Why Not Split the Difference?

A State Highway Official Makes Plea for Safety Instruction in Arizona Schools HERE ARE FEW of us who do not enjoy the work of various artists and cartoonists.

By M. G. HOLT Wrong, somewhere, in our system. There has been a slip. We have done much to Sign Foreman, Arizona State Highway Department.

They tell the story of a life-time with a few strokes of brush or pen.

educate the motorist and little or nothing at all toward giving our children the necessary amount of safety education.

School days are here again and these masters of art are once more urged to bring to us the warnings so necessary to caution us in the protection of our young ones.

I have no way of knowing what the reaction of others who operate motor vehicles is when they are suddenly aware that there is a child in front of their car. I know that to have a child suddenly jump from a curb or from behind another car into the path of a car I am operating brings about a most decidedly unpleasant sensation.

Safety should be preached in every home, safety should be practiced in every home. Safety should be and must be made a part of every child's education.

Cartoons appear in our papers and magazines depicting both the automobile and its operator as demons, devouring humanity and threatening the entire A few schools are fortunate enough to have public instructors gifted with a genuine interest in their pupils' physical well-being as well as their mental advancement.

Why do children do these things? We admit we know not the answer, but it is just about time someone made an attempt to find out and correct the condition.

race with untimely destruction.

A very few schools have given time out from routine class work to impress upon the students the vital importance of Safety.

The motorist is painted as a soulless creature crouched as if to spring upon his prey.

We send our children to school for an education. If they are fortunate enough to get home in the evening, they have a head full of German, Spanish or Latin One of the greatest factors in promoting the safety to school children at dangerous locations has been, and is today, the schoolboy patrol.

This heartless vampire feasts upon our children, crushes their tiny bones, mangles their bodies, squeezes the very breath of life from their lungs, laughs at the wreck he has wrought and glides on and on to further satisfy his lust for blood.

(one child out of a hundred may at some time in its life get an opportunity to use a few words of it on a Dutch uncle). But what have they learned about Safety?

In the schoolboy patrol we find an unseen tide of character construction material as well as an unlimited amount of pride and sense of responsibility.

We have had enacted all manner of laws and restrictions to try to protect our children from this mad onslaught of the demon driver; we have partially controlled his hunger for flesh.

We are no longer living in the ox cart age, no more do we depend upon the slush of mud in wagon ruts to warn us of the approach of a vehicle traveling faster than a walk. Those days have What boy would not be proud to feel that the safety of hundreds of other children, including his own classmates, in his keeping? What boy, knowing this responsibility rested solely within himself, would permit or tolerate unsafe conditions to exist? The answer is obvious.

I do not question these laws and regulations. I know only too well that they are needed. I do, however, ask of public officials and public instructors, What have you done toward educating the children to co-operate with the motorist to bring about the greatest degree of safety to both parties?

gone the way of the cap and ball sixshooter; the laws and restrictions de signed for that age have gone with it. The motorist is confronted with enough laws to fill a library; he is practically Schools throughout the entire country are fast coming to recognize the importance of this juvenile organization and are making every effort to encourage its growth.

Do you who operate motor vehicles drive around hoping for an opportunity to crush and maim some helpless child? Do you feel cheated when you read of someone else running down and destroying a tiny bit of humanity? Does it thrill you to see a mother holding this bit of broken flesh and bones to her breast and sobbing for a life that can never be returned to her?

convicted of murder, manslaughter, mopery and attempt-to-gawk before he has borrowed enough money to buy his license plates and pay the taxes upon his car.

Arizona has a few schools that are blessed with instructors with broad enough vision to see in the schoolboy patrol a degree of safety impossible of NO! A thousand times NO; we have not drifted that far yet. God would not permit us to become so depraved. He would indeed stop us before we could reach such a point.

