We took a picnic lunch and a couple of friends, Dave and Marlene, and headed for Madera Canyon. They go to our church here in Tucson, and when not snowbirding like the rest of us, they live near Walla Walla, Washington. Near the end of the canyon is the nice little Santa Rita Lodge. The lodge has a nice bird feeding area, with over a dozen varied feeders. We had a nice time there, then went for a walk a little further down the canyon.
Here’s an interesting artifact from the CCC days. The Civilian Conservation Corps placed this marker over a grave. It reads:
AN UNKNOWN ARIZONA PIONEER
ERECTED BY
CCC 1935
The CCC had a camp in this area, and they marked other graves like this as part of their work on National Forest lands. It makes me wonder what they found… An older grave with a wooden marker? Bones?
Some funny looking cactus… probably a variety of Cholla. Feel free to inform me if you know!
The beams of light in the picture above seem to have left icing on the bushes!
There are plenty of trees with this interesting bark pattern… they are called “Alligator Juniper.” Once we read about them, we seemed to see them everywhere!
I believe this one is a Cane Cholla. Interesting flowers/fruit.
It’s fun to see how varied the plant life is near the creek – even though there is barely a trickle there now. A few dozen yards from the creek bed the flora is far more desert-like.
This week’s featured car is a 1934 Brewster-Ford Town Car.
Brewster was a coach maker, founded in 1810. Like many other coach makers, they transitioned to making automobile bodies. There are many brands of vehicles that sported Brewster Bodies. Back then many manufacturers built and sold chassis only – you’d arrange for a coach maker to put a body on it. This led to some very unique cars!
Rolls-Royce recognized Brewster as one of the very best, and bought the company when they opened a Rolls plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. Brewster made most of the bodies for Rolls while they operated the Springfield plant. Rolls suffered a lot in the depression, and closed their U.S. plant. This left Brewster without a job, and to stay afloat, they ordered 135 Ford chassis. They stretched the chassis to 127 inches and put beautiful Rolls-Royce quality bodies on them. The bodies were hand formed aluminum.
This Town Car sold for about half of a Rolls-Royce, but still almost ten times the cost of a new Ford. The town car body is radically shaped and elegantly appointed. The dramatic swooping front end, with its dramatically flaring fenders, makes me think of the Batmobile that followed it some 30 years later.
Being a proper town car, the driver’s compartment has a removable top, and it is upholstered in leather.
The sumptuous rear compartment, with soft cloth upholstery, window shades, mirrors and obligatory bud vase. And you may notice John D. Rockefeller’s custom Cadillac outside the window. (Maybe that will be another week’s story.)
Did someone mention the Batmobile? Ok, so it doesn’t look like the 1934 Brewster, but maybe a little?
The car was built for the Batman TV show by George Barris, who was famous for his exotic creations. The original car was based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. He converted the show car into the Batmobile in about three weeks!
This particular car is number 15 of 27 replicas built to exact specs as the original. Pretty much… it is on a 1972 Lincoln chassis. It features the Bat Phone, emergency beacon, homing receiver, Bat Ray projector, detect-a-scope, parachutes (for braking from those incredible speeds) and more.
The engine is a GM 350 cubic inch V8, not the rocket that I think the show claimed.
I almost hate to admit having watched the silly show, but I do remember the Batmobile! All the gadgets make James Bond’s cars look under equipped.
In the picture below you can see two speedometers… one in the center of the wheel, another flat one on the dashboard ahead of you. Batman must have been really cognizant of speed limits!
One thing I remember from the show was once when Batman and Robin left the car, they flipped a little sign over the “Anti-Theft Activator” and it then said “Start Button.” Very amusing, but I suppose needed since you can’t lock the doors and there is no top. Anyway, on that episode, after Batman cleverly concealed the anti-theft device, a baddie jumped in to steal the amazing vehicle, and fell for the trick. The anti-theft device turns out to be an ejection seat, and the crook ended up a block away. Such fun!
I know you’re wondering about the 1955 Lincoln Futura show car… so here is a picture I stole from undiscoveredclassics.com. It was a crazy exotic, and featured in a movie called “It Started With A Kiss” starring Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds. You can easily see the bones of the Batmobile!
The museum has lots more Bat Stuff… including a car from one of the movies. Maybe sometime I’ll do a bit on that stuff.
It’s almost Christmas! I hope everyone has a great Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior!