A to Z Gold Star Show

Buckeye, located 35 miles southwest of Phoenix, was founded in 1885 by Ohio settlers who built the Westside area's first irrigation canal in 1886. Incorporated as a city in 1929, she has a population of 2,712 residents who concentrate on producing livestock, cotton, alfalfa and grains on the thousands of surrounding irrigated acres.

Also ringed by rich farmland are the communities of Avondale, Goodyear, and Litchfield Park which comprise the "Westside Triangle." The area's annual western celebration, Billy Moore Days, commemorates its first settler who established a freight station for the Butterfield Stage Line in the 1880's. He founded Coldwater (now Avondale) and homesteaded many parcels of land in the Agua Fria area.

While the economy of the Westside Triangle is largely agricultural (cotton, feed grains, safflower, citrus and vegetables), manufacturing has become increasingly important. Goodyear Aerospace produces electronic guidance systems and components for NASA's space vehicles. Unidynamics, a division of Universal Match Corporation, does research work in biochemistry as well as the engineering and production of explosive and propellant-actuated devices for advanced aerospace and ICBM systems. Caterpillar Tractor Co. has key equipment testing grounds nearby.

Much activity in the area has been brought about recently by an extraordinary new city being created at Litchfield Park. The new town of Litchfield Park is being built around the old one on 12,000 acres which have been cultivated for the past 50 years by Goodyear Farms and its predecessor, the Southwest Cotton Company, one of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's earliest subsidiaries. Goodyear purchased the acreage in 1916 to grow long staple cotton for truck tires when World War I German U-Boats threatened the Egyptian cotton supply.

Over five years in planning, a city of nearly 100,000 is envisioned at full development. Geared to provide the residents with a sense of personal identity, this new kind of city will be composed of six communities; one community will consist of two villages and each village will be formed by a cluster of four neighborhoods. Together they will provide residents with a wide range of cultural, business, educational, industrial, medical and recreational facilities.

But today's tourist can already find an ample assortment of recreational activities in this area. Phoenix International Raceway features top sports car competition and is gaining worldwide fame as the "Indianapolis of the West." The Goodyear Golf and Country Club (formerly the famed Wigwam resort) offers a 36-hole golf course to energetic visitors who may also try their luck on several smaller courses in the vicinity.

One of these is an 18-hole public golf course located at the nearby Estrella Mountain Regional Park, covering 16,468 acres. Trail rides, hiking, picnicking and other recreation is readily available at another close county park encompassing 26,337.75 acres. White Tank Mountain Regional Park is the largest in the Maricopa County Parks system which is made up of 92,720 acres. In the past 70,000 acres of this total have been leased from the Federal government for an annual fee of $20,000. Under new regulations established by Congress in 1970, the county is in the process of purchasing this land.

The 8th annual A to Z National Horse Show will be held February 24-28 at the Veterans' Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

It is expected that once again, more than 700 horses from over 20 states and Canada will be competing in 130 classes for more than $32,000 in prize money and silver trophies.

The A to Z Horse Show is sponsored by the Phoenix Zoo Auxiliary, and managed by Frank Jordano, of Santa Barbara, California.

Show proceeds are for the benefit of the Phoenix Zoo, which, though only 8 years old, is officially recognized as one of the nation's top ten. It covers 123 acres, has more than 1,000 exhibited animals, and a charming children's zoo, which is visited by an estimated 5,000 children weekly.

The A to Z has been rated Gold Star by the American Horse Show Association, Inc., and named one of the nation's top ten shows by Who's Who in Horsedom.

The week of the Horse Show is a big one in Phoenix, topping a full year of concentrated preparation by the Auxiliary. There is an opening night cocktail party, where as many as 1,000 guests are hosted, and a Saturday night Supper Party, including music and dancing, which honors the exhibitors. Both these events are held in the Coliseum, and are greatly exciting and successful.