Yours Sincerely

ENCANTO PARK

Beautiful Encanto Park is but a few minutes from the heart of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Here is an enchanted retreat for those who love the charms of Nature. Lyle A. Morse photo.

ALL ABOUT EBENEZER BRYCE

I must take issue with the letter by Edwin Corle in the October magazine. In fact, I will borrow his phrase and "pick a few fleas," not from your fine magazine but from Mr. Corle's letter.

Let me start with the fourth paragraph wherein he talks of Bryce Canyon National Monument, and a southern Utah farmer by the name of Ebenezer Bryce. Mr. Corle states that Mr. Bryce said, "Bryce Canyon was a heck of a place to lose a cow," perhaps he did that is of no particular interest to mein fact I agree with him and he should know, because he lived and raised cattle and sheep in the canyon and adjacent territory. But to quote Mr. Corle further "The statement was never applied to Grand Canyon, and as far as I can discover, Ebenezer was never in Arizona."

Mr. Corle wants to keep the facts straight because, quote: "at some future date this same magazine might be used as reference." So let's do keep the facts straight.

In 1881 this same Ebenezer Bryce, his wife and eleven children-eight sons and three daughters - came to northern Arizona one daughter had married and remained in Utah. In the fall of 1882 they came to the Gila Valley and lived first at Pima, then a few years later he moved his family across the Gila River north of Pima to a little town now known as Bryce. Mr. Bryce and his sons and sons-inlaw, and now his grandsons have raised cattle on the same range for over sixty years. At one time this company was known as the Bryce, Mattice Cattle Company.

Ebenezer Bryce along with Hyrumn Weech. John Moody, Joseph Cluff were asked by their church leaders to erect a saw mill in Graham Mountains. This was the second mill in the mountains, and was about 1883. These men were all members of the Mormon Church and among the earliest settlers in Arizona.

A few years later he erected a grist mill at Bryce. This was known as "Ebenezer Bryce & Sons." and was the third flour mill in eastern Arizona.

This could go on and on but if Mr. Corle is interested I would be happy to make him acquainted with several hundred of the direct descendants of this same Ebenezer Bryce. Fact is I married one.

Mrs. Warner Bryce Mattice Pima, Arizona Thanks to Mrs. Mattice for getting us straightened out on Ebenezer Bruce, one of the great Mormon pioneers.

RECEPTION IN SCOTLAND

Since December last when I had the pleasure of receiving my first copy of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS I have intended to write to you in sincere appreciation of such a splendid pictorial and educational magazine.

I was introduced to your magazine through the kindness of my pen-friend, Mrs. Betty Williams, formerly of Tucson. She it was who provided me with so many hours of enjoyment by means of her Christmas gift to me an annual subscription to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

During the dreary months of last January and February. I found my chief comfort in sitting by the fire with my ARIZONA HIGHWAYS which soon carried me to the incredible heat and beauty of the Grand Canyon, and I was lost with the colorful and to me, mysterious. peoples of the Indian country. If I need a morale-builder. it's ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

Miss Kathleen J. Halliday Dumfries, Scotland Best wishes to Miss Halliday in faraway Scotland. Our reception in the British Isles makes us very proud.

CACTUS LOVER:

Fortuitously I have seen the January issue 1947 of your magazine. I was in the Cactus-Heaven!! I had not a presentiment of the existence of such a fine magazine, and as a fanatic lover of cacti and other succulent plants that issue has given me the utmost pleasure. The color plates are splendid, the articles interesting. They did make me long for the Arizona Desert, to see and to collect the plants we grow with such a predilection. (But under quite other conditions!) But this will, I think. always but remain a desire, but by reading and seeing your beautiful magazine. I have made a trip to the desert in my imag ination. I have to thank you for it.

As editor of the Journal of the Dutch lovers of cacti, I would request you to send me your magazine. In the next issue of our Journal I intend to publish, with your permission, a short extract of that January issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS which, I am sure, will please our readers.

It is a pity that under today's circumstances our Journal can only be a very modest one. only 12 pages each two months, and the quality of the paper is not apt for good photographs. We always will hope. once better times may come!

A. J. A. Uitewaal Alex Boerstraat 25 hs Amsterdam. Holland

POPLARS

We thought the poplar trees should go They stand, a tall and supple row Along the fence With scanty gift of summer shade Or logs for winter fires made And no pretense Of fruit. Slim arms aloft they hold Denying theft of rainbow's gold. But when The first chill breath of autumn came And touched the maple leaves with flame Ah then, Each slender swaying form was dressed In living gold from bole to crest. So now with lifted hearts we know That row of poplars must not go.

Grace S. Douglas

LOG CABIN

A stalwart strength and flowing harmony Of grey and sunwarm tones-a dignity Of stillness that has captured something from The wind at fragrant noon and shadow-dusk Four walls, yet somehow, still a tree.

Ora Lee Parthesius

BIRTH OF THE HORNTOAD

They were little Newcomers to Heaven And they hadn't learned how to play, So the Creator gave them the pinking shears And a rainbow bright and gay.

He watched little earthbound fingers Joyfully "snip" "snip" as of yore, Then He parted a cloud and the horntoads fell All over the desert floor.Dora Sessions Lee.

MASTERPIECE

To catch a snowflake is to see God's art in carved fragility.

He has no regular design. Each is unique in style and line.Laura Janet Larson. The mountains keep their ermine cloaks, and hold Aloof, their grandeur veiled by canopies Of variegated clouds. Immensities Of stone and rock are lost in uncontrolled New waterways, as storms remould Their hapless forms in new topographies. Late rain refreshes lonely Joshua trees. Replacing moisture barrel-cactus doled. The ocotillo braids its twisted arms And waits eccentric Spring's fecundity. The desert gathers strength for its brief day Of renaissance, when it brings forth the charms Of waxen bloom in hues exquisitely Upheld on grotesque forms of thorny grey

FEBRUARY

Laura Janet Larson.