Editorials

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Published in the Interest of Good Roads by the ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

JOHN C. MCPHEE, Editor

CIVILIZATION FOLLOWS THE IMPROVED HIGHWAY

Vol. XII

March, 1936

No. 3

B. B. MOEUR, Governor of Arizona

ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION

SHELTON G. DOWELL, Chairman, Douglas

E. C. SEALE, Commissioner, Prescott

J. W. ANGLE, Vice-Chairman, Tucson

JACOB BARTH, Commissioner, St. Johns

C. E. ADDAMS, Commissioner, Phoenix

C. C. JARRETT, Secretary. Mesa

A. I. WINSETT, Assistant Attorney General, Special Counsel

GENERAL OFFICE

T. S. O'CONNELL, State Highway Engineer

SID SMYTH, Deputy State Engineer

J. S. MILLS, Engineer of Estimates

D. B. HUTCHINS, Vehicle Superintendent

H. C. HATCHER, Statistical Engineer

R. A. HOFFMAN, Bridge Engineer

W. M. MURRAY. Superintendent of Stores

E. V. MILLER, Engineer of Plans

M. L. WHEELER, Chief Accountant

J. W. POWERS, Engineer of Materials

C. R. MCDOWELL, Patrol Superintendent

W. L. CARPENTER, Superintendent of Equipment

A. C. SIEBOTH, Right-of-Way Agent

SWAN A. ERICKSON, Engineer of Certification

W. S. FRERICHS, Purchasing Agent

FIELD ENGINEERS

GEORGE B. SHAFFER, District Engineer District No. 1

R. C. PERKINS, District Engineer District No. 3

F. N. GRANT, District Engineer District No. 2

W. R. HUTCHINS, District Engineer District No. 4

PERCY JONES Chief Locating Engineer

AN OPEN LETTER

BY L. C. BOLLES, Whiteriver I should like very much to see your magazine and later every paper in this state adopt this slogan: "Arizona, the Beautiful State."

To any connoisseur of beauty already familiar with our state, this proposition needs no proof. To state why Arizona is probably the most beautiful of states is really a work of supererogation, like setting out to prove the beauty of the Venus of Milo, or Raphael's Sistine Madonna, or old Chinese porcelain or cloisonne. Still, one enjoys using adjectives, so let me elaborate my theme.

I can truthfully state that I am a lover of beauty, and that appreciation of what seems beautiful to me has given my existence its principal kick. But before coming here some twelve years ago I had come to take the beauties of Nature more or less for granted, my memories consisting mostly of mountain views, sunrises and sunsets along the Rockies, and some of the flowers of the Ozarks-banks of dogwood and hawthorn and that sort of thing. But since coming to Arizona I have been absolutely surfeited with beauty, and always finding something new. Mornings and evenings it is the quality of the desert air, that lends such enchantment to the distances, range rising beyond range until the furthest are mere adumbrations of mountains in the sky, the way some Japanese prints show them. A ride across the desert around dawn never fails to thrill me.And the higher you climb an Arizona mountain the more enchanting the view. One could travel the roads and trails of

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this state for a lifetime, and find a new thrilling vista to see every day.

Then there are the endless natural wonders scarcely found the same elsewhere: the Grand Canyon; the painted deserts; the rock wonderlands; the mesa pueblos; the saguaro forests. Wherever you go in this state, you see strange, arresting beauties. The desert fascinates me completely, perhaps more especially the really arid and spectral parts of it. The solemn, terrifying quiet lends a spell to the strange colors and shapes of the land, and the weird desert vegetation. And if you get familiar with the aspect of a certain place in the desert, and then happen along a few days after a rain, and see the incredible flower gardens that invariably spring up after a little moisture, or happen along when the cactus beds have come into blossom, and it fairly shocks your reason.

Flowers lead us to the other half of the picture: the billions of wild flowers that cover the ground in our forest country, all along the Mogollon Rim, both above it and under it, all the way from Alpine to Williams. We have here the largest pristine forest that any state in the union can boast, and the forest itself is sufficiently beautiful, but from April to September all the openings and much of the shade is carpeted with every conceivable color. Choose your particular stretch of(Continued on Page 17)

OUR COVER PICTURE

Photographers never grow weary at Grand Canyon. Our cover picture this month is a striking aerial view of the world's greatest scenic attraction which is located in its spectacular entirety within the borders of Arizona.