The 2000s

The new millennium began with no mention of the next 1,000 years. It did, however, mark the arrival of a new publisher. Win Holden, who is still manning the mother ship today, joined Arizona Highways after the departure of Nina La France, who'd replaced Hugh Harelson as publisher in 1995. In addition to a new leader, the new year brought a new department, On the Road, which would serve as a tribute to the 75th anniversary of the magazine. “The department will feature classic stories from past issues,” the editors wrote, “vignettes of frontier life, anecdotes of men and women who take pictures or write stories for the magazine and tales its writers uncovered along the Arizona road.” It was an impressive piece of work. And so was the cover story in December 2002. When people call and ask for it today, they ask for the “50 states issue.” The actual title, however, is A Land for All, and it was based on the notion that “each of the other 49 states has a lookalike setting in Arizona.” The 50 photographs support the argument, and the issue is one of many highlights in the Bob Early era, which ended in October 2004 when the esteemed editor retired after 14 years - his tenure is second only to Raymond Carlson's. A few from a historical perspective, it's the magazine's equivalent of the Round Table.”

months after he left, longtime contributor Peter Aleshire was brought in. “Through some oversight,” he wrote in April 2005, “Publisher Win Holden hired me to fill Bob Early's oversized shoes. So I am come suddenly of age, entrusted with the proud 80-year legacy of this magazine.” In his two years as editor, he carried on that legacy and oversaw the magazine's 80th-anniversary issue. He also began producing what's known as “service journalism” stories about “things to do” and “places to see.” It's a category that was pioneered by New York magazine in the late 1960s, and one that would become more prevalent at Arizona Highways under Robert Stieve, who succeeded Mr. Aleshire as editor in 2007. Like his predecessor, the new editor was humbled by the opportunity. “As I take my seat in the editor's chair, I'm aware of what came before me,” he wrote in his first column. “Even my desk is impressive. It wouldn't fetch much on eBay, but

MEMOIRS OF Salome Creek

Our August 2001 issue featured Memoirs of Salome Creek, which paired a Nick Berezenko essay with Jeff Snyder photos. The opening spread showed the thin ribbon of the creek trickling into "The Jug," giving little hint of the raging torrent of floodwaters that created the cathedral-like canyon. Adventure stories like this are a mainstay of the editorial lineup.

The nearly 400-year-old legend of the "Lady in Blue" was the subject of a story in January 2001. The lady, the legend goes, appeared among Indian tribes to teach the word of Christ and leave behind rosaries, chalices and crosses. A Rafal Olbinski illustration accompanied the story.

2003

An October 2003 Dean Smith story chronicled the slow death of Sonora, a copper-mining town southeast of Superior. The town got its name from its miners, many of whom were recruited from the Mexican state of Sonora. When the mine expanded in the 1950s and '60s, the town was gobbled up, with many residents moving to Superior, Hayden or Kelvin.

Seven nuns' harrowing 1870 journey from San Diego to Tucson was the subject of The Trek of the Seven Sisters, a January 2003 story. Monica Corrigan, one of the nuns, kept a detailed diary of the trip, which included high temperatures, threats of Indian attacks and "the advances of lonesome cowboys they encountered along the way."

This forceps, introduced in the 1870s, was designed to remove arrowheads from people. It was featured in April 2003 as part of a story on the primitive methods used by early Arizona doctors.

Navajoland was our focus in April 2003, when Carrie M. Miner wrote about how the Navajos' oral history intertwines with the landscape of the Navajo Nation. This Tom Till photo of the Dancing Rocks accompanied the story. It would later be ranked as one of the "100 best photos" in the history of Arizona Highways.

Brad Holland's ghostly artwork illustrated a March 2004 Bob Thomas story on a Tohono O'odham legend. According to the legend, four children were buried alive to appease spirits and protect a village from a flood.

This Marty Blake photo illustration accompanied the April 2004 story Early Day Scribes Knew How to Spell Hype. In it, author Kathleen M. Bryant examined the florid and often-inaccurate prose employed by those describing Territorial Arizona to the outside world.

THE TOHONO O'ODHAM Well of Sacrifice

A sad legend of four children given to save a villageIn a dusty depression in the desert floor, a short distance from the village of Santa Rosa on the Tohono O'odham Nation, a small mound of flat rocks covers a hole in which legend says four children were burned alive.

According to the Indian tale, the children were killed to appease spirits threatening to inundate a village with a flood. The legend is sometimes called the Well of Sacrifice or the Children's Shrine. The story is well known to the residents of nearby Indian villages and a few anthropologists privy to tribal legends. For some years, the tribe maintained the site as a shrine in secret ceremonies (aerial view every four years, but no outsider has been permitted to witness the rite).

