The 1980s

The new decade began with a new editor. Gary Avey, the son of longtime Art Director George Avey, assumed the front office at our world headquarters in January 1980, following the departure of Tom Cooper, who'd replaced Joseph Stacey in 1976. Mr. Avey, as you might expect, grew up with the magazine. Literally. “Because the Carlsons [Raymond, the editor, and his wife, Helen] were not able to have children, I became the shared kid,” Mr. Avey wrote. “It was the best of all possible worlds to have two fathers and two mothers, who had the most interesting friends... Frank Lloyd Wright, Ted DeGrazia, Josef Muench, Barry Goldwater and Ansel Adams, to name a few.” Like Mr. Stacey in the 1970s, Mr. Avey had an appreciation for what the founding fathers had created. “As your new editor, it is my job to carry on the quest of excellence... seeking out the new and the unique, the exciting and the colorful.” The man was Larry Toschik, and despite the anomaly, he wrote and illustrated the entire issue. All of it. In fact, other than a shot of the artist, there isn't a single photograph in the issue. That was an exception to our unwritten rule, and the issue was a highlight in the tenure of Mr. Avey, who resigned in June 1983. His successor was Don Dedera, a newspaper columnist and former colleague of the new publisher, Hugh Harelson. When Mr. Harelson assumed the top spot on the masthead in August 1982, the magazine was in deep financial trouble. He fixed the problem, in part, by expanding the brand through related products, such as books and calendars. In addition, he and his wife, Jan, estabnished Friends of Arizona Highways - a nonprofit extension that conducts photo workshops all over North America. We have two conference rooms in our building. One is named for Editor Emeritus Raymond Carlson. The other is named for Hugh Harelson, whose list of contributions is long and impressive, and includes the hiring of Merrill Windsor.

Under his direction, the magazine stayed true to Mr. Carlson's vision with stories about General George Crook, the Apache Wars, Lake Mead and a “Special All Cowboy Issue” in February 1980, which featured some now-iconic photographs by Ray Manley. Then, in 1982, Mr. Avey sent Charles Bowden and Jack Dykinga to Ramsey Canyon. In the magazine's long history of talented photographers, Mr. Dykinga is among the very best. And of all the writers who have shared their words over the years, Mr. Bowden is arguably the best. The combination was our equivalent of Gilbert and Sullivan. A year after the momentous Ramsey Canyon piece - the first of many stories the dynamic duo would do together - we published our “shorebirds issue.” It was “dedicated to those who love the beauty of nature ... from a man who has spent his life learning the gentle ways of the creatures of the wind.”

An Arizona native, the new editor came to Arizona Highways in February 1986 after a distinguished career at Sunset magazine and the National Geographic Society's Special Publications Division. Under Mr. Windsor, the magazine published an archive of great stories, including a piece titled Barry Goldwater on Photography. In it, the longtime contributor talked about the first photograph he ever sold to Arizona Highways: “It was in 1939. Ray [Carlson] and I were driving along one day by Coal Mine Canyon near Tuba City. Ray said, 'You wouldn't have a picture of that, would you?' I said, 'Yeah, I've got a good one.' I sent it in and he ran it.” Another milestone of the Windsor era was a 16-part series of historical paintings by Bill Ahrendt. The collection, which was titled Arizona Highways Cavalcade, premiered in May 1987 and continued into the early 1990s, when the revolving door of editors would spin once again.

1981

In decades past, it wasn't unusual for Arizona Highways to venture beyond state lines. For example, our February 1981 issue celebrated the sister cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora. The previous year, Mexico's Nogales had celebrated its centennial. This spread of scenes from the Nogales area included photos by present-day Photo Editor Jeff Kida, J. Peter Mortimer, David Burckhalter and Ellen Barnes.

