TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

Arizona Oddities, Attractions and Pleasures {taking the off-ramp} Psychoanalysis by Horse?

Do you believe that horses were created only for riding? “Not so,” says Wyatt Webb, who created the Equine Experience, a selfdiscovery program available at Miraval Resort and Spa, one of the world’s top resorts, located north of Tucson. Miraval specializes in facilitating experiences that lead to a healthy “life in balance,” and Webb believes that interaction with a horse can contribute to that goal. “A horse can become a mirror for what is going on in your life.” Webb, an author and psychotherapist, offers an unconventional therapy. In the Equine Experience, he instructs resort guests in grooming the horse they are paired with— cleaning dirt and rocks from the hoofs, brushing the mane and the tail and observing the horse’s response. He interprets the interaction as a metaphor for what the individual has learned over a lifetime about relationships to all living things. For example, the guest receives instructions on how to coax the horse to lift its foot for grooming. If the horse refuses, it may be evident to Webb that the horse senses fear in the companion, which may extend from a need for control that has complicated the person’s life. In his book It’s Not About the Horse, written with Cindy Pearlman, Webb shares how he struggled as a singer for 15 years, touring the country 30 weeks a year, living a self-defeating lifestyle that included addictions to drugs and alcohol. When he wanted to change, he sought help and, as his life transformed, he felt prompted to help others heal. He left the entertainment industry, and for 20 years has helped others on their personal journeys through his unique therapy. Information: (800) 232-3696; www.miravalresort.com.

Cold Wave in Tucson

Southerners have to have their grits. Midwesterners need Jell-O. Some people crave macaroni and cheese. But in Tucson, the favorite comfort food comes icy cold in a cup. The frozen fruit drink, called an eegee's, is a 30-year-old native of Tucson, where the restaurants by the same name have grown to 19 locations. And yes, the drink and the company name are spelled with a lowercase “e.” Besides everyday flavors of strawberry, lemon and piña colada, eegee's co-owner Ed Irving constantly whips up new flavors-of-the-month like Frosty Lime, Wild Berry or Cranberry drink an uninviting khaki color. Although many Tucsonans assume eegee's is an international chain, Irving and co-owner Bob Greenberg refuse to franchise their business because they want eegee's to stay as sweet as it is. Although they started with the desire to re-create an Italian ice that they ate in their native Rhode Island, the two created a novel fine-grained frozen fruit concoction that starts with fruit rather than ice. Tucsonans love slurping the vitamin-C enriched treat, and don't even mind when big hunks of strawberry, blueberry or lemon get caught in the straw. Information: www.eegees.com.

drink an uninviting khaki color. Although many Tucsonans assume eegee's is an international chain, Irving and co-owner Bob Greenberg refuse to franchise their business because they want eegee's to stay as sweet as it is. Although they started with the desire to re-create an Italian ice that they ate in their native Rhode Island, the two created a novel fine-grained frozen fruit concoction that starts with fruit rather than ice. Tucsonans love slurping the vitamin-C enriched treat, and don't even mind when big hunks of strawberry, blueberry or lemon get caught in the straw. Information: www.eegees.com.

Splash. His brainstorms don't always work. Take his biggest disappointment, Blue Hawaii. The mint-and-coconutflavored drink included chocolate chips that turned the whole

Blue Light Special

Frances M. Stone of Spanish Fork, Utah, read “Over, Under and Through the Mogollon Rim” in the October 2000 issue of Arizona Highways with fascination. It mentioned a 1975 incident in which a man claimed that a bright light knocked him to the ground; then aliens abducted him. Could his tale be true? In May 1957, Stone and her now-deceased husband visited Mesa. She writes: “I do not know what route we took as we traveled north into the desert.

Hell or High Water

Many years ago Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst (1874-1962) of Arizona said during his maiden speech to the U.S. Senate: “Mr. President, the baby state I represent has the greatest potential. This state could become a paradise. We need only two things water and lots of good people.” According to historical records, a senior senator from Pennsylvania, Boise Penrose (18601921), arose from his seat to interject: “If the senator will pardon me for saying so, that’s all they need in hell.”

Out With You, Bad Flower

An invader lurks along roadsides and trails in northern Arizona. The small yellow snapdragons bring color to the traveler’s eye. They grow on green, spiky stalks with distinctive triangular leaves. But this wild snapdragon, dalmation toadflax (linaria dalmatica), threatens native flowering plants like the state’s colorful variety of penstemon. Botanist Laura Moser, the Coconino National Forest representative working with Flagstaff’s San Francisco Peaks Weed Management Area organization, estimates toadflax has affected 150,000 acres in the forest. Since carrying the plants away from their growing site can spread the seeds, Moser recommends that people pull up the weeds and place them on a nearby rock so their roots dry up and die. As people learn that the weeds endanger the purple lupine, apricot mallow and red-orange Indian paintbrush, they are more willing to pluck out toadflax when they see it. With vigilance and some volunteer weeding, native Arizona plants won’t be nudged out. Information: www.weedcenter.org; Coconino National Forest, (928) 527-3600.

