February 20, 2011 – Road Trip to Gammons Gulch

We woke this morning and decided this was Road Trip Day – YEA!!!

After looking at all the brochures yesterday, we decided to check out Pomerene and Gammons Gulch first..

Pomerene is a little sleepy town north of Benson with ranches and farms dotting the landscape.  And some great desert/mountain scenery in between:

 

 

We arrived at Gammons Gulch and immediately went with Jay Gammons on a tour in progress.

First a little history.

Jay’s father was employed as security with various Hollywood Western Stars – John Wayne for one.  So Jay grew up around many of the stars and set designers.  He even had a small part in one John Wayne movie.

In the 1970’s, he start collecting set props and then authentic western antiques and started building himself an Old West Mining Town.   Today movies and documentaries are still filmed here and many of his artifacts are rented by Hollywood to use in movies.   Jay himself has played as an extra in many movies – TV, film, and documentaries..

Here are two great sites that explains more:

http://www.leopalmerphotography.co.uk/Gammons%20Gulch.htm

http://www.gammonsgulch.com/

 

Jay, himself, was wonderful…  he took us through all the property and told us so many stories of what items were in what movies; how he obtained many of the antiques/artifacts; what actors and actresses that were great to work with – and who was not; and so many other stories.    What a wonderful tour.  This is his dream and he is so passionate about it.   

After the tour, we walked around and took lots of pictures…  

Andy and Jay:

A sampling of Gammons Gulch:

 

OR

https://picasaweb.google.com/gardenhavens/022011GammonsGulch?feat=directlink

 

If you are in the area, definitely make it a stop.   We spent quite a few hours here just walking around and talking and listening to Jay.

As we pulled out of Gammons Gulch, we saw a sign for Forever Donkey Rescue so we just had to see what it was all about.

When we got there we found out that we needed to make an appointment to go in so we just took a few pictures of the animals.  We did find out that they are a private organization that rescues donkeys – adopts them out if they are healthy and if not, this becomes their sanctuary for the rest of their lives – Isn’t that wonderful.

Here is a link to their site:

http://foreverhomedonkey.com/Why.htm

Here are some pictures:

 

 

What a wonderful day!   I must be feeling better – the first road trip we took in a few months….  YEA!!!

 

I will leave you with a neat link to one of Billy Joel’s songs.  (Thanks, Jon)

We Didn't Start the Fire

 

Until tomorrow.