There Is No Steam Pump At Steam Pump Ranch

There is no steam pump at Steam Pump Ranch. There is a foundation for one. There is a capped well. There is a partially erect pump house, with no roof.  There is a fence around where the pump house stood. There is a rusted water storage tank. There is an electric pump to draw the water from the tank at the fill station.  But, there is no steam pump.

Imagine. Steam Pump Ranch has no steam pump.  You would think that this is something people visiting the ranch would like to see.  They won't see it.

Perhaps the steam pump was sold to one of the mining operations to use in evacuating water from one of their tunnels. Perhaps its was sold for scrap.

We think if you were to see it that it looked like the pump at lower right.  Most likely its horizontal with a large fly wheel on the side.  You might also find a boiler with it so it could get steam.

Unfortunately, that's not all  that is missing at Steam Pump Ranch.

It looked to us on our visit last week that a healthy portion of the master planned renovation is also missing.

Yes. We know that the town has built rest rooms there; and a new ramada; and a surface to allow for dust free parking.  We know that the Farmer's Market is now held there. We know that there are second Saturdays.

There is a master plan for Steam Pump Ranch. It was prepared in 2008.   It contains a trove of information about the history of the site. It contains plans for preservation and restoration, plans that have not been realized.

If you take the time to read the Steam Pump Ranch master plan (see link above) you will will see a vision of a major tourist historical attraction that is open to the public most of the time.  

Steam Pump Ranch is far from that vision.

We asked town parks and recreation director Kristy Diaz-Trahan about the restoration plan and its costs. She estimated that completing the site as planned would cost upwards of $4 million.

When asked the source of the funding for the ranch, Kristy stated that the town was looking for the Pima County Bond offering to possibly fund this. This bond offering, if one is approved by the voters of the county, will not occur until 2016 at the earliest. In addition, there is no guarantee that Steam Pump Ranch will be included as one of the projects included in this bond offering, if there is a bond offering to occur. If we wait for the county, Steam Pump Ranch may never be done.
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