Tucson: Gracious Living in the Sun

"One of Tucson's most appealing qualities is its uncitified closeness to Nature..." TUCSON gracious living in the sun

Variety is Tucson's outstanding characteristic and the enjoyment of life one of its chief products. This is because the dominating influences in Arizona's second largest city are climate, situation, and background. Almost perpetual sunshine, a desert environment, and nearness to Mañanaland of Mexico have taught the true Tucsonian to live gently while, at the same time, his Yankee heritage shows him how to live modern. Strangely enough, these two ways of life do not clash, but rather blend into a distinctive pattern unlike that of any other American city. In fact, there is a pervasive charm to residing in a community that is old yet young, sophisticated yet unaffected, up-todate yet independent of customs and fashions that do not suit its casual informality.

One of Tucson's most appealing qualities is its uncitified closeness to Nature and the unique beauty of the surrounding desert. In spite of rapid urban development, Tucsonians can still drive out into the open country in a matter of minutes. There, amid giant saguaros and fragrant creosote bush under the blue Arizona sky, is a quiet world of peace and relaxation that is perfect medicine for tired nerves. Even in the heart of the bustling business district, one can look out upon mountains and sense their calm solitude.

In fact, Tucson has as delightful a natural setting as any city in the country. It is situated at an altitude of 2,400 feet in a wide valley where Rillito Creek joins the Santa Cruz River. Immediately to the north rises the rugged, mile-high protecting wall of the Santa Catalina Mountains; to the east, the sprawling Rincons; west is the jagged skyline of the colorful Tucson Mountains; and south, the pointed peaks of the Santa Ritas. Along the river is a wide strip of green irrigated agricultural land, but in all other directions the desert holds sway and the very air within the city has the fresh aromatic tang of the Great Southwest.

In the development of a community, as well as in a human being, heritage plays an important part. And Tucson has a living past as old as Christianity itself.

The very name of the city is derived from the Papago Indians and is pronounced either Too-SAHN or TOO-son. The first red-skinned inhabitants dwelt in two permanent villages within the present city limits and another, seven miles south, which archaeologists say date back about two thousand years. But the earliest dependable records came from the great Jesuit missionary-explorer, Father Eusebio Kino, who visited the area in 1692 and built the first Catholic church in the vicinity eight years later. The actual beginnings of white settlement are vague, but in 1776 Tucson was already a Spanish pueblo and in that year the garrison from Tubac was transferred there. It then became a military walled town and through the years four flags have flown over it-the Spanish, Mexican, the Confederate, and the Stars and Stripes. Tucson attained city status in 1883 and grew slowly to the turn of the century, when it had 7,500.But in recent years, the Old Pueblo, as it is still affectionately called, has become one of the fastestgrowing cities in the United States, and is expanding and developing with increasing momentum. The population of Greater Tucson, which includes Pima County, has reached 215,000, and there are some 1,200 new arrivals each month. The city's fame has spread throughout the country and its attractions as a place to live have an ever-widening appeal. The Chamber of Commerce and the Sunshine Climate Club together receive about 75,000 letters of inquiry a year from all parts of the world. The inducements to come to Tucson are many and varied. It has an outstandingly healthful climate; it is an unrivalled winter resort; a paradise for retired people; a growing manufacturing and mining center; and is the trade capital for Southern Arizona's vast cattle and agricultural empire.

Some idea of the amazing recent growth of the city may be had by driving up A Mountain, near the business district, or to the end of North Campbell Avenue, six hundred feet up against the Santa Catalina Mountains. From these viewpoints one looks down over the busy, burgeoning community spreading for miles across the valley. The panorama is particularly spectacular at night, with lines, clusters and constellations of brilliant lights. In the past decade Tucson has expanded in giant strides to the north, south and east and each year reaches further out into the desert. Up to now, westward growth has been impeded by a group of picturesque, steep-pitched hills, but here and there they have been breached and new residential areas are being opened up in the pleasant valleys beyond.

The unit of growth is pre-eminently the subdivision. At least a dozen are developed annually, complete with paved streets, utilities installed, and rows of attractive homes ready for occupancy. They vary considerably in location, sizes of lots, and types of residences, and provide suitable neighborhoods for almost every income group. Costs range from about $8,500 for a house with two bedrooms to around $17,500 for a more elaborate three-bedroom home. In several areas east and north of town are exclusive country subdivisions, consisting of small estates of an acre to five acres. Here one may buy or build a fully equipped, landscaped home costing between $20,000 and $35,000. Home financing is liberal in Tucson and varies from no down payment for veterans to around $450 for others, and monthly payments range from $45 to about $150.

"...decentralization is being balanced by dramatic downtown developments..."

