The 1930s

Despite the Great Depression, the 1930s featured several milestones in the history of Arizona Highways. The first, under the editorship of Bert Campbell, was the expanded use of color. Although it was limited primarily to the logo, the July 1937 cover featured a four-color painting by Hernando G. Villa — courtesy of the Santa Fe Railway. A decade earlier, in May 1929, we had published a three-color cover featuring the dedication of Navajo Bridge, but it was the arrival of four-color processing that added some life to what was still a relatively drab trade journal. The ho-hum, however, would start to change in the late 1930s with the arrival of Raymond Carlson, the decade's second great milestone.

When Mr. Carlson took over as editor in 1938, the magazine was in a modest transition away from road reports and civilengineering jargon, but our editor emeritus and his deputy, Art Director George Avey (the third milestone), deserve credit for launching the revolution that would eventually make the magazine a worldwide phenomenon. Although the imagery was mostly monotone when Mr. Carlson took over, he envisioned a magazine filled with color photography. In his July 1938 column, he asked: "How can we, through the medium of black and white, paint a picture of the gold in an Arizona sunset, portray the blue of an Arizona sky, tell the fiery red and green of an Arizona desert in bloom? We therefore resort to color photography in this issue's cover page to faithfully portray one colorful portion of the state." It was a shot of lower Oak Creek Canyon by Norman G. Wallace — the firstever color photograph in the magazine — and Mr. Carlson liked what he saw: "The faithful photographer has caught the deep red of the cliffs, the purple hue of the mountains in the background, the extravagance and richness of one of capricious Nature's finest paintings in the state."

To solicit even more photography, Mr. Carlson launched our first-ever amateur photo contest. The prize money was $15, $10 and $5, which was considered a lot of money in the late 1930s. It was the beginning of our legendary archive, which by 1939 included the work of Barry Goldwater and Josef Muench, the decade's fourth and fifth great milestones. The circulation at the time of their arrival was approximately 10,000 (most copies were given away), and there were still ads for oil companies and explosives, but the ads would disappear in 1939, and the stories were quickly shifting toward travel and tourism. A new era had begun.

Arizona Sets Example in Copper Plates

Arizona has set all the states of the Union an example of patronizing home industry as a means of ending the depression. This state produces moге сорBetter than any other state. The red metal has suffered greater during the present depression than any of the industries, copper having reached a lower price level than at ny time since it has become one of the great commercial metals. The result has been that all of the copper mines in the state have either gone on a greatly curtailed basis of production or have entirely closed down, thus throwing thousands of miners out of work, with the result that the entire state has been seriously affected.

Bids were opened on August 24 by the state engineer, and the contract for the 1932 plates made of copper was awarded to the low bidder at a price of fourteen and three-quarters cents per plate for the automobile owner plates, delivered to the county assessor of the various counties. This price compares favorably with prices of former years for steel plates.

Before making the award, the sample plates submitted were subjected to a baking for 36 hours at a temperature of 170 degrees and a water bath of 24 hours to determine if the lacquer would protect the plate from the weather and prevent tarnishing. The plates accepted stood the tests perfectly, showing the copper plate should meet service conditions without being affected by the weather.

Seventy thousand pounds of Arizona copper will be needed to produce the state's 1932 plates.

The Highway Commission has communicated with many of the other states urging them to use copper license plates in 1932 If some of the larger states should adopt the red metal, several million pounds of copper could be used in this way, doing away with the oversupply of this metal and putting the copper mines of the United States back to work.

Idleness consumes. Employment produces. A stabilized fair wage and a short working day will minimize employment.

HIGHEST LANDING FIELD

The highest airplane landing field in the United States has just been opened at an elevation of 9,000 feet on South Fork Meadows in Inyo National Forest, states a forest service report.

The man who appears to be a 5-ton truck downtown may be just a trailer at home. Azuride.

1932

This photo of the new Hunt Bass Hatchery, in Phoenix's Papago Park, ran in our June 1932 issue. It accompanied a story by the state's game warden, W.C. Joyner, about the hatchery's construction.

Some poor marksman improved his aim on this highway marker. Such sportsmen are in the same class as those who delight in poisoning dogs or killing song birds.

Early in its history, Arizona Highways showed its commitment to highway safety. Public-service advertisements, above, appeared throughout 1932, and a graphic in November, below, illustrated how automobile deaths compared with homicides and suicides in the U.S.

