DEE FLAGG-ARTIST IN WOOD

The vignette portrays the mid-July holdup of a Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific train at Cameron, Missouri, just four days after the James Boys, Frank and Jesse, had robbed the bank of Riverton, Iowa.

Flagg spent three months pinning down the precise stying of transverse support that fastened the rails. Everything from the bits of .45 calibre slugs in the splintered baggage door to the rivets and cylinders on the belching stack engine, America, are accurately included.

The most difficult feat in wood sculpture is the capturing of an act at some half-way point, as a camera catches a motion. Here Robbery excels. Jesse is recorded throwing himself into his saddle, the leg muscles of his horse taut and eager for gallop. A companion bandito tries to calm his rearing mount, and a sad-faced mail clerk rubs his bruised head.

A cynic might delve deeper and search for likely omissions. He'll be disappointed. Each finger has a nail, each eyelid its lashes. Railroad engineers have gone over the work as connoisseurs, usually ending their investigations, "I can't see anything wrong with it," which Flagg considers high praise.

Last Train Robbery, sometimes referred to as James Boys 1881 as a concession to debate, was four years in completion. The length measures fourteen feet, the width forty feet. The work is sculptured from spruce. Although Flagg works in pine, oak and walnut, too, he prefers basswood, of the linden family, which looks somewhat like birch, but with the hardness of mahogany.

Wood sculpture requires the elimination of parts. To begin this removal, Flagg sketches a rough directly on the wood. Although he has about one hundred chisels, parting tools, clamps and scrapers, he uses relatively few, favoring his own pocket knife. He follows the grain of the wood, working slowly, keeping perspective in mind, stopping to re-sketch when the original concept needs heightening.Once the wood sculpture is finished, Flagg shadows it with paint thinly applied making certain the grain of the wood continues to predominate. He signs it simply, "Dee."

Flagg is a gracious fellow, friendly and completely dedicated to his work. He can easily carve with onlookers standing at his shoulders, and he delights in their interest. His flair for the theatrical has not diminished with his residence in Arizona. The fire engine is gone, but it has been replaced by a gold and white eye-filling "Phantom 1 Rolls Royce." Nothing tickles Flagg more than to catch the startled expressions on visitors to his studio when they realize one of the life-size westerners seated by the door is far from wooden, not Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull, or Davy Crockett. Dee Flagg himself.

dedicated to his work. He can easily carve with onlookers standing at his shoulders, and he delights in their interest. His flair for the theatrical has not diminished with his residence in Arizona. The fire engine is gone, but it has been replaced by a gold and white eye-filling "Phantom 1 Rolls Royce." Nothing tickles Flagg more than to catch the startled expressions on visitors to his studio when they realize one of the life-size westerners seated by the door is far from wooden, not Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull, or Davy Crockett. Dee Flagg himself.

Being one of a vanishing breed, this artist in wood takes an understandable joy in his craftsmanship, which has developed astonishingly over the years. Flagg's first attempts met with relative indifference.

One of Dee Flagg's latest creations is "Glen Canyon Dam" to be seen at First National Bank, Page.

It wasn't that these earlier efforts were meritless, rather that they failed to stimulate the imagination. But year by year, piece by piece, the situation altered. For practice he did over two hundred heads of Christ, making each one different from the last. The Knotty Pines restaurant in Phoenix boasts a score of Dee Flagg panels, contrasting his earliest work with some of his latest. The viewer can literally see the unfolding. The older works, nature scenes, are lifeless, flat, uninspired; the more contemporary, the handsomely carved western doors as a point, flow with movement; they have both texture and style. The First National Bank of Arizona owns many Flagg panels that depict banking in the state. They are exceptionally noteworthy, boasting recognizable historical characters complete with embroidered vests and corduroy trousers, along with wood faces thin as paper.

Mrs. Eleanor Headlee, assistant vice president, recalls the reaction when the panels first went on display.

"I think everyone was amazed at the three-dimensional effects he had created down to and including dents in spittoons. Many people thought he had glued on some of the pieces. He hadn't, of course all were made from a single piece of wood. But people couldn't help but wonder.

Today Dee Flagg's work is found in many private as well as public collections. A traveler is as likely to disTo cover his Don Quixote panels masking the wall of a business office in Chihuahua, Mexico, as he is to find a Flagg miniature of J. Edgar Hoover at F.B.I. headquarters in Washington, D. C.

In subject matter, the land west of the Pecos holds Flagg's heart. He admits he has a long, long, long way to go before he gets as much done as he hopes. And he's not sure it can be done in one lifetime. But he's going to try, recapturing the panorama of the Old West as he carves gold prospectors, grizzled sourdoughs, mule teams, blacksmith shops, gun duels, saddle tramps and drifters, heroes and badmen.

Arizona art critic Harry Wood sums up Dee Flagg: "He is all patience, joy and craftsmanship... Only a man who rides a chisel with a rhythm that he learned in a saddle could set such forces in motion in a slice of lumber."

