Here, State Route 179 splits Tlaquepaque into two halves straddling Oak Creek. Located on either side of State Route 179 as it crosses Oak Creek, a tributary of the Verde River, this place was founded in 1973 by Abe Miller as an artists' commune on land that had been a sycamore grove owned by Harry and Ruby Girard. As of 2023 the complex contains eighteen art galleries and forty-five shops, and its chapel has been mooted for historical landmark status.
Sculptor Lou Rankin formerly owned a gallery here. The two sections sit opposite one another across SR 179, and in 2023 the Sedona City Council approved a $3.46 million contract to install a pedestrian underpass beneath SR 179 and between those two sections of Tlaquepaque. Those facts are the bones of this place: founding as an artists' commune, the sycamore grove beneath your feet, a cluster of galleries and shops counted by year, and plans to knit the halves together under the highway.
Follow the line of State Route 179 down toward Oak Creek, where the second half of Tlaquepaque waits on the far bank.