ABOUT US

Our Story

1997 EARLY YEARS: Native Arizonans, Cliff & Charles Underwood returned to their beloved Home State in 1997 after managing their Luxury Leathergoods Firm in DALLAS, Texas for 20 years. Astonished by the rampant growth, they began searching for property which had the wide open vistas of their childhood. As fate would have it, the brothers along with Ginger (wife of Charles) who was born and raised in Dallas stumbled upon a long dormant mining claim named "Dallas" which along with "Ft. Worth and El Paso" just happened to be on the market. They purchased the 62 acre property in February 1998 and spent the better part of four years procuring a legal easement to transform the mine's overgrown mule trail into a winding scenic road. 2005 DEVASTATION & REBIRTH: The Underwood’s originally planned an upscale development of 14 homes on the property and partnered with Johnny Ringo’s Carefree Adventures to expose potential buyers to the site in alliance with Jeep Tours to the Gold Mine. On June 21st, 2005 the very first tour had scarcely begun when lightning struck near their newly constructed Studio. By the following morning it had become a raging inferno that transformed the pristine Mountain Top Sanctuary into a Moonscape of Ash. Known as the Cave Creek Complex fire it burned 243,000+ acres and is the 3rd largest wildfire in Arizona history. With their Real Estate development “Up in Smoke” they created Jeep Tours for curious guests to travel behind the scenes and experience the wildfire’s aftermath. This evolved into “Rebirth of a Mountain” tour the following year after a freak snow storm dropped 31 inches of snow to produce spectacular spring wildflowers. The mountain vegetation quickly rebounded and these unique sojourns in conjunction with a Historic 1880’s Gold Mine made Rackensack a must see favorite destination for the Jeep Tours. 2019 END OF AN ERA: The partnership with Johnny Ringo came to an end in 2019 and Jeep Tours were paused temporarily when Cliff Underwood along with his wife Deborah retired to their home in Pinetop, Arizona. For the immediate future, Charles & Ginger decided to focus their reduced resources on the Charles Underwood Fine Leathergoods business. That decision proved to be quite fortuitous since the Tourism Industry was so badly decimated in 2020 by COVID. 2023 TOUR RE-LAUNCH: By “Popular Demand” after numerous inquiries from former guests, Tours to Rackensack are available once again but now in an exciting new and updated format. Guests now travel in style via Jeep Gladiator Customized exclusively for our tours and a Thrilling Robinson R44 Raven II Helicopter for Jeep / Heli Excursions. We are genuinely thrilled to once again offer exciting sojourns to this Magnificent property and share the unsurpassed beauty with visitors from around the world to provide guests with a "UNIQUELY ARIZONA - ONE OF A KIND EXPERIENCE".