ALL WHO WANDER

{taking the off-ramp} Arizona Oddities, Attractions and Pleasures THIS MONTH IN ARIZONA

1862 One of Arizona's few Civil War battles is fought at Picacho Peak northwest of Tucson. The Confederates win the battle, but the victory is insignificant.

1871 The Vulture Mine outside of Wickenburg is offered for sale in London.

1872 A four-horse coach journey from San Diego to Tucson costs $80 in gold coins.

1894 Phoenix records a new high of 9,500 residents.

1898 A mining boom hits Bisbee, requiring construction of a third lumberyard to supply the demand for new buildings.

Metal mania in Cochise County forces the recorder's office to process 80 new mining applications.

1904 The Arizona Insane Asylum houses 204 patients, with 93 admitted in the previous year-22 for alcoholism, and 23 for unknown causes. Other causes included senility, epilepsy, idiocy and mental worry.

Despite threats of a 30-day jail sentence, chicken thieves plague the citizens of Jerome.

WEIRD U.S.

Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

The Weird Thing is This . . .

Arizona's roadside attraction known as “The Thing” has found its way into a new travel guide to the United States the Weird U.S., that is. The oddity off Interstate 10 between Willcox and Benson is one of many in the book by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, which explores the country's kookiest landmarks, legends and folklore. It visits strange structures, examines the unexplained, chronicles the Creepy, peers at the paranormal, depicts the disturbing and reveals some of the best-kept secrets in America (that perhaps should have remained so). While the Grand Canyon State seems almost nonexistent in this nationwide atlas of the bizarre (the verdict is still out on whether that's good or bad), Weird U.S. is a fun read for any “roads scholar.” Information: www.barnesandnoble.com.

Oldest Levi's

When Allen Armstrong brags that he owns one of the world's oldest pairs of Levi's, he's not exaggerating. He dredged up a pair that dates back to the 1890s from an abandoned mine shaft in the historic Castle Dome mining district, located about 40 miles northeast of Yuma. “It was almost like going into the Titanic,” says the Castle Dome City Mines Museum owner of his 1998 expedition to unearth artifacts in one of Arizona's oldest mining regions. Along with 1890s Levi's splashed with candle wax (miners used candles before headlamps were invented), Armstrong discovered a dynamite spoon, powder boxes and a Schlitz beer bottle from the era. “The stuff was so well-preserved you could strike a match from the 1800s and light it,” he says.

Throughout the mineshaft, he discovered four other pairs of century-old Levi's. “We suspect the miners just changed their clothes and left them there,” Armstrong says. At the Castle Dome City Mines Museum, visitors can view these Levi's worn by turn-of-the century miners, harbingers of the world's hottest fashion trend. Information: (928) 920-3062.

Tom Mix's Marker

Seventeen miles southeast of Florence, you can pull off State Route 79 at a picnic spot complete with tables. There you have a nice place to sit, look at the desert and wonder about the stone marker topped by a metal statue of a riderless horse.

The plaque on the marker states that on October 12, 1940, Tom Mix's “spirit left his body on this spot.” He sure had a long ride to end up here. He had been one of the biggest stars in Hollywood's galaxy of cowboy heroes. He made more than 300 “oaters” during a film career that began in 1909 with the movie Ranch Life in the Great Southwest. He wore the big hat, rode Tony the Wonder Horse, headlined circuses and had a comic book dedicated to him and his cowboy clean heroics.Tom Mix made the move from the silents to the talkies but couldn't make a quick detour turn off a desert highway. He and his 1937 Cord Phaeton convertible ended up in a wash. He died, they say, when one of his suitcases broke loose and crashed into his neck.

If you do stop at his marker, you may find a pile of pictures of Mix. Somebody puts them there, under a stone. They help people remember a man who once rode the celluloid road to fame.