A few affluent Tucsonians have built homes of $100,-ooo or more, but ostentation has never been a characteristic of Southern Arizona, and the average house is comfortable rather than pretentious. In fact, Tucson is not a flamboyant city and to the casual visitor may lack the dash and color of Southern California, Las Vegas, or its neighbor to the north, Phoenix. But the Old Pueblo has learned through the wisdom of maturity that the tempo of desert living is quiet and subdued, and so has adapted its architecture to the environment. Therefore, Tucson houses are mostly built of adobe brick or red brick, without attempt at show, and follow the Spanish-Mexican design by having comparatively simple exteriors. The pulse and heart of the home is more and more centered in the patio, well-hidden from the public eye. Too, home-owners are increasingly reverting to desert landscaping. This solves the summer-winter grass problem, saves hours of labor, is inexpensive, offers infinite choice because there are 1,500 varieties of cactus. These desert plants present a striking effect in May and June when they bloom with big waxy blossoms in gorgeous shades of cream, yellow, red, lavender and green. A recent innovation that is gaining in popularity is to spread front yards with a layer of gravel, dyed pink or pale green. By contrast, the walled patios at the rear are usually cool, green oases of grass, flowers, shrubs and trees. Here are the family outdoor living rooms, Tucson style, often with barbecue and children's play area, and frequently a swimming pool. The last is not yet standard equipment but backyard pools can be built for as little as $2,000 and there are more of them each year. Many subdivisions have large community swimming pools with adjacent recreation areas. Also several municipal and county pools are open to the public and, of course, most of the motels and guest ranches have them. Business is keeping pace with Tucson's growth, and stores, shops, restaurants, drive-in movies, and branch banks are following the population outward. Complete shopping centers arise each year in all parts of the city to serve the thousands of new home owners. Each has its super-market, stores and huge parking area. However, the business leaders of Tucson are convinced that a healthy, growing city needs a lusty, beating heart. So decentralization is being balanced by dramatic downtown development. Within the past year and a half some $13,000,000 has been expended on new construction and modernization. These ambitious projects include office buildings, department stores, banks, and other commercial structures, which have completely changed the aspect of Tucson's business district. Far-seeing plans, showing confidence in the city's future, are now being prepared to develop the downtown area further. Problems being worked on are to provide off-street parking and easier access, as a part of a city-wide arterial street system to be completed by 1970. Friday night is a downtown Tucson institution. Stores remain open until 9:00 P.M. and the streets are thronged.

Living in Tucson is, in some ways, leading a double life. For the Old Pueblo has two distinct personalities-energetic in winter and easy going in summer. With an average of 35,000 visitors annually, it is a most cosmopolitan place from November to May. Streets are filled with cars bearing out-of-state license plates and visitors enthusiastically indulge in parties, horseback riding, fiestas, sight-seeing, horse and dog racing, swimming, hunting, mountain and desert trips, and visits to Old Mexico and Papagoland. In winter hotels and motels are crowded and guest ranches are filled, apartments are hard to get and trailer courts resemble mechanized armies, with their rows of mobile homes.

But the true Tucsonian, if you ask him, will likely admit that he loves his city best in summer. During the warmer months tensions are relaxed and living becomes quieter and less strenuous. True, one must be prepared for daytime temperatures of 100 degrees or more from June to September. But it is a dry heat that loses its force after the sun has set. And in an ultra-modern city, such as Tucson, high temperatures need no longer be dreaded. Stores, office buildings, theatres and restaurants are now all artificially cooled, and air-conditioned homes and automobiles have extracted the sting from summer heat. Many also feel that the country is at its finest dur-ing the hot season and that winter visitors do not see Southern Arizona at its best. Cloudscapes are then mag-nificent, and after the refreshing showers of July and August the desert is often unbelievably green and lush, and spread with a varicolored carpet of wildflowers. The nights, too, are a pleasure to anticipate. There can be no more breathtaking beauty than a full moon shining over the Southwestern desert on a summer's night. Cactuses become black ghosts in a gleaming, sil-vered world; warm, soft breezes breathe the fragrance of growing things; and an utter silence makes life stand still. Then the meaning of time is lost in universal timelessness, and from the desert, the night sky, and the air, one feels a closeness to eternity.

But fortunately or unfortunately, according to the viewpoint, a change has come over the Old Pueblo in recent years. The city no longer sinks into its former summer siesta, and there has been a noticeable increase in business and general activity during the warmer months. Also more and more visitors are beginning to realize the charm of the Arizona desert in summer and, surprisingly enough, the day may not be far distant when Tucson will be a year-round tourist objective. This transition from a winter resort to an active full-fledged metro-politan center is perhaps the most significant develop-ment in Tucson's rapid growth.

On the campus is the Arizona State Museum, a fascinating place to browse for those interested in the Indians of the Southwest. The two-story building houses over 100,000 archaeological and natural history speci-mens, and contains outstanding exhibits on the Apache Indians, dating prehistory by the tree-ring method, and ancient Indian textiles, pottery, stone and bone work. An alcove is devoted to Ventana Cave and one can trace a stratified record of Man's occupancy of the region for the past ten thousand years. Particularly fine are the realistic dioramas showing prehistoric human and animal life.

