Welcome to the Waiting Room

A journal of Arizona ghost stories, legends and buried history, starting with the mystery of Butcher Jones Beach.

Brown and yellow Butcher Jones Recreation Site sign in Tonto National Forest, Arizona, beside a paved road lined with desert trees under a blue sky. — The entrance to Butcher Jones Recreation Site in Tonto National Forest. 📸 R. Lola Zayas

There’s a beach on Saguaro Lake called Butcher Jones.

On a good day, if you squint, pretend the cactus are lemon trees, and hum a little Dean Martin, it could pass for the Amalfi Coast: colorful canopies pinned against canyon cliffs, jade water glittering in the sun, kids splashing in the shallows. Almost no one asks where the strange name came from.

I did.

Butcher Jones Beach on Saguaro Lake, Arizona, with colorful shade tents along the shore, seen from the Butcher Jones Trail through desert brush and prickly pear cactus. — Butcher Jones Beach on Saguaro Lake, as seen from the Butcher Jones Trail. 📸 R. Lola Zayas

Butcher Jones Surf Co. is what grew from that question 🔮 a spellbound world where real history and legendary lore collide. Hidden beaches, lost gold mines, cemeteries, circuses, and the Superstitions.

Welcome to the Cactus Coast, where even a desert has its beaches, and nothing is quite what it seems.

I’m following The Butcher’s trail down Arizona’s back roads, through Sonoran Desert ghost towns and drowned canyons, to the places the history books got wrong. The research is real. The places are real. The stories grow from there.

Come on in. Stay awhile. The water’s deeper than it looks.

— Miss Lola

History depends on who records it.

Start at the beginning: Following the Butcher →

Want a sticker?

Send $3 + a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

BUTCHER JONES SURF CO.
8175 E. Evans Rd. Unit 13682
Scottsdale, AZ 85267

No forms or tracking numbers. Just a $3 handshake. In return, promise me you'll snap a pic when it lands somewhere cool and tag @surf.butcher on Instagram.