He is controlled by traffic lights, traffic lanes, traffic cops and traffic laws, backseat drivers and mothers-in-law. He must have this and that, do this and that attainment through any other known medium. Arizona can not afford to lag behind in the creation of such organizations in her schools, to promote and mainand then be prepared at all times to dodge four thousand other drivers who are trying to obey just a few of the same regulations that he is manfully and quite often bravely attempting to comply with.

tain the highest possible degree of protection and safety to the little tots who will be our representatives of progress in the future.

Surely this man is not the demon pictured. This is not the creature whose fangs are dripping with the life-blood of helpless school children. Let us educate the children as well as the demon driver and give the motor-ist at least an even break.

How could this man be all these things when his every breath must be accounted for? There must be something Why not split the difference?

Road Projects Under Construction in Arizona DISTRICT NO. 1

G. B. Shaffer, District Engineer N. G. Hill Co. have contract 33% completed for the grading and draining of 9.8 miles on U. S. 66, beginning about 32 miles northwest of Ash Fork Jct. and extending northwesterly, N.R. Η. 80-H (1935). R. D. Canfield, resident engineer.

Tanner and Hall have contract 90% complete for the grading and draining of approximately 9 miles of highway on the Kingman-Boulder Dam Highway, N.R.S.-102-B. J. A. Quigley, resident engineer.

Pearson and Dickerson have contract 82% complete for the furnishing and placing of a two inch asphaltic retreat surface and select material and miscel-laneous grading and draining work in the town of Jerome, on State Route 79, M.R.H. 96-A. J. A. Quigley, resident engineer.

N. G. Hill & Co. have contract for the placing of aggregate and oil processing by the road mix method of approximately 6.5 miles of roadway, beginning about 7.25 miles west of Peach Springs and extending southwest on U. S. 66, N.R.H. 80-J, 57% complete. M. D. Glessner, resident engineer.

Lee Moor Contracting Company has contract for the grading, draining and oil processing by the road mix method of 4½ miles of the Prescott-Jerome Highway, N.R.S. 19-A, 50% complete. Jas. A. Parker, resident engineer.

Kenneth DeWitt has been awarded a contract for furnishing, hauling and placing of base course on approximately 23.6 miles on U. S. Route 66, N.R.H. 80 G. (1935), which begins at Canyon and extends N. E. approximately 24 miles to within two miles of Hackberry. R. C. Bond, resident engineer.

Phoenix-Tempe Stone Co. have been awarded a contract for the construction of three bridges, one 234 miles east of Wellton, one 41½ miles E. of Wellton and one two miles west of Mohawk. The bridges replace concrete dips with concrete box culverts and oil surfaced approach fills, N.R.H. 55 (1935). S. C. Redd, resident engineer.

Pierson & Dickerson have been awarded a contract for the grading, draining and placing of aggregate base course A. B. and C. on approximately three miles, beginning at Cottonwood and extending southeast to the Verde River, N.R.H. 96-B (1935). J. R. Quigley, resident engineer.

DISTRICT NO. 2

F. N. Grant, District Engineer Lee Moor Contracting Co. have contract 80% complete for grading, draining, placing select material, base course and mineral aggregate and oil processing approximately 1034 miles on the St. Johns-Springerville Highway, U. S. 260, beginning at the highway junction about 1-3 mile south of the town of St. Johns and extending southerly. Work suspended on account of bad weather. N.R.H. 60-A. J. Kerr, resident engineer.

Arizona Sand and Rock Co. has contract 38% complete for the surfacing and oiling of about 14 miles of roadway on U. S. 66, N.R.H. 83-E.

Southern California Roads Co. have a contract for removing old oil cake, placing new base, re-mixing and re-laying old oil cake, widening with new oil cake, constructing curb and gutter and seal-coating entire width, beginning at the west city limits, of Winslow and extending west on Second street. N.R.H. 22 (1935), 89% complete. Floyd Beeghley, resident en-gineer.

