Lost Pony Tracks

It was necessary. Day and night nurses melted Shorty's roll. To complicate matters further, there were two small children, a baby boy a few months old and his brother not yet four. So Shorty, to supplement his dwindling roll, rode in Western pictures at ten dollars a day . . . They paid more if a man did stunts and doubled for the leading man. And while that worthy stood by in all his finery, with a six-gun on each hip, Shorty rode pitching horses for the hero, swam rivers and rode horses over cliffs."

"I'd seen him in the movies lots of times," said Shorty, "an' admired this hombre's nerve. He was just about as sweet as ary one I'd ever seen on a horse, an' come to find out he's just a 'ham' that couldn't even ride in a wagon. At first I wondered how he could look a real cowboy in the eye. . . . But there's another angle, though. If this 'ham' was hurt it would hold the picture up while cowboys, who risk their necks an' do his stunts, are always a dime a dozen."

"Ever wrangle ary kids?" I shook my head. "I never did either till I took my sister home to Texas. She was in a berth not able to sit up. Me an' the baby an' the fouryear-old had the seat across from her. A nurse had showed me how to fix the baby's bottle, but she forgot to tell me how to change his diapers. Our outfit hadn't been loaded long until the baby started bellerin'. I didn't have to look him over either to know he's messed himself. From the way some people looked at me it wouldn't a-surprised me none if they called the conductor an' throwed our outfit off. But I waited till the train stopped. I grabbed a newspaper then an' carried the baby off the car. I laid him on the ground an' after I'd cut the clothes off him, an'

throwed 'em away, I wrapped him in a paper. But it seems a nice white-haired lady was watchin' from the window. Mebbe she figured I was about to cut his throat when she saw me pull my knife, an' she met me when I mounted again. 'Let me take him,' she says. She drug out clean clothes from the baby's war bag, took him into the ladies' room. When she brought him back to me the baby was laughin' again an' smellin' like a rose."

Shorty was in his late forties when he married. Aside from his mother's red hair Allen Junior, squatted on his little boot heels beside his father, was Shorty all over again. And often to the consternation of his motherAllen talked like his father for the relation between father and son was always that of one cowboy to another.

When the great Apache Reservation was given back to the Apaches and the big outfits, the white outfits, were forced to move off, Shorty went to work for the Forest Service counting cattle for the government. Most cowboys are hurt at times, Shorty was fifty and he'd already had his share of broken bones. While he was working for the Forest Service Shorty had his biggest wreck when a horse pitched off a hill with him. When he was found it took six hours to get him to the hospital in town where they discovered eight ribs were broken, and his lung had been punctured in two places when the pony fell and rolled over him. Shorty had had double-pneumonia twice before this wreck so it was touch and go with him for a time. But the old cowboy licked it, and at sixty he could still ride a pitching horse when a pony broke in two.

Shorty had worked with Apache cowboys ever since he came to Arizona. Unlike so many of his kind, Shorty

Yours Sincerely SUCCESS FOR JAENISCH:

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS readers may be interested to hear that Hans Jaenisch ("Prisoner inParadise," ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, April 1949)has been awarded the Berlin Prize for out-standing painting done during the past year bythe West Berlin City Government. Many Americans, who cherish his work, hopethat this will be the springboard which will leadthe way to an exchange fellowship with someAmerican university, so that he can return tothe land he'd learned to love for at least onemore look around this time as a free man.

Paul Lutzeier Cultural Affairs Adviser Weisbaden, Germany

• Congratulations to Hans Jaenisch. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS deems it an honor to have had the privilege of showing his work to American readers.

ANOTHER AMERICA:

You may be interested in a letter recentlyreceived from a cousin in Basle, Switzerland,to whom we have been sending the ARIZONAHIGHWAYS. She writes in German, which wetranslate: "Also I am receiving the ARIZONAHIGHWAYS. It is wonderful, even better thanit was last year. Our Chamber of Commercesent members for a study tour of America andbrought back this magazine as a choice exampleof printing. We have come to think that mostof the products of America are superficial, due,no doubt, to the influence of the Americanfilms. But this magazine shows another America, and in many ways is much better thananything we make here."

Mary and Conrad Buff Los Angeles, California

• Lithographers, plate makers, pressman of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS please take a bow!

ART AT NEW LOCATION:

Ever since you used that grand spread in theAugust, 1949, issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS onthe river trip up Glen Canyon to RainbowBridge, we've been getting letters from all over,Hawaii, and every state in the union. Yourmagazine certainly does some traveling and itisn't just in Arizona! I thought we ought to tell you that instead ofbeing right at Navajo Bridge, for the start ofour trip the Greene Gang has moved 9 milesup U.S. Highway 89 to Cliff Dwellers Lodge.We get our mail via Cameron, Arizona.

We'll look forward to seeing our friends atour new home and hope you and your staff willjoin us one of these days in the Tseh-Na-Ni-AgGo Atin up river to the Rainbow Bridge!

Art Greene Cliff Dwellers Lodge Marble Canyon Via Cameron, Arizona

• The same old gang in a new location and an improved Tseh-Na-Ni-Ag-Go Atin to make theriver trip to Glen Canyon and Rainbow Bridge.

BOULDER OR HOOVER DAM:

We have just received our copies of AprilARIZONA HIGHWAYS, and when I reached the incorrectly titled article, "Boulder Dam," mydander rose. That dam is HOOVER Dam! Wewere there recently and all the labels and direc-tions read in large lettering, Hoover Dam, withBoulder in parentheses in small letters under-neath to indicate its former misnomer underthe FDR dictatorship. The fact that you enclose the name "Hoover" in parentheses onlyadds to the intended insult, for it shows thatyou know better. Or was it done through ignorance? In either case, you certainly owe yourreaders an apologetic correction. To call itBoulder Dam in a publication such as yourswhich people all over the world see is to carryyour partisan Democrat prejudice decidedlytoo far.

