Arizona's Yesterdays

This was Arizona in the days before the freight train and the big, fast trucks. This was Arizona in the days before good roads and the super arterials of modern traffic.

Ore was freighted out of the state in the early days and machinery and household goods were freighted in. A merchant getting ready for his Christmas sales would order his Christmas goods a year before and hope against hope that the freighter would get through, because not only were the roads bad but Indians were about always bent on mischief.

A freighter, once he left the outpost of a frontier town, was on his own. He had to be as able with his rifle as he was with his whip. There were no sleek metal sign plates to show him the way. He depended on the stars and his knowledge of the country.

BIRD CAGE THEATRE

There are no ghosts in the Bird Cage Theatre in Tomb-stone today. The place has been transformed into a tea room, possibly the most unusual tea room in the world, in front of which U. S. Highway 80 gallops gaily across the continent.

There was a time, however, when if you went into the Bird Cage and ordered tea you would probably be tossed out without ceremony. The Bird Cage flourished as a variety house and acts were booked on their way from You may get a thrill riding 70 miles an hour down a paved highway today in your streamlined automobile, but that would be nothing compared to the thrill of riding in the Fairbanks stage in the 80's and 90's behind six fast horses. And if the driver shouted down for you to lay on the floor, you knew you were being chased by Indians and that, of course, made the ride more exciting... R. C.

Denver to the coast. The front of the building was used as a bar and the stage, elevated above crude benches, occupied the rear of the building.

The audience, despite hob nail shoes and the warming influence of the bar in front, was discriminating, and if the performers didn't please, the commotion was something to see and the "birdie" something to hear.

The Death of Frank Pinkley

The death of Frank Pinkley, superintendent of Southwestern National Monuments, is to be regretted by all persons who travel the highways of the southwest for pleasure and instruction. If you can describe a great man as one whose good deeds will live long after him, then Frank Pinkley lived the life of a great man and died a great man, and those things that he wrought during his lifetime will go down the years as a monument to his greatness. Frank Pinkley, as superintendent of a widely scattered western domain of the National Park Service, organized and developed the personnel that has builded in the National Monuments of the Southwest vast storehouses of historical and archaeological wealth for America of today and for the travelers of tomorrow. He was an intelligent supervisor and executive. • He had his eye on the future as well as the present, and scholars and visitors of the years to come can thank him for laying the foundation that means such well managed and preserved national shrines of archaeology and history and scenic beauty throughout the southwest. • He was a leader, a great teacher and philosopher, and above all a kindly, humorous gentleman. Travelers note too often among officials and workers of the National Park Service an austerity that they cannot help resent. Sometimes rangers in pretty uniforms strut about puffed up with their own importance, and ordinary citizens, whom they are paid to serve, find these petty autocrats as unapproachable and unfriendly as granite walls. • Frank Pinkley wasn't like that. There was nothing "stuffed shirt" about him, and he was no respecter of "stuffed shirts." • We strongly suspect that some of the "stuffed shirts" in Washington who had business with Frank Pinkley found him sometimes hard to handle. He waged constant warfare for more money and more men for his monuments. • He was always ready to battle for whatever might make his monuments of greater service and attraction to the visitor. Those swivel chair gentlemen in Washington who run the National Park Service were never allowed to forget that throughout the southwest were scattered some of the most interesting and valuable National Monuments in the country. • By kindly precept, Frank Pinkley was a shining example for every young ranger entering the service to follow. He was as plain and friendly as a person could be and his friends were legion. • One sunny, Sunday morning of August of last year this writer and a photographer had occasion to visit Casa Grande National Monument, the headquarters of the Southwestern National Monuments. Mr. Pinkley took us through the Ruins and through the Museum. His description was thorough and unhurried and while he had shown visitors through a thousand times before, you felt that he was seeing it himself for the first time. He made the Ruin live again before your eyes. • Those old mud walls of Casa Grande seemed to lose their centuries and you saw before you the villages of pre-historic times full of busy, happy people. Mr. Pinkley did not impress upon you his importance as a superintendent in the service. You felt that he was a visitor, too, as interested in the past as you were, and zealous to paint you the proper picture. • You left Casa Grande as much impressed by his wit, humor and gracious personality as you were by the antiquity of the Ruin. Frank Pinkley was like that. With his death, Arizona has lost a valuable citizen and the National Park Service has lost one of its most important workers... R. C.

