Lighthouses have been used for centuries to guide sailors but they can also be used to guide travelers through the desert. Northwest of Phoenix, Arizona near Wenden are the ruins of an old stage coach stop in the middle of the desert. Charles C. Culling was an Englishman that immigrated to the US in search of gold. Some how in 1868 he ended up in the Arizona desert in a place he thought would make a good place for stage coach station. He dug a 240 foot well by hand by hand to obtain a good source of water. In the desert water is worth more than gold and he had the only supply within a thirty mile radius.
Culling’s Well as it was known by the locals became an important stage stop between Prescott and Ehrenberg. Culling died in 1878 and was buried in a cemetery nearby. After his death, , Joe Drew took over and was responsible for maintain the station. A man who was dying of dehydration in the desert had seen a light on in the station window at night. He managed to walk to the station and was saved by the water from Culling’s well. After the mans near death experience, Drew decided to establish the station as a “Lighthouse of the Desert”. He suspending a lamp on the cottonwood pole every night and offered a lifesaving beacon to all lost travelers.
Today the only thing that remains are the ruins of the old well and a small cemetery where Charles C. Culling and four other men are laid to rest. A marker was placed as a Boy Scout eagle project to tell the story of the Lighthouse of the Desert.
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