Lee Moor Contracting Co. has contract for the grading and draining, placing of select material on approximately 24 miles on U. S. Highway 260, beginning about 35 miles southeast of Holbrook and extending easterly, N.R.H. 78-H (1935), 50% com-plete. H. B. Wright, resident engineer.

Clinton Campbell has contract for the widening of one concrete bridge and replacing another concrete bridge with corrugated metal pipe and approaches. N.R.H. 8, 99% complete. The work is located about three miles west of Mesa on U. S. Highway 80. R. J. Holland, resident engineer.

William Peper has completed contract for the widening of one concrete bridge located in the town of Miami on U. S. 180, N.R.M. 91-A (1935). R. J. Lyons, resident engineer.

Skousen Brothers have contract for grading, draining and placing of base course on approximately 10 2-3 miles on U. S. Highway 89, N.R.H. 95-1 (1935), which begins at the forest boundary approximately 28 miles north of Flagstaff and extends northerly towards Cameron 6% complete. C. E. Benson, resident engineer.

Heuser & Garnett have been awarded a contract for the grading, draining and placing of select material on approximately approximately 5 2-3 miles of highway on the St. Johns-Zuni highway, State Route 61, N.R.S. 113-A (1935). A. J. Kerr, resident engineer.

DISTRICT NO. 3

R. C. Perkins, District Engineer Geo. W. Orr has contract for grading and draining of approximately 4 miles of roadway on U. S. 60, located about 46 miles northeast of Globe, N.R.H. 99-G, 21% complete. A. F. Rath, resident engineer.

William Peper has completed contract for the widening of two concrete bridges within the town of Solomon-ville, and the construction of two new concrete bridges within half a mile of Solomonville, N.R.H. Project 67, on U. S. Highway 180. Dan Lyone, resident engineer.

R. E. Martin was awarded a contract for the grading and draining of approximately 1 1-3 miles of roadway on State Route 81, located about 35 miles south of Safford on Douglas-Safford highway near junction of Bowie road, N.R.S. 114 (1935). Oscar Maupin, resident engineer.

Tanner and Hall have been awarded a contract for the widening of existing concrete pavement with cut-back plant mix. The work extends from 19th Avenue and Buckeye road westerly 13 miles to Agua Fria bridge on U. S. 80, N.R.H. 46-A (1935). Dan J. Lyon, resident engineer.

DISTRICT NO. 4

W. R. Hutchins, District Engineer The Borderland Construction Company have completed contract for the grading, draining, furnishing and placing of select material and read oil mix with emulsified asphalt, seal coat, in the town of Benson, N.R.M. projects 18-E and 79-D, U. S. Route 80. Oscar Maupin, resident engineer.

White and Miller have a contract for widening and re-surfacing existing concrete pavement with cut-back asphaltic plant mix on approximately 1.2 miles of U. S. Highway 89, beginning at the south city limits of Tucson and extending towards Nogales; N.R.H. 29 (1925) 15% complete. J. R. Van Horn, resident engineer.

R. E. Martin has been awarded a contract for the replacing of a paved dip with a concrete box and incidental work located within the city of Bisbee on U. S. 80, N.R.M. 79-I (1935). Ε. A. Bickley, resident engineer.

FEBRUARY, 1935

Phoenix-Tempe Stone Co. have been awarded a contract for the construction of a railroad underpass, with grading, draining, concrete pavement and cut-back road mix, located within the town of Casa Grande and extending westerly one mile, N.R.S. 100-C (1935), State Route 84. Geo. Lang, resident engineer.

BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS PROJECTS IN ARIZONA UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

G. L. McLane, Highway Engineer in charge.

W. R. F. Wallace, Assoc. Highway Engineer, Supervising Engineer.

F. W. Flittner, Assoc. Construction Engineer, Supervising Engineer.

R. Thirion, Assoc. Highway Engineer, Supervising Engineer.

W. P. Wesch, Assoc. Highway Bridge Engineer, Bridge Engineer.

W. J. Ward, Assoc. Highway Engineerneer, Locating Engineer.

Route 3, the Flagstaff-Clint's ell National Forest Highway:

The grading and draining of a section of this route, 7.6 miles in length, beginning 8 miles north of Clint's Well and extending north, is under contract to Tiffany Construction Company. The work is about 4% complete. C. R. Brashears is resident engineer.

