CARRYING THE MAIL TO SUPAI

Living in the valley of Havasu Canyon, nearly 3,000 feet below the land above, the Havasupai Indians have for more than 800 years remained peaceful and content in their Shang-gri-La, far removed from the cares of a troubled world with its myriad of problems arising from the harnessing of the atom to the penetration of outer space in man-made satellites. When James Hilton wrote his famed novel "Lost Horizon" and the wonders of eternal youth to be found in his fabled city of Shangri-La in mountainous Tibet, he probably never heard of the Havasupai, one of the nation's smallest Indian tribes. But these quiet people have tended their crops and livestock in their Arizona Shangri-La for centuries before the white man set foot in the New World.

Probably one of the main reasons why the Havasupai, now numbering a scant 271 souls according to a head-count made in 1958, have survived down through the centuries of time is because these Indians chose an inaccessible valley at the edge of mammoth Grand Canyon in which to dwell.

Only a narrow, rock-strewn trail, winding down the canyon, leads to the village of Supai, the tribe's capital. When, centuries ago, fierce marauding tribes roamed the plateau country of what is now Arizona, a few braves, hidden in strategic spots along the treacherous trail, could easily repulse attack from above. The Havasupai were never warlike.

While these canyon walls provided protection for the ancient Havasupais, the need for communication with the outside world of the 20th century has created numerous problems.

The biggest headache at the governmental level confronted the U. S. Post Office Department when it became necessary to establish regular mail service for the tribe.

The post office at Supai was opened in 1912 the same year that Arizona achieved statehood.

POST OFFICE SUPAI ARIZONA

To bring mail in and out of this Canyon ShangriLa, the department decided to establish a star route, with the mail transported by pack-horse train.

Today, the run to Supai is the last of its type still operating in the entire U. S. postal system.

A father and son team provides the unique mail service. Guy Marshall shuttles the mail by pack horses from the canyon's valley up the eight-mile trail to Hual-apai Hilltop, which is on the plateau of the Hualapai Indian Reservation.

Foster Marshall, Guy's father, waits at the hilltop for his son's pack horse mail train to arrive. The mail is then placed on a small pick-up truck to continue the 62-mile run to the Peach Springs post office. From that point the mail is dispatched to its destinations.

The pack-mail run is made twice weekly - every Tuesday and Friday. Star route carrier Guy Marshall leaves the 518-acre reservation at 7 a.m. and the mail, with the truck assist, reaches Peach Springs at 3:30 p.m. Guy rides a horse on which a sack of first-class mail matter is usually tied to the saddle. One or two pack horses are used to carry the parcel post packages and second-class matter. He returns to the Havasupai capital the same day with a load of mail destined for the Supai post office.

Without this vital pack-horse mail link, the valley dwellers would be faced with an acute food shortage, for many perishable items, such as bread, flour and fresh fruits and vegetables, are sent by parcel post from the outside.

Of this unique postal service, artist John Hampton adds as follows: During the early days of his Indian postal service riders made a continuous round trip with "no sleep much" and "no pay" if late. All the tough times, however, were not during the old days of the long trail. Foster Marshall, also bronc-riding champion for the years of 1939-40 at the Flagstaff Pow Wow, and one who has proven he can "take it," tells of the rough days of the "big snow" of 1949.

He relates, "Big snow, thirty days straight, three or four feet high. Travel on them big mules on fourteen mile trail up river." (This was before the present eight mile trail to the top.) "Rider leave Supai early packing snow shovel and bring mail to my ranch on top and I take it to Grand Canyon. Trip of fifty-two miles take two days."

REPORT TO THE PUBLISHERS

As we have noted above, newsstand sales is an important source of our revenue. Newsstand sales were very limited and practically non-existent except on a very limited local basis until the mid-40's when expansion to neighboring states gave indication of greater volume in newsstand sales possibilities.

The year 1951 was a red-letter year in the story of this publication. In that year we became a client of the Independent News Company of New York, now one of the largest, if not the largest, national and inter-national publications distributors in this country. Maga-zine merchandising is a highly complicated and technical business, a business Independent excels in. We have every reason to be more than pleased with our association with Independent News because we now enjoy news-stand sales throughout this country and in a number of foreign countries. (We are proud, for instance, of the fact that you can buy ARIZONA HIGHWAYS in the air terminal at Tokyo, Japan.) While our newsstand sales are small compared to our larger magazines, for a country magazine we can say that we get around, thanks to Independent News. And, more important, our extension into the newsstand field has resulted in an increase, for us, in subscriptions.

