Nation's Women Meet at Canyon

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS AUGUST, 1936

Congress of Parents and Teacher sponsors pre-school "roundups" throughout the nation a method of assembling children under school age for medical examination and health supervision.

Other western, and hence Arizona, expressions include "outfit" and "layout", tracing their beginnings to both cattle camp and pack train, "Worn down to a nub" originally alluded to the well worn horn of a cowpuncher's saddle; "Wild and wooly" was first applied to the bronco who was "wild and wooly and full of fleas, and couldn't be curried below the knees." "Trail along" may be traced to both cattle and mining influences. "Sourdough" came into this state with the Texas "chuck wagon," and was an expression used to describe a man cooking his own, a sheepherder or a miner. The word was derived from the sour dough bread they cooked. "Sonof-gun" is used in Arizona to indicate the Brunswick stew of the cow camps. "Dogies" (pronounced with a long 0) are those little potbellied calves who have lost their mothers.

To be "plumb locoed" is to be pretty badly off clear crazy in fact the loco weed, when eaten by range animals, destroys their sense of proportion, and sometimes kills them.

"Panhandler" came in from Texas with the longhorns and is an ancestor of the modern "chiseler." Such terms as "strays," "mavericks," "runts," and "hogtying" are still used both literally and figuratively. "Rustler" may mean in Texas, a "hustler," but in Arizona the term evolved to mean a person who took property rights in cattle and horses rather too casually. "No savvy" is pretty well absorbed from the Mexican no sabe, "I do not understand."

"Lariat" is cowboy Spanish for la reata, the rope, and lasso is Spanish for a slip knot or loop. "Dally," meaning to take several turns with the reata around the saddle horn, is derived from the Spanish de la vuelta. "Bronco" is pure Spanish for an unbroken pony; remuda, for the herd of saddle horses or pack stock sometimes called the "cavvy"; and remada for a shed with a roof of dried palm leaves or brush, seen frequently around Mexican homes and on the desert.

Adobe (pronounced a-do-be) may refer to native mud bricks or to a house built of them. Adobe was the state's first building material, and is still widely used. Adobe houses are usually stuccoed, but many of the more picturesque of them are left unplastered.

Arroyo is a Spanish word generally used to mean "dry wash," a gully that is usually dry, but may be filled with rushing torrents during the rainy seasons. The Spanish pinto, meaning "painted," may apply to ponies or beans.

Mining and miners have enriched Arizona vocabularies by "placers," "concentrators," "reduction plants" and "sows" (embedded chunks of metal). "Getting down to bedrock" is a mining substitute for "getting down to brass tacks." Western mining camps have a history dominated by "booms," "bonanzas," and "strikes." "Cached" was popularized by the miners, and "grubstake" once meant to finance a mining venture, but in modern usage may mean a loan of money for any purpose. "Died with his boots on" was said literally of many citizens in the days when Tombstone was the toughest silver mining camp in the west; the same expression may now be applied figuratively to describe modern situations. A Pow Wow, originally an Indian council meeting, may now be any sort of assembly for discussion or celebration. A new text book for children has a "pow wow" or discussion addition to each chapter in lieu of the usual questions." And of course any irate person may be said to be "on the war-path."

IRRIGATION

In common daily use among Arizona farmers are many colloquialisms which have come into use in connection with typically western agricultural pratices. An Arizona rancher may hail his right hand man in this fashion: "Hey, hombre, we're going to run water manana. Better see the Zanjero about that headbre, we're going to run water manana. Better see the Zanjero about that headgate that went haywire, and put the cholos to work cleaning out the north forty waste ditch. Savvy?" Then, noticing the slightly quizzical expression on the face of his guest from the east, he will grin and hasten to add enlightening words to this effect: "No sabe, huh? I forgot there was a tenderfoot around. Of course you no comprende my loco lingo." Then he will carefully explain that what he called to his foreman was in effect, this:: "Hey, fellow, we're going to irrigate tomorrow. Better see the water supervisor about that defective headgate, and put the Mexican laborers to work cleaning out the waste ditch on the north forty acres. Understand?"