Route 7, the Oak Creek National Forest Highway:

Skousen Brothers have the contract for grading and draining 4.6 miles of this route, beginning about 12 miles northeast of Cottonwood and extending in a northeasterly direction toward Sedona. Work is about 7% complete. C. R. Brashears is resident engineer.

Grand Canyon National Park Highways:

G. R. Daley and Vinson and Pringle are contractors for grading and subgrade reinforcement of all of Grand Canyon Route 8, Hermit Rest, length 9.1 miles. The project extends westerly from the village of Grand Canyon to Hermit Rest, along the rim of the canyon. The work is about 21% complete. J. H. Brannan is resident engineer.

Cameron-Desert View Approach to ....Grand Canyon National Park:

The grading of 3.2 miles of the Cameron-Desert View Approach, under contract to Skousen Brothers, has just been completed. This work lies at the east end of the route and connects previously constructed sections with U. S. 89 just south of Cameron. F. A. Bon nell was resident engineer.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Kingman-Boulder Dam Highway:

M. J. Bevanda has just completed his contract for grading and draining 10.8 miles of this route, beginning about six miles south of Builder Dam and extending south.

All Arizona Engineering and Construction Company has just completed its contract for the construction of 3.5 miles of the Kingman-Boulder Dam Highway, joining the section mentioned above and extending south.

H. L. Lyon is resident engineer on the Kingman-Boulder Dam projects.

BIDS OPENED:

Bids were opened on January 29 for the grading and subgrade reinforcement of 2.4 miles of the KingmanBoulder Dam Highway located just south of the dam, H. J. Hagen of Globe, Arizona, was low bidder and award to him was recommended.

BIDS TO BE OPENED:

Bids will be opened in the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Public Roads at 10:00 a. m. on March 5, 1935, for grading Section B of Route 11, the PaysonColcord Mountain National Forest Highway. The project is 2.989 miles in length and is located about 26 miles east of Payson.

G. L. McLANE, Highway Engineer.

TUMACACORI, PRIESTLY MISSION OF THE AGES

(Continued from Page 15) Access to the belfry is gained by means of this old stairway. This room is surmounted by the belfry tower, which is constructed of burned brick. The walls supporting the tower are adobe. Through action of the elements the church, appurtenant buildings, and inclosing walls were in a very bad state of ruin when the monument was created. Most of the roofs had long since fallen in and portions of the main building had become undermined. Since that time as rapidly as limited funds have permitted the mission has been placed under roof and in good state of preservation by Superintendent Pinkley, of Southwestern National Monuments.

The restoration of the double doors between the sanctuary and sacristy was an especial interesting piece of work. The original doors were torn out and carried away many years ago, and it was impossible to find anyone who could describe them from personal observation. Picks and bars had been used to tear out the old frame, with resultant destruction to the surrounding plastering, and all that was left to start with was a gaping hole in the wall. The wall at this place, however, was some six feet thick, with an arched opening carried from the square frame of the doorway on through to the sacristy side, and the original south door of the double doors, in swinging back into this arched opening, had a small mark in the plaster. This mark was about two inches long and a quarter of an inch deep, and was quite clearly cut by the upper and outer corner of the original door. From this the size of the doors and width and thickness of the frames were figured out. The details of the doors, such as number and placing of panels, etc., had to be guessed at, but in this the doors of the San Xavier Mission, which had been built a little earlier than those of the Tumacacori, and probably by the same workmen, were used as a guide. The doors were made of Spanish cedar, with the aid of a Mexican carpenter. No nails were used, the stiles and rails being mortised together and held with wedges driven home in the tenons. Six hinges were needed, and these were made in a near-by blacksmith's shop from old quarter-inch wagon tires. When the doors were completed and hung in place it was found that the outer and upper corner of the south door, when swung open, fitted into the little broken place in the plaster of the arch which had been made by the original door. After the doors were in place the broken places in the wall around the door frame were filled in with mortar and the doors and frame stained with a mixture of crude oil and gasoline to take off the new look.

