TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

taking the off-ramp An Arabian Oryx Success Story

Once one of the rarest animals in the world, and still listed as endangered, the Arabian oryx owes its growing numbers to the Phoenix Zoo. Forty years ago, the zoo started the first captive breeding herd of Oryx leucoryx with only nine animals. Two hundred oryx births later, the Phoenix Zoo has helped other zoos start their own herds. Many of the animals have been reintroduced to their native habitat, which ranges from the Arabian Peninsula north to Iraq.

Goodbye, Whiskey

In June 1931, federal agents destroyed a huge whiskey still in Sandrock Canyon, located north of Strawberry and south of what is now State Route 260. The wilderness distillery had an estimated worth of $20,000. Three men were arrested. "They [federal agents] charged a log cabin which housed the distillery," newspapers reported, "and with rifles and sawed-off shotguns, surprised the three men, whom they tied to trees while the still and 700 gallons of mountain whiskey were destroyed."

Tombstone's 'Rose Too Tough to Die'

Since Arizona's Territorial days, Tombstone has had the reputation of "The Town Too Tough to Die," so it seems fitting that Tombstone is also the home of "the rose too tough to die."

In 1885 Mary Gee traveled from her native Scotland to Tombstone with her new American husband. Soon after arriving, she wrote her family asking them to send her some cuttings from her garden. Among the plants that arrived from Scotland were the rooted shoots of a rosebush. Gee planted the rose cutting in the back yard of her landlady's boardinghouse. Little did Gee know that the rose she planted would live for more than 117 years.

The Lady Banks rose, named for the wife of noted 18th-century British botanist Sir Joseph Banks, came from cuttings taken from a species brought to England in 1807. One of Banks' collectors had found the previously unknown species in China and brought a specimen back to Banks for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London.

Called the "Shady Lady of Tombstone," the rose still grows on the patio of the Rose Tree Museum in historic Tombstone. The Guinness Book of World Records yearly confirms it as the world's largest rose tree. Supported by a metal pipe trellis, it covers more than 8,700 square feet. Dappled sunlight peers through its tightly woven canopy of vines, and each April, the plant bursts with tiny white blossoms that number in the hundreds of thousands.

One of Tombstone's first adobe structures houses the museum, which has been owned and maintained by the Macia-Devere family for six generations. Visitors will find displays chronicling Tombstone's history, including period furniture, vintage guns and a mining exhibit. The museum also sells rare, first-edition books about the Old West and potpourri made from the dried blossoms of the Lady Banks rose. Information: (520) 457-3326.

THIS MONTH IN ARIZONA

First home laundry in the Salt River Valley is established in Phoenix.

A month after the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad enters Arizona, track-laying is suspended until September because of "unprecedented" rainstorms.

Pima County's first legal hanging takes place in Tucson.

The Black Canyon Stage is robbed for the second time in three days.

Two Black Canyon stage robbers are caught. One is a local village blacksmith from Gillett.

A rumor that the Apache Kid has arrived in Tempe brings out citizens armed with rifles, shotguns and handguns.

Warren Earp, youngest brother of Wyatt Earp, is killed during a fight in a Willcox saloon on infamous Railroad Avenue.

Arizona leads the world in copper ore production for the first half of the year.

Kitsch on U.S. Route 66

Even though America's Mother Road has been bypassed by slicker, faster freeways, you can still get your kitsch and collectibles on U.S. Route 66 at Roadworks in Winslow. The shop offers hundreds of Route 66 souvenirs. Here you'll find lighters, earrings, belt buckles, T-shirts, keychains, license plates, beer mugs, shot glasses, thimbles, hats, bumper stickers, nightlights, Frisbees, yo-yos and magnets - all emblazoned with the famous blackand-white road sign. Information: (928) 289-5423.

A Candid Look at Black Heritage

“We try to give unedited history, how it was,” says Shad “Standman” Blair, one of the founders of the Afro-American Heritage Museum in Tucson. The small storefront museum offers a happy hodgepodge of antiques and artifacts collected by Blair and co-founder Charles Kendrick. Many of the displays relate to the life and impact of blacks on the Southwest, including the role of the black cowboy and the Buffalo Soldiers. Others depict the rural andsmall-town life of another century. An old country store has been replicated with potbellied stove, a board set for a game of checkers and disquieting examples of the way advertising once depicted blacks. Blair gives the tour, and he has the experience. He can say, “I’ve gone from seeing a black man hanged to seeing Colin Powell.” Don’t expect any frills in this museum. Do expect honest talk and a look at some pieces of history. Admission free, by appointment only, 1834 S. Park Ave. Information: (520) 792-9484.