Across the street from the University is the hand-some Spanish-Mexican style building of the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society. Here are displayed relics which graphically depict the state's development since the coming of the White Man in 1540. The valuable library of Arizoniana is pre-eminent in its field and contains books, documents, manuscripts, records and photo-graphs, as well as files of most of the state's early news-papers, such as the Tombstone Epitaph and the Tubac Arizonian. There is nothing about Arizona that cannot be dug out of the Pioneers library, and in the reading room are seen well-known Western fiction writers, scholarly professors, distinguished historians, and even treasure hunters on the trail of lost mines and buried loot. Tucson is indeed fortunate in regard to libraries, for there is also the huge and comprehensive University Library, and the Carnegie Free Library, in Armory Park, near the downtown section.

On the campus, too, is the striking, contemporary style building of the University of Arizona's College of Fine Arts. One unit consists of an art gallery that houses the excellent Kress Collection of Renaissance paintings and the Gallagher Collection of Modern Art. It is also the center for exhibits of the work of the University's art students. Adjoining is a fully equipped modern theatre in which the Drama Department conducts a series of plays during the winter season. Well attended by the public, the productions vary from Shakespeare to recent Broadway hits and are given with considerable flair and professionalism. The Old Pueblo, in fact, has been strongly theatre-conscious since the early days. Although now, of course, road shows are a rarity, the fa-

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS OPPOSITE PAGE

mous Tucson Community Theatre and the Arizona Corral

FOLLOWING PAGES

"DESERT SPRING-TUCSON" BY RAY MANLEY. 5x7 Linhof camera; Anscochrome; f.22 at 1/25th sec.; 210 mm. Symar lens; May, 1957; bright, hazy sky; 400 ASA meter. Photograph taken in Tucson Mountain Park, seven miles north and west of Tucson. Guests from nearby guest ranches have a real treat when they take their rides in the spring when the desert blooms. Fields of desert poppies cover the rolling hills surrounded by saguaro and other cacti. Poppies come each year, but only after the right combination of rainfall and spring weather conditions do they blanket the area."

"TUCSON'S DESERT GARDEN-SAGUARO NATIONAL MONUMENT" BY WESTERN WAYS. 4x5 Graphic view camera; Ektachrome, f.22 at 1/10th sec.; 5" Ektar lens, May, 1954; bright 3 o'clock sun; Weston 300 meter reading. Photograph taken in Saguaro National Monument. The area is very popular for guests at desert dude ranches and resorts for horseback riding during winter and spring months. Tucson's splendid winter climate makes the area one of America's busiest resort areas."

"SAGUARO LANDSCAPE" BY RAY MANLEY. 5x7 Linhof camera; Anscochrome; f.25 at 1/25th sec.; 210 mm. Symar lens; early May; bright sidelighting with ASA 400 meter reading. Photograph taken from first viewpoint in Saguaro National Monument, seventeen miles east of Tucson. Late spring and early summer bring out a blooming desert when rains have been liberal. Visitors to the Saguaro National Monument last year numbered 115,000. The area is another of Tucson's important tourist attractions."

CENTER PANEL

"TUCSON PANORAMA-A DESERT EVENING" BY RAY MANLEY AND TOMMY CARROLL. 5x7 Linhof camera; Anscochrome; f.11 with two exposures; first, at 1/10th sec., second, two hours later at 10 seconds exposing for city lights; 10" Goertz Artar lens; August 5, 1957; Extreme late evening at moment suh had set for first exposure, total darkness for second exposure of city lights; ASA 13 for first exposure. Photograph of Tucson from A mountain showing new buildings in the downtown section. Picture was made after sundown to record a night or evening effect, requiring a slightly underexposed first exposure and a wait of several hours so that second prolonged exposure recorded only city lights and no sky, etc. Though the camera was very rigid, it was still necessary to support the extended bellows with a second tripod. Tucson is one of several cities doing something about its downtown area relative to outlying shopping areas. The entire town is rapidly replacing old buildings with new modern construction, designed to keep the customer interested in downtown shopping."

"FEBRUARY IS RODEO TIME IN TUCSON" BY WEST-

WESTERN WAYS. 4x5 Graphic view camera; Ektachrome; f.9 at 1/50th sec.; 5" Ektar lens; bright 1:00 o'clock sunlight in February; Weston 300 meter reading. Opening day of La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros, Tucson's annual rodeo is a gala day for the Old Pueblo. The event is always scheduled on Washington's Birthday. This is one of the major rodeos in the U.S.A., and features champion performers and stock. At the start of the rodeo, the grand entry and presenting of the colors brings everyone to their feet for the national anthem. Then there's a great shout, "Let's rodeo" as the contestants, rodeo queen, trick riders and officials ride from the arena and the first rodeo event gets under way. The Fiesta this year will be held Feb. 20 through Feb. 23. Several hundred thousand people will line Tucson's streets for the big rodeo parade the morning of the 20th.

RAY MANLEY. 5x7 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.22 at 1/10th sec.; 90 mm. super f.8 wide angle lens; May, 1957; bright noon sunlight; 400 ASA meter reading. Pictures of this type require use of variety of lenses, and in this case a wide angle of more than normal covering power was required. The desert around Tucson is dotted with scores of dude ranches, large and small, as well as resorts and inns. Thousands of visitors come each year from all over the world to enjoy Tucson's warm winter sun and relax in pleasant and restful surroundings.

