" Arizona: escaping the US elections | USA - Times Online

Free Pizza

Buy one pizza and get one free at PizzaExpress

Navigation - link to other main sections from here

Skip Navigation

Where am I?

Home
From The Sunday Times
October 26, 2008

Arizona: escaping the US elections

In an isolated corner of Arizona, you can find peace, ranchers and absolutely no TV, says Stanley Stewart

Stanley Stewart

I had only been in Tombstone half an hour when the shooting started. Apparently, it was the Republicans and the Democrats at it again.

This was just the kind of thing I had come to Arizona to escape.

Like most people in this year of interminable electioneering, I had had enough of politicking, of spin and soundbites, of poll figures and attack ads.

I was heading deep into the southeastern corner of the state in the hope of escape. I was looking for a quieter America, for a ranch somewhere with wide, empty landscapes, and cowboys with few opinions beyond yup and nope. When I stopped for lunch in Tombstone, I hadn’t expected to be detained by a gunfight on Main Street.

Going native in the USA

Oregon’s annual Nez Perce Indian gathering is a Native American ritual, a pilgrimage and a knees-up

Obama v McCain fever in Washington

It’s an election battle with global implications, and the front line is Washington, DC. Rob Ryan is in the thick of it

Six of the best US holidays

If planning the trip of a lifetime Stateside, where would six Times writers and US specialists go?

Trouble had been brewing all morning. There had been heated words outside the Bird Cage Theatre. Threats had been exchanged at Big Nose Kate’s. Now, Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Virgil and Morgan, with old friend Doc Holliday, were advancing down Main Street in spangly waistcoats. The Clan-ton gang had been spotted at the OK Corral. A crowd drifted after them. “There’s going to be shooting,” a fat man from Ohio helpfully informed his fat wife.

To some people, this was the Gunfight at the OK Corral, in which the Clantons are gunned down in a hail of blanks every day at 2pm. To others, it is part of America’s political feud. The Earp brothers were the hired guns of the Republican hierarchy, the owners of the big mining and cattle operations who wanted to make Tombstone “safe for investment”. The Clantons, humble cowboys who wanted to preserve a bit of economic space for freelance prospectors and small independent ranchers, were aligned with the Democrats. You can see how much has changed in 127 years.

I didn’t wait for the final body count. I was a man on a mission. I climbed back into the hire car, a big beast appropriately named Bronco, and spun away down an empty highway. Telegraph poles flashed by. Yellow hills rolled into empty distance. On the radio, crackling with static, a man was singing, “All my exes live in Texas, and that’s why I hang my hat in Tennessee.”

In Douglas I stopped for a coffee at the Gadsen Hotel. It is the town’s only moment of glamour, built a century ago for cattle barons. In the lobby, a grand double staircase rises past a vast spread of Tiffany stained glass. One night, a drunken Pancho Villa is said to have ridden his horse up these stairs, firing into the ceiling as he went. You can still see the chipped marble on the seventh step.

Pancho probably didn’t read English – which explains why he missed the sign on the door of the Saddle & Spur lobby bar: “No firearms or weapons of any kind”. The bar was empty but for the barman, who had fallen asleep in front of a “wanted” poster. On the television in the corner, people were waving flags and banners while John McCain, the Arizona senator, was giving them the thumbs up. I turned the set off and stepped next door into the diner for “All the coffee you can drink – one dollar”.

BACK IN the Bronco, I followed Highway 80. It ran like a drawn line through the empty grasslands of the San Bernardino Valley. In an hour’s driving I saw two other cars, neither of them sporting political bumper stickers. From time to time, distant homesteads appeared, set back a mile or so from the road, tucked into folds in the long, yellow hills. It was remote country. My mobile couldn’t get a signal. Hopefully, I was beyond the reach of Fox News as well.

Price Canyon Ranch lies at the end of a long dirt road in the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains. It was just the kind of place I was looking for. I wanted a real working ranch, not a dude ranch with an infinity pool and a spa and a yoga class. I wanted somewhere that felt like the West, somewhere comfortable but rustic, not a citified luxury resort where you expected to find the horses on the sun loungers, sipping martinis.

Price Canyon has 10 guest rooms elegantly decorated in western style with hardwood floors and Navajo rugs. One of the old barns has been beautifully converted into a large central lounge with a stone fireplace, deep leather sofas, a library of western books and a dining area where meals are produced by the wonderful Fred Tullis, a painter-turned-chef. If food is the heart of a home, Fred and his generous country meals are the heart and soul of Price Canyon.

Page 1 of 2

I have stayed at Price canyon ranch and it is everything you report and more. I travelled alone and had the best adventure!

My only disappointment with your article is the background - nothing like Price Canyon........ and the fact that everyone now knows about my secret hideaway!!

Jane Cartwright, Woodsetts, UK

Have your say

* Required

Travel Search

Destinations

Skip Destinations

Holiday Type

Skip Holiday Type

best read features

Travel Directory

Search for a holiday

e.g. Villa in Tuscany

Focus Zone

Social Entrepreneurs:

The inside track on current trends in the charity, not for profit and social enterprise sectors

Asian Cuisine:

Explore your passion for food with the delights of Thai, Indian & Chinese cooking

A Life More Streamlined:

In our new series, Tony Hawks takes a dry, wry look at modern life - junk mail, interminable meetings and snooty sales assistants

Triathlon Training:

Read the training tips and advice that helped our London Triathletes

James Bond:

Read our exclusive 100 Years of Fleming and Bond interactive timeline, packed with original Times articles and reviews

Business Travel:

The latest travel news plus the best hotels and gadgets for business travellers

Cars

Skip Cars of the Week

BMW M3 Coupe

2008
£44,950

Mini Cooper Cooper S

2005
£10,245

Car insurance

Great car insurance deals online


Jobs

Skip Jobs of the Week
Standing Counsel


Charity Commission
London

Head of Membership and professional records

c. £50,000 + benefits
British Medical Association
London

Sales Director

£ 75k + big bonus
Lyle & scott
London with overseas travel

Software Engineering and Business Analysis Manager

£54,054 - £66,950
National Improvement Policing Improvement Agency
London

Properties

Rushmore Condo's New Luxury Condo's In Manhattan

Great Investment, River Views

Tooting, London

2 bed flat for rent
£1080PCM

Holidays

Skip Travel of the Week

Funway Holidays Int Inc

Captivating Caribbean
SAVE 25% at Sandals Resorts!

3 nights 4* Crowne Plaza Center City

Deps 01 Nov - 20 Dec 08
£469 per person

Advertise your holiday property online

List your property with two leading travel websites


Travel insurance

Great travel insurance deals online


Place your advert now

Where am I?

Home

Contact our advertising team for advertising and sponsorship in Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times. Globrix Property Search - search houses for sale and rooms and property to rent in the UK. Milkround Job Search - for graduate careers in the UK. Visit our classified services and find jobs, used cars, property or holidays. Use our dating service, read our births, marriages and deaths announcements, or place your advertisement.

Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.

This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy.To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The Sunday Times, click here.This website is published by a member of the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International group and is registered in England No 81701. VAT number GB 243 8054 69.