Sad Horse

This Sad Horse, showing his years with rust and bullet holes, mourns TOM MIX.

Looking upward against the clear Arizona sky we see the rear of the top of the Tom Mix Monument on the Pinal Pioneer Parkway. Sunlight was on the back of the sculpture and the front was in deep shadow.

Plaque on the front states "IN MEMORY OF TOM MIX WHOSE SPIRIT LEFT HIS BODY ON THIS SPOT AND WHOSE CHARACTERIZATIONS AND PORTRAYALS IN LIFE SERVED TO BETTER FIX MEMORIES OF THE OLD WEST IN THE MINDS OF LIVING MEN."

Tom was born in 1880 and starred in many movies until his death. In 1940 he was driving a fast, powerful roadster down this highway at a high rate of speed until he missed a bridge-out detour and flew the car into the opposite embankment.

Many legends surround the event including that he had been drinkin' and gamblin' all night in Tucson and had a few more drinks at Lupe's Bar at Oracle Junction before heading North. In the crash a suitcase on the rear luggage rack broke loose striking Tom on the back of the head and breaking his neck. Supposedly the suitcase contained many silver dollars that somehow were never found. The Coroner was a druggist from Florence, the County Seat, and he made the death official.