"ALL THE CHAMPS GATHER DURING GOLF TOURNEY

TIME" BY RAY MANLEY AND TOMMY CARROLL. 4x5 Crown Graphic camera, Anscochrome; f.16 at 1/50th sec.; 5" Symar lens; bright winter sunlight; ASA 400 meter reading. One of the highlights of the winter season in Tucson is the Open Golf Championship, in which leading professional golfers participate. Tucson's fine golf courses, plus fine weather, combine to make golf a popular winter sport for visitors and Tucsonans alike. The 12th annual Tucson $15,000 Open Golf Tournament will be held this year from Jan. 30 through Feb. 2 at Del Rio Country Club.

"BATTER UP!" MAJOR LEAGUE SPRING TRAINING IN

TUCSON" BY RAY MANLEY AND TOMMY CARROLL. 4x5 Linhof camera; Anscochrome; f.22 at 1/25th sec.; f.6.8 Schneider Angulon wide angle lens; brilliant March sunlight; ASA 400 meter reading. The Cleveland Indians of the American League have for a number of years used Tucson for their spring training site. The Old Pueblo becomes baseball mad during March and early April when the Indians host such other major league teams as the Giants, Cubs, Red Sox and Orioles.

OPPOSITE PAGE "RANCH HAPPY GUESTS AT A TUCSON RANCH" BY

WESTERN WAYS. 4x5 Graphic view camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/20th sec.; 5" Ektar lens; March; bright sunlight at 3:00 P.M.; Weston 350 meter reading. The corral at a Tucson guest ranch is a popular place when it is time to go riding in the desert. The informality of western life makes these guest ranches so popular for people wanting to escape for a few days or a few weeks, hectic city life and cold winters elsewhere.

Theatre furnish legitimate stage fare of high quality. The latter performs "in the round" and gives a series of five plays during the summer. There is also a lively and enthusiastic Laboratory Theatre operated by the Dramatic Arts Department of the Tucson High School.

Painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, and even actors are discovering a vital artistic stimulus in Tucson. Here the landscape painter finds endless inspiration; the portraitist a challenging variety of types; the author a vast field of almost untouched material; the musician a background of Indian, Mexican, and Southwestern folklore and songs. Whether amateur or professional, photographers, too, are in their element, and Southern Arizona has produced several with national reputations. Encouragement to local artists is given by the Tucson Fine Arts Association, which maintains its own gallery, and there are a dozen other centers that exhibit the work of local artists in painting, sculpture, prints, ceramics, fabric designs, and jewelry. Several years ago Tucson artists established a plan of renting their canvases for periods of weeks or months. Thus, for a modest sum any resident of the city may have the opportunity to enjoy and live with outstanding works of art by men and women of renown.Many of Tucson's cultural activities revolve around the University Auditorium. Here, during the winter months, is held the Sunday Evening Forum, sponsored by the Catalina Methodist Church. This series brings each week the world's leading lecturers and has the reputation of being the largest community forum in the United States. Given free to the public, it is supported by subscription, and the list of patrons reads like a Blue Book of prominent Tucsonians. The Saturday Morning Musical Club and the Tucson Festival Society also sponsor famous concert artists, dance groups and orchestras at the Auditorium. The former organization maintains its own 950-seat theatre, the Temple of Music and Art, which is a center for a large variety of local and traveling entertainment. Chamber music is brought to town by the Arizona Friends of Music and others, while there are frequent appearances of the first-class Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the internationally known Tucson Boys Chorus, the Boys Band, and the Tucson Civic Chorus.

Like most rapidly growing areas, both the city and Pima County have had to sprint to expand educational facilities fast enough to take care of the constantly increasing numbers of young people. But Tucsonians take pride in the high standards of their schools and have squarely faced the problem by adopting a building program designed to accommodate an estimated 17 per cent rise in school attendance by 1960. This means an additional 4,300 students a year. Elementary schools will be increased from thirteen to seventeen, and high schools from four to eight. One ultra-modern high school costing over $4,000,000 has recently been completed and another is now under construction. Tucson high schools have a complete vocational training program, and offer many classes in adult education, as well as the standard four-year course. The University of Arizona also offers evening classes on many subjects, which are open to outside registration. There are a number of private, parochial, and specialized schools, and the area was one of the first to develop the so-called ranch school, where young Tucsonians and children from all over the United States live a healthy outdoor

Over 43 guest ranches in Tucson area TUCSON-dude ranch capitol of the world

Around Tucson there's a tale told about the time, many years ago, when a stranger hiked into a nearby cattle ranch and asked if he might take room and board there while he wrote a novel. The rancher allowed as how it would be all right, and so the stranger stayed.His name was Harold Bell Wright. The novel was called "The Mine with the Iron Door." And that according to the legend was the start of the dude-ranch industry in and around Tucson.

Since then a lot of dudes have gone over the saddle horns, for there are today no less than 43 guest ranches in the Tucson area. Every year people from everywhere distribute themselves among these 43 ranches and settle down to some of the rugged-but-not-too-gosh-darned-rugged living that such ranches afford. Then, a few weeks or few months later, they go home-perhaps a little tougher, certainly a little tanner, and with an odd tendency to drop their "g's" and speak of "chuck" when they mean "dinner."