some six feet thick, with an arched opening carried from the square frame of the doorway on through to the sacristy side, and the original south door of the double doors, in swinging back into this arched opening, had a small mark in the plaster. This mark was about two inches long and a quarter of an inch deep, and was quite clearly cut by the upper and outer corner of the original door. From this the size of the doors and width and thickness of the frames were figured out. The details of the doors, such as number and placing of panels, etc., had to be guessed at, but in this the doors of the San Xavier Mission, which had been built a little earlier than those of the Tumacacori, and probably by the same workmen, were used as a guide. The doors were made of Spanish cedar, with the aid of a Mexican carpenter. No nails were used, the stiles and rails being mortised together and held with wedges driven home in the tenons. Six hinges were needed, and these were made in a near-by blacksmith's shop from old quarter-inch wagon tires. When the doors were completed and hung in place it was found that the outer and upper corner of the south door, when swung open, fitted into the little broken place in the plaster of the arch which had been made by the original door. After the doors were in place the broken places in the wall around the door frame were filled in with mortar and the doors and frame stained with a mixture of crude oil and gasoline to take off the new look.

21

FEBRUARY, 1935 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 23

Ground atop of me. I could not pull my leg from under her belly but I wasn't hurt much except for a little bark off my nigh leg. I had the cub snuggled close to my breast, hanging to him like a pup to a root. Honest, I felt sorry for the little tyke, he was actually crying like a baby, and believe it or not the tears were streaming out of his little pig eyes. What I didn't say about that chili eater who'd sold me that statue for a horse would not be worth mentioning. Nellie, contrary to all horse nature when wild animals are around, took things rather matter-of-factly until she opened her eyes long enough to see what I did not in the shape of Wuzzie's mother, a fine big specimen of Arizona brown bear charging to the rescue of her dear child. Bill had gotten to his feet by this time and sighted Mrs. Bruin as she barged through the fence toward Nellie, Wuzzie and me. I yelled at Nellie but she dozed off again. Evidently I could kill my own snakes. Bill lit a shuck for the fence, got half way through when the seat of his Levi's caught in a barb and there he hung, by the tail, you might say while I sweated a few quarts of blood, yelling for Nellie to get off me so I could run. You see, Bill had the only gun in our army and he was afraid to shoot for fear of hitting me. Bill got loose at last, minus a few yards of his spanker. He yelled encouragement to me as he charged mother bear. She stopped, standing over me, ready to swipe me into eterni ty with one of her great paws. Bill got her attention for a moment. Up came the old cannon and he blazed away, point blank into her enormous breast. I could hear the heavy .45 slugs slap into her tough hide but she just shivered a little and roared her defiance. Bill cracked down on her, again and again until he'd exhausted all the remaining shells. Bill swears to this day that that old hellion merely reached out and pulled a tuft of hair out of her belly and stuffed it into each bullet hole as he made it. I'd given up all hope and was thinking over all the ornery things I had done during my life when good old Nellie took it onto herself to get into the fight. She gave a heave, upended herself and let me roll out from under, then wheeled on her bound front legs and lashing out with both hind legs let Mrs. Bruin have it in the face with both hooves. Little Wuzzie somehow unwound the lass-rope from Nellie's front legs and let a tornado loose. I rolled out of the way and, believe it or not, good old Manuela literally kicked the stuffing out of that bear before you could say "Howdy". Yes, Bill sold that cub for twentyfive smackers and if you ever come over U. S. Sixty you may see him at that same service station, only it's quite a respectable place now. And Nellie? Well, if you like to hike, just amble over the hill behind the station until you see a little shack with some cottonwoods growing around you will see a nag dozing in the shade. That will be Nellie, pensioned for life.