By-products have been life-saving items in our finan-cial structure amounting to gross sales of $118,024.51 in our last fiscal year, with a very respectable profit to us. These by-products are bound volumes, binders, framed and unframed pictures, Color Classic slides, Color Al-bums, children's books, and, this past year, the wonder-ful art prints from the Read Mullan Gallery of Western Art (see our November issue, 1962).

Not only are our by-products profitable to us, they have a great value in further publicizing our state. Our 35mm Color Classic slides mounted on 2-inch frames, made from original transparencies used for our color re-productions, are sold by the thousands each year and help to carry the Arizona Story to strange and amazing magazine at a price that is economically favorable to us. The same Micro-Color quality, Krueger's trade mark which has appeared in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS since July, 1950, will now be produced by the Tyler Company in Phoenix. Many former Krueger technicians have moved to Phoenix to supplement Tyler's highly experi-enced lithographic personnel, totalling eighty people.

magazine at a price that is economically favorable to us. The same Micro-Color quality, Krueger's trade mark which has appeared in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS since July, 1950, will now be produced by the Tyler Company in Phoenix. Many former Krueger technicians have moved to Phoenix to supplement Tyler's highly experienced lithographic personnel, totalling eighty people.

Beginning with this issue, printed at the Tyler Printing Company in Phoenix, we will have a larger magazine than ever before. Our basic magazine in size has been eight pages of color and thirty-two pages in black-and-white inside with four color cover pages. Now we will have a basic magazine in size consisting of sixteen pages in color and thirty-two pages of black-and-white inside with four color cover pages. In other words, ours will now be a larger magazine than before, the addition being eight pages more of color each month.

During the fiscal year 1961-62 we spent $246,-923.74 in wages and salaries. We now have forty-four permanent employes and about one hundred temporary employes on our payroll. The temporary employes work for us an average of two to three months each year dur-ing the rush of our Christmas business. Of our permanent employes three are in the editorial department (editor, art editor, and editorial secretary). The remainder of our permanent employes are attached to our business, circu-lation, accounting and mailing departments.

During the fiscal year 1961-62 we spent $24,-556.40 in payment to our contributors for photographs, articles, poetry, and art work. Most of the material appearing in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is purchased from free-lance contributors, photographers and writers. (To these contributors, loyal and faithful friends, many of whom have been with us for years, is due any success this publication might have had.) During the fiscal year 1961-62 we spent the sum of $104,887.01 in postage, ouch! That sum exceeds the amount of state funds actually spent in the publication of this magazine. With the postage increases already scheduled for the future our postage this current year will be larger than ever.

During the fiscal year 1961-62 we spent $215,-274.13 for supplies and services, practically all with Arizona firms. This sum covers such things as freight, envelopes, picture framing, the production of our slides, the manufacture of our binders, bound volumes and Color Albums, advertising in Arizona newspapers and for advertising time over Arizona radio and television stations.

During the past fiscal year ARIZONA HIGHWAYS spent in Arizona about $500,000. Our expenditures in Arizona the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1963, with the printing of our magazine now being done in the state, should total $1,500,000, a not untidy return to the people of the state for an investment of $150,000 if you want to look at it in cold dollars and cents.

In another way, too, we are creating profits for many of our citizens with the sales of our magazine on their newsstands and for other Arizonans who are magazine subscription sales people. Our magazine is profitable to our magazine wholesalers and retailers. An Arizona supermarket, for instance, that sells as many as 10,000 of our Christmas issues each year finds our publication as profitable as canned beans.

In closing our report to our publishers, the people of Arizona, we ask your pardon for the interjection of the pronoun first person singular. I have been editor of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS since 1938. In the spring of that year, after my third or fourth issue, I was confronted with the awful and terrifying realization that we were running out of material. Now, twentyfive years later, I am confronted with the still more awful and still more terrifying realization of how inadequate we have been in telling the Arizona Story, how much of that story remains to be told. The Arizona Story has no beginning or end. It is the story of a great and a breathtakingly beautiful land, a big land full of sun and distance, so complex in personality no person will ever know all of it. It is a story of a great people, people proud of Arizona's past, people part of the dynamic present, people envisioning a still more dynamic future. That is the Arizona Story we have tried in our own poor way to tell in the past. That is the Arizona Story, so formidable and awesome, we will try to better tell in the future.

A PICTURE OF JULY

Paint me a picture of July Without a waterfall of words; Spring water-colors wash too pale For phosphorescent humming-birds, Zooming to target on a trumpet vine As vivid as the sun-heat it enfolds; Zinnias and vibrant marigolds shine Like a raucous shrew that eternally scolds Beneath the sun's precarious balloon Some gremlin will explode at noon. -ALICE MACKENZIE SWAIN

ETCHING

Moon-curve the mountains In a colder light Carve from the silence A paler atmosphere; Let northern winds Attack the night, Keep safe the marbled deer. -ORIAN DEPLEDGE

BIRDS WILL KEEP SINGING

Birds, never earning great applause, Are quite aware of Nature's laws; And yet, it seems, none can destroy The spirit of their bubbling joy.

