Toys, threads and tributes
Cave Creek Museum re‑opens with trove of local treasures
by Chris Moore

CAVE CREEK – The Cave Creek Museum ends a long hot summer of preparation and exhibit building when its new season opens Wednesday, Oct. 4 featuring vintage toys from the 1940s, ladies fashions dating back to the 1880s and celebrations of two Arizona legends–the Centennial Parade/Fiesta Days Rodeo and the Samuel R. Jones family legacy.

Alongside an old Raggedy Ann doll and a quaint set of paper dolls, the pièce de résistance of the museum’s new vintage toy display is a No. 9 All Electric Automotive Erector Set made by the A.C. Gilbert Company, constructed into only one of its myriad setups, a Ferris Wheel. The other advertised possibility, the Parachute Jump, exists in pieces neatly arranged in the original box.

“I only wish we had more room,” laments Betty Neal, the chair of the museum’s exhibits committee, showing off the complete, yet only partially erected, set.

A Weeden Live Steam Engine, commonly used to run erector sets and other like mechanical toys, sits idly by the Gilbert Co.’s masterpiece in the museum’s exhibit. It’s not operative, but it is an impressive piece of quality manufacturing with its cast iron base and brass boiler. They don’t make them like that anymore.

“It was made to last, thank goodness,” Neal observes.

The erector set was originally purchased in Manhattan as a Christmas gift for Dave Wayne when he was a child in the 1940s. Wayne, a former Cave Creek resident, donated the childhood toy to the museum so others could get a little glimpse into the pre‑Game Boy world of a simpler, better‑built childhood. The steam engine was donated by the brother of Carefree resident Romaine Ausman, early woman pilot, museum member and sometime docent who made contributions to the new fashion exhibit as well.

Ausman supplied the ivory‑handled parasol to match a pink, silk 1890s dress, one of seven dresses in the exhibition. She donated a wool challis christening coat and silk bonnet which she restored in 1990 for her granddaughter’s baptism.

Among its other silk dresses, the show features one of blue and beige with lace collar and cuffs, and a waistline that expands for pregnancy; a green taffeta and brown velvet ensemble dating back to the 1880s; a blue silk shantung, gold faille and antique lace jacket over a beige cotton dress, also from the 1880s; and other garments from the period donated or on loan to the museum.

For anyone who has breathed the dust of these Desert Foothills for a while, the museum’s Centennial Parade/Fiesta Days Rodeo exhibition probably won’t hold too many surprises, but because it is such an integral part of Creeker culture, it’s nice to see all this stuff gathered in one place for another contemplation.

There are a lot of photos, posters and gewgaws from the history of the celebration, but what really makes the museum’s tribute resonate is its re‑creation of Chris’ Cowboy Kitchen, with items on loan from Chris Hornbeck’s daughter, Patty Byerly, a New River resident. A series of photographs chronicles the construction of the permanent kitchen after its humble beginnings in 1986 as a canvas tent under which she fed stock contractors, contestants and volunteers on the rodeo grounds.

Three generations of this Fiesta Days family are in evidence here with the inclusion of a pair of spurs that belong to Byerly’s daughter, Tiffany, who also volunteers every year at the rodeo.

Keeping up with the Joneses is more than just a philosophy at the Cave Creek Museum–they’ve dedicated a glass showcase to it ¼ them ¼ the Joneses. The Samuel R. Jones family, to be exact.

The museum takes particular pride in this new exhibit, which pays tribute to the achievements of the colorful Jones family and the impact they had on the Cave Creek area. Some of the Jones memorabilia and belongings augment the museum’s permanent collection of Civil War artifacts from the Military Road and Remount Station, adding fresh perspective to the locale used by the U.S. Cavalry in the 1870s.

According to museum records, after Jones in 1946 bought the 120 acres of desert land that included the Remount Station on Cave Creek, a 10‑by‑12‑foot shack was transported from a neighboring ranch for Samuel and his wife Helen to live in. Their son Middleton slept outside for eight years while he built his mother’s dream house, and established their livelihood–a chicken ranch which by 1950 had 2,200 English leghorn hens and supplied eggs to 300 local customers.

“He was also a gadgeteer,” says Maggie Simpson, a volunteer docent at the museum for the last seven years. “His patents were right there in the box his son’s wife’s cousin dropped off at the museum.”

Those patents were for a headrest and headlock, apparatuses used for positioning the head during neurosurgery. In one of Samuel R. Jones & Son’s form letters (to “HOSPITALS and SURGEONS”) acquired by the museum, Jones describes his inventions as “beautiful in design, light and portable, constructed of chrome tubular steel with pads of sponge rubber covered with washable simulated leather.” Museum‑goers can judge for themselves the veracity of that description.

Jones’ wife Helen (using her maiden name, Terrell) was not just basking in her husbands accomplishments. In 1976, at the age of 83, Helen Terrell published a thin volume of what might be called horoscopic self‑help under the title “Sex and the Zodiac,” which The Arizona Republic, in a review on Nov. 19, 1977, described as containing “some racy commentaries on massage parlors, love nests, sexual stimuli and lustful gratification ¼ Doctors and marriage counselors have prescribed it as ‘must’ reading for young newlyweds.”

That book is on display, as is a wealth of miscellany that tells the Joneses’ story: photographs of the ranch, the Remount Station, the “dream house” built by Middleton (1947‑1953) and many others; marketing materials for Jones’ several inventions (including an “Automatic Toilet Bowl Siliconizer”); a plethora of newspaper articles from the period; and an amusing collection of bow ties. The exhibit is watched over, with seeming approval, by a large oil painting of Middleton Jones by Louise Miller Pollet.

All in all, the museum’s presentation of this material offers viewers an idiosyncratic snatch of Creeker history that really has to be seen to be appreciated.

The ongoing collection of Navajo artist Ray Swanson has been updated with the addition of two Navajo dolls, two prints and a giclée. One of the prints, “Beating the Chill Factor,” is particularly striking in its depiction of a cattleman drawing some warmth from a campfire. The picture was used for the Jan. 1997 cover of Western Horseman Magazine.

One of the things that sets us apart,” explains Evelyn Johnson, executive director of the museum, “is our docents. They bring our exhibits to life. Also, we’re not just about things. History is about the people. People have made a significant contribution and we give them voice. Even though they’re no longer with us, their story lives on.”

Cave Creek Museum is located at 6140 Skyline Dr. in Cave Creek. Hours are Wed., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. from 1 to 4:30 p.m., and Fri. from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Entrance fees are $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students over 12. Children are free. For more information, call (480) 488‑2764 or visit www.cavecreekmuseum.org.

Reach the reporter at cmoore@thedesertadvocate.com.