In case you didn't know, not all dude ranches are alike. Some specialize in entertaining family groups, with plenty of facilities for the kids. Others prefer adults-married or single. Several combine cattle with guests. One caters exclusively to people who are reducing.

Some of the guest ranches are rustic, with adobe buildings, wooden sidewalks, benches in the dining room and chandeliers made out of old wagon wheels. Others look a little like a piece of the Statler plucked out of Manhatian and transported to the Arizona desert. You rough it in tiled swimming pools and on carpets as thick as a cowboy's tongue on Saturday night, and you pay accordingly.

While we're on that not-irrevelant subject, let it be said that duderanch rates range from about $75 per week per person to $35 per day per person. The price usually includes meals, horseback-riding, sight-seeing trips and other normal activities. Bear in mind that a somewhat-better-thanaverage motel makes an in-season charge of $8 or $9 per day or somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 per week (and that's without meals). Thus it becomes apparent that a dude-ranch vacation isn't necessarily an improvident indulgence.

The typical guest ranch in southern Arizona is a higgledy-piggledy of buildings scattered over an acre or so of desert. There's a large structure containing a dining hall, kitchen and living room. There are smaller, individual cottages or sleeping rooms for the guests, set apart for privacy. There's a corral, swimming pool, shuffleboard court, perhaps a tennis court, maybe even a putting green or polo field.

How many other guests will you find at your dude ranch? That depends, naturally, on the size of the ranch (and how good the season is), but the ranches in this area run from about 15 guests at the smallest to 60 at the largest. The latter, of course, would be very nearly in the resort class.

Every ranch has its dude wrangler. He conducts the horseback rides, keeps the dudes and the horses reasonably at peace with each other and serves as the ranch handyman. Occasionally (although not as often as the movies would suggest) he marries one of the guests and goes off to become prince consort of a Long Island mansion.

Well, that's dude ranching in the Tucson country. If it sounds as though this is for the likes of you, write to the Tucson Chamber of Commerce or Sunshine Climate Club for a list of ranches. Pack a couple of pairs of blue jeans and a bottle of suntan oil. Buy yourself a ticket to Tucson andHave fun!

Western life. So if it is engineering or carpentry, barbering or beauty culture, business or art, flight training, nursing or dancing, competent courses and instructors can be found in Tucson. The University even has a splendidly equipped Radio and TV Bureau in which students are fully trained in the techniques of mass communication over the air waves.

Several schools of religious instruction reflect the fact that the Old Pueblo really began as a Roman Catholic mission to the Indians, two and a half centuries ago, and has always been a strong religious center. The city is the only seat of a Catholic diocese in Arizona and its bishop presides over San Augustin Cathedral. This is a prominent, gleaming white structure of modified Spanish design, with twin towers and a red tile roof, built in 1897. Today there are nearly 150 churches, representing some 36 or more different faiths, and in connection with many of them are reading rooms, recreation centers, and facilities for charitable and cultural activities.

In this far west land of warmth and sunshine, church architecture has sharply broken with Eastern tradition, and derives its inspiration from the city's background and surroundings. As a result, Tucson churches are remarkably varied in design and conception and show a conscious striving for appropriate spiritual expression of the devout inhabitants of a country of deserts, mountains and vast distances. This makes for freshness and originality and is a feature often remarked upon by visitors. Although not a consecrated church, the unique Mission in the Sun is a striking example of one man's effort to express his religious feelings in the desert. Hidden among the Catalina foothills is a small chapel designed and built by a Tucson artist, Ted DeGrazia, with the help of Indian labor. The workmanship is crude, the walls are uneven, and the dirt floors rough. But murals cover the interior surfaces and are highlighted by the moving sun, which shines through the partially open roof and in the course of a day illuminates each painting. The effect is a dramatic achievement in simplicity and charm.

Near the downtown area are two more examples of the religious expression of individual Tucsonians. One is the Wishing Shrine, where one may light a candle at dusk and make a wish. If it burns until dawn the wish, they say, is bound to come true. The other is the Garden of Gethsemane, on the west bank of the Santa Cruz River. Here another artist fashioned out of concrete reproductions of the Last Supper, the Holy Family, and the Crucifixion. But of course, supreme among Tucson's religious structures is Mission San Xavier del Bac, seven miles south of town. Called "The White Dove of the Desert," it is one of the most superbly beautiful churches in the Southwest. Since its completion in 1797, the mission has been in continuous use and the congregation today is largely composed of Papago Indians who are descendants of the original communicants. However, the Old Pueblo can offer many other visual proofs of its Spanish, Mexican and pioneer past. The ruins of Fort Lowell, built in 1873 as military protection from the fierce, marauding Apaches, may still be seen. And Old Town, near the business district, retains much of the character of early Tucson. Center is La Placita Park, a typical Mexican plaza, and nearby are narrow streets flanked by century old adobe houses, with Doorways opening directly onto the pavement. However, behind each entrance is a walled patio filled with gera-niums, cactuses and other growing plants. For the Mexi-can people love flowers and color, and in the privacy of their homes, no matter how humble, both will be found. These picturesque old houses are now fast dis-appearing, but Tucson still has an opportunity to save or reconstruct a representative segment of its Spanish-Mexican past and to preserve it for posterity, as has Los Angeles with Olvera Street or Albuquerque at Old Town Plaza. The city's fondness for fiestas, celebrations and dances also is inherited from its heterogeneous past. Mexican residents of Old Town hold gala celebrations each spring and fall at La Placita, which include music, street dancing, and booths where Mexican delicacies may be purchased. The Indians, too, maintain their cere-monies as they have for centuries. One of the most spectacular of these is the annual celebration commemo-rating the founding of San Xavier del Bac. It consists of a colorful procession followed by a full evening of Papago and Yaqui dances. The latter Indians also stage elaborate ceremonies in native style a week before Easter at Pascua Village, northwest of town, and in Barrio Libre, to the south.

