EDITOR'S LETTER

editor's LETTER Cowboys, Cold Beer and Hitting the Trails

Joseph Brown isn't your average Joe. Not because he's been a boxer, Marine, journalist, cattle trader, rancher, prospector, movie wrangler and whiskey smuggler.And not because his first novel, Jim Kane, was made into the movie Pocket Money,which starred Paul Newman and Lee Marvin. Or that his book The Forests of the Nightwas described as “the finest novel ever written in our region.” What makes J.P.S.Brown so remarkable is that at the age of 80, he's still cranking out some of the bestwriting you'll ever get your hands on.

The Lucky Spurs is the latest example, and we almost didn't get it. Initially, Joe and Iwere working together on a news profile, but it fell through.

I was disappointed. I wanted Joe's writing in the magazine.

“That's not my kind of story, anyway,” he reassured me. “I write about our cowboy,horse and cattle traditions. I started writing for [Editor] Raymond Carlson in theOctober 1970 edition of Arizona Highways, with a story titled Cowboy 1970. I can giveyou something like that if you want.” The answer was yes, of course, and about two days later he sent over The LuckySpurs. It's a wonderful essay about Joe's grandmother, a pair of spurs and an encounter he had at the Montezuma Hotel in Nogales. “The lounge was dark, but a cornerbooth was full of old-timers I soon recognized,” Joe writes. “One was Paul Summers,my father. The others were Dink Parker, Joe Kane and Lonnie Hunt. I was overcomewith a feeling of good fortune — I had not seen my flesh-and-blood father since thefall of 1952.” The story, despite being true, reads like a fictional tale from the mind of CormacMcCarthy. It's that good, and as you read it, you'll feel as if you're in the same roomwith the dusty cowboys at the old wooden booth. Although Joe never mentions whatthe old-timers were drinking, whiskey was certainly in the mix, and the chasermight have been bottles of A-1 Pilsner. Back then, it was the beer of choice in Arizona, and for decades, it even outsold Budweiser, Pabst and Schlitz. Unfortunately,A-1 started to slip after aggressive pricing by Coors and a lawsuit by Anheuser-Busch, which alleged that the eagle on the A-1 logo was too similar to its own. Although the Phoenix-based brewery eventually dried up, the brand is being resurrected, thanks to the Nimbus Brewing Co. in Tucson.

If you like what you see in this magazine every month, check out Arizona Highways Television, an Emmy Award-winning program hosted by former news anchor Robin Sewell. For broadcast times, visit our website, www.arizonahighways.com, and click the Arizona Highways Television link on our home page.

In Home Brew, Kathy Montgomery tells the story of Arizona's legendary beer and its prog-eny, which, according to our staff, really hits the spot, whether you're finishing up a cattle drive in Nogales, a four-wheel-drive adventure in Sedona (see Off the Road, page 46) or a wildflower hike in the desert. The latter is the focus of this month's cover story.

In all, we dedicate 18 pages to the annual explosion of desert wildflowers. The photos are impressive, but the best way to see the flowers is out on the trail. To get you started, our portfolio includes 10 of our favorite spring hikes. They're rated “E” for everyone. If that's not enough, you might want to pick up a copy of our new book, Arizona Highways Hiking Guide. It features 52 of the state's best trails — one for each weekend of the year, sorted by seasons.

It's a book I'm proud to have my name on, but most of the credit goes to the incredible team at Arizona Highways, and also to the friends and family who skipped work and tagged along on many of the hikes: Adam, Alli-son, Amy, Beth, Jackson, Kelly, Leah, Lexi, Lily,Maryal, Molly, Skip and Susan. Thank you.

As you'll see, the book features some great hikes and the best work of our best photographers, as well as the spectacular fine art of our resident mapmaker, Kevin Kibsey. I wish I could say the book is as beautifully written as an essay by J.P.S. Brown, but it's not. Still, it'll come in handy for anyone who feels the need to get off the couch once in a while, and the hikes inside are an excellent way to work up a thirst. Any excuse for an A-1.

ROBERT STIEVE, editor