Not fearing stormy wind or gust, The warblers sing because they must; Thus, uncomplaining, they will hence Keep singing without recompense. -LYDIA REGEHR

INCLINE

I dare not look at the hour-glass:. Noontime came I saw it pass The shadows now grow slim and tall; Sunset, writes upon the wall! I seem to hear the grains slip through, And I know the sands of time are few! -JENNIE L. RICHARD

BOOT HILL BURIALA GAMBLER

The only wreath Was a tumbleweed That got hung up on the new pine slab; The only grief Was a spit of rain That dribbled down from the skies so drab; The only Mass Was a coyote's chant That rose and fell as they left him there; The only lass Who could be concerned Was Lady Luck and she didn't care. -GEORGE L. KRESS

ADOBE RUINS

Who laid these bricks baked by the sun, Mortared with mud, and one by one Lifted and levelled by sweaty toil To shape strong walls from simple soil?

A hundred or two hundred years These walls housed laughter, love and tears. Abandoned now to wind and rain, Slowly they sift to earth again, No witness left by sky and sun To testify to work well done. -S. OMAR BARKER

YOURS SINCERELY PHOENIX BIRD: (Continued)

The article in ARIZONA HIGHWAYS on the Phoenix was most interesting. It had particular significance for San Francisco and also the University of San Francisco. As you noted, the flag of the city carries the Phoenix; I should add that both the University and the city rose from the ashes to new life.

I am enclosing a copy of the seal of the University's Second Century Program. It combines the seal of the University and a Phoenix representing the spirit of the City of San Francisco.

Thomas F. Jordan Director of Development University of San Francisco San Francisco, California It was formed 120 years ago, rising out of the ashes of an older Lodge which had ceased to exist, hence the title.

In this Church of the Holy Sepulchre, London, the Phoenix is represented in our "Resurrection" Window, above a picture of the Holy Sepulchre itself. Thank you for your most interesting article, and for ARIZONA HIGHWAYS in general. Rev. Canon Richard Tydeman, M.A. London, E.C. 1, England Never before have I enjoyed an issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS as thoroughly as I did the March, 963 copy. Not only were the color views up to their usual high standard, but the illustrative article, "The Phoenix Bird," was highly informative and most interesting. It was readily apparent that a great deal of research went into the preparation of this article.

Your magazine continues to provide me with a welcome introduction to the many wonders which seem to abound in your State. I eagerly anticipate the arrival of each new issue and continue to be amazed at the unusual variety and beauty contained in each one.

Capt. William Mac Quarrie APO, New York, New York

In your March issue, which has just reached me, you ask if anyone knows of other "Phoenix" designs. I enclose the symbol of our Masonic Lodge "Phoenix," which is held in Stowmarket, England. The Lodge

OPPOSITE PAGE

"WHERE THE CANYON NARROWS" BY JOSEPH WAMPLER. Photograph taken on Havasu Creek within one hundred fifty feet of junction with the Colorado River, where the canyon walls narrow. Mr. Wampler operates Wampler Trail Trips, which conducts tours to Havasu Canyon each spring and fall. For information about these tours write to Joseph Wampler, Box 45, Berkeley, California. If you plan your own trip and need to be packed in, write to Tourist-Manager, Supai, Arizona. Each saddle or pack horse is $12 for the round trip. He arranges for your camping two miles below the village or for your staying in one of two lodges in the village. The camping area is equipped with five tables, two toilets, and five hearths. The lodges have about seven rooms, fifteen beds with bedding, four bathrooms, and common kitchen facilities including refrigerator, stove, and cooking and eating utensils. Lodge accommodations cost $5 per person per night. A reasonable variety of food can be purchased at the small local store. If you plan to visit the canyon during a holiday such as Easter, it is wise to make reservations well in advance. Telephone reservations can be made by calling tourist manager at Supai via Grand Canyon 638-2308. Crown Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f. 11 at 1/50th sec.; Ektar 101mm. lens; May; Clear and sunny day; Norwood 175 meter reading; ASA rating 32.

BACK COVER

"THE SINGING WATERS" BY RAY MANLEY. This view shows Mooney Falls in Havasu Canyon, with a drop of about two hundred feet. To reach the place where this photograph was taken one must climb a steep trail, a not easy chore when one is carrying camera equipment. 5x7 Linhof camera; Ektachrome E3; f.22 at 1/60th sec.; 210 Symmar lens; June; bright sunlight at approximately 2:00 P.M.; film rated at 50; ASA rating 500.