Teskey Home Site

The Teskey Home Site is in the northern part of the Agua Fria National Monument . The Teskey family lived in a home along Big Bug Creek from 1940 to 1948. Parts of the chimney and foundation remain today.

A short set of steps leads to the home site. Site Etiquette Historic and archaeological sites are protected by law. Leave artifacts where you see them.

Do not climb on walls or structures. Site History This site was settled by Cornelius "Colonel" H. Teskey when he came to Arizona from Wyoming in 1925.

He was nicknamed Colonel because it was easier to pronounce than Cornelius. In 1940, Colonel built a small house on this site and moved in with his wife Phoebe and baby daughter Trudy. The house was later enlarged to accommodate the arrival of two sons, Bert and Fred, and Colonel's mother, Emma Teskey.

Here he grew hay, grain, and pinto beans in a field south of the house and in a field across Big Bug Creek. The fields were watered from a reservoir that collected water from a canal that came off the creek about a mile upstream. In addition to water fields on the southeast side of Big Bug Creek, a pipe from the reservoir was suspended over the creek by steel cables.

Phoebe grew a small vegetable garden west of the house. Chicken coops, granaries, storage buildings and a barn and corral were located southwest of the house. Colonel Teskey had purchased a registered Morgan stallion in California which he bred for many fine horses for the family and others.

Along with the horses, the Teskey family raised cattle which were shipped from the community stockyard near what is now Cordes Junction. Phoebe broke the horses and rode the range tending the cattle. Colonel tended the fields, maintained the canal, and worked at the manganese mine at the TH Ranch.

The house had no electricity or plumbing, and a simple pipe drained the kitchen sink. Water from the hand-dug well was carried to the house by bucket and Phoebe had to wash clothes outside in a hand-operated Maytag washer.