Buckhorn Baths Motel – Mesa, Az.

This weeks theme is vintage signs. These old neon signs used to be the shiniest, most colorful thing on Main Street U.S. A., now they are mostly broken down and forgotten. Just look around, they are still there, most of them have loads of rust and character. They make great photographic subjects.

© Toni Vaughan 2012

The Buckhorn began in 1935 as a gas station. In 1939, Buckhorn’s owners, Ted and Alice Sliger, discovered a mineral hot springs on the property and transformed it into a Mineral Water Spa and Hotel. Over the years the Buckhorn grew in an eclectic way — the world’s largest metate wall, a museum featuring the largest collection of Arizona wildlife (all preserved through the taxidermy skills of Ted Sliger), and hot mineral baths that can be traced directly back to the start of the Cactus League baseball.

Alice Sliger passed away November 9, 2010 at the Mi Casa Nursing Center in Mesa, where she had been living for the six months prior to her death after a fall which injured her hip. Alice, at age 103, was the oldest living graduate of Arizona State University (called Arizona State Teacher’s college when she attended) at the time of per passing and had spent 75 years at the Buckhorn property. She was so committed to the Buckhorn, in such a deep and abiding way that, despite the Sliger Family having a beautiful home at the base of the Superstition Mountains, she remained at the Buckhorn, preferring to live there amongst the rich history of the property, considering herself the steward of the Buckhorn and its history. She was devoted to seeing the legacy of the Buckhorn Baths protected, the land put to a use that would benefit the community and that could preserve the history of the site. The Mesa Preservation Foundation is currently raising money to help preserve Buckhorn Baths,  donate here. 

© Toni Vaughan 2012

In terms of photo processing, both images are 3 exposure HDR images. I processed them with the new Nik Software HDR Efex Pro 2 and did some fine tuning in Lightroom 4.1 and Photoshop CS6.