By Judy Stoycheff

Mary Sandretto Coates, one of the daughters of Dominic and Catherine Sandretto, describes her father as a big man, intelligent, and with a good memory who enjoyed card games of chance. When short of cash and payments were due, it was not unheard of for him to engage in a poker game in one of the establishments on Whiskey Row. Recollections are that he frequently beat the odds and thus made the payment.

Dominic also made his own wine, but was particular about the grapes that he used. He did not use any of the grapes his wife tended, but ordered special grapes to be shipped to him from California. Based on the small amount of bottles found at the site, he reused his bottles repeatedly, as did Catherine when "putting up " her vegetables. Of interest is that few cans, bottles and/or "pretty " items were found on, below surface, or in the tile latrine when the property was excavated. This indicates that, although there were four women on the property at this particular time, it was a self-sufficient working farm with few frills. 

Carl Clark was the first of many renters for the property when Dominic and Catherine moved to the 'city.' (The Sandretto family continued to hold ownership of the property until the early 2000's). Mr. Clark had previously worked at the University of Arizona Experimental Farm, then located where Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is today. The focus of the experimental station was "dry farming" using seeds from around the world. This project proved unsuccessful. Carl then entered the dairy farming business with a lease of land near Prescott but soon was forced to relocate as the city limits expanded. He then leased the Sandretto property in the 1930's. In addition to dairy cows, the Clarks had horses, pigs, chickens, and raised alfalfa and corn in the fertile fields. As government regulations on the bottling of dairy products became more stringent, the Clarks had to pasteurize their milk and maintain cleaner standards throughout the dairy. A local doctor monitored the condition of the diary and, according to Hazel Clark Demming, Carl's daughter, told Carl that he could not allow the other livestock to roam free through the milking area. She recalls her mother cleaning the bottles with a brush made of pigs' hair and how the bottles would break and cut her hands. During an interview on the site of the excavation, Hazel recalled how the daily panel delivery truck had wire cases that held the milk bottles. They used chipped ice to cover the bottles under a canvas tarp during warmer weather. The Carl Clark Jersey Dairy bottle, a fragment of which was found during the excavation, was very unique. It depicted the dairy name, outlined a cow, farm buildings and the phone number (0I3J3) in red paint. The aluminum foil lids, also found, read "The Jersey Dairy/Milk/Prescott, Arizona". 

After Clark moved his Dairy to Chino Valley in 1943, assorted renters utilized the Sandretto land, but it never functioned as a dairy again. The majority of the renters' names are lost, as records were not kept. One ranched for 4 years in the 1960's; another tried "dry farming". During a major blizzard in the 1960's, a family occupied the site. A young daughter fell, broke a limb and was in a great deal of distress. As the roads were deep in snow and plowing was a long time coming, the father saddled up a horse and rode the five miles into Prescott to get medical help. A helicopter was dispatched to bring his daughter to the hospital for treatment. Presumably, dad rode the horse the five miles through the snow back to his home. John F Simmons, nearly 100 years previously, could never have envisioned that scenario, as his wife and children lay gravely ill and died due to lack of medical care on that same farm. 

At some point in time, probably 1972, Yavapai County conducted a flood control project along the banks of Willow Creek, which forever changed the configuration of the stream. Previously, the annual overflow irrigated the banks of the creek. Now the new project blocked water from entering the area. Crops that had been so easy to grow now needed manual watering. 

Lack of maintenance and renter neglect over the years resulted in the deterioration of the buildings. Consequently, the family made plans to raze all of the buildings on the property. The stones from the milk house and the railroad ties that made up the blacksmith shop and walls of the barn were removed by various Sandretto family members and others to be used as mementoes and decorative items in their homes and gardens. 

In 1981, as some of the descendants of Dominic Sandretto sadly looked on, the Prescott Fire Department used the remaining buildings as a fire fighting training area, burning them to the ground. As part of the clean up, the entire area was bulldozed, forever changing the configuration of the property to the extent that few of the landmarks known to the family have remained. The farm now remains dormant, home to numerous rodents, a treasure to the neighborhood children who play in the tree house in the giant cottonwood, and to the vagrants who camp in the shelter of the trees where the creek used to run. 


Photograph credit: (From 'Life & Death along Willow Creek'; Fig 8-24) 
Catherine and Dominic Sandretto, date unknown, probably the early 1930s. 


Photograph credit: (From 'Life & Death along Willow Creek'; Fig 8-26) 
Catherine & Dominic's daughters, Dolly, Mary and Irene, sitting on one of the two milk trucks near the milk house.