Superior

Superior is a town in Pinal County AZ  with a population of only

2837 according to the 2010 census.    It was founded in 1875.  

with the establishment of 2 copper mines, the Silver Queen and

the Silver King.  In 1910  both mines were owned by Colonel Boyce 

Thompson, and he renamed it  Magma Copper Company.  Some 

predicted that in 1982 when the towns largest mine shut down Superior

would become another Arizona ghost town.  However the Magma

Mine reopened in 1990 as the Resolution Copper Company.

A copper dome was found 7,000 feet underground that was 

projected to be the largest copper vein in the US and the fourth 

largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world.  

Christmas was in the air as we wandered about main street so

Don could gather a few geocaches.  The one found here was

called "A Hard Rock in Superior"  Geocaches often offer a clue to

help you locate the correct place.  The clue for this one was 

"Rest a Spell" so Don new he was in the right location although

he didn't sit on the bench but did find the Geocache!!!

This cache was appropriately named "A view of Apache Leap" which

you see in the distance.  Legend has it that this was where a mass

suicide of Apache Warriors (1870's) took place as the U.S. Cavalry

drove the Apaches to the edge of the cliff, where they chose to leap to their

deaths rather than surrender.

Some geocaches are just a log sheet in a very small container

attached via a magnet to the underside of a railing or sign, etc. And

Don found about 4 of these planted by our good friends

Curt and Coleen who's geocaching handle is Seek 84.  When

the finder locates the cache they sign the find with their name.

Don's is cadon.

Another kind of a geocache is located on an app on your phone 

called "Geocaching Adventure Lab".  Coordinates take you to

a location and then it asks you to enter the answer to a question.  The question

for this one was "what are the two dates on black marker".  If you enter

the answer correctly, it gives you driving directions to another cache "station".

For example when we got here it asked for the #s on the mailbox.

So you can see how it goes.   We were taken to different places

to answer questions,

including the World's Smallest Museum.  Thanks Coleen & Curt

for placing all these caches, which took us to many

interesting and fun places in historical Superior AZ.

Non-geocaching photo stops,  for me,  included the many murals around 

town like this one.

and my favorite was the Barmacy.

The video below will explain it all...

One of the close-ups featured Picket Post Mountain.

The mountain's unusual name stems from an early military camp 

established at the base of the mountain by 

General George Stoneman in 1870. The 

soldiers nicknamed the mountain “Picket Post” due to its usage 

as a sentinel point to guard their camp from attacks.

It has an elevation is 4377’  

There is an easy 8.6 mile loop trail around the base 

with only a 754’ elevation gain.  I've hiked it many times with the

Canyon Vistas Hiking Club.