In 2021, Friends of the Tonto offered to raise money to contract the construction of a pipe rail barrier for the parking lot and driveway at the Shoofly Village Ruin archaeological interpretive site on the Payson Ranger District of the Tonto National Forest. After several years of dealing with skyrocketing steel prices and contractor bids that were well beyond our reach, Cave Creek Ranger District heard about our plight and donated a batch of leftover pipe from a previous project which just happened to be exactly the amount needed to build the vehicle barrier around the Shoofly parking lot. At the same time we found a contractor willing to work with the surplus material for a reasonable price, and Payson District contributed a lockable vehicle gate to close the road behind the ruin. The stars thus aligned, we held an open house at Shoofly last October and kicked off our first major fundraising effort. All of that finally paid off in May and we now have a first-class vehicle barrier around the Shoofly parking lot!
Our contractor, Rob Bauer, picked up the steel at Cave Creek, camped out on site with his two-man crew, and the whole thing was finished in just over a week! A few months of Payson weather and all the rails, posts, and pedestrian gates will oxidize into a nice uniform brown and it’ll look like it’s always been there. No more OHV incursions into the site rutting and running over the trails! A great joint effort between Rob, the folks at Cave Creek and Payson Ranger Districts and everyone who contributed to help us raise the $14,500 needed. Take a look!
