SPRINGERVILLE PASSAGE: YEAR 1912

By RAYMOND CARLSON Editor, Arizona Highways IN THE morning of the first day of May in the year 1912 a punctual sun yawned and raised a sleepy head over the White Mountains, shedding gay and warming sunbeams down the main street of Springerville, where the darkness of night still clung in the shadows. It promised to be another first of May for Springerville, with the air heavy with Spring's aroma, yet with a chill reminder that Winter had not too long ago passed that way. Until modern traffic and modern highways placed Springerville on the travel map of America, it was only a small cow town, friendly with western hospitality, typical of what has come to be called “the old west.” Down the road from New Mexico that morning came a “Mr. Baker,” driving a Buick, and with his eventful arrival history was made and a new chapter in travel history was begun. Mr. Baker was the first tourist recorded in Springerville, and that meant Arizona. Thousands have come after him since May 1, 1912, on different roads, and thousands will continue to come, but Mr. Baker is our principal concern at the moment.

Now a few “gasoline buggies” had already been seen around Springerville for several years, yet a new automobile in town was a novelty. Mr. Baker stopped at the Gustave Becker Mercantile company, as travelers always did and mostly do now. He said he was from Colorado Springs and was going to the Grand Canyon. He purchased gasoline (50c a gallon) had his lunch, inquired of the roads, adjusted his duster and started on his way, but not before he signed the tourist register at the Becker Mercantile company. This register is in existence today, faded perhaps, but it bespeaks a volume in history and conjures of travel days before the era of asphalt and cement, of stream-lined automobiles and super service stations.

Registrations of tourist automobiles by the Beckers of Springerville number as follows: 1912, 113 cars; 1913 194 cars; 1914, 419 cars; 1915, 1367 cars; 1916, 1774 cars; 1917, 2607 cars; 1918, 4251 cars and 1919, 6083 cars. Increasing traffic made it impossible to keep an accurate check and finally no attempt was made to maintain the register. The important artery Highway 60 carried thou-sands of travelers through Springerville annually. The opening of other transcontinental highways into Arizona drew business off "60," yet thousands annually travel the same route, and with new roads and new routes the Springerville passage is as important now as in the year 1912. A perusal of the Becker register reveals that the travelers into Arizona came from everywhere and were destined for everyplace. They came in those days in such automobiles as: Stutz "40," Chalmers, Buick, Ford, Packard, E. M. F., Haynes "22," Maxwell, Great Western, Lenox, Marmon, Peerless, Warren "40," Flanders, Marquette, Case, Regal, Simplex, Franklin Little Six, Velie "40," Stevens Duryea, R. C. H. "25," Rambler, Abbot, Oakland, Everett, National "40," Locomobile, Pierce Arrow, Oldsmobile, Fiat "55," etc. Names of some conjure only yesterdays of motoring history; others have sleek, modern counterparts, carrying on in America's passing parade.

On December 28, 1912, the register carried in a bold, firm signature the following inscription: "R. C. Durant, Chevrolet Motor Company, Detroit, Michigan, driving 100,000 miles experimental, Chevrolet 70 H. P." This was a test trip before Chevy's were placed on the market. The register records other names of personages recognizable to this date. Barney Oldfield came tearing through. Cannonball Baker. Governor Hunt!

The first automobile in Springerville was an old fashioned buggy type driven over a country road from Holbrook. High wheel type with narrow hard rubber tires, slow, hard chugging! In 1911 Mr. Gustave Becker decided that automobiles were popular enough for sale. He therefore brought in four old style E. M. F.'s (Every Morning Fix-em), one of which he purchased and the others he sold to Fred T. Colter, B. B. Crosby, and Fred Nelson of St. Johns. In those days 20 to 25 miles per hour was good driving time.

The importance of Springerville as an early travel center was brought about by circumstances. In 1910, A. L. Westgard representing the American Automobile association and working in connection with the Daughters of the American Revolution, was sent out to locate a highway across the continent. He followed the National Old Trails across the country, perhaps to favor the D. A. R., arriving finally in Trinidad, Colo. He went down to Santa Fe and Albuquerque and then headed west over what is now U. S. 66, arriving at Grants, N. M. There being no outlet there he dropped down to Salt Lake, N. M., then into Springerville, over the White Mountains to Globe, then to Phoenix, to Yuma and into Los Angeles.

Westgard came across the continent again in 1911. On this trip, he went south from Albuquerque down the Rio Grande to Socorro, N. M. on what is now U. S. 85, and from Socorro, he traveled west into Springerville over what is now U. S. 60. On this trip he was driving an old Sauer truck, and had six 3x12 planks tied on the side to help him over the muddy and rough places. Up in the White Mountains signs still can be seen marking Westgard's journey: "Trail to the Sunset."

Springerville was therefore the only gateway into Arizona from the east, and was thus placed on the National Old Trails highway. The Daughters of the American Revolution marked Springerville with the Madonna of the Trails statue, which was dedicated in 1929. Twelve of these markers were placed in the U. S.

Another reason for Springerville's prominence as a travel center, was the early activity of Gustave Becker and his sons advocating good roads. First, Springerville was isolated, being 85 miles from the railroad at Holbrook and 136 miles from the railroad and Magdalena, N. M.

Springerville has come a long way as a traffic center since that memorable day in 1912 when Mr. Baker came chugging by, to be placed in the register as the first official tourist.

The highways of Arizona also have come a long way from the country roads of 1912 to modern superhighways of today. What changes will the next 25 years bring to Springerville, to automobile science and to the highways of this state?