This, Too, Is Arizona

Arizona is a lot of things to a lot of people. There is a lot of Arizona, 113,956 square miles of it, and everyone of those square miles has something to offer, and each square mile is different from the next. At its greatest length the state is 391 miles long; east and west, at its greatest width, it is 337 miles wide. A lot of very interesting and diversified scenery and terrain is crowded within those dimensions. It spreads out in all directions and it goes up and down in just as merry a manner. In elevation, the state varies from 137 feet above sea level, near the Mexican border southwest of Yuma, to Humphrey's Peak in the San Francisco range near Flagstaff, which pokes its often snowcapped pate 12,655 feet into the air. Within the low and high points of Arizona are three general geographical regions: typical desert in the Southwestern part, a forested mountain region in the central and eastern parts, and the high, wind-swept

plateau region to the northeast. Variety, indeed, puts spice in our terrain.

Whims of elevation in Arizona also acccount for the whims of our weather. Rainfall varies from five to seven inches annually in the desert regions (that is, when and if it rains) to twenty or more inches of precipitation annually in the high mountain country. Summer temperatures in the desert are high and soaring; moderate in the mountains. Desert winters are mild-mannered; mountain winters are often frigid and fretful. The plateau region can bake in summer, turn bitterly cold in winter. Climatewise, we have everything from hot soup to nuts a la mode.

Nature is no laggard, either, in adjusting her plant life to the different climates and different terrains which make up Arizona's many faceted personality. Nature's story in this state is a bulging book covering everything from cactus to the Ponderosa pine, from palo verde, catclaw and mesquite to the tall, serene spruce, monarch of the high, soaring mountains.

Arizona is people, too, and the record of their occupancy of this glamorized real estate. Twenty thousand years of man's life here have been delved into by the inquiring anthropologist and archeologist. These years begin with the epoch of the Cochise Man, extend through the lives and times of the Anasazis and the Hohokams, and take in the arrival of the ancestors of our modern Indian tribes. Arizona, to many people, is the remnants of the "ancient ones" and the "vanished ones"such as Betatakin in Navajo National Monument; White House Ruins in Canyon de Chelly; Walnut and Wupatki near Flagstaff; Montezuma Castle in the Verde Valley; Casa Grande near Coolidge; Tonto Ruins, just off the Apache Trail, between Mesa and Miami; and Ventano Caves, in the desert south of Tucson.

The gallant conquistadores of Spain and the faithful priests who accompanied them also left their marks in the land. San Xavier Mission and Tumacacori recall those proud days of Spain's ascendancy over the newly-discovered lands of the western hemisphere.

Days of the Old West have left their reminder of their prominence in the sun for all the world to see. Tombstone and Tubac recall those days and to many this, too, is Arizona.

Today, to some, Arizona means the land of the Indians, incongruous islands so different from the sea of modernity surrounding them. The Navajos, Hopis, Pimas, Papagos, Maricopas and Apaches, to name a few, attract many an interested traveler because they are unique, isolated and a departure in time from America of today The modern era is no less interesting. Spick-andspan cities have blossomed like flowers from the desert. Rivers have been dammed and waters thereby impounded have created a farming empire that is eloquent testimony to man's ability to use what resources he has at his command. Arizona of today is a story of man's triumph over the raw, cruel forces of Nature. Nature, in many ways, has not been generous; but man has been inspired and ingenious. Such inspiration and ingenuity, also, is Arizona.

Each of the several million gracious visitors who come to Arizona each year to share our precious possessions looks for something a little bit different from what he has near his own hearth. Sunshine? Yes, indeed! The sun is generous in bestowing blessings over our land. Scenery? Probably our scenic attractions surpasses anything else we have in bringing those millions from beyond our borders. And when you speak of scenery, where should you begin? The Grand Canyon? Well, this Seventh Wonder of the World is one of our main scenic shrines and we consider it important enough to call ourselves "the Grand Canyon State." It would be difficult to describe it in all its moods. About a million people will come from every place this year to marvel at its grandeur and magnificence, and by any yardstick a million people can't be wrong. To those million people there are a million different canyons because the Canyon gives something different to each person who views it.

But our scenery only begins at Grand Canyon, and where it ends few, if any, will ever know for sure. From Monument Valley in the north to the grasslands along the Arizona-Mexico border you have everything to choose from, your choice being only your personal desires and inclinations. The Painted Desert is just a few hours drive from the desert; Oak Creek Canyon is not too far from Aravaipa Canyon; the lakes along the Colo-rado are only a half day's drive or so from Colossal Caves, near Tucson; the Joshua forest north of Kingman is within an easy day's journey of Saguaro National Monument. Between all these places are scenic surprises whose discovery makes travel through Ari-zona such an adventure.

Arizona is the things you remember. A flaming sunset, when it seems that someone has put a match to sky and earth; the great, white billowy air castles that drift into the state from the south in summer, lazy travelers from the Gulf of Mexico, their pockets dripping with silvery rain; the Painted Desert, newly-laundered after a shower, with colors bright and gleaming in the sun; an autumn mountainside, quite debonair with a corsage of gold telling you that the frost has nipped the aspen; a summer thunderstorm lashing the earth with whips of lightning, Heavenly fury which in a short time turns to Heavenly peace; the mounds of chocolate you ride through when you cross Hoover Dam and enter Mohave County, and the wonder that rolling hills can be so bare.

Maybe Arizona will be for you the impression of Jerome clinging so tenaciously to a mountain which has disgorged so many millions and which is now allowed to rest quietly and grow older graciously in the sun; or, you might remember the lone Navajo horseman, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, a wistful figure in the lonesome land.

This, too, is Arizona; an Apache encampment in the White Mountains, and the inhabi-tants thereof with brown, smiling faces bespeaking their contentment; a cattle drive in the rangeland and the clouds of dust trailing the herd on its way to market; the green hills of Santa Cruz County after the rains have come and the air so fresh and clear; the silver pop-lars, graceful guards watching over Tuba City, a green oasis in a land where there is so little shade.

When you say, "This, too, is Arizona!" what do you mean? We reckon you mean almost everything. Arizona has no beginning or end. Each beholder finds something to please his peculiar tastes and fancy.