Drink Up, Mesquite Fans

Mesquite trees, a common sight in Arizona’s deserts, produce bean pods in the summer - a food source for humans and wildlife. Indians have long relied on these beans as a dietary staple, which they made into syrup, beverages and a ground meal called pinole. The desert tribes of the Pima and Tohono O’odham created a nutritious beverage from the ripe, yellow beans of the mesquite each July. They would rinse and boil the beans and then pound them into a pulpy mash. The drained resulting juice made a refreshing drink.

“Suddenly, I spotted a brilliant silver-blue beam of light coming from the sky. My husband stopped the car and snapped only one picture. He then quickly drove away. I watched the ray of light as we departed. It did not move, change or disappear as long as I could see it. “To this day it is a mystery to me. But I still have the slide picture of this light, and when you put it in the projector and flash it on the screen, it is awesome.”

Pass the Kettle Chips

As the story goes, 15 years ago two schoolteachers from the Midwest arrived in Tucson with a massive kettle for making a special kind of potato chip. Today that oil bubbler still turns out the kettle-cooked potato chips under the brand name of Saguaro. The freshly cleaned and sliced potatoes never ride a conveyor belt. They drop directly into hot canola oil. A technician uses a raking device to separate and turn them. Owner Mike Wattis talks about the unique flavor and texture of the chips. Customers seem to agree. Wattis recalls the reaction when he considered dropping the Chili & Lime from his seven-variety lineup. "I was almost tarred and feathered," he says. The chips stayed. Although the process and the equipment came from the Midwest, the American Southwest plays a major role. Most of the potatoes used by this small Tucson company are grown by the Navajo Indians. Information: (520) 884-8049.

LIFE IN ARIZONA 1 88 0 JOHN L. SULLIVAN'S KNOCKOUT VISIT TO TOMBSTONE

The great boxer John L. Sullivan visited Tombstone in 1884 for a boxing match. According to pioneer Anton Mazzanovich, writing in The Tombstone Epitaph in 1931, Sheriff J.L. Ward brought the champ to the jail for a visit with John Heith, one of six men involved in a Bisbee holdup that left four dead, including a pregnant woman. Heith, the gang's lookout, got a life sentence, but a vigilante mob would soon lynch him. His five cohorts were condemned to die. In the meeting, Sullivan said, "It's a pity that a fine looking chap like you should be in such a predicament." "I would like to have your mug and your liberty," Heith responded. "I understand that you can knock a man out in four rounds." Sullivan said yes. "Well, you're no good. We have one man here who will knock five men out in one round," said Heith, referring to the hangman. Sullivan did his work, putting on a good show at Schieffelin Hall, and the hangman did his. At the Cochise County Courthouse in Tombstone on March 5, 1884, the five Bisbee murderers swung from ropes until they died.

Astronomically Improbable!

Astronomically improbable!" decried the lawmakers of the 1917 Arizona State Legislature. Was the cause of this contention the appearance of some new star in the heavens over Phoenix? No, the debate was raging about the prototype for the new state flag. First designed in 1911 by Charles W. Harris as a banner for the Arizona Rifle Team, the flag then-as it does today - consisted of two fields bisected by a five-pointed star. The lower field mirrored the blue of the Union flag, while the upper section, segmented into 13 redand-gold sunrays, reflected the colors carried by the Spanish Conquistadores on their trek through Arizona in 1540. In the center, the bronze-colored star identified the state as the largest copper-producing region of the nation. And it was precisely these astronomically improbable sunrays shooting out from behind the star that so vexed the legislators. In 1915 the Legislature considered, but did not ratify, Harris' design. Two years later, despite the loud objections to its astronomical credibility and even over then-Governor Thomas Campbell's veto, the distinctive flag was adopted.

Question of the Month

How was the last stagecoach robbery in Arizona also a first?

A Pearl Hart, one of the robbers of the Globe and Florence stage in 1899, created a sensation as the first female bandit in state history. Bereft of her pistol in the courtroom, Hart wielded her feminine charms. While her displays of weeping, handwringing and eyelash-batting won her an acquittal by the all-male jury, the judge remained unaffected. He sentenced her to five years in Yuma's Territorial prison on a related charge.

CONTRIBUTORS

HERM ALBRIGHT VERA MARIE BADERTSCHER LEO W. BANKS BOBBIE BOOKHOUT BUZZ BRANDT PHYLLIS J. COOK PAULY HELLER CARRIE M. MINER LISA NATHAN KATHLEEN WALKER