Galleries and restaurants line the streets of Sedona today, catering to the thousands of tourists who come to hike the trails and marvel at the red sandstone buttes, but even into the 1970s Sedona was just a small ranching and fruit growing community. The Yavapai and Apache tribes hunted and farmed in the region until they were forcibly removed in 1876, opening the land to settlers and homesteaders.
The land where the museum is located is a small portion of a 65 acre apple and peach orchard planted by Walter and Ruth Jordan in the 1930s. Their home, now housing the museum exhibits, started as a one room cabin with additional rooms added as needed. Exhibits are also housed in the fruit packing shed, the tractor shed, the tenthouse, and the telegraph office.
An accessible entrance to the museum and gift shop is located in the rear of the house. The rooms are all accessible and a very narrow hallway can be avoided by backtracking.The outbuildings are accessible but large gravel covering the grounds makes rolling difficult.
Do NOT drive your RV into the museum grounds. There is very little parking and the road dead ends without a turn around. Drop passengers off at the loop road near the entrance to the property and continue on the main road to the large parking lot on the left. A trail leads up to the museum. Wheelchair users taking the trail will find it easier to use the road once they reach the drop off loop because the trail becomes rough after that point. The interpretive trail at the lower parking lot is not accessible.
Museum 34.87806, -111.7614
Sedona is definitely one of the prettiest areas...would not want to live there, but it is sure not hard on the eyes, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty but I found myself wishing that it hadn't been "discovered". I like the national parks in Utah so much more because the scenery has not been spoiled by development.
DeleteDid you like the museum, as in, was it worth the stop?
ReplyDeleteYes, if you like museums and history it's worth the stop. Looking at the town today it's hard to imagine how isolated and unpopulated the town was just a short while ago. The Jordan's orchard was very large but as they got older they sold pieces of it until they were left with just the museum area. Walter had a small orchard for the family's use. They lived in the house until they died, Walter first, then Ruth who gave the property to the city to preserve a piece of the early days.
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