Fifty-five acres ordering Oak Creek in the Red Rock Loop area comprise the remainder of the Fred Schuerman Ranch. There’s a house on that land that Fred was born in, and in which he and wife Geraldine live today. Three Schuerman children share the home–there’s John, the eldest; Charles, a high school student; and Patsy, their 13-year-old sister

Originally, the ranch was a 160-acre homestead. Oak Creek, then as now, provides irrigation water. “When I was a boy,” Fred recalled, “my hands fitted around a lot of hoe handles.” They still do. Ditches carrying water to the 35 acres under cultivation need constant watching, weeding, and repair.

Trees producing red and yellow Delicious apples share moisture with those producing peaches. Grapes were once a crop, but with closure of the Clarkdale smelters which processed copper ore from Jerome, demand dropped. Coke may have warmed the copper, but juice of the grape warmed many Italians employed at the smelters. Medicinal purposes, of course.

Much of Sedona lies in the past awaiting an abundant future. THOSE EARLY DAYS, a publication of Sedona Westerners, is available at The Worm Book Store, Sedona. It’s great reading and is crowded with anecdotal history that Fred’s relatives and their friends were a part of.

Stories of the early Then or the present Now leave a gap. The Fred Schuerman story fills a bit – 1927 to whatever the date of this paper is.

Fred’s boyhood pal was his cousin, Sherman Loy. Both lived on the “Loop” and attended a one-room schoolhouse there. “Attendance was pretty hard to get,” Fred remembered. “Oftentimes, a school teacher with kids of her own was hired so that enough students would be available to warrant holding school.”

Recreation wasn’t found on horses. Tractors were in. Dobbin was out. “We fished the creek, went swimmin’ and scouted around a lot,” Fred said. Trapping was an additional activity. “Coyotes, bobcats, and muskrats. Muskrats, especially. Their pelts brought us as high as one dollar apiece.”

A buck was a bunch in those depression years. “I don’t think we had it much worse then than now,” Fred said. “We used to barter a lot. We had chickens for eatin’ and eggs. Some livestock was raised for family use. Nowadays, chickens cost too much to feed, and eggs are cheaper in the carton. We didn’t have much money but we didn’t need much, like these days.”

There was one recreation that Fred and his cousin put a lot of effort into. They used to ride their bikes up the “Loop” to a paved 89-A. Oak Creek in Sedona and on up to Indian Gardens meant more miles. What made the trip worthwhile was the Indian Gardens Skating Rink. From 2:00 to 10:00 p.m. – double sessions – the boys skated along with their chums. There was the long ride back home. Once again off 89-A, it was dirt road, downhill, at night. But it was buffeted by a happy weariness born of a long day and evening filled with all those things important to kids.

Fred would like to see Courthouse Rock, near Red Rock Crossing, declared a national monument. It would please him if a recreational area were developed somewhere along the “Loop” area.

Part of Fred’s land is occupied by the 18-unit Schuerman Mobile Home Park. Upcoming is a subdivided 8.5 acres into approximately 1/3-acre lots.

Times have changed. But how about Fred? Sedonan Bob Adams, who lived on the Schuerman Ranch for 7 years, had this to say, “Guys like Fred are a vanishing breed of American. He’d help you any time, regardless of weather or circumstances, and wouldn’t take a nickle for it. He really does care about people.”

It can’t be helped that lot of people care about Fred.

The Baldwin ranch home is located on a sloping piece of canyon side on a natural bench some 100 feet above Oak Creek and is of an architecture difficult to tag in any acknowledged style. There has been a blending of boulder stone taken from the bed of Oak Creek, mingled with the buff colored ledge sandstone, roughly shaped to form piers, fireplaces, and porches, while at the same time walls in some cases have been used of boards and battens, with brightly colored shutters and awnings typical of the country. Pergolas and posts in some cases are of rough unbarked cedar and the roof is of heavy handsplit cedar shakes, left in a natural color to weather to a warm buff-gray, toning in with the country side.

The plan of the house is in keeping with the exterior and interior views, creating an open livable homelike ranch house, occupied by people of culture and refinement, and consists of a large living room, two master bed rooms and baths, two kitchens, a sun-porch and maid’s room and bath. A stone lined entrance vestibule gives access down a few stone steps to the living room of ample proportions and homelike air, finished entirely in wood paneling with a touch of the exterior brought to the interior, as in the vestibule, which is of stone, and the treatment around the bookcases and fireplaces. There is no formal dining room in the plan.

The space at the end of the living room near the front forms an area devoted to dining. Opening off of the living room is  a large sun porch facing southeast, giving a view across the colorful Oak Creek lined with cotton woods, and on into the distance above the canyon walls loom the buff and red striated rock castles and domes; truly a livable porch on which to sit and while away the time philosophizing on the shortness of man’s time in comparison with these ageless rocks. This sun porch is served from the winter kitchen which also serves the dining space at the end. In addition to the usual kitchen the house has a summer kitchen adjacent to the regular kitchen.

