the Buckhorn Baths and Wildlife Museum.TedSligeralsoranaGreyhoundbusdepotatBuckhorn and was postmaster of the Buckhorn Post Office. Listedin“Who’swhoinArizona,”TedwasamemberofboththeMesaandPhoenixChambersofCommerceandoneofthe founders of the Mesa Host Association. Ted Sliger died on November9,1984.
New York Giants players Davey Williams and Hoyt Wilhelm, Alice Sliger, Ted Sliger, and Giants Manager Bill Rigney, February 1957.Photo courtesy of the Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Theodore “Ted” W. Sliger
GeorgeFrederick
Oilonboard1961
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Ted Sliger’s braided leather lariat, spurs and boots
Photograph: Ted and Alice Sliger
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Arnold Otto Krug
Arnold Otto Krug Courtesy of JoAnn King
ArnoldOttoKrugwasbornJune7,1896,inForest,FondduLac,Wisconsin.Krug’s1917WWIdraft-registrationcardgiveshisresidenceasForest,Wisconsin,anddescribeshimasblue-eyedandbrown-haired.In1920,hewasstilllivingathomewithhisparentsandsiblings,listedinthecensusasalaborer.In1930ArnoldKruglivedinaMilwaukeeboardinghouse, working as an auto mechanic. Shortly afterward, he came to Arizona to follow his passion for painting. A self-taught, but disciplined artist, he would go into the desert at the same time every day to paint, and the Superstition Mountain range became one of his favoritesubjects.Atvarioustimesfrom1927to1942,helivedinArizonaandCalifornia,butwaslivingattheBuckhornBathsatthetimeofhisdeathonMay8,1942.ArnoldOttoKrugisburiedattheRienzicemeteryinFondDuLac,Wisconsin.
Untitled
View of the Superstition Mountains
ArnoldKrug
Oiloncanvasc.1935
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Untitled
View of the Superstition MountainsArnoldKrug
Oiloncanvasc.1935
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Untitled
DesertFlora
ArnoldKrug
Oiloncanvasc.1935
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Untitled
View of the Superstition Mountains
ArnoldKrug
Oiloncanvasc.1935
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
George “Smoke Tree” Frederick
George“SmokeTree”FrederickwasborninLeeCounty,Iowa,on9May1889.Attheage of three, he moved with his parents to Europe, attending the Royal Academy of Art
in Munich where he studied interior design. WhilegrowingupinGermany,Frederickoften read about the American West and dreamed of someday becoming a cowboy. In1911,FrederickreturnedtotheUnitedStates and traveled west, eventually arriving inTexaswherehediscoveredthatbeingacowhandwasn’tasexcitingasithadbeendescribed in books and magazines, and soon began painting the people and scenery of theWestinsteadofpunchingcattle.GeorgeFrederick,acolorfulcharacter,oftenwearingenormous sombreros and brightly colored checkedshirts,marriedAlanYantis,awriterofpopularWesternpulpfiction,in1934.FrederickprimarilypaintedlandscapesandportraitsofNativeAmericansand
local cowboys. He was given the nickname “Smoke Tree,” later shortened to “Smokey,” because smoke trees, common to the desert washes of the Southwest, appeared in so manyofhislandscapes.TheFredericksmovedtoArizonaaround1941,livingin Tucson, in Mesa near the Superstition Mountains, and in Wickenburg. In the mid 1950sGeorgeFrederickwasthe“portraitistinresidence”attheGrandLodgeonthenorthrimoftheGrandCanyon.GeorgeFrederickwaslivingattheBuckhornBathsattimeofhisdeathinSeptember1964.
Left:GeorgeFrederick’spaintkit Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Center:GeorgeandAmeeOlivia“Alan”YantisFrederick PhotocourtesyofL.TomPerrySpecialColleciton,BrighamYoungUniversity
Top:GeorgeFrederickattheGrandLodge,NorthRim,GrandCanyon1953 Photo courtesy of Special Collections, Sherratt Library,SouthernUtahUniversity
Self Portrait
GeorgeFrederick
Watercoloronboard1953
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Paloverde in Bloom
GeorgeFrederick
Oil on Board
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
“The Old Warrior”
GeorgeFrederick
Oilonmasonite1945
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Untitled
GeorgeFrederick
Oil sketch on board 1958
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
“Uncle Billie Crosby”
GeorgeFrederick
OilonboardFebruary25,1953Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Billie Crosby was the grandson of Jacob Hamblin:
In the spring of 1879 Jacob Hamblin, the Mormon scout and emissary to the Indian Nations, took up residence in the Milligan Fort (Springerville area) and was appointed to preside over the LDS in the Round Valley area. His stay was short-lived, however, when personal matters called him away the following winter.
Arizona Capitol Times, Dec. 9, 1994
Untitled GeorgeFrederick Oilonmasonite1956 Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Untitled
GeorgeFrederick
Oil sketch on board c.1935
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
“On Apache Trail – Arizona Superstition Afternoon”
GeorgeFrederick
Watercolor1949
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
“Early Morning – Vermillion Cliffs NorthernArizona”
GeorgeFrederick
Watercolor1952
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
“LandoftheGiantCactus(AZ)”
GeorgeFrederick
Watercolor1950
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Sketches from Life & Nature
GeorgeFrederickandhiswifeAlanYantislovedMexico.This1940sketchbook,entitledbyFrederick“SketchesfromLife&Nature,”iswrittenbilinguallyinEnglishandSpanish.Itsnearly200loose-leafpagescontainobservationsonMexicanlifeandculture,atraveloguerecountingtheiradventuresinMexico,biographiesandcommentsonMexicanartistsofnote,philosophicalcommentsaboutartandartmediums--and even Spanish language lessons.
TheFredericksseemtohavetraveledextensivelyinMexicoovertheyears—judgingbyasectioninthesketchbookdiscussingthecolorfultraditionalMexicanclothingandlamentingtheintrusionofmoderndress—andclearlyrelatedtothecountryanditspeople.Thesketchbooktextwasprobablyhand-writtenbyAlanYantisFrederickwithillustrationsbyGeorgeFrederick.
Sketchbook
GeorgeFrederick
1940
Theodore W. and Alice O’Barr Sliger Collection
Buckhorn Mineral Baths and Wildlife Museum
The Mesa Preservation Foundation wishes to preserve and reopen the Buckhorn Baths and its restoration was the second most popular idea posted on the City of Mesa’s idea-gathering website. Everyone whoexperiencestheBathshopesthatitssignificancetoArizonawillbe recognized and rewarded by a rebirth of the Buckhorn Mineral Baths and Wildlife Museum.
The State of Arizona has recognized the Mesa Preservation Foundationasanonprofitcorporation.Tolearnmoreaboutthefateof the Buckhorn Mineral Baths and Wildlife Museum contact:
Mesa Preservation Foundation: P.O.Box539 Mesa,AZ85211-0539 Phone:480.967.4729
Email: [email protected] Website: www.mesapreservationfoundation.org/
