Phoenix — Those Busy Air Waves

and numerous groups meet regularly to swing their partners and swing their taws. The winter months usually see a great gathering of thousands of square dancers in Phoenix for a festival, while about the same time there is an annual old-fashioned fiddlers' contest that gets feet tapping all over the valley.

So popular, in fact, is square dancing that even the horse lovers have caught the fever and have formed an esquadrille that performs intricate square dance patterns while mounted on alert quarterhorses. These exhibitions produce marvelous riding and perfect coordination between horse and rider and between partners.

For horse lovers again there are winter racing programs at Turf Paradise and Arizona Downs with state controlled pari-mutuel betting. In addition, there are first class rodeos in the valley at Scottsdale, Glendale, Sunnyslope, Tolleson, and other nearby towns. They all provide thrills and amazing exhibitions of riding ability. There are also full dog racing and auto racing programs.

The biggest rodeo is the annual World's Championship, sponsored by the Phoenix Jaycees in March. One of the real climaxes of the Phoenix year, the rodeo and the parade preceding it never grow old. Cowboys from all over the country, the very elite of the RCA (Rodeo Cowboys' Association) are present. The bucking stock is the finest and meanest procurable. The arena is decked in colorful bunting and filled with a flamboyant crowd.

The parade is one of the country's most interesting and famous. For years no motor-propelled vehicle was allowed to participate. However, as the number of entries in the parade increased, the number of horses available in the valley just wasn't enough to take care of all those floats and all those riders. In the last couple of years a

More swimming pools per home

Few motor driven rigs have been allowed to enter. However, it is very safe to say there are more horses in this parade than in any other similar annual event anywhere.

It's equally safe to say there are more pretty girls in more resplendent Western, Indian, and Mexican costumes. And more alki-eyed, bearded prospectors and black-bearded, evil-eyed badmen and steely-eyed sheriffs and inscrutable Indians, dashing caballeros, dazzling senoritas, mustachioed gamblers, and just plain, genuine cowboys The whole valley goes Western for the three days of the rodeo. A kangaroo court holds sway on Central Avenue, penalizing the unfortunate or obstinate dude who refuses to dress in Western garb during the festival season.

Another recreational bonanza for Phoenix and environs is the presence here during the spring training period of three major league baseball clubs, with a fourth one near enough at Tucson to form a fine Cactus League during February and March. The New York Giants, for a number of years, have made Phoenix their winter home, as the Chicago Cubs have made Mesa (about fifteen miles east) theirs. Last year the Baltimore Orioles made their winter nest at Scottsdale, picturesque town contiguous with Phoenix's eastern boundary. The teams play quite an extensive training schedule, giving Arizonans (who flock to town from all corners of the state) an unusual chance to preview the teams.

One of Phoenix's greatest assets is the little town of Scottsdale. It calls itself "The West's Most Western Town" and works hard to fit the slogan. The decor is traditional western streamlined with good modern touches. The appearances are western, but they're not false-front; they are based on very solid substance in Scottsdale.

Paradise Tennis & Racquet Club

Phoenix-One Day Tours APACHE TRAIL - GLOBE - MIAMI

The Apache Trail is all of Arizona in microcosm a bewitching vista of mountains, desert, canyons and man-made lakes.

Drive east out of Phoenix on U. S. 60-70. At Apache Junction, east of Mesa, turn left. Follow the Apache Trail (State Highway 88) in a long crescent past Tortilla Flat, Canyon Lake, Apache Lake and Roosevelt Lake. Be sure to pause for a look at Tonto National Monument, one of the finest of Arizona's prehistoric cliff dwellings.

You'll come off the Trail at Claypool, between Globe and Miami. After you've seen these famous copper towns, you can return to Phoenix via U. S. 60-70, which gives you an opportunity to see the Southwestern Arboretum near Superior.

Approximate distance: 200 miles.

OAK CREEK CANYON - JEROME - PRESCOTT - WICKENBURG

This is a fascinating tour that takes you through one of the most diverse and beautiful sections of Arizona.

Drive north from Phoenix on State 69 (Black Canyon Highway), through historic gold-mining and ranching country to a point where 69 hooks into U. S. 89 south of Mingus Mountain. Drive on over the mountain into Jerome, an old and lusty copper camp which today is a famous ghost town. At the bottom of the hill you'll see Clarkdale, where Jerome's copper was once smelted until the copper ran out and the miners departed.

On beyond Clarkdale a few miles you'll come to Oak Creek Canyon, one of the most splendid and awesome of Arizona's scenic attractions. En route you can make short side. trips to Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle National Monuments.

Retrace your steps through Jerome and up and over Mingus Mountain, then on southward along U. S. 89 into Prescott, a mile-high summer vacation retreat. Continue on U. S. 89 to Wickenburg, an old Arizona gold-rush town now best-known for its dude ranches, and then back to Phoenix.

Approximate distance: 300 miles.

DESERT TOUR: GILA BEND - AJO - TUCSON

For a day's trip through the heart of the southern Arizona desert, drive west out of Phoenix on U. S. 80.

As you head toward Buckeye, you'll see some of the richest of the central valley's irrigated farmland. When you reach Gila Bend, continue southward on State Highway 85 to Ajo, where a major copper digging is located.

Then go east out of Ajo on State Highway 86 through the Papago Indian reservation and its agency town of Sells into Tucson, the state's second largest city. After you've seen Tucson, you can return to Phoenix via Casa Grande or Coolidge.

TUCSON - SAN MANUEL - CASA GRANDE RUINS

This is an easy and interesting one-day trip through varieGated desert country.

Return to U. S. 80-89 and head north into Florence, the site of the state penitentiary, then west into Coolidge, where you can see the Casa Grande National Monument. Here, hundreds of years ago, lived a large group of the Hohokam people.

Return to Phoenix via State Highway 87 through Chandler.

Approximate distance: 300 miles.