Taking a drive out to the Eastside of Tucson finally came up near the top of my To-Do list. So on one relentlessly sunny day last week I headed out on Tanque Verde Road where I found a scattering of housing developments, long stretches of undisturbed land, and a neighborhood of horse properties facing onto Woodland Road. I didn’t stop to take photos there, however. This was just to be a scouting trip into the wide open spaces at the edge of Tucson.
At the city limits I turned around and headed west to Midtown.
Then, driving back on Speedway Blvd. I saw a large roadside sculpture beside a sea of creosote and mesquites. Designed by Caryl Clement and Keith Heimann, it is entitled “The Messenger” and was installed in 2012. Here are some details about it.
The bird /eagle was created from salvaged concrete and under its wings are quotations from the poem Wild Mercy by Terry Tempest Williams: “The eyes of the future are looking back at us” and “To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle.”
Sited beside the Messenger, this assemblage of boulders is called “Cairn”. I assume these are local rocks/boulders. Some have small rectangular holes drilled in them. Are they viewing holes? This area, as you can see, is not filled with housing developments, but given the growth of Tucson, I wonder how long this land can remain undisturbed.
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Next post is from the old heart of Tucson where a new/old neighborhood is being created–maybe recreated–from the ground up. I hope you are staying safe.
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