In keeping with our long history of using maps to illustrate stories, Mike Reagan's work accompanied Walking the Arizona Trail, an October 2004 story on the trail that crosses Arizona from Utah to Mexico. The 819-mile trail was completed in 2011 and has been designated a National Scenic Trail.

2005

Carrie M. Miner's Let's Go Swimmin', a June 2005 “service journalism” story, provided an easy way to escape the summer heat by detailing nine of Arizona's best swimming holes. In this Nick Berezenko photo, Bök Lundgren slices through the refreshing water of Fossil Creek.

March 2005 marked the last printed appearance of our humor section, which featured staff-drawn cartoons and jokes submitted by readers. After that, the jokes moved to our website. We wouldn't say it was the last appearance of humor in the magazine, though, since we all consider ourselves pretty funny.

JUST FOLLOW THE DIRT

A Grand Canyon National Park ranger was asked by a visitor, “Where is the best place to see the floor of the Canyon?” The ranger answered, “Imperial Valley, California. That's where all the dirt went.”

2006

Nationally acclaimed artist Dugald Stermer brought a dilo-

Photophorus to life for a February 2006 story about dinosaur tracks at Lake Powell. Author Scott Thybony wrote about a photographer's quest to document the tracks before they were covered by the lake's rising water.

Pulp Dreams, a May 2006 Amy Abrams story, examined the demand for Robert G. Harris' pulp illustrations by modern collectors. This November 1935 cover of Wild West Weekly was one of more than 50 that Harris, who moved to Arizona in the 1950s, created for that publication.

Our October 2006 issue featured Once Upon a Day in Arizona, in which 50 writers and photographers scattered throughout the state to capture its quirky, inspiring and surprising diversity. Photographer Scott Baxter captured trainer Dallas Wedel working with Tuff, a young stud horse, at Diamond Tree Ranch in Cave Creek.

2007

Wyatt Earp lived again - sort of - in a David Zickl photo that ran in November 2007. Actor Fred Yale portrayed the famous lawman in Tombstone's reenactments of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Digital

versus Film

For a long time, this magazine, like a lot of magazines, resisted digital photography. It wasn't as good as film. But that was then. Now, the differences aren't as clear. To illustrate that point, we sent two of the world's best landscape photographers to Northern Arizona. One shot digital; one shot film. As you'll see in the next 14 pages, great photography is more about the artist, and less about the format

By Lawrence W. Cheek

Digital or film? That was the debate in our September 2008 issue, when two of our renowned photographers - George Stocking and Jack Dykinga - went to Northern Arizona to make photos. Stocking shot digital, while Dykinga stuck with film. In the end, the images demonstrated that the photographer, not the format, is the key to making a great photo. The debate, though, continues today.

Richard Maack's photo of the Douglas train depot was the opening spread for Sam Lowe's November 2008 story on historic depots around Arizona. Many of the state's remaining depots, vestiges of the heyday of rail travel, are now being used for other purposes; for example, the Douglas depot is now the town's police station.

This Lynn Sankey photo opened The Journal, our monthly look at people, places and things from around the state, in October 2008. In it, Kelly Vallo gazes into the sunset from the wind-whipped sand dunes of the Navajo Nation. Sankey made the image during an Arizona Highways Photo Workshop.

2009

Our logo changed again in 2009 to the treatment you see today. In August of that year, we published our first-ever "Best of Arizona" issue, which featured contributions from Tempe-based rock star Roger Clyne, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb and NFL referee Ed Hochuli. Wes Timmerman made the cover photo of a waterfall in a Grand Canyontributary.

In January 2009, we featured an all-women travel brigade that had grown from two sisters to more than 1,000 "adopted sisters." Sisters on the Fly's trip to Monument Valley was the focus of JoBeth Jamison's story; this Hakatai Images photo shows Jane Bischoff and her Serro Scotty trailer, Turquoise Nugget.

This Bruce D. Taubert photo of a spotted bat appeared in February 2009, when readers learned that the bats make their homes on the cliffs of the Grand Canyon, as well as in coniferous forests, meadows and crooks of saguaros. Taubert has become Arizona Highways' go-to source for photos of the state's flora and fauna.

In this Robert McDonald photo from our October 2009 issue, a smear of golden leaves breaks the vertical backdrop of mature aspens in Lockett Meadow near Flagstaff. The photo accompanied a look at Arizona's fall color, a longtime staple of October issues of Arizona Highways.