1982

Dear Editor, At this moment I'm looking out the window at two feet of snow, and the mail man just delivered Arizona Highways magazine. Guess what I'm thinking.... Your magazine is a dream come true. Joseph Radwanski Kelowna, Canada This Canadian subscriber, whose letter appeared in May 1982, was happy to get a break from winter with his Arizona Highways delivery. We still get letters like this today.

John C. Van Dyke, author of 1901's The Desert, was the subject of an October 1982 fea-ture by Lawrence Clark Powell. In it, Powell describes The Desert as "the cornerstone on which subsequent desert literature has been based."

Robert Dundas captured this sky diver in free fall through Arizona's clouds. Dundas' photo was the inside back cover of our September 1982 issue.

Legendary photographer and Arizona resident Jay Dusard, who specializes in cowboy photography, was profiled in our August 1982 issue. Author Harry Redl described Dusard's creative process, which usually involved an unwieldy 8x10 view camera.

1983

Our March 1983 issue eulogized Tucson artist and longtime contributor Ted DeGrazia, who had died in September 1982. Maggie Wilson, Dick Frontain and former Editor Joseph Stacey shared their thoughts on the "artist of the people," and an accompanying selection of his works included 1957's Los Niños.

P.K. Weis' photo of a young rain dancer on the Papago Reservation (known today as the Tohono O'odham Nation) appeared on our inside back cover in April 1983. The issue also paid tribute to former Editor Raymond Carlson, who had died in January, as "the man who took Arizona to the rest of the world."

In February 1983, we featured the petroglyphs of Petrified Forest National Park. This Jack B. Dawson photo was one of several showing how the rock art's interactions with sunlight were used to mark time. Petroglyphs and national parks have appeared regularly since the 1920s.

1984

Arizona Highways covers ran the gamut in 1984. Clockwise from above: In October, a Jerry Sieve photo formed the backdrop for an illustration of Phoenix's namesake; in March, Dale C. Verzaal's art helped visualize Arizona's future as predicted by Arizona State University faculty members; in April, Bill Ahrendt painted Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, a key figure in the exploration of present-day Arizona; and in January, Jerry Jacka photographed an antique chair with 140 silkscreened butterflies affixed. The latter is a work of art created by Lou Brown DiGiulio and is part of the permanent collection at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson.

1985

The fog-shrouded Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix formed the backdrop for a teddy bear cholla in this Jerry Sieve photo from our June 1985 issue. It accompanied a feature on Arizona's myriad hiking opportunities. Sieve was a photography student of Willis Peterson, who was a longtime contributor to Arizona Highways. Peterson taught at Glendale Community College from 1968 to 1986.

1986

Parks for the People... More on the Way The Men Who Grew in America's Forests Skiing Arizona?

Prickly pear cactus on white bread, anyone? This drawing was one of several Bill Ahrendt works to illustrate a June 1986 feature on tall tales of Arizona and the Southwest. With this delicacy, it was claimed, "you can eat your sandwich and pick your teeth at the same time."

Color was the focus of our January 1986 issue, which featured Dick Canby's photo of a rainbow over Red Rock Country. The cover also featured an updated logo and heralded the fact that every page of this and subsequent issues of Arizona Highways would be in color.

GERONIMO!

Extraordinarily adept at the use of hit and run tactics, Geronimo has earned a respected niche in the annals of guerrilla warfare.

1987

January 1987 saw the debut of a new look for Arizoniques, our monthly almanac of places, events and people unique to Arizona and the Southwest. This issue's installment included items on the antelope jackrabbit and Arizona's scenic highways.

In April 1987, we featured the winners of an Arizona Highways amateur photography contest. The judges for that contest included the distinguished photographers in this shot. Standing, from left to right, are Jerry Sieve, Dick Dietrich, J. Peter Mortimer, Jack Dykinga, James Tallon and Jerry Jacka. Seated, from left to right, are Dorothy McLaughlin, Carlos Elmer, Nyle Leatham and Herb McLaughlin. Gill Kenny and Willis Peterson also served as judges.