In addition to maid’s quarters and bath the house contains a master bedroom with fireplace, dressing room and bath and a guest room and bath. These rooms are finished in conventional manner, except that all ceilings are random width boards.

The home is heated with a vapor type heating system, with heating units concealed in recesses in the walls and under the windows.

A study of the pictures will indicate a judicious distribution of landscaping done by Mrs. Baldwin and which certainly is in harmony with the house. The location of the colorful surroundings does not require any extensive landscaping as the natural growth creates a setting for the house itself, and the use of stone in terraces and house walls and flagstone walks causes the house to appear to grow naturally from the earth itself.

The house was built during the year 1939, being designed by Lescher and Mahoney, architects of Phoenix.

handwritten note indicating article from Arizona Highways? June 1944?

Yavapai County Deed Book 15, pages 238-241.

Leonard and Minerva Carroll sold to Heinrich Schuerman on April 28, 1882 for the sum of $800.00 dollars, 160 acres.

The Carroll/Schuerman deed recorded May 9, 1882.

Excerpt from the deed: “All and singular the following described property and premises, viz. Being the possessory right to one hundred and sixty acres of land, situated lying and being on Oak Creek in the aforesaid county of Yavapai and about twenty-five miles up said creek from its junction with the Verde River. The said land or ranch being in edge of what is known as the “red rock” country and is about three miles down said Oak Creek from what is known as the James ranch in what was formerly known as “Oak Flat” the said land or ranch also being about eight miles north of Ben Baker’s ranch at the foot of the Mogollon mountains, and is the location made by the parties of the first part about the year 1878, and occupied by them since said time and is now occupied by them as a home. Also, the log houses thereon; and other improvements, water ditches or canals. Waters flowing through said canals or ditches, water rights dams, rights of way, tenements, hereditaments, rights, privileges immunities and appurtenance unto said land or ranch belonging or in anywise appertaining”

Deed Book 41, pages 184-187

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, Warranty Deed to Henry Schuerman, 1893

Henry had to buy the land again from the Railroad company for the sum of $400.00. There is a legal description in this deed as follows: The Southeast quarter of Section Twenty-seven of Township Seventeen, North range Five, East of the Gila and Salt River Base Line and principal Meridian, Arizona.

It wasn’t until the mid 19th century when Euro-American settlers infiltrated into the Verde Valley to homestead parcels of land. Since the first homestead at Crescent Moon Ranch, it has changed hands at least nine times and changed names at least three. It is unclear when the name “Crescent Moon Ranch” came about.

In 1880, Prescott cattleman Jon Lee came to Sedona, settling along lower Oak Creek naming his land the “OK Ranch” after his cattle brand. Some 16 years later, he patented the 160-acre ranch under the Homestead Act of 1862. Lee was one of the earliest white settlers in the Sedona area where he grew grain for his animals. It wasn’t long after receiving his homestead patent that he sold the ranch to Elizabeth Ragsdale for cash value of $750.

Elizabeth resided on the ranch from 1896 to 1902 where she raised her cattle and served as a local midwife. Elizabeth later married Charles Howard, better known as the legendary “Bear Howard” who hunted and was later hunted by a bear in Oak Creek Canyon. Bear was also known to have killed a man and served time in San Quenton prison where he escaped prison twice in his lifetime once on his own and the second when a guard released him. Elizabeth and Bear’s marriage only lasted several months before going their separate ways. it was said she didn’t like his bear-hunting dogs and he didn’t like her cattle.

Elizabeth sold the ranch to the Schnebley’s in 1902 for $1000 who purchased the property strictly for speculation. The Schnebley’s then doubled their investment 2 years later selling to Marion Palmer for $2000 who then sold the property shortly after for $2200.

Over the next 15 years the Dumas and Schuerman families created a commercially successful orchard, with their apple and peach varieties receiving top honors at the Northern Arizona Fair. By 1916, there were some 1,500 fruit trees. A cannery operation was established in the home and fresh fruit was taken to regional markets. Ollie Dumas, a Jerome dentist used Crescent Moon as a winter range for his cattle and eventually bought out the interests of his siblings, renting the ranch and orchards. Over a period of time and neglect the ranch began to decline.

Fortunately, Andrew Baldwin and his wife Jane, who purchased the property in 1936 for $6,000, spared Crescent Moon Ranch from further neglect. They built the current ranch home in 1938 and renamed the ranch the “Palo Bonito.” Some claim that the ranch house architectural design was commissioned under a study with a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The ranch continued to produce successful peaches, apples, apricots, plums, grapes alfalfa, and tomatoes. Miners at the nearby town of Jerome purchased much of the produce; other produce was hauled as far away as Phoenix and Chicago to be sold. What is known today as Red Rock Crossing was once called the Baldwin Crossing.

