"Sunshine Serenade:" Southern Arizona, Land of Sun and Saguaro

* ROMANCE

Sing a song of happiness . . . a gay song full of sunshine and laughter . . . sing of a land sparkling with the music of Nature's merry melody of azure skies and purple mountains and silvery clouds and nights filled with twinkling stars and bathed in the dancing beams of a golden moon . . .

Hearken to the desert symphony . . . alive in the bright sun . . . sad and lonely at night . . . full of deep mystery and moods without end . . . Hear the crash of cymbals that come with each setting sun as the Heavens of the west flame with fires of burnished gold . . . and listen to the gay notes of the organ that signals sun's rise each glorious dawn . . .

Such is the Sunshine Serenade of Southern Arizona, Land of Sun and Saguaro!

Cowboy... This is the haunt of the cowboy out on the open range, his ballad of the ranchland broken by the low bawling of the herd . . . his mode and manner gives to the color of this land of Sun and Saguaro and his drawling accent bespeaks the free and easy West . . .

Mexican. . . From Mexico comes the click of the castanet, the strumming of soft guitars and and the language of far-away Spain.

Indian. Here, too, is the Indian . . . Pima, Papago, Yaqui, Apache . . . the majestic beat of the tomtom adds a solemn note to Sunshine Serenade. Long ago they came here and here they remain, a stolid, vital and colorful part of Saguaroland.

* SCENIC

Here, in Southern Arizona, mighty Nature and Man with his Tools have created on a grandiose scale. Here is the desert and the mountains upon which Time and the Weather have carved through the sleepy centuries. Here are what remains of a lost civilization which lived its day and went its way, whither and whence no one knows . . .

Here are missions built centuries ago by the plodding padres of old Spain, their adobe walls beaten upon by the rains and winds of countless years, their steps worn by the tread of countless peoples.

Here, too, are the creations of Modern Man . . . his proud orchards and farmlands and modern cities created from a desert waste . . . slim creations in rock, concrete and iron, thrown between canyon walls to horde waters of mountain streams for thirsty farmlands below.

Here he dug his mines deep into Earth's innards seeking gold, silver and copper hordes therein . . . building modern cities around those mines and sometimes leaving cities forgotten when the ore played out . . .

* SUNSHINE CLIMATE

Spendthrift Nature blessed this land with abundant sunshine and a climate, life-giving, invigorating and zestful. Summer, that sprightly miss, comes to Southern Arizona, Land of Sun and Saguaro, to spend the winter, and here she sets up her court, ruling the land with enchanting caress.

Summer's spell is on this land when other places are fastened in winter's chill grip. Here you seek the out-of-doors, to follow your fancy's command and do all the gay things you want to do, while your neighbors elsewhere cling to clanging radiators that pound in humble servitude to icy wind and the blizzard's howl.

* WESTERN HOSPITALITY

Southern Arizona abounds with the time-honored hospitality for which the old west was always famed. This is a friendly land of friendly people. Life in Saguaroland is informal, simple and real.

We're always glad to see you, stranger, and we hope you can come out and "set a spell."

You are greeted with a "Bien venido," the warm words of welcome and when you depart that "Hasta luego" that follows you out the gate is a friendly "See you later," and an invitation to return.

The Famed APACHE TRAIL

Mystery, romance, beauty these are entwined in the sunshine and mountain majesty that form the Apache Trail, famed pathway of modern travel. The Trail leads the Twentieth Century adventurer through the shadows of Superstition Mountain, landmark of lore and legend, past lakes and dams that appear like precious jewels and through a region of purple mountains and regal peaks.

San Xavier MISSION

The Mission San Xavier del Bac, a poem in architectural beauty on the desert near Tucson, combines all the enchantment of old, precious things and the etherial loveliness of mystical things beyond human ken. This mission, which has felt the winds and storms and changing seasons of two centuries, is one of the rarest scenic jewels in all the Land of Sun and Saguaro. San Xavier, a masterpiece in design of gleaming white beauty, is one of the most colorful of all Spanish missions on the North American continent, a proud landmark that showed the way of Spanish Conquest in the West, when the New World was young.

PAPAGOLAND

In the desert of Southern Arizona lives a colorful Indian, the Papago. Throughout Papagoland are quaint villages, peopled by these friendly Indians, who are as much a part of the desert as the Saguaro itself. These adobe huts and corrals, in their primitive surroundings, present pleasing portraits in simplicity.

Casa Grande RUINS

The Casa Grande Ruins bring to the modern traveler whisperings from lost centuries. Here lived a happy, prosperous people long before the moving finger of history came to write. Here is a place to linger and ponder the secrets of the ages.