Headgate, he will point out, means a device for controlling the "head" or flow of water from the main canal or lateral (sub-canal) onto a farmer's land. And a waste ditch is simply a ditch made to carry an excess flow of water off a field. The Arizona Producer, a widely read farm publication, makes a pungent contribution to Arizona humor in a column called "The Waste Ditch," and the editor, Ernest Douglas, signs his column "by Foxtail Johnson."

It would seem to the casual observer that irrigation rules the lives of its devotees. When water is running, all other activities assume minor roles. When the zanjero turns in the water, the farmer rolls out of bed, or jumps up from the dinner table, or leaves the dance, as the case may be. He dons boots and shoulders a shovel, and he loses no time, for time, tide, and a run of water wait for no man.

INFLUENCE OF WEATHER ON ARIZONA CUSTOMS

Another factor influencing customs in certain parts of Arizona, is the weather. In sections where summer brings a prevailing daytime temperature of "120 in the shade, and no shade," people make a strong point of nocturnal comfort. Out-of-doors sleeping has become an institution. Persons old and young of both sexes sleep scantily clad and uncovered on beds strung about the yard with a lack of privacy startling, to say the least, to the visitor from out of the state. A gay informality of dress prevails throughout the hot months. "Formal" attire for men consists of light trousers and a shirt worn without benefit of coat or tie. Air-cooling has become generally adopted, but the old habits of comfort survive.

Water is heated near the boiling point for domestic use, in solar (sun) heaters installed on house tops; and a number of outdoor fireless ovens have been installed where delicacies may be sun-cooked under glass. Arizona housewives in the more torrid parts of the state may serve sun-preserved strawberries and other fruits. The fruit and sugar are brought to a boil and then placed in broad open pans for a number of hours in the direct rays of the sun, a process which preserves perfectly.

Summer housekeeping in these sections is informal, and taste in furniture runs to light, unpolished woods a concession to desert dust and seasonal sand storms.

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AUGUST, 1936 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 19 Among the Winds and Mummies

(Continued from Page 3) Makers that they are supposed to have been their direct descendants. In addition to farming, they introduced pottery making and built crude houses of stone slabs. Those innovations, with the growing of corn, formed the foundations upon which the later structure of Pueblo culture was built. Hence the Post Basket-Maker is generally considered the most important and interesting period of Southwestern history. Pre-Pueblo Period. At this point it appears that a new race of people entered the picture. Skulls found in their graves are so strongly deformed by cradle board flattening that it is difficult to determine the normal shape; however it is supposed that they were round-headed. They adopted the old culture, and added to it the growing of cotton. It is thought they were the first users of the bow and arrow. Pottery making was further developed during this period and the people clustered together in the first pueblo-like settlements.

EARLY PUEBLO PERIOD TOLD

As the population increased, and villages began to accumulate wealth in the form of beads and pottery and hoarded corn, they had to learn to defend their possessions against marauders. Strong houses were built, located strategically on mesas, in caves, and on ledges places not easily surprised by the enemy. The Early Pueblo Period merged gradually into the Great Period, during which huge structures were built such the Aztec Peublo, Betatakin, and the Cliff Palace. These communities flourished and ran their course, and were probably abandoned soon after the year 1000. There are grounds for the general belief that the raids of a fierce nomadic people, presumably the Navajo, caused the exodus. The period was followed by a time of wandering and trouble; gradually the cliff people were redistributed, and found new pueblos which were to be discovered by the Spaniards in 1540.

ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

In 1923 excavations were begun in Canyon del Muerto, by Earl H. Manis, archeologist with the American Museum of Natural History. Extensive digging was carried on in an enormous cavern 10 or 12 miles above the mouth of Canyon del Muerto and just below the cave where the Spaniards killed the Navajos. The rear of the cave is occupied by cliff-houses dating from the middle and latter parts of the Great Period. Below the houses a steep slope covered with heaps of refuse, various layers of which reflect the successive periods of occupancy. In this heap many burials were uncovered-also remains of the slabsided dwellings of the Post Basket Makers. Digging was carried on under utmost difficulty; dust rose so chokingly and blindingly that respirators and goggles had to be worn by the excavators. Danger from avalanches was always present, since the excavations were being made on a slope at an angle of 45 degrees. However, A. V. Kidder in the Magazine of Natural History, May-June 1927, observed: "In spite of the discomforts of such work, no diggings, at least in the southwest, can compare with it in interest. For among the trash of straw and twigs and cornhusks that make up the body of the deposit are literally thousands of specimens of perishible nature, never found in ancient sites that have been exposed to the weather. Sandals, featherwork, textiles, basketry, wooden implements, forgotten caches of corn, worn-out cradles, broken toys; all preserved so perfectly and all carrying so vivid a human interest that one develops a feeling of intimacy with the old people which is not only sentimentally fascinating but is archeologically extremely valuable."

A few miles down the canyon from Mummy cave is Se-ha-tsp, Cave of the Winds, a long shallow cave sheltered by a colossal arch of cliff and a thin projection of stone wall. Excavations here have brought to light hundreds of dwellings of the Post-Basket Maker period, and numbers of burials.

The White House, the largest of the Canyon de Chelly cliff dwellings, is reversed among the Navajo as the abode of certain of their gods. Excavations here have yielded a wealth of archeological treasures.

Spook Cities Whisper of History

(Continued from Page 7) India by ox trains, burro packs, or on the shoulders of Indians.

In 1879 Alex McKay and Albert Weldon discovered here, "lots of copper carrying a large percentage of silver" beneath iron capping. They took a party and made three locations. When the news of the discovery penetrated capitalistic circles in San Francisco, mining companies were formed and intensive operations started in the territory; and the active life of Quijotoa began.

The new townsite covered half a square mile on the slope of Ben Nevis Mountains. Lots for homes brought $750 to $1000. Water was brought from Covered Wells and the west side of the mountains. Papago Indians supplied milk and hay to the settlement. Wood was to be had for the cutting. The mountains abounded in wild game.

Compared with other mining towns of the day, Quijotoa is said to have enjoyed law and order. Offenders were given to understand that the altitude was "too high" for their health, loaded on the stage, and shipped out of the country.

The rapidly growing settlement boasted a number of department and grocery stores, telegraph service, postoffice, a two line daily stage service, and a newspaper "The Quijotoa Prospector."

But the boom passed. Quijotoa dwindled and became another of Arizona's vanished cities.

PINAL

Pinal, Gila County, less than a halfcentury ago had a population of 2,000. Today its ruins are the abode of jackrabbits and coyotes. In the '80's the streets of Pinal rumbled and roared with the noise of mule teams and wagonloads of ore from the Silver King mine, said to have yielded $17,000,000 worth of almost pure silver in its heyday. Colonel W. B. Thompson's Arboretum, the only dry climate arboretum in the world, stands on the site of Pinal, a memorial to the city that enjoyed brief, dramatic heights only to fall to destruction when the ore gave out.

The town was first called Picket Post after Picket Post mountain, the rendezvous and observation point of Indians who gathered there to survey the surrounding country and plan attacks on wagon trains.

TOMBSTONE

Tombstone, Cochise County, by far the most dramatic and notorious of the early mining camps of the southwest, has been mistakenly listed among Arizona's ghost cities. Its obituary has been read time after time by writers with more sentiment than discernment. But Tombstone citizens grin and maintain that their town is too tough to die; and in truth it seems likely that Tombstone will survive as a health resort if not as a mining center. Tombstone is still the postoffice and headquarters for numerous mining ventures. It was reported that in 1934, 1700 tons of ore were shipped monthly from the Tombstone region.

SUMMARY

Still standing by the San Pedro River in Cochise County, are the tall cottonwoods that once shade Charleston, the "Red Dog" of Alfred Henry Lewis' writings. For lack of water at Tombstone, Charleston provided location for (Continued on Page 21)