AN ARIZONA TRAIL TO YESTERDAY

(Continued from Page 5) There is one natural wonder to see be fore we pitch camp for the night. A Devil's Chasm exists in every state that has mountainous terrain, but this de serves the name. Starting as a narrow crack in the rocks, it widens slowly as it deepens rapidly into a breath taking gorge hundreds of feet deep. The sides are so nearly vertical that a peek over the edge reveals tiny trees growing directly below in the bottom of the chasm. A rock the size of a bushel basket is pushed over the edge. An awesome silence mounts in intensity as seconds pass. Then the dull, booming crash reverberating through the narrow defile assures the curious listeners that there is a bottom. A half hour's riding from the chasm brings the expedition to camp for the night. Beds of pine needles are thrown together hastily covered with tarpaulin and blankets and after an excellent camp dinner the day, as far as we are concerned, is over. Breakfast is early; the horses are released and the long descent afoot begins. Even the vague forest trail has disappeared and the noise of plodding progress through the underbrush is reason for one of the loveliest pic tures of the trip. Almost as if by magic, only a hundred feet ahead a doe stands poised on a fallen pine. Framed against the foliage she presents a pic ture long to remember. The beauty of that graceful living thing is empha sized a few minutes later as a dry spring bed reveals a tragedy of the wilder ness. The remains of a splendid buck of generous size lie crumpled in the depression. The bones of one thigh, lying away from the rest of the carcass indicate the work of a lion.

Farther on, great rock slides, treacherous in their instability, pour their clattering weight into the little canyons that lead into Pueblo. Travelling becomes more precarious as the descent proceeds. Bear signs are plentiful and the long parallel lines of Bruin's claws mark the place, where, with a powerful sweep he has displaced one of the great flat stones, in search of a tidbit in the form of a juicy grub. The Graflex camera, listed at eight pounds, becomes suddenly heavier and rest stops are made with ever increasing frequency. To the right through a vista in the firs is seen one of the grotesque erosional monuments that stud the canyon's rim. Carved by the winds of centuries these gigantic statues assume fantastically life-like characteristics as they are seen from different angles.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

At last the towering face of the further side of Pueblo Canyon looms ahead. The earth drops away in a vertical cliff and there far down the opposite wall can be seen the forgotten village. The narrow ledge approaching it, clings to the wall under overhanging cliffs and is partially obscured for a greater part of the way in thickets of catclaw and manzanita. Stimulated by the sight of the goal, the party increases the pace, although progress becomes more and more difficult. Skirting the box end of the canyon under the lip of what in wet weather must be a torrential fall, the adventurers find themselves on the primitive ledge leading to the Pueblo dwellings.

The first feeling of awe steals into the enterprise. The realization suddenly comes that this silent canyon once rang with the sound of human voices and that these are not only the ruins of pueblo dwellings but the ruins of hopes and dreams of ancient people lying strewn on this rock walled shelf.

Some walls stand in almost perfect preservation. The narrow, low doorways characteristic of this type of dwelling have corners amazingly square. Although the weaker supports of the floors have collapsed, the great main beams are still in place and in a remarkable state of soundness. One note of modernity thrusts itself into view. A tiny brass tag no larger than a silver quarter marks a peculiar hole. The inscription tells the intruder that he is not the first to desecrate this silent place with his presence, but that science has come in the expedition from Gila Pueblo and has taken away the best of what was found to record in the ever increasing fund of information about the prehistoric Southwest.

Along the ledge may be found, even by one unversed in the scientific lore of the long ago, evidences of the existence of between sixty and seventy rooms. A long handled shovel still stands where the museum expedition left it in the middle of the spaded floor in one large room.

