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Now
a few hundred feet up the hill from that saloon at Goldfield Ghost Town n=
ear
Apache Junction stands a new vintage frontier church — The Church at
the Mount.
As in the old days, it was built by church members — and cheap by
today’s standards, for about $22,000.
But it comfortably seats 132 folks coming to get some old-time religion a=
nd
to hear the 1800s foot-pumping organ accompany hymns like "The Old
Rugged Cross." Organist Hilda Stonecipher
— age 80 plus — feels kin to the instrument still able to eke=
out
notes as long as she supplies enough foot-power.
The church opened for its first Sunday services in late November. It̵=
7;s
a bona fide Christian church with its own congregation and basic New
Testament teaching, led by the Rev. Tim Jones.
Jones, who dresses in 1860s Western apparel, conducts services at 11 a.m.=
He
wears tall Western boots that are said to have been the ones actor Clint
Eastwood wore in the 1985 film "Pale Rider."
But the preacher emphasizes his church is much more than a reproduction o=
f an
Old West building. It’s a real house of worship, built by a real
congregation to glorify God.
"It is serious on Sunday morning," he said.
For the rest of the time, Goldfield tourists can wander into the 24- by
36-foot church with a 42-foot high steeple and an 1886 cupola bell, sit in
the 1931 oak pews, and sense the simplicity of frontier religion.
"People can come in and look around like tourists
— that’s what it’s for," Jones said.
Winter residents, regular tourists and the church’s 10 members have
combined to create weekly fellowship at the church on the hill — a
meeting house that can be seen for miles along Highway 88 in the shadows =
of
the majestic Superstiti=
on
Mountains. ItR=
17;s a
re-creation of one that was built in the late 1800s — and is still
standing — near Hesperus, Colo.
About a year ago, Jones visited the 35-acre ghost-town, 4650 E. Mammoth M=
ine
Road, and struck up a conversation with the town’s major partner, B=
ob Schoose.
"He just came up looking at the place, and I think he originally was
talking about putting in an antique store," Sch=
oose
said. "But then we got to talking, and he had mentioned he was an
ordained minister, and I said, ‘Well, you ought to put in a
church,’ and he said, ‘By God, you’re right,’ and=
one
thing led to another and that is how it happened."
Jones, 57, who did missionary work in the United
States and Pacific
Islands in the 19=
80s,
started a church that was meeting in a Gilbert home. He had a core fellow=
ship
of four families.
They jumped at the opportunity to erect their church building at a place =
like
Goldfield.
"We didn’t have anyplace to go," Jones said. "We were
asked to come here, and we love it."
Though small in number, the congregation had more than adequate construct=
ion
skills. First, they searched for a Western church to use as a model. With
photos in hand of the church in Colorado,
they had an architect draw up plans. To erect it on a hill at the north e=
nd
of Goldfield, a retaining wall had to be constructed and dirt hauled in. =
"We drove the first nail at 3:30 in the morning on July 23," Jo=
nes
said. The small work crew labored steadily, mostly evenings and weekends,=
and
finished in November.
The only professional work hired was for texturing interior sheetrock wal=
ls
and doing electrical work to meet code requirements.
"Everything was done better than code."
The cedar wood for the church was "rough-sawed" for a frontier
look. Narrow and simple Gothic windows were installed along the side walls
and in back.
Plans call for a mural to be painted on the church’s front wall to
suggest stained-glass windows.
A wood stove was donated, and the 4-foot high pulpit was built from a pipe
organ cabinet from a church in Seattle.
Lights inside the church are fastened to wagon wheels and hitches.
The steep roof is covered with corrugated steel, while its entrance has a
copper roof.
"A couple rains will turn that green," Jones said.
Jones pulls on a rope near the back door to ring the 1885 bell 15 minutes
before services and for weddings.
"We are just flat old-time New Testament church — independent =
the
way I was brought up," he said. "We don’t hold to any gro=
up
other than the church."
He likens the Church at the Mount, with its independence, to the earliest
apostolic churches like the church at Corinth,
Samaria or Antioch.
Schoose has pledged to the church to provide =
land
below the mountain for development of a youth campground with "a
garrison of calvary tents and a mess tent,&qu=
ot;
Jones said.
The church will provide reenactments of Civil War and cavalry groups.
"Our camp will help put God’s truth back into history," he
said. "That is really not taught in school. We don’t want to p=
ush
any doctrine for the camps. We just want to show that these old men, our
founders, had a respect for God."
Schoose says "it is kind of important fo=
r kids
to be able to do that kind of stuff. They are stuck on video games and th=
at
stuff nowadays and they don’t get enough of the other."
Jones still laughs that Schoose’s Goldf=
ield
Ghost Town office is inside Lu Lu’s Bordello, described by an outdo=
or
sign as "an island of softness in a harsh and coarse land. . . . A v=
ery
important part of Western history seldom seen or even talked about."=
"The original concept (for the church) began in the bordello,"
Jones notes, "and the contract was signed six months later in the
saloon."
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