Western square and round dances stem from pioneer days and have become universally popular in recent years. Enthusiasts will find regularly organized square dance clubs meeting almost every night of the week. Both the City and County Recreation Departments conduct free square dance classes in cooperation with the Tucson Community Square Dance Council. Each January the Southern Arizona Square Dance Festival is held in Tucson, attracting hundreds of dancers and well-known callers. Also in January is the sparkling La Baile de las Flores, the famed charity ball which marks the height of the winter social season.

But undoubtedly the biggest community event of the year is La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros. For this, both Tucsonians and visitors don Western garb for four days in February and celebrate with a mammoth parade, a world championship rodeo, dances, kangaroo court, and assorted festivities over which a young and beautiful "Queen" presides with gracious charm. Quieter and more serious, but equally important, is the four-day Pima County Fair held in October at the large and wellequipped fairgrounds at the southern edge of the city. But every day the year round Tucson offers excерtional opportunities for recreation and a variety of sports, for both active participants and spectators. There are four golf courses, one of which is municipally owned and open to the public, and the Tucson Open Golf Tournament draws top professionals from all parts of the country. The Old Pueblo is represented by a lively baseball team in the Arizona-Texas League, nicknamed the Cow-boys, and is also spring training headquarters for the American League Cleveland Indians. Most games are played at night under the lights at city-owned Hi Corbett Field in Randolf Park. In the fall thousands of football fans jam the University's Stadium to watch the home games of the U. of A. Wildcats, which are also played at night. There is thoroughbred and quarter horse racing from November to May at Rillito Park, and dog races are held at Tucson Greyhound Park during the winter season. Tennis is popular every day of the year, as

TUCSON'S-ambassadors of good will

Back in the late 1930's, a good-looking young Englishman bearing the Latin name of Eduardo Caso arrived in Tucson with a small dream tucked into a far corner of his mind. He wanted to organize a boys' chorus. In due course, the dream acquired form and substance, helped along by Caso's special brand of dynamism and determination. Today the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus (which is its full, proper and official name) is an important part of the Tucson scene. But, more than that, it has done almost as much to spread the fame of Tucson as the Chamber of Commerce and Sunshine Climate Club combined. For this bunch of bright-eyed boys, wearing cowboy boots and Levis, comprise one of the most celebrated choral groups in the country. They have sung all over the United States, throughout Europe, on the battleship Wisconsin and in New York's Town Hall. And wherever they've appeared, making their beautiful music together, people have gone away thinking nice thoughts about Tucson. The chorus started out modestly enough, as things of that sort usually do. At its first concert in 1939, it consisted of eight boys. In 1940, when it appeared in concert, there were 250 paid admissions-mostly relatives. Then the chorus acquired a sponsor a local radio station-and began to grow. Civic clubs pitched in and helped. In 1950 the chorus was incorporated. That same year Caso and his boys went east for the first time. Since then there's been no stopping them. They've sung on radio networks. They've appeared on Ed Sullivan's TV show. They entertained 20,000 Ratarians in convention assembled. Under the aegis of Columbia Artists Management, Inc., they swing out around the country on concert tours every season. And in 1955 they made their first European tour. (They would have gone again in 1956 except for some unpleasantness involving Suez.) The chorus consists not of prodigies but of ordinary Tucson boys from ordinary Tucson families. Their ages range from 8 to 16. Caso selects them on the basis of musical aptitude and character. The training he gives them is strenuous, exacting and disciplined. But the boys love it-and Caso as well.