Great matates, or grinding stones, are strewn about the ground, left by the amateur archeologists for the evident reason that they are too heavy to be carried out of the canyon. Storage bins, in which still lie quantities of dried corn cobs, line the inside corners against the rock. One of two facts is obvious: either the variety of corn grown or stolen by these hillmen was tiny in size, or time has shriveled the full ears into these dwarf specimens no larger than a man's thumb. A slight pressure of the hands and these dust-dry specimens crumple into brown powder. In some corners, queer flue-like openings running from the ground through upper stories appear blacker than the rest of the wall. It is not difficult to imagine crude fireplaces warming the sleeping children through those far distant winter nights.

No symbol of human effort in the entire village has quite the effect that is produced by the imprints of the hands of the workers that fashioned the walls. Mute witnesses of the toil these early people expended in the construction of their homes the impressions in various places are outlined with startling clearness.

A desire to leave this dead village becomes insistent. With almost one accord the party agrees that it is late, that the trail back will be more difficult and it is time to return. Under all these reasons and outweighing them is a rapidly forming realization that this is sacred ground. A vague feling of trespassing becomes more definite as one's gaze wanders from finger prints pressed into yellow clay five or six centuries ago, to the modern note, A. D. S., Globe, Arizona, July 6, 1928, scrawled with black crayon just above.

From under a rock protrude the edge of a paper which when examined lists the names of others who have made the trip into the pueblo. The heading marks the paper as the property of the U. S. park service, placed there to provide a register for those who reach the dwellings.

The party adds its signatures to the list rather guiltily; feeling that even this is presumptuous. The paper, though comparatively new has already turned brown. There is the chance that some berry-seeking bear shuffling through the silent roms will dislodge the rock and allow the winds that sweep down from the pine forests above to whisk the scrap of paper with this evidence of mortal vanity out into the great Cherry Creek Canyon. The scrawls on the wall are a different matter. They throw a strongly discord-ant note in a solemn scene.

FEBRUARY, 1935

The shadows lengthen early in the Sierra Anchas and the journey back to the horses and beaten trail is begun. The preoccupied, musing climb out of the canyon is made with little conversation. As the crest of the ridge is gained the depressed feelings lift a little. The horses are rounded up and as they travel homeward it seems the trail is much smoother than on the way in. The trip back to the car and the twentieth century takes little time. As the travellers bid the mountain guide goodbye and press the starter of the car the spell of the road to yesterday is broken.

THE LOST MINE OF THE STARS

(Contined from Page 9) I got busy with prospect pick and pan. After a couple of hours of tedious test-work I sat down on a boulder to cogitate. My mind wandered to the tale told me by Jim Burson, an old-timer. In 1878 two weary prospectors had made their perilous way up across the border from the west coast of old Mexico, and after dodging several bands of broncho Apaches they finally found sanctuary in the Sierra Komatke, that knife-like range that lies just south of the junction of the Salt and Gila rivers. High up in one of the precipitous, rock-ribbed canyons they found more gold than they had ever before had the good fortune to behold. For months the heretofore silent canyon rang with the clank of pick and shovel; gold, lots of it for the taking. The two gold-hungry mineros worked night and day. Soon about fifty thousand dollars in dust, amalgam and nuggets were their reward. But all that commotion was bound to bring prying eyes into their territory. It did. The Pimas, jealous of their alloted domain, ordered the two from their rich find, telling them to take what they had panned and to vamos muy pronto and never to come back.

They had allowed the two unfortunate men three days in which to clear out. The orders were given in the characteristic, good-natured Pima way and, of course, the two adventurers had not taken it much to heart, but had stayed on, working harder than before. Chericas, Maricopa Indian scout, had told me in confidence that late one evening a man, nearly done, came to his mud-and-brush wickiup, “Save me— hide me!” the man begged, but Chericas waved him away. It was none of his funeral, this white man's troubles, so he, in his stolid Indian way, had watched the poor fellow lose himself in the brakes along Salt River, heading in the direction of the little village of Phoenix.

