Arizona Rediscovered

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are discovering Arizona this summer, enjoying the same sense of revelation and exploration that was experienced four decades ago when Coronado and his stalwarts came trudging along, their proud banners of Spain flying in the sun-blest breezes of our land. No better time could be found for the American traveler to visit Arizona than during Coronado month, in Coronado summer, and Coronado year. May we, by way of suggestion, refer you to our pleasure map, "Arizona Welcomes You," folded here, showing some of the scenic and travel pleasures awaiting you out here in the west. This map covers over 113,000 square miles of sun-drenched canyons, mountains, plateaus, mesas, and desert-and every mile is a different mile, every mile is a different experience, every mile is another mile of sheer travel enchantment.

Arizona is the youngest state in the Union: yet only 48 years after Columbus discovered America, explorers were poking their way about our land, planting the roots of our civilization. By the time the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, the travel and discovery business was brisk out here in the west. So when you come to Arizona you visit the oldest inhabited part of these United States.

When you follow the scenic highways to travel pleasure in our state, you travel in a land that hasn't changed a great deal in the four hundred years since its discovery. When you stand over the Rim and gaze into the depths of Grand Canyon, you are seeing the same old Canyon, the same old colors, the same lavish sculpturing, as was seen by Cardenas. This land never changes. It is always new. It is ageless.

HISTORIC ARIZONA PRE-HISTORIC

Throughout the innumerable, sun-lit miles that are Arizona, the traveler finds today countless signs of a lost people whose story is told in ancient ruins. Here history that has never been written speaks in silent tongue. Where did they come from? Where did they go? These ancient ones! The archaeologist seeks after them, digging in ruins that were forsaken centuries ago. Whole villages have been discovered in all parts of the state and it is said that major discoveries are to be made. The visitor in Arizona can himself explore into a pre-historic era and conjure about a race of people who lived and flourished here ages ago. Some of the most interesting and instructive of these pre-historic ruins have been set aside by the U. S. Government as National Monuments, under the supervision of the National Park Service. Here custodians and park rangers tell the story of the ancient people and conduct visitors through ruins that have been carefully excavated and protected.

The earliest visitors into this land that is now Arizona were the Conquistadores of Spain. In 1539, a pious Franciscan monk, Fray Marcos de Niza, passed this way and the next year came Coronado with his expedition of Conquest. For three hundred years Spanish exploration and colonization was carried on in Arizona, and today the modern traveler can visit two missions, Tumacacori and San Xavier del Bac, which bespeak the days of Old Spain in this state.

With these Spaniards came the Cross of Christianity and the march of civilization. With them came cattle, horses, sheep, and new agriculture for the Indians.

But these Spaniards, seeking gold and silver, found a hard land and a hard life and only the cloaked friars, the kindly fathers, by precept and by teaching left their mark upon the land we live in today.

Yet the music of Spain and of Mexico can be heard today in the streets and byways of villages and cities of Arizona. Some of the color and enchantment the visitor finds here comes from Old Mexico and Old Spain. Delightful names with the lilt of Castile!

The southern border of Arizona is the northern border of Sonora, one of the Mexico's proud states. Between Arizona and Sonora is a constant passing of people, for pleasure and for trade. The international boundary separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Sonora, and Douglas, Arizona, from Agua Prieta, Sonora, and yet a few steps across the border and the traveler finds himself in a strange, exotic country, whose color and beauty blends with the color and beauty of Arizona.

Toward the middle of the past century began the western march of American civ ilization to the new frontier. First came the trappers and hunters like Old Bill Williams and Pauline Weaver. Then came the brave and hardy Mormon pioneers, and the cattleman and the miner.

They not only had to conquer a western wilderness but they had to do so in spite of the dreaded Apache, one of the most fierce and cunning Indians on the North American continent.

They brought the plow that broke the desert and the fertile land on the mesas. They discovered the mineral in our mountains and they built cities. The laws that they made were among the most liberal in the land. They insisted on good schools and they laid the foundation for the future generations who were to come to this Empire of the West.

Today Arizona is still a pioneer land, it is still the frontier. The traveler will not find here a people stifled by tradition or held by the chains of circumstances. Arizona is still a young, growing state and its youth is part of its charm and strength.

Today Arizona, despite its modernity and its progress, still retains some of the flavor of the old west, for which it was renowned throughout the world during the latter part of the 19th century.

Rich mineral deposits around Tombstone and in other places in Arizona attracted some of the best and some of the worst men who ever lived. Tombstone Charleston Galeyville a few of the most lurid chapters in the story of the west.

These were the days of the desperado and the highwayman of the gambler and his ilk. of bad men who lived in a young, rough, boisterous land, where dexterity with a six-gun was the surest kind of insurance and where every man made and enforced his own kind of law and failing to do so died with his boots on.

Such was the old West. Rowdy hard living dangerous where life was cheap but always exciting. Today Tombstone is a living reminder of that wild, roughand-tumble chapter in Arizona's history, where the traveler can see bullet-scarred walls and streets which will forever retain the vigorous story of their early life.

Such is another side of this charming land called Arizona. This was the Old West, and that gaudy era will always remain with us in our ghost mining camps and in the cattle towns scattered from border to border And there is modern Arizona... Arizona of today... progressive prosperous intelligent. This is the Arizona of modern, up-to-date cities, the Arizona of the great agricultural empire, the Arizona of mountains and desert, where resorts and ranches of charming informality tell of a new way of life...

This is the young and vigorous Arizona . . . of fine schools . . . and up-right citizens . . . of mechanical enterprise . . . of great dams that are marvels of engineering . . .

This modern Arizona is hospitable and friendly... and the traveler is always welcomed with warm cordiality