OLD TUCSON - MOVIELAND

They came bucketing into town at a hand-gallop, hat brims flapping, spurs jingling, tie-down straps streaming, their ponies kicking the dusty road into a yellow haze behind them. With their gay neckerchiefs and sheepskin chaps they formed as vivid a group as one could find outside a Remington. They pulled up with a great clatter of hoofs in front of the Golden West saloon and, leaving their panting mounts standing dejectedly, heads to the ground and reins trailing, went stamping into the bar. Having had previous experience with their sort, I made bold to follow them through the swinging doors; for more unvarnished facts about a locality, its people, politics, progress, and prospects, are to be had over a mahogany bar than any place I know except a barber's chair.

"What'll it be, boys?" sang out one of them, as they sprawled themselves over the polished mahogany. I expected to see the bartender matter-of-coursely shove out a black bottle and six small glasses, for, according to all the accepted canons of the cow country, as I had known it a dozen years before, there was only one kind of a drink ever ordered at a bar. So, when two of the party expressed a preference for ginger ale and the other four allowed that they would take lemonade, I felt like going to the door and taking another look at the straggling frontier town and at the cactus-dotted desert which surrounded it, just to make sure I really was in Arizona and not at Chautauqua, New York.

It required scant finesse to engage one of the lemonade drinkers in amicable and illuminating conversation. "Round-up hereabouts?" I inquired, by way of making an opening.

"Nope," said my questionee. "Leastways not as I knows of. You see," he continued confidentially, "we've quit cow-punching. We've tied up with the movies."

"With the what?" I queried.

"The movies-the moving-picture people, you know," he explained. "You see, the folks back East have gone plumb crazy on these here Wild West picture plays and we're gratifying 'em at so much per. Wagon-train attacked by Indians good-lookin' girl carried off by one of the bucks - cow-punchers to the rescue, and all that sort of thing. It's good pay and easy work, and the grub's first-rate. Yes, siree, it's got cow-punching beaten to a frazzle. I reckon you're from the East yourself, ain't you?"

I admitted that I was, adding that my bag was labelled "New York."

"The hell you say!" he exclaimed, regarding me with suddenly increased respect. "From what I hearn tell that sure must be some wicked town. Gambling joints runnin' wide open, an' every one packs a gun, I hear, an' shootin' scraps so frequent no one thinks nothing about 'em. It ain't a safe place to live, I say. Now, down here in Arizony things is different. We're peaceable, we are. We don't stand for no promisc'us gun-play and, barring one or two of the mining towns, ther ain't a poker palace left, and I wouldn't be so blamed surprised if this State went dry in a year or two. Well, s'long, friend," he added, sweeping off his hat, "I'm pleased to've made your acquaintance. The feller with the camera's waitin' an' we've got to get out an' run off a few miles of film so's to amuse the people back East.

In Arizona The Business of Make-Believe Is The Real Thing.

I had revisited the Southwest expecting to find the same easy-going, devil-may-care, whoop-her-up-boys life so characteristic of that country's territorial days. Instead I found a busy, prosperous State, still picturesque in many of its aspects but as orderly and peaceful as Commonwealth Avenue on a Sunday morning.

It wasn't much of a country, was Arizona, the first time I set foot in it, upward of a dozen years ago.

That's the way the noted English author-traveler, E. Alexander Powell saw it in the first decade of the twentieth century. In modern day Arizona, Gatorade has probably replaced lemonade as a thirst quencher. Otherwise the script is much the same in our presentation of "Old Tucson," one of Tucson's prime tourist attractions. Louis De Mayo was there one day when the activity centered around an episode of the popular TV favorite "Gunsmoke." Scenes are from "The Lair," Gunnar Helstrom directing a cast headed by James Arness and Ann Frances. Arizona's western and frontier replicas are also "living museums" of life as it was in pre-20th century times. In addition to the movie set sites near Tucson, there are others at Carefree, Arizona, Apache Junction and one nearing completion on the Bradshaw Ranch in Arizona's charismatic Red Rocks country.

The country around Patagonia is as close as Arizona has to the Marlboro cigarette advertisements image of the ideal horse country. Last year 15 movies were done in the area. On Patagonia's Main Street, two of Arizona's most interesting people, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Stradling own and operate a first class hostelry, Stage Stop Motel and Stradling's Museum of the Horse and Indian Trading Post. The horse museum is unique in the United States, and that is not merely a cliche. It is a first class facility embellished with priceless Western art originals, supervised by salt-of-the-earth people. On state route 82, north of Nogales, Arizona.

Visitors driving U.S. Interstate 10 will find many places of interest and significance in the history and development of the Southwest. One of the most rewarding areas contains the Cochise Stronghold landmarks topped by Cochise Head formation as seen from the Chiricahua Wonderland of Rocks gallery of some of the earth's most picturesque rock forms.

