PAYSON

PAYSON Growing Pains In The Growing Pines

How do we know we're growing? Well, there's the Mountain Bell report they say that the net change in telephone installations in the Payson, Pine, Young, Tonto Creek area is up 64.6% from February 1972 thru January 1973. There are now more than 2300 telephones in the area.

Retail sales in Gila County are up 77.6% in the last 10 years. The population is up 18.8%. Payson alone has had a population increase in the 10 years from 1960 to 1970 census figures of 425.7%.

How do we know we're growing? Well, things like the Great Western Bank opening a full service bank here this month. The Valley National Bank has been doing business here for some years. And First Federal Savings and Loan has begun work on its new office to be open July 1.

Payson Plaza is open now. There is a real honest-to-good-ness SUPER Supermarket. A book store, an office supply and answering service, a floor covering shop, a hobby shop, a children's shop are all either doing business or just about ready to open. We're looking forward to a laundromat, a variety store, an ice cream parlor all in the same center, very soon.

Across the street in North Beeline Plaza you'll find the Chamber of Commerce. There's a realty firm and two insurance companies going full swing. Downstairs in the same building there's an insurance adjuster, an accountant, an upholsterer, and the wax works. Yes, we even have a little old candlemaker!

Transamerica Title Insurance Co. has just moved to bigger quarters in Twin Pine Shopping Center. Their neighbors include a gas company, a jeweler, a laundromat, a hardware chain store, a sign company and a beauty salon.

Arizona Title and Trust Co. has started doing business in Payson North. They share the center with a barber shop, Sears outlet store, a trading post, the water company, the telephone company, a glass company, and an arts and crafts store. You will also find a cable TV office, an insurance agent, an accountant, the Sanitary District, and a security patrol office. In the south section of the same complex there's a realty and land company, a dentist, the newspaper office, a beauty salon, a decorator center, a convenience market and a new building which will house 15 offices.

Across the street in Payson North the Swiss Village Lodge is being built as fast as weather permits. It will be a Best Western Motel with a lounge and dining room. There's talk of a new theater in the same Payson North area.

How do we know we're growing? Just look at the residential area of Payson North Switzerland in Arizona. More than 800 lots have been sold since the development was started in 1968. One third of these lots have homes built on them. Four units are open now with two more to be ready soon.

There's more growth on the Beeline restaurants, realty companies, shops stocked with merchandise to lure the traveler, and service stations. You may buy a mobile home or a motorcycle or bait or a TV on the Beeline. That's where you catch the Mogollon Stage Line if you feel like a trip to the Valley. Shops are doing business on Frontier Street and tucked away here and there off the main drag. Mobile home parks are scattered in under the pines and motels welcome the tourist.

Still water runs deep, cool, and full of trout in the Mogollon Rim lakes. HERB & DOROTHY MC LAUGHLIN And there's Main Street the nucleus of it all. Everyone visits the post office every day. And on their way they pass the Gay Nineties Bar, the Ox Bow Inn, antique stores, the "almost everything" department store. There's a grocery, a feed and seed company, the lumber mill, the hardware, the Art Center and the Gila County Administration building. We can't forget the style shops, and the furniture store, the laundromat and the answering service.

We can tell we're growing because we have more children going to our schools. We're planning to add classrooms to accommodate them. And we'll need more teachers to help them on their way.

Paysonites have been working on incorporation for a few years. They still have not convinced enough of their citizens that they are strong enough and big enough to fight their own battles. But the way we're growing we'll be ready before long. It started way back in 1882 when this community was named for Senator Louis Payson.

Zane Grey was the first one to make this area famous. Zane was a dentist who gave it all up to discover the West and write books and stories about this country he loved.

Kohl's Ranch opened their resort about that time nearly one half century ago. Kohl's has been synonymous with "west-ern vacation paradise" for these many years. It is hard to tell who brought the people to this area Kohl's Ranch or Payson. The town owes at least part of its growth to the visitors at Kohl's they came, they saw, and they moved here!

We are located in the geographical center of Arizona. We enjoy fabulous forests of tall pines, picture book lakes and streams. We have Forest Service Camp Grounds thru-out the area as well as privately owned campsites. Hunters come to get their limit of elk, deer, turkey, antelope, bear and moun-tain lions. The Tonto Natural Bridge is one of the natural wonders. We have one of the largest seismological observatories in the world right here in our midst. And each year in August Payson hosts the world's oldest continuous Rodeo. We also boast a Jr. Rodeo in July for young people to age 19. Our elders have their day at the Fiddler's Contest during the Fall Festival in October. Motorcycle enthusiasts can enjoy their own Rodeo over Memorial Day.

How do we know we're growing just look around! God has blessed us with a land of unsurpassed beauty. And we have discovered it and built roads to it and have come to live in it. More of us are coming every day. We come to live, to learn, to work, to rest, to play, to retire mostly to enjoy what beauty God has given us. We love it here in the Rim Country!

After a day on the trail, a restful place to return to. HERB & DOROTHY MC LAUGHLIN