The week of July 24th (Pioneer Day) Dan Jarvis has organized a trip to the Mexican Colonies - with activities, tours, stories, and the highlight will be to install a plaque on Temple Hill in Pacheco to commemorate that site and the men who were there. Our great grandfather, Alexander Findlay Macdonald was a key person in that experience - thus the Bluth Family interest is very high (see older posts on this blog for the story). Here is part of the recent email from Dan Jarvis:
THE DATE OF THE TRIP
The trip will be from Saturday, July 19, to Saturday, July 26 (2014). The first and last days are reserved for traveling to and from Mexico. The more important events of the trip will occur from Sunday through Thursday. Anyone is welcome to participate in all or any part of the trip.
TRANSPORTATION AND TRAVEL LEADERS
We encourage those going to Mexico to travel in small groups of three or four vehicles. For several reasons this has proved to be the best way to travel across the border. You no longer need the complicated paperwork to pass the border to the Colonies - but do need identifying paperwork to re-enter the United States. It is like going to Rocky Point.
UPDATE ON THE NEW ROAD TO COLONIA PACHECO
There is a new road to Colonia Pacheco. It is a very good paved road. The old three hour (or longer) nightmare bumpy road is now a one hour pleasant adventure. The road is paved all the way to the south-east corner of Colonia Pacheco, and this is about ¾ mile from Temple Hill. The road construction crew is now focusing on a side road to Rancho Willy (the old Williams Ranch). In about one year the road crew will continue building the new road right past Temple Hill, and then the new road will head to Colonia Garcia. Future trips to almost all of the colonies will be great.
TEMPLE HILL MONUMENT UPDATE
There has been a lot of work done related to the new plaque for the Temple Hill Monument. All who have been consulted agree that making a new plaque out of any kind of metal is not advisable due to continued issues with theft. The last option we considered was a combination of two materials. A ¼ inch piece of Acrylic was painted on one side, and then it was reverse engraved. On top of the Acrylic we placed a ¼ inch piece of Polycarbonate which is the material used as bullet-proof glass. So far this two layered approach has proven to be easy to work with, the least expensive of all the materials looked at, and it should handle rocks and bullets from small caliber guns. We plan on making one plaque for the rock monument. We also plan on mounting several more plaques on a “forest service type” sign next to the rock monument which will give more detailed historical information about Temple Hill and the Rock Monument. We estimate the cost for all materials to be about $500. Whether you go on the trip or not we invite you to help with the costs of the plaques to make a donation. Please send donations to Dan Jarvis.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dan Jarvis
1104 W. 9th Place
Mesa, AZ 85201
(480) 834-0813 Home
(480) 221-3642 Cell
danjar1947@gmail.com Email
