Verde Valley

However, Sedona is also the home to a very unusual patch of land where there have long been reported all manner of high strangeness, from UFOs to ghosts to dinosaurs and more.

Go off the beaten path for a while, off down a remote, unpaved, rough dirt road just 12 miles outside Sedona in the Verde Valley, and you'll be met with the sight of a rather large, abandoned ranch, now inaccessible and blocked off by intimidating gates plastered with signs from the U.S. Forest Service warning away trespassers.

The desert scrub and wilderness area around that ranch is as remote and uninhabited as you can get, and the now-uninhabited ranch itself has devolved into a feral place overgrown with weeds and partially devoured by the landscape.

It was obviously once an expansive and successful ranch.

It was in 1945 that a Hollywood stuntman and actor named Bob Bradshaw moved out to the Sedona area, where he opened a modest business in the form of a photography shop.

With his Hollywood connections, Bradshaw also had a hand in many of the westerns that were en vogue at the time and which favored the deserts and canyons of the area for sets, with over 50 full-length features made in this vicinity over the years, and which helped to revitalize the area.

With his newfound influx of cash and good standing among the locals, in 1960 Bradshaw purchased a 140-acre parcel of land out in the Verde Valley at a place that was then known as Bitter Creek.

And this ranch and its old adobe houses would also go on to become a popular place to shoot movies, such as the 1967 Elvis Presley film Stay Away Joe and others.

And that's really their hunter gatherers.

And there are spear points that have been found in the Verde Valley.

Now, why would they be in the Verde Valley? It's because Oak Creek and the Verde River are two of the only water sources in Arizona that have water in them year round.

That's okay.

That's incredible.

Jerome or so.

When you get through Jerome and you go down across the Verde Valley and then you make it up to Sedona.

And then you, like, I was, the part I was running for Rob was going to be this really unknown part.

And so I went into it, I went into it, Jeff, with that mindset.

Sharing Arizona with people and going wherever you want.

Well, I and I worked in journalism starting in Flagstaff in 77 and moved from there to Verde Valley and Scottsdale Progress, Phoenix Gazette, Arizona Republic.

I closed a lot of newspapers.

That wasn't you, it was the

Mm-hmm.

Um, some on the Verde Valley.

Prescott Valley is a younger demographic, but certainly it's a national trend that birth rates are down.

Our current administration in Washington, DC, is looking at what can we do to bring-

Uh, the last 40 years I've lived in this area, and I, I, uh...

This whole area around Sedona and the Verde Valley is one of the world hotspots for the paranormal.

It's constantly going on here one way or another.

It's phenomenal.

The college has retained Chizek Associates Incorporated, CAI, to lead a comprehensive national search and assist the search committee throughout the process.

The search committee is chaired by Jack Smith, Vice President of Community Relations and Legislative Affairs, and includes representatives from across the college's leadership team, faculty and staff, as well as community members from Prescott, the Verde Valley and beyond.

The president of Yavapai College carries the responsibility of leading not just an institution, but a community's shared vision for opportunity and growth, said Steve Brasty, chairperson of the Yavapai College District Governing Board.

Our next president will need to build on the innovation that has defined this college, from our pioneering baccalaureate programs to our investment in cutting-edge learning spaces, and continue pushing us forward.

Delay is donating all proceeds from the exhibit to the Sedona Women's Scholarship Fund.

This fund provides scholarships for up to $3,500 per year to Verde Valley women whose education has been interrupted.

To qualify the women must have been accepted into an accredited academic or vocational institution and demonstrate financial need.

Delay feels a deep responsibility for paying forward to those women who need assistance with their education.

Oh, that's wonderful.

We're in every school in the Verde Valley.

So that would also mean West Sedona School? Oh, sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

No, I don't think so.

But you are in the choir, though, of the Jewish Community Center of Sedona and Verde Valley.

Right,

That's S-I-N-A-G-U-A.

Sinagua refers to the pre-Columbian Native American culture that inhabited the Verde Valley of central Arizona between about 500 CE and 1425 CE.

The The name was first applied to the region in 1583 by the Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo, who called the surrounding mountains the Sierra Sin Agua, meaning mountains without water.

Archaeologist Harold S. Colton later adopted the term in 1939 to classify the culture of ancient inhabitants who lived in this arid landscape.

It was included in the initial group of four national monuments established under the law.

The others were Devil's Tower, El Morro, and Petrified Forest.

Roosevelt wanted to stop the rampant looting and destruction of prehistoric artifacts throughout the Verde Valley.

Early preservationists recognized that original artifacts remaining inside the dwelling needed legal safeguards.