Pathways for the Modern Adventurer

Pathways tor the Modern Adventurer

Travel is the modern adventure. There are always new worlds for the traveler to discover beyond the far horizon, and in this land of distant horizons that is Arizona, every road is a pathway to a new adventure. People from the populated east marvel at the extent of the Arizona highway system in view of the population of the state, and when these people travel mile after mile over the broad highways of the state, perfect arteries of motor transportation, the delights of their journey are manifold.

The superior highway system of this state has not been the result of chance or haphazard engineering. Good highways cost money and the expenditure of the money available for these roads has had to be governed by wise and thoughtful planning to get a dollar's worth of road for a dollar spent. The citizens of the state have always insisted on the best highways possible. This has meant the planning of the highway program by people of judgment and the building of the highways by people of ability.

The close cooperation between the Arizona highway department and the U. S. government in highway building in this state has been the reward of the sane and far-sighted road program demanded by the citizens. Federal aid in Arizona's road system has been through the felicitous cooperation between the highway departments of the state and government, a realization by the government that money spent in Arizona would be well spent, and knowledge by the state that such money must be spent in the most efficient manner possible. A continuation of this present program will mean better roads in years to come... R. C.

Four Hundred Years . . .

Four hundred years ago this summer the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado into what is now our Southwest was the talk of New Spain. Those Imperial Spaniards had a grand way with them and they were not the kind to hide their exploits under a bushel. New Spain in those days was crazed with the fever for wealth and the young gentleman wanting to get any place at the court of the Viceroy or the King had to push ahead and show that he had the stuff that it takes to conquer a wilderness.

This wilderness conquering had been quite profitable for these Spanish gentle-men. They cleaned up in Peru and Mexico and at that very moment ships laden with gold were pushing across the Atlantic to bolster the royal treasury of the King of Spain.

The trumpets sounded loudly when Coronado and his followers started north-ward into what is now Arizona and New Mexico. The trumpets sounded less loudly several years later when he returned the most glorious failure in all the history of the Spanish Conquest. There were no gold and silver hordes to seize and rich cities to be plundered. There were hot deserts to cross, mountains to climb, privations to endure, hostile natives to overcome! Good Spanish blood, the blood of proud Castile and Navarre of Imperial Spain, was spilled in the sand; good Spanish hearts were broken; haughty young Spaniards limped back from the north poorer, sadder and wiser men. It is lamentable that there were no photographers in the days of the Conquest. What pictures of dreary despair would we have of that foot-weary, flea-bitten, impoverished, hungry, ragged expedition returning from whence it started! In one sense of the word it served them right these avaricious, grasping Spaniards and their lust for gold -for the bitter dose of medicine handed them by our land.

Yet this year we in the Southwest are celebrating the cuarto centennial of the Coronado expedition, and this month ARIZONA HIGHWAYS has devoted a number of its pages to Coronado and the Conquest. The Coronado celebration will reach its peak in Arizona during August and with our presentation is our welcome for you to visit our land.

While it may seem that we are commemorating a failure, we are paying homage to an epoch in our history and to a group of men and a people whose marks will always remain with us. We are celebrating the first step of European civilization in America for with the Spaniards came Christianity, cattle, sheep, horses and that classic hero of the West-the burro. They brought their language and in our Southwest today a knowledge of that language is a valuable possession. They built missions, they brought new farming methods and they opened up for colonization our great western empire. These Spaniards were the first to come our way and all that happened four hundred years ago and during the next two centuries adds to the glory of our land today.

They were the explorers and the discoverers. They led the way and without them all might have been different.

Their songs are the songs we sing; their music part of our music. The clank of their armor is heard in our history and the romance and color of their civilization is a brilliant note in the romance and color of our civilization. Old Spain will always be with us. . . R. C.

Coronado Month ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

During August the Coronado celebration in Arizona occupies the center of interest for travelers in the West. In keeping with the theme of our southwest, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS bows in humble respect to the memory of Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his gallant soldiers, who came this way four centuries ago. We are privileged to give you an historical study of the Coronado age by Dr. Wyllys of Tempe College, eminent southwestern historian; to tell you something of "The Entrada of Coronado" to be given at Prescott and Clifton; and to call your attention, by way of notation, to the pageant to be given at Grand Canyon. Our humble apologies to our readers for not having actual photographs taken in 1540 when Coronado and the boys came by. Cameras were not in vogue in those days, apparently.

