TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

Nogales Ranch Humming Along

One bright morning, Jesse Hendrix walked outside his home 6 miles northeast of Nogales in southern Arizona and beheld a vividly colored hummingbird flitting around his yard. Hendrix hung up a few hummingbird feeders, and now he sees more than 15,000 (no kidding diminutive visitors passing through his hummingbird ranch each day during the peak season at the end of August. If you happen to stop by between March and September, you'll most likely see all 17 resident and migratory species that flutter in southern Arizona. Information: (520) 287-8615.

On the Question of Seasons in Arizona . . .

Some folks say there aren't any. Tempting as it may be to sum up Arizona seasons as "presummer," summer, "postsummer" and "postpostsummer," the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's Book of Answers says Arizona has more seasons than most placesnot fewer. Five to be exact. The chock-full-of-answers book lists them as:

Just goes to show, Arizona has more of an "endless spring" than anything else - especially if you count its balmy, wonderful winters.

LIFE IN ARIZONA 1 9 2 0 s - 1 9 4 0 s HARRY WILLIAM LOCKE'S DREAM

Drivers heading east on Interstate 40, about 15 miles west of Winslow, often wonder about the ruins visible about a mile south of the highway. But the stone pile had nothing to do with ancient Indians. It's the remains of Harry William Locke's dreams. The former Denver policeman and cartoonist arrived in Arizona in the 1920s, fascinated by the giant hole in the ground, now called Meteor Crater. Locke and his first wife, Hope, opened a service station on Old U.S. Route 66.

But according to Thomas Arthur Repp, author of Route 66: The Romance of the West, the Lockes were eager to do more than pump gas and regale travelers with meteor stories. In the late 1930s, after Hope's death, Locke opened Meteor Crater Observatory in the stone structure, which he built himself. On one wall hung a relief map showing how the meteor had struck the ground. Locke built a tower with a telescope at the top for viewing the crater. He gave lectures, sold meteorite fragments and tried to market meteorite jewelry. But Depression-era travelers had little money to spend, and Locke was forced to close the business.

The observatory then came under the direction of Harvey Harlow Nininger, a Kansas biology professor. By the late 1940s, Nininger had turned the place - renamed American Meteorite Museuminto one of the world's most active meteorite research centers. Coincidentally, that was also Locke's dream, but he never saw it happen. He died in 1943 at age 54. The Old Trails Museum in Winslow has copies of Locke's cartoons and samples of the meteorite rings and earrings he sold. Information: (928) 289-5861.

Kitchen Spill Becomes a Dining Thrill

Within the pastel colored walls of Wisdoms' Cafe in Tumacacori, about 50 miles south of Tucson, people enjoy the result of an accident that took place almost 60 years ago. Not only enjoy it, some actually drool over it.

Howard and Petra Wisdom founded the cafe in 1944 and showed that they knew how tomake the best of any event. A kitchen mishap sent a tortilla spread with jam into the hot cooking oil. Pulled out, tasted and judged, the crispy concoction earned a place on the menu and the title "World Famous Fruit Burro."

Now made with apple, blueberry, cherry or peach filling, dessert comes to the table piping hot and smothered in vanilla ice cream. A third generation of family owners, Cliff and Celeste Wisdom, still do the cooking, the serving and the smiling over the lip-licking compliments paid to what Howard and Petra created by mistake. Information: (520) 398-2397.

Drawn to Sunlight

WHAT DO THE WORDS Sphingidae, Prodoxinae and Arctiidae have to do with Arizona? They represent just a few of the moth families that reside in the southheastern part of the state.

Madam Sued Hollywood and Won

In February 1928, the Elks Theatre in Prescott featured a silent movie called The Red Kimona, the story of a young woman's descent into prostitution. It touched off a remarkable episode of Arizona history.

Those who saw Kimona in Prescott included a local madam known as Gabe real name, Gabriell Dollie Wiley. When she sat down in the packed theater, Gabe had no inkling that producers had taken the story of her life to make their movie.

They used facts made public 13 years earlier when she stood trial in Los Angeles for shooting her boyfriend, Leonard Topp. The killing and resulting trial testimony captured such attention that it knocked World War I off the front pages of California's five daily newspapers.

Angeles for shooting her boyfriend, Leonard Topp. The killing and resulting trial testimony captured such attention that it knocked World War I off the front pages of California's five daily newspapers.

The jury acquitted Gabe, and eventually she returned to Prescott and became well-off running her illicit business out of a string of downtown hotels. But she refused to live quietly.

Outraged that producers had stolen her story, Gabe sued them for $50,000 in damages. The unprecedented suit drew wide notice, including coverage in The New York Times. Never before had the burgeoning movie industry been called to answer for improperly using the facts of someone's life in a production.

The case bounced through the California courts for five years. Only when the California Supreme Court declined to hear the matter did the producer, Dorothy Davenport Reid, widow of silent film star Wallace Reid, agree to settle the suit for an unknown amount. She lost everything, including her West Hollywood mansion, believed to be the first in Southern California with its own swimming pool.

But surely the most remarkable aspect of the case was the boldness of this Prescott woman in waging a long legal battle against Hollywood big shots - and winning.

Gabe died in 1962 in Salome, 137 miles west of Phoenix. She moved there in 1937 to run a roadside cafe. The archives at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott hold a copy of The Red Kimona for public viewing. Information: (928) 445-3122.

Wild Blue Yonder in Miniature

Imagine the thrill of flying a radiocontrolled model airplane that weighs only 35 pounds. From dirtpacked runways and asphalt tarmacs built to scale, pilots gather to hone their aerobatic skills.

Fifteen different clubs enjoy Arizona's excellent flying weather.

Aerobatics tournaments may be viewed at Tucson International Modelplex Park, where pilots compete for $25,000 in cash and prizes. Spectators see exciting demonstrations of freestyle aerobatics choreographed to music, low-level flying, hovering and accelerating straight up while torque rolling.

Back in the Flow, but Hold the Cheese

Did Arizona's pioneers have cheese in the 1870s? Those who lived near Pipe Spring, 14 miles west of modern-day Fredonia, certainly did.

In 1872, Mormon settlers built Winsor Castle, a fortlike building that cordoned off Pipe Spring from local Paiutes. With 2-foot-thick sandstone walls and a constant trickle of cold water, the castle's spring room stayed cool enough for pioneers to make and store cheese, a real luxury in this isolated outpost.

In 1923, Pipe Spring was purchased and set aside as a national monument. But Pipe Spring dried up in 1999, taking with it cheese-friendly temperatures and the undesertlike sounds of burbling water.

After carefully studying the problem, the National Park Service rerouted water from a nearby spring. With the flip of a waterpump switch last year, maintenance workers at Pipe Spring National Monument restored the flow-and the burbling sound-to the former creamery.

The Park Service is pleased with the results but has no plans to store cheese here again. Information: (928) 643-7105.

Question of the Month

What is the origin of the word Apache?

One theory holds that it might be from the Yuman word epatch, generally meaning “man.” A more accepted theory traces it to the Zuni word apachu, interpreted as “enemy.” In their own language, the Apaches called themselves tinneh, diné, tinde or inde, all of which mean “man” or “people.”

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