Along the Highways and Byways

We have recorded herein that progress is being made on the filming of the motion picture “Arizona” by Columbia Studios. But alas! and alack! This fuss in Europe that militarists choose to call the Second World War upset distribution plans for Columbia; so work on the picture will be postponed for from sixty to ninety days. The set has been completed, however, and Mr. Wesley Ruggles, the director, has taken some preliminary shots. We understand that the picture will not be made on the grandiose scale as was first planned. Because of unsettled world conditions, finances seem to be upset or something. Such a bother, this war!

Family Portrait in Papagoland: On the road from Casa Grande to the very center of the Papago Indian reservation in southern Arizona, we came across the Papago dwelling. It was hot in the middle of the day, and the family was taking a siesta period under a cactus covered shed attached to the clay house. The big earthen jar was full of cold water and we had a drink. A young girl, a rather nice looking young girl, was in the shade washing clothes. It was hot but the girl didn't seem to mind. There was a dog or two about, and in the corral near the house a couple of horses were munching some hay. One Indian was asleep on a mattress under the shed and a baby without any clothes on was asleep beside him. In the center on a box was an old-fashioned phonograph. It was a pleasant family scene. We wanted to take the girl's picture the girl who was washing clothes.

But she had been photographed before, for she said she would allow herself to be photographed for one dollar. Only she didn't say it that way! She smiled broadly and shook her head in assent and said quietly: “One dollar!” We said: “Twenty-five cents!” She shook her head and said: “One dollar!” If she would pose weaving a basket we would pay one dollar but the girl said she did not weave baskets.

When we left the Indians all waved. The girl who was washing clothes smiled and took her hand out of the suds in the tub and waved farewell. We were sorry, then, that we didn't give her one dollar and take her picture.

Stranded on the Desert: From Sonoyta, Sonora, to Rocky Point is a distance of seventy-five miles. It isn't much of a road and the trip should not be taken in August until the new road is built. We took the trip in August.

Thirty-five miles below Sonoyta, at night, the car broke down and the next morning we started to walk back to Sonoyta in the August sun that pours down with such merciless glee on the Sonoyta desert. You should never travel over any desert without water. We had no water.

We got very hot and tired walking in the sun in the desert and soon we got very thirsty. Maybe we got so thirsty because we knew we had no water. We walked and walked and our lips were dry and cracked and our throats were dry and felt cracked.

Then someone had the idea of opening a barrel cactus and chewing the pulp. We did and it worked fine. The pulp was very moist and with the moisture from the cactus we moistened our lips and our throats and swallowed. The cactus juice tasted tasteless, only wet.

Finally we got too tired to walk; so we decided to sit in the shade and chew more cactus. It was a lonely road and we didn't know how long we would have to wait. We were tired and thirsty.

In a few minutes we thought we heard an automobile approaching, and then we were afraid, thinking the sun was causing strange noises in our minds. Presently the noises grew louder and then we knew it wasn't our minds only a car and we got out to the road and waited for the car, which was a truck, and hired the man and truck to drive us to Sonoyta.

Plaque to Stephen T. Mather: In the administration building of the Casa Grande National Monument is a copper plaque that hangs in a prominent position in the reception room. Director of the National Park Service from 1916 to 1929, Stephen Tyng Mather has been called the father of our National Parks. The plaque reads: “He laid the foundation of the National Park service defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never came an end to the good that he has done.” Then came the Rains: In September the rains came, heavy rains pouring out of a sky which for a long time in these parts had been stingy and mean. The rains came breaking a dry spell that had assumed the proportions of a serious drouth. The rains came to the desert, to the mountains and it came heavier than it has for years and years to northwestern Arizona. The rains came to southwestern Arizona and to Bisbee and Douglas and Nogales. The rains came to the Salt river valley and to the Casa Grande valley, it came in sheets bringing with it floods in some places.

Mr. Ruggles surveys Old Tucson

There is something interesting about a travel town. Take Gila Bend, for instance. Transcontinental trains pass through, as do big busses carrying people east and west. There is a heavy volume of tourist travel, for Gila Bend's main street is on the high road from Phoenix to Los Angeles and a goodly portion of traveling America goes back and forth each day.

It should be interesting to everyone. As a suggestion you might send it to friends out-of-state for we believe it will be as nice as a Christmas card. Last Christmas we were flooded with subscriptions that people sent out for Christmas presents. Without sounding too commercial, may we suggest that a year's subscription to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is a fine Christmas gift. And the tariff is only One Dollar. A swell chance for you to be Santa Claus!

Sonoyta, Sonora, is south of Ajo, a little Mexican village on the Sonoyta river, on the road to Rocky Point. It is a friendly little town, typically Mexican, where you can buy food, gasoline for your car and other refreshments for yourself. The Mexican government is engaged in the construction of a new highway from Sonoyta to Rocky Point and when finished it will be an oil-surfaced highway suitable for fast traveling. The completion of this highway will make Rocky Point one of the big fishing and tourist centers of the southwest. The Point juts out into the Gulf of Lower California, and in that body of water, of course, is the best fishing in the world. About 120 miles from Ajo, Rocky Point will be of easy access to Tucson and Phoenix and should end up as a sportsman's paradise.

The rains came heavy to Kingman and washed out part of the roadway between Kingman and Boulder Dam. Emergency crews sped into action on several of the highway fronts of the state, to keep traffic rolling. To the parched desert, the rains came with benificial effect. The hot, dry desert turned into a pleasant garden and such is the personality of the desert that the rains of September will have a lingering effect in deep winter.

Construction guns are blazing forth on all highways in Arizona. The Arizona highway commission, realizing the importance of speeding the highway program, not only for the benefit of unemployed but for the necessity of improving the system, has given impetus to this program. And, by way of postscript, it might be interesting to note that the Arizona highway department, functioning on this active basis, operating from March through August at a substantial reduction in operating costs. That is what they call streamlining the old boat.

Jose Valdes, engineer in charge of construction of the highway from Sonoyta to Rocky Point for the Republic of Mexico, was in Phoenix a short time ago having some of his material tested in our materials division. We asked him if Mexico would sell us part of Sonora, so we could have a port on the Gulf of California.

The rains came to Hopiland and to the land of the Navajos. Out of the red, hot sky to which the Hopis sent their prayers for rain in August came the rains in September, the cooling rains of northern Arizona that mean salvation to little patches of corn on the hillside.

While we do not know how it will all turn out we are preparing an extra-pretty magazine for December! This will be brimming with the Christmas motif and He replied indignantly: "Of course not!" Our negotiations ended when he asked if we would sell to Mexico a strip of Southern Ari-zona including Tucson.

ed when he asked if we would sell to Mexico a strip of Southern AriWe replied indignantly: "Of course not!".... R. C.

We all profited by the rain, but the cattleman in the hills profited more than anyone else. To him, rains meant high grass and heavy feed and a good season to come.

We were all glad that the rains came in September.

Family Portraits: Ajo is rightfully called the most beautiful mining camp in the world, but the word "camp" is inadequate. Ajo is a prim little city, modern, clean, busy exquisitely designed and laid out, a nice town to live in. You will enjoy visiting Ajo. (Incidentally it is pronounced "Ah-hoe!") Columbia builds a town for "Arizona."