The illustrations used in our article on "The Entrada of Coronado" were taken in New Mexico at one of the Entradas put on in our neighboring state this summer. For them we are indebted to the Arizona Coronado Cuarto Centennial Commission. They are especially interesting in that they show in quite complete detail the exquisite costumes used in this really extraordinary historical drama. Long live the trumpets! Viva Espana!

We hope you enjoy our front cover. The artist, Virgil Hubert, has caught the spirit of the Conquest in that poised, tense figure pointing at an ancient map. Our back cover is the work of our own artist, George M. Avey, and presents in four flags all the history that has ever been written of our land.

Modern explorers in this land that is Arizona could have no better map than our new Pleasure Map (see center insert) to guide them on their way. George Avey, our artist, has piled on a lot of color, listed many points of scenic interest, to get the desired effect. "Arizona Welcomes You!" Yes, indeed!

August month is the month of the Snake dances at the Hopi villages of our land. We accompany Miss Margaret M. Walsh, instructor in arts, Tempe College, to a dance at Walpi in this issue. For our illustrations we are fortunate to have secured pictures from the Babbitt collection taken by Earl Forrest, a visitor to our land in 1907. In those days the Hopis allowed visitors the use of their cameras. Today photo-taking is prohibited.

We recommend the Hopi dances as perhaps the most interesting spectacle to be seen in the West. You are welcome to attend, but you'll find no lavish preparations awaiting you. Their dances, you must understand, are sacred, religious presentations of the Hopis and they are not staged for show or for the amusement of travel-wise Americans.

When you happen by you come upon a ceremonial that has been handed down through the centuries. It is as if you discovered a new world and a new people. And the strange dances of the Hopi people will always live in your memory.

From time to time we run across pictorials in our travels that strike us as being exceptionally attractive. Our reaction (and we hope yours) to the Painted Desert pictorials by Marshall Beauchamp (a new member of our family) displayed herein was enthusiastic. The Painted Desert is a difficult subject to catch by camera eye, but the photographer in this instance succeeded no end.

So to all travelers following our highways and byways in Arizona, we dedicate this, our Coronado issue, with a warm, friendly: "Welcome to our land!"

AUGUST, 1940

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 Vol XVI.

AUGUST, 1940

No. 8

R. T. (BOB) JONES, GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA

ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION

J. M. PROCTER, Chairman. Tucson.

R. E. MOORE, Vice Chairman. Jerome.

KEMPER MARLEY, Commissioner. Phoenix.

E. H. MCEACHREN, Commissioner, Miami.

SPENCER S. SHATTUCK, Commissioner, Bisbee.

M. L. WHEELER, Secretary, Phoenix.

A. R. LYNCH, Assistant Attorney General, Special Counsel.

W. R. HUTCHINS, STATE HIGHWAY ENGINEER

for august

1540-the Coronado year-1940

arizona highways

presents as its coverpiece a painting by virgil hubert depicting a figure of the spanish conquest; an article telling of the conquistadores and their times; and pictures and a few notes on the happenings in our land during coronado month, as follows: Pathways for the Modern Adventurer.

The Trails of the Conquistadores.

Painted Desert.

Hopi Prayer for Rain.

Arizona Rediscovered.

"Arizona Welcomes You". Centerpiece "The Entrada of Coronado".

Of Ancient Times

Grand Canyon

Along the Highways and Byways...

Road Projects Under Construction..

Yours Sincerely.

Arizoniques... Inside back cover

Four Flags. Back cover

Acknowledgements: "The Coronado Trail." page 4, Max Kegley: "White Mountains of Arizona," page 8. Max Kegley; "Montezuma Castle," page 26, Frasher's Photo; "Grand Canyon," pages 28-29, Max Kegley.

F. N. GRANT, Deputy State Engineer.

B. H. MCAHREN, Vehicle Superintendent.

R. A. HOFFMAN, Chief Div. of Bridge and Certification.

C. V. MILLER. Chief Division of Plans.

J. W. POWERS. Engineer of Materials.

GENERAL OFFICE A. F. RATH, Manager, Planning Survey.

GEORGE STEISEL, Supt. of Equipment.

J. S. MILLS, Chief Division of Estimates.

WILLIAM T. ALLEN. Patrol Superintendent.

HARRY DUBERSTEIN. Right of Way Agent.

HERMAN A. OTT. Superintendent of Purchasing and Warehouse.

FIELD ENGINEERS

PERCY JONES Chief Locating Engineer

JOE DEAROZENA, District Engineer District No. 1

R. C. PERKINS, District Engineer District No. 2

J. R. VAN HORN, District Engineer District No. 3