Throughout the century of Euro American ownership, each family residing at of owning Crescent Moon Ranch managed to construct new buildings and structures, removed or recycled others, and allowed vacant buildings to fall into disrepair. The old barn is the only building remaining from the original homestead. Other historic buildings were built when the site was operated as a working ranch. Fruit orchards once occupied much of the ranch’s open pastures. Today the ranch house and other historic buildings are registered as National Historic Sites.

Throughout history, a number of ranch-hand families also resided on the ranch working behind the scenes, ranching, farming, building structures and maintaining the integrity of the ranch. In 1937, Claire Jones, who also worked the Schuerman Ranch at Red Rock Crossing was hired by Mr. Baldwin to take over the Palo Bonito Ranch where he then worked for the next 16 years. No electricity was available in the area, so a large water wheel was installed for the two houses which pumped both domestic and irrigation water. Claire worked to improved Red Rock Crossing, which connected Palo Bonito to the Baldwin’s land where Verde Valley School is today. In 1953, the Baldwin ranch was then sold to Mrs. Nick Duncan.

It wasn’t until 1980 that the Forest Service purchased the 160-acre Crescent Moon Ranch located along Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing with National Land and Water Conservation Grant dollars. Intent of the Forest Service was to protect the land from future development and to secure it for the public’s enjoyment. Today, Crescent Moon Ranch is a treasured day-use recreation site located in a well-known world-class setting along Oak Creek at the base of Cathedral Rock (earlier known as Courthouse Butte).

Under Forest Service ownership, the Crescent Moon ranch house, foreman’s house and surrounding buildings have since been utilized as crew quarters, storage and now as a Forest Service cabin rental. The “Cabins With a View” cabin rental program was designed to help the Forest Service maintain this historic facility while offering the facility for public enjoyment.

Today millions of day-use visitors and photographers enjoy the natural beauty and ambiance of Crescent Moon Ranch along Oak Creek’s exquisite Red Rock Crossing. The Crescent Moon Day-Use picnicking and swimming site is managed separately from the cabin rental program, under contract with “Recreation Resource Management.” The “Rooms With A View” Cabin Rental Program is currently managed by “Recreation Solutions,” a Forest Service enterprise business. Together, Crescent Moon Ranch Day-Use Area and the Crescent Moon Cabin Rental location provide a unique quality recreation experience in an enchanted red-rock setting.

Crescent Moon Ranch Community Garden is a community garden in Sedona, Arizona committed to promoting organic gardening through the creation and maintenance of a community open space for cultural, agricultural and educational purposes.

Location

GPS: N34° 49′ 32.16″, W-111° 48′ 8.136″. Location and Access. From Interstate 17 take the Sedona exit onto Highway 179 North. Take Arizona Highway 89a west (left) through Sedona to Upper Red Rock Loop Road. Turn left and proceed to Chavez Ranch Road and turn left. Road becomes gravel; go through locked gate to Ranch House at the end of the road on the right.

Access to the house is via a combination lock box on both the gated road and the garden area. After submitting an approved application, you will receive an orientation at the garden and the combinations.

Membership Eligibility

Any person in the community whose application is approved. Membership does not guarantee individual plot.

Dues

There is no fee for participation; however, spring cleanup and winter cleanup are mandatory participation days for the maintenance of the irrigation ditch and other garden resources.

Meeting Place

At the garden, unless otherwise specified.

Officers

Currently two positions exist for garden leaders. These positions are appointed.

Amendments

These By-Laws may be amended by the members of the organization duly called for the purpose of amending these By-Laws. Members who wish to change by-laws must submit the proposed change, in writing, to the current organizers

Membership Responsibilities

Each member shall be acquainted with and abide by the rules and regulations of the garden. Failure to do so can lead to termination of membership.

Please be sure to read the Garden Bylaws. Also, since this is a collaborative effort with the Forest Service, you will need to also sign the Volunteer Work Agreement, agreeing to their terms and conditions before you start your plot. We’ll walk you through the process.

Fill out this application below and we’ll be in contact with you within a day or so.

• 2011 Volunteer Sign In
• 2011 Volunteer Work Agreement
• 2010 Dumas Ditch Report
• 2009 November Dumas Ditch Report
• 2009 Fall Dumas Ditch Report

I have often purchased from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply for items currently used at Crescent Moon Ranch Garden in Sedona, Arizona. Their products seem to be of high quality, and here is some information about them.

Since 1976 we’ve worked hard to bring you the lowest possible prices on organic growing supplies, organic fertilizers, organic pest control, organic seedlings, organic seeds, everything you need for your organic garden or organic farm. Everything you need to grow organic in one place = less money spent on shipping, less time spent hunting around. Generous quantity discounts allow you to stock up and save. We are committed to preserving the environment. We use recycled packing materials and provide an economical way for growers to go organic gardens and farms. Premium quality products: Guaranteed. Those who grow know: Peaceful Valley is your source for everything you need to Grow Organic… For Life!

Have you tried any other fantastic suppliers?

Happy gardening, Geoffrey