Needless to say, they also love getting out of school every winter for their annual tour. But special tutoring to make up for lost time always awaits them when they get home. And their grades run consistently high. There's no hard and fast rule as to when a boy leaves the chorus. Nature takes care of that. A chorister simply ceases to be a chorister when his voice changes. He's known in the business as an "overnight baritone." Eduardo Caso is, of course, proud of the musical quality of his chorus. (Even the austere and frequently disdainful New Yorker called "admirably drilled" and spoke of its "rare control and purity of tone.") But Caso is even prouder of the organization's character-building proclivities. His "alum-ni" have gone on to be presidents of student bodies, captains of athletic teams and graduates of Annapolis. One was a page in the U.S. Senate. Another won a Rhodes scholarship. "To become a first-rate choral singer," says Caso, "a boy must learn to concentrate and to accept discipline. These qualities. make him a doer and a leader." That the "doers" of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus have been doing very well for themselves is evidenced by their scrapbook of rave reviews and their standing in the concert world. But, meanwhile, they've been doing very well by their home town, too. Every concert whether in Minneapolis or Madrid, Oklahoma City or Oslo-brings honor to the name of Tucson. "The finest walking advertisement a city ever had," is the way a Chicago newspaper once described the chorus, and Tucson is fully and happily aware that this is so.

TUCSON-a civilized city

Elliott Arnold, the author of "Blood Brother" and other notable works, once wrote that Tucson is a city with a "personality." This being the case (and who, having ever seen Tucson, would deny it?), what are the ingredients of its "personality"?

Everyone probably would answer that question differently. But surely everyone would include one particular ingredient, i.e., Tucson's affinity for the arts of civilization.

This cultural flowing is manifested on every hand in the Old Pueblo. You see it in the numbers of art galleries and museums and in the variety of artists and writers holding forth there. You see it also in the city's durable symphony orchestra, its in-season concerts (no less than three separately sponsored series each winter), the little theatre groups (two of them), the Saturday Morning Musical Club, the formidably ambitious Tucson Festival ... well, the list could go on indefinitely.

Consider, for a moment, those two last-named groups. They're typical of the way Tucson goes about the business of fostering the arts.The Saturday Morning Musical Club dates all the way back to 1907. It was and still is predominantly a women's organization. But its impact on the life of the community goes far beyond what you might expect of the average women's club. For, over a period of many years, the club has brought some of the greatest personalities of the concert stage to Tucson. And, besides, it built an auditorium in which to present them. The auditorium is known as the Temple of Music and Art, a faintly mid-Victorian name which somehow seems to fit both Tucson and the Saturday Morning Musical Club.

The Tucson Festival is not nearly so venerable an organization, having been founded in 1950. But it, too, is leaving its mark on the community and, in addition, is a measure of the extent to which Tucson may be considered a truly civilized city.

What the Festival set out to do and has quite clearly succeeded in doing is to weave together in a single fabric the many artistic threads of Southwestern life. Each year Tucson gives itself over to its Festival. There are exhibits of paintings. There is fine dancing. There is music. There are lectures. For two weeks this goes on, and the whole community is a part of it, and when it's over, Tucson and its people are a little richer for the fact that it happened.

Why this cultural vitality in Tucson?

Well, there's the state university, for one thing. Its mere presence gives sanction and stimulus to the arts. The university teaches music and art and drama. Its faculty people share their talents and enthusiasms with the community. And thus the university has become a kind of cultural fulcrum for Tucson.

There's another factor the very setting of Tucson. It is a city of great beauty, surrounded by the greater beauty of mountains and desert. And so there have come to Tucson many practitioners of the arts-painters, writers, musicians who find in the beauty of their physical surroundings a balm and an aid to creative production.

Thirdly, the fact of having a reputation for being an "artistic" city helps to make Tucson all the more "artistic." People interested in the arts are drawn to Tucson every year for no other reason than that others were drawn there before them. They know they will find a cultural climate sympathetic to their kind.

There are other factors, probably. It would be pointless to list them all. The important thing is that Tucson is hospitable to the arts, and that makes it a very nice town to visit and, in many ways, even nicer to live in.

are swimming, riding, and trap or skeet shooting. In fact, there are facilities for almost all sports and games in and around Tucson, as well as frequent dog shows, horse shows, bird shows, home shows, and other events for the entertainment of the public. There are a score of guest ranches in the vicinity, and a recent innovation in summer are package weekends at some of these. A whole Tucson family can go at a nominal rate and enjoy swimming, riding, barbecues, square dancing, or just taking it easy at luxury resorts within a half hour drive of home.

This proximity to a foreign land is one great atracTradition Tucson holds for visitors and residents alike. There are not many cities in the United States from which one can drive sixty-five miles and leave the English-speaking world behind. The highway is wide, smooth and almost straight that leads to the twin border cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Sonora. Along the route traffic signs appear in Spanish as well as English and one can obey the law by driving under 60 miles an hour or 97 kilometros por hora. Tucsonians find Nogales a fascinating place for novelty shopping and there are few homes in the Old Pueblo which do not show the influence of their Latin neighbor to the south.

Seventeen miles east of Tucson is Saguaro National Monument, with an area of 55,000 acres. Its western part contains Arizona's finest and densest "forest" of giant saguaros. A loop road leads through this weird but beautiful "wilderness of unreality" among thousands of cluspreeminently the subdivision.

tered saguaros, reaching heights of forty to fifty feet. To the southeast is Colossal Cave, an extensive limestone cavern and one-time bandit hideout. The cave is a county park and guided tours of the well-lighted interior may be made over an easy trail. In the Santa Catalina foothills, just north of town, are Sabino Canyon and Bear Canyon Recreation Areas, developed by the U. S. Forest Service with roads and improved picnic grounds along wooded streams and small artificial lakes. Another easily reached mountain retreat is Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas, to the south. It is particularly noted for its rare varieties of birds.

