LETTERS AND E-MAIL

taking the off-ramp Arizona oddities, attractions and pleasures On the Road Again, Without Swastikas

When Arizona's old State Highway Commission introduced its first numbered highway system in 1927, travelers drove on little more than dirt tracks that made up 17 state routes totaling 1,954 miles. Early road maps and state highway markers didn't always jibe, leaving motorists to wonder where they had taken a wrong turn. According to a 1927 Arizona Highways article explaining the numbering system, the state route markers, framed in the shape of the state, announced the route number and included representations of Arizona's rich Indian heritage: a black arrowhead bearing a white swastika in its center. The swastika, known as a "whirling log," was widely used by Navajo, Hopi, Pima and other Arizona Indian tribes in their rugs, baskets, pottery and silver work. The ancient symbol signified well-being, prosperity and friendship. Sometime in the early 1940s, Arizona highway officials prudently removed the swastika from highway signs after Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party sullied this once-revered symbol. Members of the Navajo, Apache, Hopi and Papago (now Tohono O'odham) tribes renounced its use in their blankets, baskets, art objects and clothing.

Bed and Make Your Own #@&% Breakfast

Delvan Hayward jokes that her historic inn can be called a "bed and make your own (expletive) breakfast." Guests at Delvan's Drawing Room in tiny downtown Miami, east of Phoenix, aren't even insulted. "They love it; it makes them laugh," says the artist with an irreverent sense of humor who'd rather be behind an easel than a frying pan. That's fine with customers, who save a bundle on room rates and help themselves to a well-stocked kitchen. Since purchasing the 1917 bar and miners' boardinghouse in 1996, Hayward has poured her creative energy into restoration work. As a result, the inn gained a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, becoming the first building in Miami to obtain this designation. Information: (928) 473-9045.

Sky Harbor: Have Art, Will Fly

Now that travelers are spending more time than ever waiting for airplanes, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport offers a diversion that involves neither shopping nor sipping. The Sky Harbor Art Program ranks among the largest American airport art exhibits, totaling more than 200 permanent works and 15 exhibition spaces. Its centerpiece, the Terminal 4 gallery, displays a changing selection of Arizona art and artifacts. Shows have included exhibits from 28 state parks, as well as work by nationally known artists with regional connections, such as landscape photographer Mark Klett and light-and-space master James Turrell. Passengers in the other two terminals can have an art experience at smaller displays-Barry Goldwater's photography and a retrospective of flight attendant costumes were recent exhibits. The airport also displays permanent installations throughout the airport, such as Terminal 4's giant thumblike ceramic sculptures, called dangos ("dumplings"), by Japanese artist Jun Kaneko.

THIS MONTH IN ARIZONA

1872 Tucson opens its first permanent public school. Students' parents donate switches and urge the teachers not to spare the rod.

1872 Tucson citizens lynch four outlaws in front of the jailhouse.

1872 Three Vulture Mine guards are stopped and killed on the road to Phoenix. A bar of gold is stolen.

The General Land Office rules that cutting mesquite on government property is illegal. One week later they reverse the decision, declaring that mesquite is not actually wood.

1903 Four convicts escape from Yuma Territorial Prison and seize a yacht on the Colorado River. They go aground on a sandbar and are caught in the desert.

192 The world learns that amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh has discovered the planet Pluto at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.