Rappelling the steep side of Baboquivari Old Tumacacori A National Monument View of Mexico from the Huachucas

Tucson is the romantic one in the family of Arizona communities. Its modern "downtown" has undergone a rebirth of community activity evidenced by the architectural monuments to civic progress with the finest example expressed in the recently dedicated Convention and Culture Center in what was once the most avoided part of metropolitan Tucson. Outside the city limits Nature is waiting to tempt man with attractions unlike those near any other American metropolis. One-half hour from Tucson there are mountains to climb, old missions for the seekers of peace and serene contemplation. There are old mining ruins and relics, and unmatched forests of saguaro, organ pipe and cholla cacti. And for scholars and experts of all ages the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum will reward the visitor with an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation of the desert southwest's flora, fauna and mineral wonders.

View of the valley west of Baboquivari Creek in Bear Canyon Sunset side of Baboquivari Scenic arch Ajo Mountains Courtyard San Xavier del Bac

At the request of many readers who write us for information as to where they can purchase prints of western subjects we suggest Old Tucson Frontier Prints as shown below produced by Serigraphic Masters, 2949 North 31st Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85017. This reproduction was made from a 15" x 22" original print on canvas, with white border for framing $10.00 each postpaid. Pictured is one of more than sixty subjects.

Old Tucson is located in Tucson Mountain Park, 13 miles southwest of Tucson. The reconstructed village showing the Territorial Southwest as it was around Tucson in the middle 1800's is one of the finest western locations for the motion picture industry. Some thirty movie productions have been filmed here in addition to the many TV presentations.

Note: No tours are permitted on production days, unless you know someone who knows someone who knows the right people. The reasons are valid and obvious during shooting schedules, however the management welcomes and encourages visitors. The telephone number is listed in the Tucson directory and all inquiries will be courteously satisfied.

Old Tucson is not the only movie-making locale in southern Arizona. Universal Studios film "Ulzana's Raid," with Burt Lancaster was filmed on a Rio Rico location in the foothills of the Tumacacori Mountains. The all-male cast plus one girl, were lodged at the prestigious Rio Rico Inn atop a hill overlooking the Nogales Highway. Their reason for choosing the site. "Outstandingly beautiful country, virgin land and no jet routes overhead to affect sound." Sixty-one percent of Santa Cruz county land is U.S. Coronado National Forest property, near the 195 room Rio Rico Hotel. Thousands of acres of the area are ideal for movie settings.

There's Music In Arizona Place Names

What could be more musical than Quitobaquito pool, Organ Pipe National Monument?

There's music in the names of Arizona. From Tonalea to Tuba City, from Tiger to Tortilla Flat, the names in our state sing aloud. Sound them yourself and see.

Read this page out loud. Listen to the music in the names of Arizona.

Hear the rumble of Bumble Bee and Growler, the alkali click of Chloride, the prickly consonants of Cactus and Clip and Clack and Grasshopper Junction. Growl the guttural Gu Achi. Parrot the owl-call sound of Chukut Kuk. Trumpet in Saxon splendor that regal name, Crown King.

There's music in the names of Arizona. Whether you hail from Oracle or Maverick, Witch Well, Hualapai or Wolf Hole, spread out your road map and read it alound. Dinnehotso is poetry, Bouse and Houck a persistent cough. Contention City and Total Wreck were, but are no more. Betatakin might always have been. Tumacacori, Wupatki roll trippingly off the tongue.

So, go shut yourself in your room, if you're shy, but read Arizona aloud.

Native names come calling down our canyons Geronimo, Wikieup, Moccasin. Aztec, Moqui, Navajo a lonely wandering Mohawk. Ghostly bugles echo by night through Dragoon and Fort Defiance.

There's Paradise in Arizona. There's Honeymoon, there's Eden. But we've also El Mirage, Bitter Springs, Tombstone and Skull Valley.

From Friendly Corner to Canyon Diablo, whether Indian or Spanish, English, French or Happenstance, the place names of Arizona are lyrics in search of a song. They whisper, tinkle, cajole, carouse across the face of our state.

Listen! Sound for yourself these singing names. Bring baubles and beads to Bagdad. Speak discreet state secrets to Seneca. Wax bucolic at Many Farms. Take a bearing on Wrong Mountain. Hie off to Big Bug or Tule. Heed the call of Rimmy Jims, Tuweep, Cowlic and Valentine. Lend an appreciative ear to Tuzigoot, Happy Jack, Vaiva Vo and Blue.

There's music in the names of Arizona. Sound the roll! Oro Blanco, Hassayampa, Chiricahua, Hope read this page out loud! Strawberry, Snowflake. Kom Vo and Window Rock read aloud, real aloud! Sikort Chuapo, Horse Thief Basin, Cascabel, Cibola. Stargo, Silver Bell, Ruby, Roll, Rye. Most of these names are from the Arizona 1970 Road Map, published by the State Highway Commission. GROWLER, CACTUS, WITCH WELL and SENECA are from the 1964-65 edition of that map. TIGER, CONTENTION CITY and ORO BLANCO are from the pamphlet, "Ghost Towns in Arizona," published by Arizona Development Board.

The following names are from a map titled "Ghost Towns Inhabited Between 1880-1910" by Lance MacVittie, with the source credited as "Arizona Place Names" by Byrd Granger: CLIP, CLACK, TOTAL WRECK, BIG BUG and TULE.

"Arizona Place Names" by Barnes is the source of BETATAKIN and WRONG MOUNTAIN.