If you think you have a legitimate reason

for this unjust atrocity I should like to knowwhat it is. The fact that Democrat Arizonamisnames it is no reason why it should bebroadcast thus, when nationally and justly itis named for the great President Hoover whobuilt it!

Mrs. Lloyd Nichols Tucson, Arizona

I am sure we all have due respect for Mr.Hoover, but let's stick to the picturesque namesfor our mountains and rivers as much as pos-sible. Long after we are gone and forgotten,our mountains, dams, and rivers will still behere. I think most everyone will agree that"Superstition Mountains" and "Thunder River"call much more to the imagination than say"Jones" creek and "Smith" mountain.

Mrs. Dorothy Bonham Bellflower, California

Isn't "Public Attraction Number I" officially Hoover Dam so named for one of our foremost citizens.

How come "Boulder Dam?"

The first line of your article, if you have to call the dam Boulder, should have been "The builders of Hoover (Boulder) Dam" etc.

Edward D. Hubbard Laguna Beach, California

No doubt you will receive plenty of criticism for calling Boulder Dam "Boulder Dam." Am so glad Arizona has taken its stand. Now I'll even consider moving out there!

To call it by a name of an individual is bringing in the human element and "Boulder" is more abstract. No human being is big enough to have such a place named for him. Like you, I have nothing against Mr. Hoover. (I even wish his proposed economy measures would be taken seriously by the present administration.)

• The "Hoover Dam" versus "Boulder Dam" issue has created a flurry among the members of the happy reading family of ARIZONA HIGH- WAYS. We've been on the receiving end of so many caustic letters because we write it "Boulder (Hoover) Dam in deference to a state law we mutter under our breath just plain "Damn" and let it go at that!

OF LEGENDS AND SUCH:

I am writing to say that I would be mostgrateful if sometime you would include a fewof the legendary stories concerning your state.You have so many. On seeing in the last issueviews of Lake Mead, my desire was awakenedto again hear the story of the old prospector andhis wild mountain goat. My memory is veryhazy on the details perhaps it was a deer instead of a goat but I do remember the love ofman for beast. The prospector saved the lifeof the goat after hawks had destroyed its eye.In gratitude the goat returned to meet the old-timer year after year. Then in the formation ofLake Mead, the animal became stranded on oneof the islands and as he stood waiting for hisfriend, hunters shot him.

Another story is the Indian legend aboutthe blessing of the Big Chief upon the seed,and yellow corn came into being.

I am reminded of this bit of philosophy as Iread your magazine: "In a hurry son? Youain't-a-goin' to see the beauty of these hills.You ain't-a-goin' to enjoy your trip to the fullest if you hurry a'long. Stop and dangle yourfeet in some of these cold mountain streams.Park your car and climb up and look out overthe country. Stop at some of the homes for aglass of milk or a drink of water. You will findit'll put peace in your hearts."

• There are many legends to be gathered in this wonderful land of ours, and one of these days we'll gather a few for ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

BACK COVER "SUMMER IDYL" BY ROBERT MAR-KOW. A series of small dams on the Little Colo-rado near Springerville form fine fishing ponds,

perfect for those who like best to fish lazilyfrom a bank. Photograph was taken with 4x5

Speed Graphic Camera, Daylight Kodachrome,f5.6 at 1/50 second, f4.7, 127mm Ektar lens.

DESERT DAYBREAK

Here in the dawning, out on the plain,I wake with the freshness of childhood again I bathe in an ewer of gold from the sky And wave to an eagle who slowly wheels by. "Top of the morning" I call to an owl, A burrowing fellow who stares with a scowl, Then turn to a friendlier creature, a toad, Hunting beside a narrow ant-road; I laugh at its babies who tumble and play, And sing with the birds at dawning of day.

Elizabeth Reeves Humphreys

WINNER

Outside my dull and lonely confine,A little bird decided to dine-As he scratched, searched and ate,It seems, I lost every ache.

But soon he gained his fill Flew from my barren window sill-It seems he lost, I gained,

A golden minute, free from pain.

Ralph A. Fisher, Sr.

EVENING SHADOWS

As twilight dims The sun's bright light, And earth spreads wide Her blankets of night, Their reverend heads The mountains bare, And in the hush The winds say prayer.

Emily L. Alleman

YUCCA AT NIGHT

A pure white maiden,Straight and slim,With moonbeams playingRound her head.White madonna of the flowers.

Have you ever beheld a sightAs pure and radiant blessedAs yucca bloom at night?

Elizabeth M. Clark

LIGHTNING

Lightning rides across the sky,Bedecked in flashing armor.He rips the veil from modest night,And tears her soul asunder.

Elizabeth M. Clark

DESERT SUNSET

It looks as though an artist's paintsWere spilled across the sky,And mingling with the gathering mists,Refused to set and dry.Dripping kaleidoscopic huesThrough outstretched cacti hands,Finding a resting place at lastIn greedy desert sands.

Dell Avon

"THEY'RE BITING ON THE WHITE" BY MARTIN

LITTON. The White River and its tributariesdrain that part of the White Mountain rangechiefly occupied by the Fort Apache IndianReservation. Here during trout season, May-September, fishermen come from near and farto enjoy fine fishing and nice vacation weather.