APRIL

We hope that some of our readers will not feel that we have gone effeminate this issue by discoursing at length on the subject of fashions inspired by the desert, but the whole thing struck us as being very interesting. • A young lady in Phoenix, with a talent for designs for fabrics, has used the desert and the west as her inspiration and the result is remarkable, so remarkable in fact that Nelly Don who makes dresses is featuring desert prints this spring. • The editorial taste of this magazine runs to Levis and boots but, of course, there must be other things. So turn a couple of pages and you'll see for yourself. Highway magazine . . . fashions . . . girls . . . dresses . . . ha! What is the world coming to?If you were to ask us which is the most interesting and beautiful part of Arizona or the southwest we would say "Monument Valley" and many people would agree with us. Monument Valley is a wild and remote region in the land of the Navajos in northern Arizona stretching into southern Utah. • No paved highways will lead you to it. No slick resorts with tailored clerks and managers will await you there to offer deluxe accommodations at deluxe prices. You'll find it cold as hell in winter and hot as hell in summer and likely as not your car will bog down in the sand en route and you will have to dig yourself out. If it rains you might be stranded overnight beside a wash alone with your thoughts and the black night. But when you get there you'll find a region unlike any place on earth, and the memory of it will live with you always. • If you have time you can explore its mysteries with Harry Goulding, a trader, who knows it better, perhaps, than any white man on earth. Your visit to Monument Valley through Navajoland will be of high adventure and you'll mark it down in bold letters in your travel book. Richard Van Valkenburgh of Fort Defiance tells us of it in this issue.

Gone neglected in these pages for too long a time has been the Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum at Superior; so it is with pleasure that we invite you to read Allan Lehman's account of it herein under "Symphony in Tree Major." If you are traveling this way in April and May spend a day or two at the Arboretum. It's gorgeous in the spring and you will find your visit to be perfectly delightful. You will be surprised, too, to learn what patience and cultivation can bring from the desert.

If you classify yourself as a sportsman and you feel that among bass fishermen you are one of the best, we suggest that you betake yourself this spring to Lake Mead, where you will find the best bass fishing in America. The classification is not our own. No less an authority than Roy Cole, "The Scout Angler," makes that statement and he should know because he has fished in most of the lakes and rivers of America. He qualifies as the expert. He's made many exploring trips for tackle manufacturers all over America, and in casting he has few peers. Last summer he discovered Lake Mead, and he's been there since. If you would like to do some bass fishing at Lake Mead you'll find a few paragraphs and pictures in this issue. • And while you are looking at the pictures, we would like to call your attention to the double spread in the center of this magazine, an aerial study of Boulder Dam and Lake Mead that is about the best we have ever seen.

And spring is here again. If you have never enjoyed a Spring in Arizona you have missed one of the most charming and delightful seasons found anyplace. Spring in Arizona is a shade warmer, a bit gayer, much more colorful than Spring any place on earth. April in Arizona is a joyous month.... R. C.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF GOOD ROADS BY ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT RAYMOND CARLSON, EDITOR CIVILIZATION FOLLOWS THE IMPROVED HIGHWAY ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR 10C PER COPY PRESCOTT COURIER, INC. PRESCOTT, ARIZONA ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT, PHOENIX, ARIZONA CONCEIVED AND PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

R. T. (BOB) JONES, GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION in this issue . . .

arizona highways begs your leave to present as a coverpiece a study of spring on the arizona desert by max kegley and other things from fashions to fishing

Arizona's Yesterdays

A Rendezvous with Spring Lily Pond in Little Sycamore Canyon near Garland Prairie 21 miles from Williams by Robert Louis Ziriax and a study of a palo verde tree in bloom by Max Kegley.

Fashions from the Desert.

Willows.. verse by Stan Adler.

Monument Valley Valley-in-the-Rocks..

E. H. McEachren the New Highway Commissioner from Gila county "A Road Around the Peaks".

Study by Tad Nichols.

Symphony in Tree Major the Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum at Superior.......

Lake Mead. a paradise for bass fishermen "When the West Was Young".

"Worth Looking Into".

Paul Carney: Portrait of a Young Man on a Horse...

Along the Highways and Byways

Road Projects Under Construction

Yours Sincerely and Sincerely to You..

Arizoniques inside back cover 1940 Arizona Highway Map back cover