Yours Sincerely and Sincerely to You

VIVA LA ITCH!

Of the stream of magazines which flow across my desk daily, one each month is so interesting that I look forward to reading it from cover to cover and staring long at each picture. That is ARIZONA HIGHWAYS The only trouble is that each issue scratches deeper the bad itch I have to return to the country where I spent an unforgetably pleasant winter, even if I was broke at the time Wm. E. Woodruff, The CONSTRUCTOR, Munsey Building, ding, Washington, D. C.

GO WEST, DEAR FRIENDS, GO WEST:

You have no idea the many, many complimentary comments I have heard about your magazine and state since I placed those two issues you sent on the table in our reception room along with the rest of our reading material. Eleven individuals have told me that they were going to the California Exposition via Arizona after reading your magazine Lyda P. Ridge, Reception Room, Ohio State Highway Testing Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

Gracious, indeed, is Miss Ridge for letting us know that our little magazine is welcomed in her reception room. Each month it will go there and we hope it will always receive a hearty welcome.

ONE OF THE BEST:

I want to express my sincere appreciation for the excellent format, composition, reader interest, and content of the magazine. It is one of the best edited and most interesting highway department magazines I have read. You are to be particularly commended for the feature interest of your articles as well as the illustrative material included George W. Savage, Editor, Inyo INDEPENDENT, Independence, Calif.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is pleased to meet the critical eye of good newspaper publishers like Mr. Savage, and be so recommended. We can ask no finer praise.

IN A DOCTOR'S OFFICE:

Today, in a physician's office, I chanced for the first time upon a copy of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. However, I did not need the magazine to make me "Arizona conscious." I have been fortunate enough to have visited your beautiful state four times and each visit only served to impress me more strongly with its massive grandeur and exotic beautyI wish to tell you how greatly I enjoyed my visit to your great state and to congratulate you on your most interesting magazine Paul J. Whitmer, Columbus, Ohio.

GRAND REPORTS:

Will you be so kind and send me two of the last issue of your magazine? It is the August issue, I hear such grand reports about. I handle a lot of tourists and will be only too glad to show the magazine to them when they ask road directions Mrs. Verna M. Brame, Hangtown Antique Shop, Placerville, Calif.

The reproductions of Mr. Burr's etchings are splendid Edna H. Cantril, San Diego, Calif.

Let me add, quite frankly, that you're getting out a honey of a book: the last issue was especially attractive; the art was swell; outstanding were the photos and Burr's eachings Tom White, Alameda, Calif.

The etchings of George Elbert Burr in the August issue are more beautiful and express Arizona more than any paintings that I have ever seen. I never quite realized it before but Arizona scenery doesn't need color to express its beauty. Arizona is indeed fortunate to have men like Mr. Burr with the genius to show us who do not live there its real beauty and loveliness.

Klara Castle, San Bernardino, Calif.

May I congratulate you upon the August number of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. Orchids to whoever was responsible for those beautiful Burr etchings. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is always high class but this number beats them all for sheer beauty, dignified publicity and attractive and enticing information about a great state Frank E. Gates, Chairman, City Recreational Commission, City of Whittier, Whittier California.

Putting it mildly, your monthly magazine is anticipated and fought over as much as each new copy of LIFE. It is delightfully put together and I have a list of "subscribers" to whom I must loan my copy each month. Through the courtesy of Rancho Ko-Mat-Ke I have been receiving your publication and under the "coming events" section, we hope some day to not only enjoy a visit to the Rancho, but also that attractive Enchanted Circle Tour which was mentioned in the July issue.

Etchings by Burr in the August number were handled splendidly and they appeared to be faithful reproductions Wm. J. Peden, Jr., The EGRY REGISTER, San Francisco, Calif.

The Burr etchings in August issue have been one of our most popular features. We wish to publicly acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the Phoenix Engraving and Lithographing company for careful reproduction of a group of etchings from one of the great artists of the worldGeorge Elbert Burr.

Note to Mr. Peden: A visit to Rancho Ko-Mat-Ke is a "coming event" anyone could well look forward to.

Not to anyone in particular: What's LIFE got, we ain't got?

MESSAGE FROM HOME:

As one who was raised in Arizona, I want to congratulate you on the splendid work you are doing with ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. It is really an excellent publishing job. I look forward each month to the time when it will come to my desk. It al-

ways brings with it a pleasant nostalgia

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS brings a message from home each month to Publisher Moore of WORLD DIGEST. Mr. Moore is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Moore of Phoenix, prominent Arizonans. His professional opinion is something we highly treasure.

One of the delightful experiences on this visit to Arizona has been the introduction to your excellent magazine. The copies I have seen, particularly the number for August, 1939, contain pictures which are worthy of framing. Such a magazine does much to give tourists and visitors a true appreciation of the scenic beauty of your state Grace E. Morse, Chicago, Ill.

LIVELY REMINDERS:

No magazine coming to our home finds a warmer welcome than ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. Having enjoyed several weeks in your wonderful state, visited many of the natural wonders and met many fine residents, your monthly visits became lively reminders of thrilling scenes and experiences. I find the magazine particularly useful in making clear to friends features of the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Boulder Dam, cactus forests and your scenic highways. The copies are passed on to others to enjoy and learn of your most unusual state J. B. Spencer, Ottawa, Canada.