FEBRUARY, 1935

The man reached Phoenix, where he was taken to what then served as a hospital. After recuperating there for a few days he went out into the town where his story of how he had been jumped by Indians; his partner killed during the fighting, and how they were forced to abandon their hard-won gold, won him many friends and backers. A posse was organized with the mine as a reward if they would accompany him to the mine, give him his gold and allow him to depart in peace, and all together.

The evening before the start was to be made, the man fell in front of the old Palace saloon; an epileptic stroke in which he died, but not before he had whispered the direction and distance to the rich placer diggings.

Without doubt, I had stumbled upon the lost placer of '78, but no wonder the poor fellow was willing to give the mine to any posse that would see him safely in and cut of those hills again. It was worked out.

But I was puzzled. Old Chief Six would never have sent me on a wild goose chase after a mine that was worked out. This was surely the right canyon. The witness rock at the foot of the gorge told me that. Possibly there was more to this than those oldtimers had found. On up the canyon I climbed until, when nearly to the top of the mountain I found a little

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

rock cabin that must have been built by the Friars. Across the gulch I found a seventy-five foot shaft with ironwood ladders lopped crazily this way and that against the shaft-sides as far down as I could see into the black depths.

A kick sent them down below where the buzz of a diamond-back warned me to go slow or I would surely pay for disturbing the peace and quiet of this old, ghostly diggings of the adventurous Padres of a past age. Close by were other surface workings that gave promise of the richness of the lead at depth.

It is rich. We are finding that out every day now that the new price of gold has quickened our pulses to the extent that we are willing to clear out the old shaft and take the ore from a two-foot quartz lead that fairly glitters with free gold to the tune of over a hundred dollars per ton, old price.

A camp is now being established at the foot of the canyon that once rang to the shod hooves of pack animals as they toiled with their heavy loads of ore, down the trail on their way to a string of arastras which I have since found along the Gila River, ten miles to the north.

ENGINEERING HIGHWAY 60

(Continued from Page 11)been very successful in limestone cuts with depths up to 60 feet, our heaviest drilling so far. The holes are loaded alternately with powder and tamping and when shot they shatter the rock from bottom to top.

One of the few difficulties to forestall when drilling these deep cuts is to keep in mind the most economical means of landing the rig on lower ground, after the cut is drilled and shot. This precaution applies only when shooting and excavating is done simultaneously. Our first cut was drilled from both ends toward the middle, in order to shoot against a face

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128 N. First Ave. Phone 4-2407 and keep the shovel working. The last group of holes found the rig perched on top and surrounded by vertical walls. To get down a temporary road was made that did not amount to much more than a trimming and cleanup job, and with the cable slacked, was let down with little cost.

The excavating equipment consists of two Bucyrus-Erie shovels and a bulldozer. The small shovel, a GA-3, is equipped with a yard and a quarter dipper, while the larger one, a 43-B, is equipped with a two yard can. The 43-B was purchased new for this job. Some change was made in the boom and dipper sticks to permit its use in deep and narrow cuts. The boomlength was reduced to 22 feet, and the dipper sticks to 17 feet. The roadway width on tangents is 24 feet with one foot ditches and slopes of quarter to one. With these narrow margins the 43-B has been altered to allow a complete swing of 360 degrees in the bottom of any cut.

With the alignment contouring the mountain side, passing through ridges and crossing deep narrow gorges, the direction of haul does not always permit working against a face. It is often necessary to develop pioneer roads around some cut that happens to be too rugged to pass over on centerline, or perhaps some canyon must be headed to keep equipment in operation. This calls for more careful planning, especially when the detour is unavoidable and must be routed through some talus slope covered with great slabs of fallen rock, or perhaps over a natural road on top of a convenient stratum of limestone. The latter is a very rare convenience on this job. This work is done with the bulldozer when conditions permit, but considerable powder was burnt on all detours constructed so far.

The hauling equipment consists of a fleet of White trucks of 5 and 7 (Continued on Page 28)

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