1933

This steel-truss bridge, which was pictured in our December 1933 issue, crosses the Gila River between Buckeye and Gila Bend. It was completed in 1927 and was part of the now-decommissioned U.S. Route 80. Once the longest highway bridge in Arizona, it's now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Construction was a common theme in the early years of the magazine. In August 1933, irrigation was on display when a story on the Agua Fria River Crossing Flume was featured. Here, workers improve the flume's transition intake section.

Vacationing... A RIGHT AND A WRONG WAY... BY JOSÉ CONCHA

Get free Shell maps and avoid such arguments. Shell stations have wonderfully complete State Road Maps, Downtown Maps, In-an-Out-of-City Maps(If you want special help in planning your vacation, write to Shell Touring Service, Shell Building, San Francisco, Calif.] Since ladies are this way, Shell has published Auto Cabin Directories for the main routes in California, Oregon, and Washington. They tell exactly where you'll find cabins, give rates, accommodations, everything. Your copy is free at Shell stations only.

Shell's Finger-Tip Travel Information book describes points of interest; covers routes, distances, lists resorts and hotels, gives rates, covers fishing, hunting, swimming, all sports, in fact, has the answer to almost any question you could ask. (Available for reference at Shell stations only.) Whether you need gas or not, you're always welcome here and please don't be afraid to ask us questions)

1935

Native culture has been a part of the magazine from the very beginning. This close-up of a Native Ameri-can woman's hands and waist accompanied They Live by Turquoise, a March 1935 story by Cara Lee Fraps. The story explored turquoise's significance in the history of the Southwest, saying that “centuries in the dust have not paled its beauty.”

In mid-1935, Arizona Highways began regularly using some color on its covers. Along with that change came a new logo, which incorporated the Arizona state seal.

Like many other magazines in the 1930s, cartoons were common. This cartoon appeared in July 1935 and lampooned one aspect of the rapid expansion of Arizona's road system.

1936

Men Who Build Our Highways

The engineering staff of the Arizona Highway Department whose high caliber of workmanship has won national recogni-tion. These men, whose careers would read like fiction (if they were not too modest to tell), carry out the orders of State Engineer T. S. O'Connell and the State Highway Commission. Left to right, standing, Swan A. Erickson, Fred N. Grant, R. C. Perkins, W. R. Hutchins, H. C. Hatcher, Julian W. Powers. Bottom row, J. S. Mills, Percy Jones, R. A. Hoffman and George Shaffer. Earl V. Miller, Safety and Plans Engineer, was absent from the city when the group photo was taken.

GEORGE B. SHAFFER was born on a farm near Edwardsville, Illinois, December 14, 1883. Attended rural grammar school and later completed a high school course at Edwardsville. The next two and a half years he spent at the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin respectively. His first job consisted of topographie and hydrographic survey work in the Illinois River Valley, extending from Chicago to Beardstown. He then obtained a position with the U. 8. War Department in Chicago making topographical survey of the Calumet River from south Chicago to Gary, In-diana. After several years spent in private surveying in Wyoming, southern Illinois, southeast Missouri and Arkansas he was appointed County Surveyor of Madison County, Illinois and deputy highway superintendent, in which capa-city he served during 1918 and 1919, dur-ing which time bond issues amounting to $160,000,000 were under way. Mr. Shaf-fer came to Arizona in the fall of 1919 and went to work for the Pinal County Highway Commission. He has been with the Highway Department since 1923 andhis employment has consisted of all stages of highway construction, from field draftsman on location to his pre-sent capacity of District Engineer. Mr. Shaffer is married and has four children.

FREDERICK N. GRANT was born in Athens, Georgia, June 27, 1888. He attended public schools in Athens and took an engineering course in the University of Georgia, from which he graduated in 1908. Mr. Grant came to Arizona in February, 1912, and located at Clifton, Self-aggrandizement wasn't unusual in our days as a trade journal. For example, the January 1936 issue spotlighted the engineering staff of the Arizona Highway Department, "whose careers would read like fiction (if they were not too modest to tell)."

1937

July 1937 brought Arizona Highways' first full-color cover: a Hernando G. Villa painting, courtesy of the Santa Fe Railway. A new magazine logo also debuted in 1937.

"The proper use of hand signals prevents many an accident," according to the caption for this instructional graphic published in April 1937. Turn-signal lights didn't become commonplace until after World War II.

