Yours Sincerely

I shade my lifted hand And look from the ranch house door, Out over a wide and silent land, Bare as a wind-swept floor. A wisp of dust on the distant hill Where the dim road creeps and crawls. One comes? No, only a trail of dust Where a whirlwind lifts and falls. I shade my eyes with my lifted hand, On the step by the ranch house door; I watch and wait-as my mother watched

WATCHERS ON THE DOOR STEP

In the long hard years beforeWhen I clung to her skirts and watched with herA child on the step by the door. We watched till a rider turned to the gate, Or a team begrimed with sweat From the far-off road turned slowly down. We watched-with table set, And food made hot, and a glowing fire, To welcome the homing men-And my mother counted that all was well, And breathed fear-free again.

I stand alone at the ranch house door And shade my eyes with my hand, And watch where the whirlwinds rise and fall On a wide and silent land. Ah, not till the dead rise up and ride Will one turn down to the gate; There is only the dead to ride to meYet I shade my eyes, and I wait.

ON THE RIM: ... I, like many other fortunate Americans, have on various occasions stood upon the rim of the Grand Canyon and been overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it. My sojourns there have never been of sufficient duration and each time I am in your state the urge to stand once more upon that brink is almost overpowering. Luckily there is one media that can to a certain degree satisfy some of that yearning and that is the wonderful color photographs which appear in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. However, in attempting to describe this great chasm, even with the aid of these photographs, words at the command of mere man are not adequate. I just simply state that you must see it to realize its true grandeur. And then I am not sure.Your cover photograph on the June issue has almost done it. After reading the account by Mr. Ragsdale of how he secured this photo I feel that I am forever in his debt. Never before, in the opinion of this writer has any one so faithfully captured through photographic means, the true colors of the canyon. I am tempted to walk-over and touch that sentinel of the heights. The softness of the waning sun is there. I can almost see the lengthening shadows as they creep up the sides of the western slopes; it is not flat. I can look into and down, the depths are real; and that rainbow, surely, it must have its feet in the pot of gold we all dream of.I have tried to convey to you by the only means at my command the impact of this work of art in photography. For bringing to me a great picture I express my sincerest gratitude.

Bob Kirkland Wichita 16, Kansas Neither words nor pictures can describe ourGrand Canyon. We feel Fred Ragsdale's cover in June ARIZONA HIGHWAYS was a valiant attempt to do it justice. We think, too, Mr. Kirkland will enjoy Esther Henderson's study of the canyon to appear in our coming Decетber issue.

YOURS SINCERELY PICS IN KITCH:

Last spring we enlarged our kitchen and made it into a kitchen and dining room. We think that you might be interested in the use that we have made of the beautiful single and double colored pictures from the magazine so we are inclosing two snapshots to show you. The pictures are placed in the soffits which hide the roller shades and are simply fastened to glass with scotch tape and are spaced by strips of black formica. The grooves which hold the glass are so made that the glass may be raised enough to be taken out so that we can make changes as more beautiful pictures arrive.

Mr. & Mrs. T. C. Lloyd-Jones Modesto, California

PEOPLE OF HIGH COURAGE:

Many authors would have us believe that those early peoples who subdued all that forbidding country were a lousy, vulgar, lustful lot. My husband and I are both descendants of those who walked across the land only to be sent down into those naked, waterless deserts. We know that only people with high courage, industry, and unlimited faith in their Creator would have remained to make homes.

It is easy to recognize the beauty and grandeur of the Vermilion Cliffs when one drives through on a paved road in a fast automobile, but Mr. Lauritzen has proved that one can keep faith with the land even after trying to make it productive. He is to be congratulated. He also knows, as we do, that some of the most cultured, refined people from the old world were among those sent into the Arizona Strip.

Mrs. Nevada W. Driggs Gooding, Idaho

BACK COVER

"FALL ROUNDUP" BY PIETRO BALESTRERO. The photographer, who is a technician for Western Ways Feature Service in Tucson, took this photograph at Frank Brophy's ranch near Elgin, Arizona. Here are steaks on the hoof, getting ready for market. The rider was posed to give to the scene the sense of the predomination of the rider.

OPPOSITE PAGE

"PORTRAIT OF CIVILIZATION" BY MERYL L. DARSEY. The fires are the fires of unrest, instability, confusion and doubt that torment us in this advanced decade. Yet come what may, there is always the wheel with us, symbol of courage, hope, hard work. Actual scene: garbage dump and trash.