Arizoniques Strange Facts About a Strange State

The Boulder Dam power plant is now the largest in the world, having seven generators with a capacity of 860,000 horsepower. The ultimate capacity will be more than double that now produced.

With the recent addition of Tuzigoot ruins, three miles east of Clarkdale, Arizona now has sixteen national monuments-far more than are within the borders of any other state. Eight of these national monuments are of great archaeological significance.

What is said to be the largest saw-mill in the Southwest is located at McNary; producing over seventy-five million square feet of lumber annually.

Arizona's longest bridge is the 1,662 foot span across the Gila river a short distance below Gillespie Dam, between Buckeye and Gila Bend.

The largest Diesel engines ever built, producing 15,000 horsepower, are operating at the Salt River Valley Users power plant at Tempe. These two engines under full power consume 300 to 350 barrels of oil or approximately 15,000 gallons daily.

Arizona, aside from having the world's four highest reclamation dams of their type, has in Parker Dam the deepest dam in the world. The deepest hole ever dug for a dam foundation was excavated here the depth being 240 feet to bedrock.

The famed Apache Trail, now one of Arizona's prize attractions, which parallels in places the old trail used by renegade Apaches, was constructed for the purpose of bringing in materials and supplies for the building of Roosevelt Dam. This road was built principally by Apache Indians from the reservation near by.

There are at least seven mountain peaks in Arizona over 10,000 feet high and nearly twenty over 8,000 feet in altitude. There are about 500 mountains and peaks within the state, worthy of note.

The General Motors testing laboratory in Phoenix, built at a cost of over $100,000, is one of the two in the United States maintained by that corporation and the site was selected after taking into consideration the climate including temperature, humidity, weather, and altitude, as well as the road system, size of city, hotel accommodations and transportation.

Phoenix holds the world leadership in air conditioning which is now being adopted generally throughout the United States for greater summer comfort in factories, stores, offices and homes alike.

Roses and many other varieties of flowers bloom out of doors throughout the winter in the Valley of the Sun in Phoenix and vicinity. There are many flowers of different varieties to be seen blooming throughout the year in this area.

A perpetual mirage, midway between Willcox and Dragoon on U. S. Highway 666, known as Willcox La Playa, is a most amazing phenomenon, appearing to be a shimmering sheet of water the year around.

Dinosaur tracks impressed in a thin layer of limestone, said to be the finest yet discovered in Arizona have recently been brought to light on the Navajo Indian reservation. One of these tracks, the progress of which is traced for 75 feet shows strides measuring 12% feet. These ancient impressions are said to have been made millions of years ago by those great beasts that inhabited these parts.

The turbulent Colorado river, now somewhat tamed by the mighty Boulder Dam, is spanned by seven great bridges; at Yuma, Ehrenberg, Topock, Parker, Boulder Dam, Grand Canyon and Marble Canyon, five of which carry U. S. highways.

More than 60 varieties of semi-precious and precious stones are found in Arizona, and the University of Arizona College of Mines Museum collections of rare gems and minerals is one of the best displays to be found anywhere.

The Santa Cruz river in Arizona is rather unusual in that it starts south, then reverses itself and flows north through its greatest length. It rises in Arizona, goes into Mexico, then comes back into Arizona. It never reaches any visible outlet and appears to disappear beneath the sands in the heart of the desert.

Inscription House, one of the pre-historic ruins of the Navajo National Monument in northern Arizona, derives its name from an inscription scratched into the clay plaster of a wall. The inscription reads: "S-hapeiro Ano Dom 1661," which was probably left there by some Spanish soldier during the days of the Conquest.

The Desert Botanical Garden which is being developed on an 800 acre tract in Papago State Park near Phoenix, is said to be the only one of its kind in existence. Several thousand plants, cacti from all over the world are being placed there in surroundings comparable to their natural state. A combination assembly hall, herbarium and library to afford facilities for students of desert flora, and a glass and lath plant-propagating house, are to be features of the garden.

Weirdly beautiful Monument Valley in far northern Arizona was the setting of the recent motion picture success, “Stagecoach.” Many other pictures have been filmed in Arizona settings and many more are planned including Clarence Budington Kelland's “Arizona,” the first of a triology and which is set in Tucson, the old walled pueblo.

George W. P. Hunt was elected governor of the State of Arizona seven times since Statehood. He rode a burro into one of the State's mining camps in Territorial days seeking work. His personal achievements and great appreciation for the State brought him to high office and unprecedented period of service as such.

Tempe Normal School, now Arizona State Teachers' College at Tempe, was established in 1885. Five thousand dollars was appropriated for the erection of a building and $3,500 more for the support of the school during 1885-86.

The legislative act of 1899, which established Arizona State Teachers' College at Flagstaff reads as follows: “The exclusive purpose and object of the Normal Schools shall be in the instruction and training of persons, both male and female, in the theory and art of teaching and all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education; and in all subjects needed to qualify for teaching in the public schools; also to give instruction in the fundamental law of the United States and the Territory in what regards the rights and duties of citizens.”