Santa Claus rode a jackalope in our December 1987 issue, when Bob Boze Bell told and illustrated a whimsical story called Santa's First Wild West Ride. It included a sidebar on the supposed origin of the mythical half-jackrabbit, half-antelope creature.

In keeping with our tradition of focusing on local culture, an August 1987 feature highlighted celebrations of Hispanic holidays. These Eduardo Fuss photos portrayed the vibrant dances and colorful costumes that often accompany such celebrations.

A CANYON CALLED PARIA

BY CHARLES BOWDEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACK W DYKINGA We concluded to drive down the creek which took us Some 8 days of toil fatigu labour, through brush water quicksand -Diary of John D. Lee, December, 1871 I am very cold and have huddled in my sleeping bag since 6:00 AM yesterday. Now dawn bleeds over the red walls but brings no warmth, and I hide in my down shelter until 9:00 AM while the Paria River flows like liquid mud between banks of ice and the ther mometer stalls at 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Our water is frozen, and I patiently watch it thaw on the stove, yearning for that first cup of coffee. I am trapped in a slot of sandstone beauty, stalking a phantom named John D. Lee.

On December 4, 1871, Lee left the town of Paria, Utah, with his 14 year old son, two other men, 57 head of cattle, a bushel and a half of seed corn, and enough historical baggage to crush almost human beings. Lee had been part of the abortive Writer Charles Bowden at the Narrows in Paria Canyon, where he and photogra pher Jack Dykinga spent six winter days tracing the steps of John D. Lee, a 19th century fugitive from a federal murder warrant because of his participation in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

For our January 1988 issue, the dynamic duo of Charles Bowden and Jack Dykinga spent six days in Paria Canyon, retracing the steps of 19th century fugitive John D. Lee. Bowden wrote that the canyon today is "a pleasant journey through 200 million years of geology, the kind of place that makes the West the bedrock of our dreams."

Hal Empie at 79

BY KAY MAYER

The red hair is white now, but the sidelong look as he waits for a laugh at the end of a story is as elfin as it ever was.

In his old "Norman Rockwell" eyeshade and painter's apron, he returns to the easel in his new studio in Tubac. He moves like a young man, and the years between our conversations drop away.

Perhaps only through clues in his paintingsor in his own bemused commentsmight you guess that Hart Haller "Hal" Empie counted 79 birthday candles last March. "I've been around so long, ever'body looks familiar to me," he says with a laugh. "I think I've met ever'body at least once."

Certainly he's met almost everyone in his earlier, longtime haunts of Graham and Greenlee counties in eastern Arizona. Possibly most of the travelers, too, on US Route 70 A June 1988 feature by Kay Mayer profiled Hal Empie, a prolific artist and longtime Arizona Highways contribu tor. Empie, who recently had turned 79, said then that "I've been around so long, ever'body looks familiar to me." Empie contin ued producing art until his death in 2002 at age 93.

This 1907 photograph of the Arizona Rangers was made by Dane Coolidge, the subject of a June 1988 story by Evelyn S. Cooper. Coolidge, also a prolific writer, emphasized historical realism over romantic illusion in his photographs, Cooper said.

1989

Ed Beale's camel-aided Beale Wagon Road expedition returned to the pages of Arizona Highways in November 1989 with this Bill Ahrendt painting. Ahrendt called the camel caravan "one of the most unusual scenes in the history of the West."

Arizona Highways has always ventured beyond the printed page. We sometimes made movies, too. This hourlong VHS tape, Lake Powell and the Canyon Country, was narrated by William Shatner and available for just $34.95, plus shipping and handling. We advertised it in our January 1989 issue.

A wacky font accentuated the action in this Fred Griffin photo, which opened an October 1989 Lynn Adair story about the food and excitement of the Arizona State Fair. The fair continues to be held at the state fairgrounds in Phoenix, within walking distance of Arizona Highways' world headquarters.