An Oracle Arrival Story

How We Got Here

Meetings and one-on-one conversations in Oracle often begin with “how did you get here" stories.  They’re diverse with many following family lineage back into mine work.  Silver City, Superior, Sonora, Mammoth, Christmas, Jerome.  Underground, heavy equipment, smelter, railroad, stamp mill.  

No so ours.  There’s mining (and farming) in my family history but my wife Kaz and I bought property in Oracle in March of 1979 almost by chance.   Kaz grew up part time in Tucson and wanted to move back to the desert.  Movig here from Queens, NYC became a serendipitous immersion experience in the high desert.  

The first week we occupied our house a balding white haired man (about our age now) drove an ancient four wheel drive Ford pickup straight from the road to our front door on what wasn’t intended to be a driveway.  Ever so carefully, stiff of back, he exited his truck to greet the startled rookie homeowners.  He announced himself:  “Bill Collier, I’m your neighbor behind you”.  He gestured vaguely to the northwest.  His mission, he declared, was to meet us and bring us up to speed on the neighborhood and its history.   We hadn’t asked but he started in on the telling.