DEAR EDITOR

dear editor Dead Man's Tale

As a veterinarian, I was most interested in “Dead Man’s Tale” (April '07) by John Annerino. Adolph Ruth and his son, Erwin, were veterinarians. Adolph arrived in the United States as a German youth in the 1870s. After graduating from the Kansas City Veterinary College, he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, and was stationed in Washington, D.C., for his entire career. He and his family, except Erwin, made their home there. President Woodrow Wilson had arranged with General Carranza to buy Mexican cattle. To prevent Mexican livestock from infecting American cattle with tick fever, in 1913 Erwin was assigned animal inspection at the border. Also a captain in the Mexican revolutionary army, he was an armed combatant and was shot in the knee.Erwin was given the Gonzalez maps in Mexico and gave them to his father, who pored over them for 17 years. When Adolph retired from the Bureau of Animal Industry in 1931, he left Washington for Phoenix to pursue his dream. When Adolph disappeared, Erwin organized search parties and went on two. The final one lasted 45 days. Erwin hired a pilot and cameraman to take aerial pictures of the suspect area, and the family offered a large cash award for information about Adolph, dead or alive.

The Lost Dutchman Mine had all but faded from memory, but Ruth's death brought the Superstitions back to life.

Where Magazines Go to Retire

I thought you might like to know what happens to my back issues of this wonderful magazine. I donate them to Alvin Junior College, by way of a friend who teaches geology courses there. The students always look forward to a new batch (six at a time), and they disappear very quickly.

We're delighted to learn that some old magazines never retire, they just get folks interested in Arizona. -Peter Aleshire, Editor

Forget the Fish-Photograph

I am so very jealous of your amazing columns each month, like “The Eternal Choice: Fish or Take Pictures?” (“All Who Wander,” March '07). Like you, I have built a fine life, thank you, through “unimpressive competence at an impressive list of things.” Being a so-so photographer is understandable—all of that equipment to deal with, jargon to learn, technology to develop, lighting to observe. But how can one be a mediocre fisherman? Especially a “passionately mediocre” fisherman? Is not the best fisherman in the world a 12-yearold with a tree-limb pole and freshly dug bait? I have an 80-something-year-old uncle who is still a professional bass tournamentwinning fisherman. He would advise that you have confused fishing with catching [fish]. The two are distinctly different. If you focus on catching, you will miss out on all of the fishing part and may not achieve full joy from your endeavors. But if you focus on fishing, then you need not do any catching to achieve joy. Be assured that you go fishing each month in your stories and have never yet missed catching this reader's attention.

Protecting the Beauty

My husband and I have spent a month exploring your beautiful state. Some of the time we have boondocked out in the desert, so we can see the stars better and hear the coyotes cry. We love it all. We have a little 23-foot trailer that is just perfect for two retired people. When we arrive at a wilderness area, my first chore is to pick up garbage strewn everywhere. I am appalled at the lack of respect for this fragile desert land. Why is recycling so bad there? It is worse than any of our Canadian towns and cities that have big recycling programs. Do the schools emphasize the importance of not littering and how fragile the Earth is? The fines for littering in British Columbia are in the thousands of dollars, not hundreds. We're also astonished at the careless way some people treat such treasures. -Ed.