Summer in Tucson

Flying V Guest Ranch

Spanish as well as English is spoken in the extensive Mexican sections and in most downtown stores. This has created a zestful social and cultural amalgam of the old and the new, the regional and the international. The cake remains, but a multi-flavored frosting has been added. Naturally, the best known and most widely supported endeavors in music, drama, the graphic arts and intellectual pursuits are those indigenous activities which originated before the human flood. Some of these are inheritances from the Old Pueblo's Indian, Spanish and Territorial past. The city has a symphony orchestra, the famed Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, a Civic Chorus, Boys Band and many groups devoted to all types of music. Fall, winter, and spring concert goers are treated to performances by noted visiting orchestras and great personalities of the musical world. Also well known actors and actresses are seen in road-show productions of Broadway hits, and several local little theatres present ligitimate stage fare of considerable flair and professionalism. Among them are the Arizona Corral Theatre's performances "in the round," and the U. of A.'s Drama Department's plays, ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary, produced in its own modern, well-equipped theatre. The world's leading speakers and lecturers are brought to Tucson by the Sunday Evening Forum held each week during the season in the University Auditorium. Given free to the public, this popular series is supported by subscription, and is reputed to be the largest community project of its kind in the country. Besides the city's fourteen radio broadcasting stations and three television channels of the major networks, the University maintains a noncommercial TV station which features educational and artistic programs.

Painters, sculptors and other workers in the creative arts and crafts find a vital stimulus in Southern Arizona. Writers and photographers, too, are in their element. There is a ready market for Southwestern artistic and literary material. One Tucson author recently said, "Around here you run across a painter, writer or shutter-snapper behind nearly every cactus." Encouragement to local artists is given by the Tucson Art Center which maintains studios and gallery, and a dozen other groups exhibit the work of regional artists in oils, water colors, prints, sculpture, ceramics, fabric design and jewelry. The University Fine Arts Center houses the excellent Kress Collection of Renaissance Painting and the Gallagher Memorial Collection of Modern Art.

But the most thoroughly distinctive cultural venture, and certainly the most ambitious, is the annual Tucson Festival week. Held in April, this gala occasion for the entire city highlights the many artistic elements of the region. The events bring together the Indian, Spanish, Mexican and Territorial backgrounds, and blends them with the modern into a typically Tucsonian melange. Packed into six lively days, the Tucson Festival Society presents the Indian San Xavier Mission Fiesta and Historical Pageant, a Mexican street fair with music and dancing, an Arts and Crafts Show, a children's costume parade, a Pioneer Jubilee, and as a grande finale, the glittering Silver and Turquoise Ball.

In Arizona, rodeos are a cultural expression, an historical heritage, a sporting event, a spectacle, and a social gathering rolled into one. Called La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros, Tucson's rodeo is one of the best. For four days in February the spirit of the Old West invades the city, and an informal cow-town atmosphere prevails. In anticipation of the event everybody dresses Western, beards sprout magically, and old-time dances, barbecues, parties and customs are revived. Top professional performers furnish thrilling competition at the Rodeo Grounds, and a colorful motorless parade traverses the downtown streets on opening day. Quieter and more serious, but equally important, is the Pima County Fair held each October at the large, well-equipped Fairgrounds at the southern edge of the city. Another reminder of the historic Wild West is Old Tucson. Originally built as a movie set, this is supposed to be a reproduction of the town in the 1860's. Here one can ride a stagecoach, take a loop on a narrow-guage railroad, wander boardwalk streets, visit lively concessions, and witness assorted examples of mock gun-play in which the "good guys" always win.

Newcomers are most surprised at this desert city's enthusiasm for boating and fishing. They find it difficult to believe that Arizona has the highest percentage of registered boat owners in relation to population of all the fifty states. Each weekend hundreds of Tucsonians tow their craft on trailers to the deep-sea-fishing grounds in the Gulf of California or to the numerous artificial freshwater lakes throughout the state. But one needn't be a boat owner to enjoy fishing or water sports. Boats and equipment may be rented at lakeside marinas, and fishing parties can fly down to the Mexican Gulf resorts in a couple of hours. But most popular are the Santa Catalina Mountains. Culminating in Mount Lemmon, 9,185 feet elevation, they form a lofty and rugged backdrop directly to the north, which can be seen from every part of the city. Within Coronado National Forest, this superlative sum-