The town of Clarkdale has been working for quite some time to develop amenities along the few miles of the Verde River that run through the town’s limits.
Now some more concrete plans are on the table.
It’s part of the town’s Verde River @ Clarkdale project, an effort to provide access to the river while protecting and preserving it at the same time.
A good deal of that effort has been focused on two new access points, one known as the TAPCO access point, due to its proximity to the old power plant that used to fuel early growth and mining operations in the area, and another near the Tuzigoot bridge, named for the ancient Sinaguan ruins nearby and today operated as a national monument.
The TAPCO site, granted to the town through an arrangement with Freeport-McMoran, the company that now controls much of the land owned by the old mining companies, had to be relocated after it was discovered protected bald eagles live in the first area considered.
A ribbon cutting was held earlier this year at the TAPCO site, which is upstream from the Tuzigoot site. A company has rented watercraft to travel the river between the two sites while providing transportation to boaters back to where they parked.
Much of the work so far has been funded through a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization set up by the family behind Walmart.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 17, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