But the most popular and thoroughly used recreational area is Mount Lemmon. This is Tucson's natural air-conditioned penthouse during the hot months. Loftiest summit of the Santa Catalinas, with an elevation of 9,185 feet, it is a magnificent summer and winter playground reached by the paved, forty-mile Hitchcock Highway. The Catalinas are within a section of Coronado National Forest, and high amid mountaintop pines and firs they offer a sharp contrast to the desert valleys below. Here are several summer cabin colonies, a rustic resort and village, campgrounds and a snow bowl for winter skiing, with rope tows, snack bar and warming house. In fact, a drive up Mount Lemmon takes the visitor in little more than an hour into a climate comparable to that of southern Canada.

So Tucson is both a world-famous resort and a cosmopolitan city. It has an increasingly solid foundation of manufacturing. It is a military center of importance, with Davis Monthan Field, one of the country's largest, employing more than 22,000 Air Force and civilian personnel. It is served by three air lines, several bus lines, and a transcontinental railroad. It has seven radio broadcasting stations, three television stations, and is becoming increasingly popular for motion picture and teleplay locations. The city is adult politically, with the good fortune to have two daily papers which give both the Democratic and Republican viewpoints, nationally and locally. It has fine clubs, good restaurants, and a gracious social life. It is a growing medical center, with excellent hospitals and clinics. In fact, it is a city to be proud of.

But so long as Tucson clings to remembrance of things past; as long as one sees squaw dresses on the streets and in the stores; as long as there are cowboys in ten-gallon hats sitting in hotel lobbies and bars; as long as one feels the warmth of the desert sun; as long as one enjoys a siesta and smiles at the word mañana; and as long as candles are burning at the Wishing Shrine, the spirit of the Old Pueblo will live on and all Tucsonians will be convinced that theirs is one of the pleasantest and most delightful cities in the world.

Homes at various prices.

TUCSON-city of museums

Most cities the size of Tucson would count themselves lucky to have one good museum. Tucson has no less than three. Each of them confines itself to a specific and well-defined area of interest. One does not duplicate an-other. All offer contemplative pleasures for the Tucson visitor with time on his hands.

A drive out to the University of Arizona campus will take you within reach of two of the museums. One, located just inside the Third Street entrance to the university, is the Arizona State Museum. The other, located at 949 East Second St., just west of the campus, is the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society.

Both are concerned with Arizona's history. By mutual consent rather than by law, however, they have chosen different periods. The state museum embraces pre-history-the dim beginnings of this Southwestern country. It deals mainly with archeology and anthropology. Then the pioneers' society takes up where the museum leaves off, covering the period of Arizona's recorded history.

But both these institutions are not merely static museums with showcases full of memorabilia for the casual dropper-in to inspect. They are as pre-occupied with research and exploration as with exhibition, and Arizona owes much to them for the knowledge of itself that it now possesses.

Under the auspices of the state museum, for instance, archeologists have uncovered clear-cut evidence of life in Arizona extending back some 10,000 years. One such piece of evidence was found just a few years ago, near the little border-straddling town of Naco in southern Arizona. It was the site of an elephant kill, only the elephant wasn't the African species with which we are familiar. It was what anthropologists call a "mammoth," standing 10 feet high at the shoulders, with long, curling tusks. There, at the kill site, natives trapped and then executed and butchered the mammoth. And today, at the state museum, you can see the bones of this huge beast plus a diorama reconstructing the mammoth and other Arizona animal species long since extinct.

Similarly the pioneers' historical society is keeping alive the spirit of inquisitiveness and scholarship, to shed more light on Arizona's yesterdays. Along with its exhibits of historical articles, the society maintains a vast and ever-growing library of books and documents relating to the state's past. For scholars, writers and researchers, it is a treasure trove. Elliott Arnold spent a year and a half at the society, gathering material for "Blood Brother," his best-seller about the Indian, Cochise. Walter Noble Burns researched much of "Tombstone" there.

Out west of Tucson, in Tucson Mountain Park, is a different kind of museum-the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It's a community project, now self-sustaining, and it's actually five parts zoo and five parts museum. Here you see the living desert of Arizona and her neighboring state, Sonora, Mexico. You see the desert's indigenous animals (alive and everlastingly fascinating), its reptiles, birds, insects and natural growth. Here, concentrated in a few acres of saguaro-studded desert, is a veritable education in zoology, geology, botany and anthropology.

The museum, only a little more than five years old, has caught the fancy of Tucson and its visitors. Well over a hundred thousand people a year visit it. Roy Chapman Andrews has called it "truly one of the foremost living museums in the world." And a nicer thing simply couldn't have happened to the small fry of Tucson and of Tucson's guests. These, then, are the three museums of Arizona's southern metropolis. But they are more than museums, for they serve as vital and creative entities in the life and culture of Tucson and Arizona.