Giant Crosses Watch Over Cochise County

Giant Cross Shrine in Hereford

Two huge Celtic crosses keep silent watch over the landscape of Cochise County. One graces the Holy Trinity Monastery, a Benedictine community just south of St. David. The second is on a hillside overlooking Our Lady of the Sierras Shrine near Hereford. Both tower more than 75 feet over their surroundings, and both are the result of a journey Pat and Gerry Chouinard made to a shrine in Medjugorje, in what was then Yugoslavia. When they retired in 1995, the couple decided to build a similar shrine on their property near Hereford.

Courthouse Diversity in Tucson

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The Pima County Courthouse has been a Tucson landmark for eight decades, but it took a long time for the community to accept it because of a lingering controversy over the colors and style. But over the years, the Spanish Colonial Revival structure has become became a city icon.

The building, designed by Roy W. Place and built by Herbert Brown, is the third courthouse to occupy the site.

A Unique Shrine of Concrete and Rocks in Yarnell

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Nobody can say for sure if any miracles have actually happened at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Yarnell, but the story behind its creation is almost a miracle itself. It was built by a dishwasher on a site unsuitable for any kind of construction, and under the supervision of a family that had to invent a new type of concrete to make it happen.

Giant Skull in Yavapai County

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Skulls are usually hidden away where they’re hard to find, but the Giant Skull of Date Creek is right out in the open, and it’s been in the exact spot for more than 100 years. The skull is actually a huge boulder painted white with black eyes, nose and a black toothy mouth so it looks like a real skull, even to those who are “imaginationally” challenged. Like many pieces of rock art, the origins are a bit hard to trace, but local legend says it was the work of some railroad workers who had extra paint and extra time on their hands.

Yuma’s Water Tank Art

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Most communities adorn their water towers and tanks with either the town’s name or first initial, but in Yuma they opted for something more artistic — a giant tryptich that spreads across the city’s three huge water tanks. The city council received gallons of flak when it approved the $50,000 project in 1999, but the criticism died down a year later when the work received an award from the Governor’s Pride in Arizona Committee.