YOURS SINCERELY

STORY OF A NAVAJO PINTO:

I was indeed proud when I received the August number of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS with its outstanding beauty; again proud to know this most beautiful of all magazines I have ever seen, proud to have a chance to live in Arizona, proud to live among the Navajo people whom I have come to love so much. But the thing that made me most happy was the picture of "Navajo mother and child" by J. H. McGibbeny and I just simply have to tell you the short story of that little girl in connection with a pinto horse.

Later this spring I was visiting with my trader friends up at Rough Rock Trading Post and I had just brought Frank Todacheenie's pinto up from the corral to take him for a ride, when a Navajo woman, Alice McCurain, came to the store and wanted to buy some medicine for a little girl at home with a swollen stomach. A distended abdomen could be the symptom of many things from a ruptured appendix to tocperitonitis and remembering Pinto outside, I decided to take a look at the child and followed the wagon to the distant hogan. The little girl was critically sick; a ride to the hospital was provided at once and the Navajo child improved after a few weeks.

When I visited Rough Rock again later, there came the same woman up to me, all smiles, and alongside waddled the little cutie with a lollypop in its mouth, as fine as it could be. A warm and grateful feeling toward Pinto went through my heart there in the store and again when I looked at the mother and girl in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS yesterday, for without Pinto I could not have gone out to the hogan to see the child in time to do something for her.

Josef Muench took some beautiful pictures of it, with Frank Todacheenie in the saddle. And so, whenever you publish Mr. Muench's photograph I want you to remember that Pinto deserves that honor for he not only helped to save the life of the little ARIZONA HIGHWAYS starlet, but he also is a symbol of the many Navajo ponies which do their hard duty in spite of planes and cars and trucks in the heat and when blizzards sweep across the desert, in mud and deep sand, with little food and little water . . . forgotten heroes far off the highways.

Hedy Schmidheiny, R.N. Sage Memorial Hospital Ganado, Arizona

BACK COVER AMONG GERMAN FRIENDS:

You might be interested in this little story of my visit to some German people in Hanover this past summer. When I asked them if they made use of their AMERIKAHAUS in their city, they replied that no, they didn't, but one of their friends, who is a "bibliotekarten" there, gave them the most beautiful magazine, one which perhaps I was not familiar with, but which to them was indeed precious and looked at over and over again. Well, they were simply dumbfounded when I said "Let me guess-is it ARIZONA HIGHWAYS?" and yes, it was! I simply had no luck in trying to interest them in California, but had to tell them as much as 1 could about Arizona, and assure them that the pictures did not begin to do justice to the charm and beauty of the state.

COLOR CLASSICS:

Thanks for your prompt service and the wonderful slides. We have shown them to our summer vacationists many times at our free slide entertainments. There is no question our showing of these slides will influence a lot of vacationists to travel your wonderful state.

These shows are put on by me (a U. S. Forest Service employee) without cost to the government or our campers. Due credit is given each show to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS and the photographers.

I was very pleased to see your announcement in September issue of Color Classics for Education. Your fine slides, so competently packaged, plus the Teachers Guide, will, I predict, attract customers among school faculties all over the country. I am ordering your 300 slide set from your distributor today. I will use them before girl student groups.

Wilma P. Sansome Rochester, New York

To see the stillness of a tree, Knowing it has been torn with windTo see the stillness of a pool, Knowing it has been swept by floodTo see the stillness of a stone, Knowing what fires gave it form . . . This is to know that stress will end, This is to know that peace will comeFor wind and flood and flame have passed To leave this quiet here at last.

ROLAND ENGLISH HARTLEY Fir-tips With upright cones Against the mountain sky Are heaven's candelabra, bright With sun.

VESTA N. LUKEI A bard Would dip his pen Into the chalice of The melting western sky and make A song. But I Before the glow . . . The spreading red and gold Of days slow merging into night . . . Stand mute.

GERTRUDE M. OLSON I turned up at the stable And chose my mount with care; In new riding togs felt able To show quite a horsey flair. I may have fooled the tourists some, But that horse knew where I was from.

ANNABELLE STEWART ALTWATER The setting sun beams, radiant, Then slowly fades away, Just like a ruby tail light Of each departing day.

THELMA IRELAND If a cricket needs a reason For his wrinkled, vibrant singing, I would reckon, not the season, Not a mating call sent winging Or that evolution grew it, But, because he likes to do it!

GASTON BURRIDGE

OPPOSITE PAGE

"IN PETRIFIED FOREST" BY WAYNE DAVIS. Petrified Forest National Monument is about 20 miles east of Holbrook. Here is a chapter in earth's geological history. The petrified trees of the area were living things 170 million years ago. The area was proclaimed a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, established as one of the first national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. President Hoover, in 1932, by proclamation, added 50,000 acres of the Painted Desert to the monument, making a total acreage of 93,198.

"THE PAINTED LAND" BY EVA LUOMA. This photograph was made in the Painted Desert a short distance from the juncture of U.S. Highway 66 and the northern entrance of Petrified Forest National Monument. Ansco View Camera, one second exposure at f.29, Ektachrome film. The photograph was taken in the early morning in order, as the photographer explains, "to get a little more substance." The Monument is one of Arizona's most popular scenic shrines.