Head 'Em Up, Feed 'Em Out, Bigtime

The largest cattle-feeding trough in Arizona, and perhaps the entire West, became operational at southern Arizona's Canoa Ranch in December 1928. Made of concrete, it measured onethird mile long and could feed 1,500 cattle simultaneously, according to The Arizona Daily Star. The ranch encompassed 500,000 acres in its heyday and was headquartered 30 miles south of Tucson, not far from present-day Interstate 19.

PIONEER CABIN SURVIVES FIRE

When Andrew Locy Rogers came with Erastus Snow and William J. Flake to the high desert of northern Arizona in 1878, he built a modest one-room log cabin for his family. As the Rogers clan grew, so did the house. Room after room was grafted onto the cabin, eventually swallowing it and the knowledge of its existence into dusty antiquity. The house caught fire in 1989, and when it was extinguished and the rubble cleared away, the long-forgotten tiny cabin was standing in the ashes, its thick log wall singed but intact. The house's many additions had protected the cabin from the elements, leaving it exceptionally well-preserved. Realizing an opportunity to showcase early Snowflake life, the city moved the cabin to its new home at First West and Center streets, one block west of State Route 77. Volunteers constructed a new shake roof and handhewn wooden porch. Restored to its modest glory, the Rogers Cabin gives visitors a glimpse of pioneer living in the 1880s. The interior sports period furniture, including a trunk, a rope bed with a bearskin bedspread, and rag rug. A springhouse and well complete the small park.

The World Famous Date Shake

Ever wonder what type of date makes the best datemilkshake? Roland and Charna Walker never did. That is, until eight years ago when they left Alberta, Canada, and bought Dateland Palms Village at Interstate 8 and Milepost 67 in the tiny town of Dateland.

Included in the deal were a restaurant, gift shop, recreational-vehicle park and 300 producing date palms. The trees can come as quite a surprise to unsuspecting motorists traversing the otherwise scrub-desert stretch of highway between Yuma and Gila Bend. Eight varieties of dates spring from among the palm fronds each year. They can all be sampled in the Dateland Palms Gift Shop. Coincidentally, the date that makes the best shake is the same that has been historically reserved for royalty. "Only medjool dates are used for date shakes. Other dates have thicker skins and don't drink well through a straw," Roland says. Travelers from around the world visit this quaint desert town of 864 to satisfy their date cravings. The Dateland Restaurant usually sells its first shake of the day when its doors open at 6 A.M. If business slows, you can bet the waitresses are in the back handpitting medjools. The date shake's origins are a mystery to Roland and Charna. But many of the establishment's more seasoned customers tell tales of partaking of the unique treat at the original Dateland Restaurant. It was first built in the late 1920s along the now-abandoned State Route 80. In the days before air conditioning, frequent stops to escape the

Entering the Magical Valley of the Moon

dressing in costume and leading them through his gnome-filled dreamscape and telling them wonderful stories. Legler is gone, but at the Valley of the Moon, an officially designated Arizona Historic Place, the quest continues. The George Phar Legler Society continues to maintain the Valley. Periodically, volunteer wizards and elves lead tours past waterfalls, skirting the great serpent and stopping to visit the Tower of Zogog. Tolkien's Hobbits would feel right at home. The Valley of the Moon stands in a residential area, no longer on the edge of town, at 2544 E. Allen Road. Information: (520) 323-1331. sweltering heat were a necessity. "Dateland is one of the last remaining authentic highway stops," Roland says. What makes the Dateland date shake so irresistible? "We use the actual fruit," says Charna. "Others use only date sugar or crystals purchased from growers."

'Lost' Hopi Art

Seven decades passed before the bronze Hopi Flute Player, designed by Hopi artist Emry Kopta (1884-1953), was cast into sculptural life. Today the flutist silently plays amid the serene fountain courtyard of the Arizona State University Music Building in Tempe. The 1933-commissioned artwork languished for lack of funding until this year. It was designed for the Public Works of Art Project initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kopta's original plaster model was digitally enlarged, cast by Arizona Bronze of Tempe and placed - finally - in the courtyard in accordance with the wishes of the Hopi Tribe.

Question of the Month

What desert plant is sometimes called the monkey's tail or devil's coachwhip?

These names refer to the ocotillo, which means "coachwhip" in Spanish. Its long, thin limbs sprout thousands of tiny green leaves after spring rains. Most of the year it appears dead and brittle, its arms punctuated by sharp gray thorns.