Although the magazine was mov-ing away from construction stories, they were still part of the mix in 1937. In this photo, a worker uses a "center stripe machine" to paint lines on an Arizona roadway. The photo accompanied Life Line of the Arizona Highways, a July 1937 story by S.R. Dysart. Striping a mile of highway cost $16, the story said.

Arizona the Beautiful A Study in Pictorial Photography By W. M. TILLERY

Arizona the Beautiful . . . land of strange and wondrous splen dor, exquisite and grotesque, resplen dently attractive and of brilliant charm, a contrast in the vivacious and fascinat ing moods and whims of sky and earth and weather, of rhythmic overtones of light and color, of enharmonic patterns of sunshine and shadow, a symphonious and mellifluous concert played on mut able Nature's mighty organs of temper and tranquility, the soft sublimity of eternal agelessness, yet forever real and new and startling . . . offers enchanting possibilities to the pictorial photographer.

Arizona proudly points to many of her citizens whose pictorials in creative pho tography have found their way to world salons and exhibitions. These pictorial ists, by means of the camera, have caught glimpses of Arizona's bizarre beauty and through their wares have shown these glimpses of beauty to far-off peoples in other states and other lands.

We will endeavor to reproduce in these pages, from time to time, some of the pictorials of our own citizens, whose passion is Arizona and photography.

This month Arizona Highways proudly A product of the Middlewest, Bill Tillery first came to Arizona, as have so many other Middlewesterners, for a short visit and that visit has extended to ten years. He has pursued the hobby of pho tography for 25 years, and that he is distinguished in the realm of pictorial photography is shown by the fact that his works have hung in leading exhibi tions in this country and abroad.

The pictorials of Bill Tillery grasp the vista, the expansiveness, the depths of Arizona. In his studies of cacti he seems to have penetrated the very soul of the strange and lonely Arizona desert.

The pictorials that follow in these pages have won favorable comment by critics. His study, cacti, was reproduced in the latest issue of the American An nual of Photography.

Bill Tillery, a member of Arizona Pictorialists, pursues the profession of watchmaking for his living, but when time is available he goes into the desert and mountains of Arizona, and with his camera as a weapon jousts, as it were, with the gods.-R. C.

By 1938, the magazine was focusing more on the beauty of Arizona. In May 1938, we featured a selection of Arizona photos by W.M. Tillery. "In his studies of cacti he seems to have penetrated the very soul of the strange and lonely Ari zona desert," Editor Raymond Carlson wrote.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF GOOD ROADS BY THE

ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT RAYMOND CARLSON, EDITOR

CIVILIZATION FOLLOWS THE IMPROVED HIGHWAY

ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR

VOL XIV JANUARY, 193X No. 1

R. C. STANFORD, GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION SHELTON G. DOWELL, Chairman, Douglas J. W. ANGLE, Vice-Chairman, Tucson R. G. LANGMADE, Commissioner, Phoenix A. R. LYNCH, Assistant Attorney General, Special Counsel E. C. SEALE, Commissioner, Prescott JOHN M. SCOTT, Commissioner, Holbrook M. L. WHEELER, Secretary. Phoenix

HOWARD S. REED, STATE HIGHWAY ENGINEER

The January 1938 (not 1937) issue was Raymond Carlson's first as editor of Arizona Highways. He'd remain in that position until 1971 (excluding his mili tary service during World War II), but in his very first masthead, he learned the importance of thorough proofreading.

1939

The legendary George Avey began drawing his whimsical maps for Arizona Highways in the late 1930s. This one, which celebrates Arizona from Payson to Nogales, was published in December 1939. Avey later became the magazine's art director.

Josef Muench was the magazine's first prolific landscape photographer. This Muench photo of Betatakin, a cliff dwelling at Navajo National Monument, appeared in July 1939. "Here lived long an ancient people, who built a city in stone under a great ledge," the caption read. "These mute walls tell of yesterdays long ago."

... I have noticed several copies of your excellent little magazine around our office here and would like to have a regular copy for myself. Enroll me as a subscriber for a year and send along your bill. Hope you can start me off with the October issue; have seen the September copy.

Jerome Parker, Sunday Department, The New York Times, New York, N. Y.

Pleased are we to know that ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is noticed in the offices of The New York Times. Note to Mr. Parker: The magazine will come to you each month, but never, never a bill.

As Arizona Highways grew in popularity nationwide, letters to the editor came in from around the U.S. - including this one from The New York Times, which we published in December 1939.