TONTO National Monument

High in a cliff above Roosevelt Lake is another remnant of a people who passed on, leaving the scientist and the scholar to conjecture after them. These Tonto Cliff Dwellings, protected from the weather of ages by the overhanging ledges are well preserved and they are of great interest to the traveler.

Old TOMBSTONE

Tombstone, of helldorado days, is "the town too tough to die." Relics of Tombstone's toughest days invite the traveler in Southern Arizona to a visit to the old West. Here is Boothill Cemetery and many other landmarks of Arizona's territorial days-wild, vigorous, untamed. If you come in the spring you can find the rose bush abloom at Rose Tree Inn-the largest rose bush in the world.

ROCKY POINT In Mexico

South of Ajo, and 75 miles below the border, is the village of Rocky Point on the Gulf of California-a paradise for the fisherman. This is offered as a special attraction for the visitor in Saguaroland, and should he be "fishin'" minded. this is the place to come.

Red KNOLLS

Every traveler through Graham county should visit Red Knolls, a delightful region, where a huge amphitheatre is formed by giant cliffs. The acoustical effects are so perfect a whisper carries hundreds of feet. Here Gila College presents historic pageants.

CHIRICAHUA National Monument

Chiricahua National Monument, the "Wonderland of Rocks," is in the Chiricahua mountains in Cochise county. Wind, sun and erosion, working incessantly for millions of years, have carved here fantastic rock figures and formations that startle the vision and inspire the imagination. This Monument is considered one of the high-points of travel pleasure in the Land of Sun and Saguaro.

One on the highlights of travel in Southern Arizona is a visit to Tonto Natural Bridge, between Pine and Payson, in northern Gila county. This travertine arch, the largest of its kind in the world, reveals one of Nature's finest architectural masterpieces.

YUMA Historic PRISON

When Arizona was young and tough, long before statehood, desperadoes who lost with the law ended up in the Territorial prison at Yuma. These walls have held some of the worst bad men the West ever knew. The visitor in the Yuma district can spend enjoyable hours at this historic prison, long since rid of its bad men, in contemplation of wilder and woolier days.

CORONADO Trail

The Coronado Trail, the most famous road in the west, extends through the high mountains from Springerville to Clifton. Deep winter brings snows that close the Trail. but in the spring, summer and fall it offers a delightful experience to every traveler. Along this Trail came Coronado the Conquistador four centuries ago. seeking the Seven Cities of Cibola. His journey will be commemorated in the West next year.

Tumacacori MISSION NATIONAL MONUMENT

Tumacacori Mission, a national monument, a few miles north of Nogales, was built in the seventeenth century. Its walls today are evidence of the passing centuries and the drama of life and death that was waged in the West long before America came into being. Now protected as a national monument, this Mission is a fascinating chapter in history, which can be read from hallowed walls.

SAGUARO National Monument

Sacramento Pit, near Bisbee, is the world's largest man-made crater, the result of a tremendously large-scale mining operation. In the Southern part of Arizona are many centers of industrial and mining activities which reveal the supremecy and the might of Man and his Machine in triumphant toil. Trips to these places prove educational and enlightening: The stately Saguaro, monarch of the desert, holds masterful sway over an area designated in his honor the Saguaro National Monument. Here the Saguaro and his fellows come into their greatest glory, and here they present an ineffaceable portrait of desert majesty. Desert roads carry the traveler into the very heart of the area, and this is one of the unbounded pleasures that traveling in the Land of the Sun affords.

SCENIC Surprises

Throughout the hundreds of friendly miles of modern highways in Southern Arizona, surprises and scenic delights await the traveler at every turn of the road! You may come upon a longforgotten fort, relic of Indian war days: or busy and colorful scenes of agriculture, mining and reclamation. Then, too, some of our highways lead to Sonora and its scenic shrines not far away.

Organ Pipe CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT

This strange, grotesque desert dweller, the Organ Pipe Cactus, flourishes in a protected area in Southern Arizona. To the visitor in this region, this cactus growth appears as fantastic as plant life from another world. It forms with sky and mountain, weird patterns of startling beauty.

... what to see NOTES FOR THE TRAVELER IN Saguaroland

A few highlights of scenic, historic, industrial and archeological interest for the winter visitor in Southern Arizona, Land of Sun and Saguaro.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS

POINTS OF INTEREST.

... where to stay

Listing some of the resorts, hotels and ranches in Arizona's Winter Wonderland which offer diverse accommodations for the traveler.

And remember. Saguaroland is served daily by American Airlines, T.W.A., and by adequate bus and railway transportation. Consult your travel agent for winter vacation information in Southern Arizona. Land of Sun and Saguaro.

Colored reproductions used by ARIZONA HIGHWAYS through courtesy American Airlines, Inc.

Layout, design and map creation by George M. Avey