Yours Sincerely

Yours sincerely MISSION OF A MAGAZINE:

No one has yet ever paid your magazine the proper credit it deserves. Humanity seems to be shivering in the shadow of its evolutive doom, and, in pointless frenzy, tends to document its decline with the wildest assortment of "informative," "factual" and "significant" publications, very few of which can be tolerated for long by one who believes in the decency of the human spirit. It is with quiet satisfaction, therefore, that I regularly rid my home of these gruesome symptoms of a paranoid age, leaving only a few copies of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS scattered about at convenient places. The moments I spend with them are elevating and refreshing, for they allow me to reestablish my identity with the noble and beautiful, and remind me that being a human isn't such a shameful thing after all.Roy Bucknell Claremont, California

DAM-BOULDER OR HOOVER?

As one who has been a subscriber to your magazine for many years, I wish to make a strenuous objection to your labeling the cover on your November issue as "Boulder (Hoover) Dam." The dam is named Hoover Dam by our Congress and the name Boulder does not belong to it: and the sooner it is forgotten the better. I believe in calling things by their right names.Mrs. George Stephen La Jolla, California

"Thunder and Lightning" by Ray J. Manley.

The photograph was made at the end of a summer storm in the Verde Valley near Cottonwood, Arizona, just after the sun had gone below the horizon but the cloud formation was still illuminated by the after-glow. Photographer Ray Manley says of this photograph: "I noticed how huge the cloud formation appeared and drove several miles in its direction to get away from the buildings in town. I also noticed the regularity of the lightning flashes which came about every eight to ten seconds. The illumination on the cloud was very low and by giving a time exposure of two seconds at f.26 I was able to catch a flash of lightning during the time the shutter was open, allowing some five seconds before beginning the exposure after the last flash." Graphic View Camera, 4 x 5 Kodachrome, 6½" Zeiss F 4.5 lens, two seconds at f.26.Just after I sent you a note congratulating you on the Christmas number, Mrs. Isabelle Begay, your Navajo Madonna on the cover of the Christmas issue, give birth to a bouncing boy at Sage Memorial Hospital. His name? Raymond Carlson Begay! The pay-off? Send her a nice autographed copy of the cover and I'll have it framed for her.

GREETINGS NAMESAKE:

Dr. Clarence Salsbury Ganado Mission Ganado, Arizona

JUNGLE-BOUND:

I subscribe to the ARIZONA HIGHWAYS and probably have the answer as to how that magazine got to the Sumatra jungle. My husband, who has a temporary assignment at the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D. C., always brings his old magazines to the Embassy where they are sent to the soldiers in the Netherlands East Indies. I assume it was in this way that Private Roos got hold of an issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

Helen Brophy de Blank Washington, D. C.

OCTOBER COVER:

Permit me to say that the cover on your October issue is certainly one of transcedent beauty. I do not think you ever have had one so nice. As a matter of fact, the entire issue is outstanding, particularly the pictures of the winter birds of the desert.

S. F. Woodbury Portland, Oregon

BLOWN AWAY

Endlessly before my eyes The desert stretched, a timeless land Of patience and of beauty, where Little thoughts were blown away And buried in the sand.

-Elizabeth Reeves Humphreys

To a

ARIZONA NIGHTCAP

To a Jigger of dew, Add six golden moonbeams Then lace well with wind... and stir with A star.

-Adelaide Coker

ASPIRATION

Siren peaks in veils of distance, Beckon to my wakeful heart Leaning skyward, they entice me To their ageless realm. . . apart. Just beyond each violet canyon Shines a gleam of sun-warmed slope, Climb, my heart, from blue illusions To high amber fields of hope!-Lorraine Babbitt

DUDE RANCH COWBOY

Sun wrinkles Around the eyes Friendly grin Plenty wise To the tune of tinkling spurs He tells tall tales to Easterners.-Katharine L. Bratton

GHOSTS OF SAN XAVIER

They come again.. Not in the dark of stygian night That conceals the haunts they loved so well But when the luminous moonlight falls, Softly glowing, on whitewashed walls The Padres who tolled the Mission bell Return, in spirit, to that earthly site— To the beauty they wrought as men.-Elizabeth Ward,

DESERT DANCE

The fairies sweep the desert floor To see the merry whirlwinds fly In filmy gowns of gossamer And pirouette against blue sky.

-Lenore McLaughlin Link