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Harmony Hollow Cowboy Gate at Sunset

Harmony Hollow is the name of 28 magical acres in the Sonoran Desert. It is nestled in the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area in Cave Creek, Arizona. The actual Cave Creek runs through it, and reminds us a few times a year who’s the boss as it washes out the dirt driveway.

Harmony Hollow was named by Jeffrey Cross, an artist who began construction of the artist’s residence in the early 1970s. It was later finished by his brother, Bradley, and has been home to many artists, travelers, and animals, throughout the years.

Jeffrey made bronze cast bells, and Harmony Hollow Bell Works still operates in Ann Arbor, Michigan, run by Bradley Cross.

Just as the quarter-mile dirt driveway to the house, the story of Harmony Hollow is a long and winding road.

Long, long, before Jeffrey Cross came onto the scene and built the house at Harmony Hollow the inhabitants of the land were the Hohokam, from 800 A.D. through 1400 A.D, when the Apaches arrived.

In the late 1800s the area was home to gold miners.

You can find out more about the early history of the land at the Cave Creek Museum.

> more history

Steve and Lori Greenberg are “accidental conservationists.”

They’ve lived in the Cave Creek area since 2000, and in 2020 felt a strong call to purchase Harmony Hollow in order to save it from development.

Steve is an IT specialist, and musician. He felt the call to conserve and preserve the land, and found himself being immersed in it’s history. He went all-in, and after giving presentations around town he joined the Board of the Cave Creek Museum where he is currently part of a team that is building a Veterans Memorial Garden.

Lori is an artist, and fell in love with the house at Harmony Hollow the moment she stepped inside, despite the fact that she was warned not to step onto the balcony, because it could fall down at any moment. She heard the voices of the past artists and visitors calling for it to be revived.

Steve and Lori are committed to conserving the land at Harmony Hollow, and protecting it from commercial development.

They view themselves as the current stewards of the land, rather than owners.

In these days of fast-moving life and technology it is their desire to (re)build community around Harmony Hollow, just as Jeffrey Cross had.

They have embarked on the remodeling and updating of the house which will continue to have art studio space that they hope to share with artists, as it once was.

They feel fortunate to still be in contact with the Cross family, and all of the wonderful people who have played a part over the years. They are grateful for the Cave Creek community, which has been so supportive and encouraging of their efforts.

Steve and Lori hit the ground running with the purchase of Harmony Hollow. Steve dug into the history of the land, and together they started reaching out to anyone and everyone who had information. And boy, did the the stories pour in! They knew that the Spur Cross area was magical, but they had no idea just how unique of a place they’d stumbled upon.

They started meeting so many interesting people that they didn’t have enough open lunch times to meet them all. So, they invited them all to a gathering at the other place that they’d added to Harmony Hollow, the Historic Stamp Mill site, which is on the other side of the Creek. 

Bringing people together at that first get-together was so uplifting and inspiring, the following month they opened it up to the faithful group of individuals who had been working tirelessly over the years to conserve Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area.

They put the invite out to the facebook group that had been previously created for the Spur Cross conservation effort.

This started their mission of bringing people together, and a strong desire to build a community of people who love the land, the arts, and hanging out in nature where their cell phones don’t work.

The Stamp Mill is a nine acre parcel that borders Harmony Hollow property, and includes the Cave Creek that runs between them. Skip, the previous owner, used to call it his Man Cave. 

It is the historic site of a stamp mill, which was used in the late 1800s to crush ore that miners extracted from surrounding gold mines. After crushing, they were able to recover the gold. We understand that the gold mines in the area weren’t productive enough to keep the claims up and  running.

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