AUTUMN RAIN

Huddled clouds heavily laden open doors spilling grey jewels on dead leaves and brittle twigs making little pools in autumn before winter. -V. Trollope-Cameron

OCTOBER GAME

Now the aspens chalk up their score in frost They gambled their proud gold coins...and lost! -Maude Rubin

LEAVES OF GOLD AND GREEN

Leaves of gold and leaves of green Mingle on the sunlit scene Dancing, rustling, gay, excited. Autumn's come and they're invited To the frolic of the season. Every child of every tree's on Hand. All cast from One Great Mold - Leaves of green and leaves of gold. -Claire Puneky

NOVEMBER MOON

Only The dried-up rind Of ripe October's pumpkin-moon, Withering upon the blackened vine Of night. -Elizabeth-Ellen Long

AUTOGRAΡΗ

When aspens sign a golden signature And sumac scrawls a line of living flame, I need no printed calendar to know Who penned them both; October is her name. -Pauline Crittenden

FAREWELL

Scarlet, russet, brown Autumn and goldleaves are growing oldWhispering, rustling, settling down In jeweled pyres across the town. -Vilet

DON'T LEAVE ME

When the Autumn leaves are falling in the chill November air When the browns, and reds, and goldens leave the tree limbs stark and bare When the roses have quit blooming, when there's no chance for mistake Then it's time to don the work clothes and go out and rake - and rake. -Hinton H. Noland

Yours sincerely BIRD ISSUE:

The August issue of your magazine is truly outstanding! Willis Peterson's photograph of the trio of ash-throated flycatchers might be captioned "Tweet A-de-line!"

Mrs. Charles K. Vilim, Jr. Park Ridge, Illinois

RECEPTION IN FINLAND:

Our library is the place where Finnish people most often get hold of a copy of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. The beauty of the scenery fascinates our people who are more used to snow-covered woods in winter and to the blue color of the thousand lakes of Finland in summer. Yet the general tone of red and brown, so typical of Arizona, is seldom found within the Finnish landscape.

I have been able to see the "seven wonders of Arizona" with my own eyes, as a part of a program for foreign broadcasters in care of Syracuse University. We had a choice what to see, where to travel last fall, October, 1963. There was no difficulty in deciding the first point of visit, Phoenix, Arizona. Then later, during a ten day stay, Grand Canyon com-pleted the program, part of which was professional as being a guest to the local TV station, KOOL-TV. During the first few days in Phoenix I ordered copies of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS for my 15-year old brother at home the best memory of Arizona to any body. The bookshop at The Sahara Hotel helped me to establish this monthly link over the Ocean.

Lauri Toivola Suomen Televisio Helsinki, Finland

RECEPTION IN FRANCE: Wow!

... I quite agree with Mrs. Shirley Crowe's letter in your June number: "No more buildings, please." I subscribed to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS (through Brentano's in Paris) for the second time because I find your pic-tures of animals, birds, flowers, scenery, etc. beautiful, and I hoped to get some more. Alas! In the last numbers there were only towns and dams, dams, dams And a geometrical American town is not especially inspiring! My entrance hall is entirely decorated with your pictures of cactus flowers and birds, and I need some more... And I give plenty of them away to friends and children. But they don't like towns so much either!

Madame C. Meresse Maisons-Alfort (Seine) France

RECEPTION IN MUSSOORIE, India:

I am the new librarian for the Tibetan Refugee School here in Mussoorie, where one thousand young students are attending classes. The school is conducted in the English language and we have a small library where students come and read books and old magazines given to us by friends.

Among the magazines which we received were some ARIZONA HIGHWAYS which the students come to read and look at. They are very happy with these magazines because the fine pictures help them to understand the western world a world which is very new to us since we left our Tibet in 1959.

Because ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine is so modern and because it is so useful to us, I am writing to ask you to kindly consider giving our library a one year subscription without cost. Our new library is in one room of our school and has no money to buy books or magazines. We want very much to make this a good library so that we Tibetans can make a new and better life by having a good education.

Mr. Lobsang Tenzin, Librarian Tibetan Refugee School Happy Valley Mussoorie, U. P., India

Photograph was taken a short distance southwest of Point Imperial on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Anyone wanting to see the "golden season" at her best should not fail to take the trip from Jacob Lake to the North Rim early in October. Normally, the first week in October is the best time for this trip. 4x5 Graphic View II camera; Ektachrome; f.22 at 1/25th sec.; 127mm Ektar lens; early October; brightly backlit; Weston Meter 300; ASA rating 50.

Photograph was taken in St. David, Arizona. The many artesian ponds in and around St. David have nourished the cottonwoods which line their banks to giant proportions and the area is one of the most colorful in Southern Arizona when autumn comes a'calling. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.22 at 1/25th sec.; 90mm Angulon lens; November; bright sunny day; Weston Meter 250; ASA rating 50.