TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

Happy Trails

RIDERS ON A FIVE-DAY, 50-mile loop from Patagonia top off a day on the Arizona Trail with a happy hour inside an authentic teepee. Operated by skilled equestrians Dan and Melody Skiver, Ride the West Tours takes guests on spirited pack trips and day rides throughout the San Rafael Valley and historic Santa Cruz County in southern Arizona. The outfitter boasts “a little bit of luxury and a lot of grit,” so you might not need coasters for your cocktails or have to remove your hat indoors. Information: Ride the West, (866) 454-7433; www.ridethewest.com.

School Days Live on in Strawberry

THE OLDEST STANDING SCHOOLHOUSE in Arizona is the Strawberry Schoolhouse built in 1895. The building, made of hand-hewn pine logs, had a wood-burning stove and a bell, and served as a one-room schoolhouse until 1916. The contents of the school-including factory-made desks seating two students each, an organ and a wooden globe were sold. In 1961, the building itself went up for sale. Local resident Fred Eldean purchased the old school and gave the deed to the Payson-Pine Chamber of Commerce. The exterior of the building was restored in 1967, and the interior in 1979. Strawberry Schoolhouse, now a one-room museum, stands refurbished on Fossil Creek Road in Strawberry, and is open to the public May through September on weekends and holidays.

Information: www.strawberryschool.org.

TRIMBLE'S TALL TALES

MANY ARIZONANS WILL NEVER forget June 26, 1990. That's the day the thermometers hit 122 degrees in Phoenix. Folks were jumping into their swimming pools and getting thirddegree burns. I peeked outside and my patio furniture was standing on one leg. I had to go down to the Capitol the next day, and when I got there, I noticed something was missing. The statue of Father Kino on horseback was gone from its familiar spot in the middle of the plaza. The Capitol police found it later-hovering in the shade of a paloverde tree.

A Smoking Gun

ACCORDING TO MAJ. JOHN Wesley Powell, famed explorer of the Colorado River, the original name for Pipe Spring, a national monument in far northern Arizona, was a local Indian term meaning "yellow-rock springs." Powell once wrote that the name was fitting "for the rocks around here are bright yellow in color." But future residents would soon blow a hole in the simple logic of the Kaibab-Paiute people.

After the region, located just south of the Utah border, was successfully settled by Mormon cattle ranchers in the 1860s and became the home of Arizona's first telegraph station, the locals landed on a new name.

Legend has it that, while passing through the area, a man named William "Gunlock" Hamblin made a bet that he could shoot the bottom out of fellow settler Dudley Leavitt's pipe from 25 yards away. Hamblin reportedly succeeded, and faster than a speeding bullet, the name Pipe Spring succeeded Yellow Rock.

Information: (928) 643-7105; www.nps.gov/pisp.

off-ramp

Eleanor Roosevelt in Willcox

In HIS BOOK Sufferin' Springs Valley, Bob Bliss told of an interesting experience that he had when he was working for the old Nicholson Drug Store at the corner of Haskell and Maley in Willcox.

He said that Mrs. Webb, of the famed 76 Ranch, called and asked him to meet a lady who was coming on the train for a stay at the ranch.

When Bliss asked how he would know her, Mrs. Webb said the lady would be the only one getting off the train.

So, young Bliss strolled to the station, a block away, to wait for the arrival. He was supposed to escort her to the nearby Willcox Hotel, so that she could "freshen up."

He met the train and found that the elderly lady looked very familiar. When he started to leave her at the hotel, she asked if she could accompany him to the drugstore instead. He said that was fine, and they went into that establishment, where she was ensconced in an old but comfortable chair.

As it happened, word spread of the woman's arrival, and soon people were looking in the windows of the drugstore-hoping to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.

Seeing Red

THOSE MESSY WHITE PATCHES on some prickly pear cacti actually protect undercover feeding grounds of a wily insect aptly and scientifically named Dactylopius confusus-better known as a cochineal. The female produces this waxy canopy to confuse predators, while the males don't live long enough to need protection.

But this devious little arthropod wasn't wily enough to fool the Aztec and Mixtec Indians in Mexico, who discovered a vivid red dye made by grinding up the female cochineal. Later, Hernando Cortez arrived on the scene, and the cochineal took the Old World by storm. Even Michelangelo was said to have been impressed by the rich new hue.

However, most of today's cochineal, which is also known as carmine or carminic acid, is used as an organic food colorant that is believed to be safer than synthetics. In fact, it's what gives ruby red grapefruit juice and many other red-colored food products their rosy hue. Bugged out yet?

Coca-Cola Mirage

"I ONCE VISITED a trading post and watched an old Indian ride onto the crest of a hill. He sat on that horse, straight and tall, and looked and looked at a Coca-Cola machine. It resembled a giant jukebox. He looked and he looked again and finally he turned his horse and rode away."

Arizona Celebrity Havens

WHAT DO FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Marilyn Monroe and Arizona hotels have in common?

If you said great architecture, you'd be on the "Wright track."

Wright consulted on the design of the Arizona Biltmore, which in the 1940s and '50s, became a haven for Hollywood types like Bob Hope, Ava Gardner, Irving Berlin and Marilyn Monroe, who enjoyed splashing in the hotel's pool.

Another favorite retreat for the stars was Scottsdale's Hotel Valley Ho, which also exhibits Wright-design influences. During the late 1950s, Bing Crosby cruised the hotel grounds, Jimmy Durante played the lounge piano and Marilyn Monroe graced its "Oh" pool.

One more connection between Wright and Monroe comes from an amusing quote by Wright, who said, "I think Miss Monroe's architecture is extremely good architecture."