PROVING GROUND

Ford's Mustang II - the Arizona carat Rawhide, Arizona. Rawhide is a composite replica representative of the West as it was in the 1880's. Located on North Scottsdale Road, between Scottsdale and Carefree, Rawhide is one of the Valley of the Sun's most popular and best managed family oriented attractions.

Arizona... From Covered Wagons to Bulldozers, Proving Ground For Men and Machines

Sometimes it's men, sometimes it's machines. Arizona has always been a vast proving ground of one kind or another, from the time when rugged pioneers fought to see who would survive in a rugged land to today's exotic tests of mechanical and electrical equipment.

Stories of the early pioneer struggles both fact and fiction are known the world over. But stories of present day testing of things such as automobiles and military electronics are frequently shrouded in secrecy.

Most Arizonans are only dimly aware that both Ford and General Motors do about half their automotive testing in the state, or that International Harvester has its proving ground near Phoenix on the southern slopes of the South Mountains.

Chrysler is here too, with a small facility at Sun City, the military make extensive use of Fort Huachuca and Caterpillar tests its tractors in the White Tanks.

Few residents of Mesa, living in air conditioned comfort, remember that the early Mormon settlers once scratched for a living there. Fewer still know that just south of them, near Williams Air Force Base, perhaps 200 skilled drivers, mechanics and engineers test to destruction nearly every General Motors automobile and component.

Closer, perhaps, are the people of Kingman, who are quite conscious of the Ford Proving Ground at the old World War II Yucca Air Base. In a small community, the economic and social impact of Ford people is more than noticeable. Neighbors and friends work at the proving grounds. Civic leaders are apt to be Ford employes.

A former manager of the proving ground, Benn Kellar, found he couldn't leave on retirement and built a home in the Hualapais. Another, Vic Hopeman, has investments in the community.

It was here that Ford employes began testing what Ford called its "Arizona project", components of an unusual automobile which borrowed much of its design from small European cars yet was to be made in America.

The metric engine was patterned after the made-inCologne engine in the Capri, but the American-made version is slightly larger and more powerful.

A second engine, a V6 also made in Cologne, was tested as an option and became the only made-in-Europe component available for the new car.

The small, secret "Arizona" car later became the Mustang II, introduced to the public this fall to replace the first Mustang, which was an all-time best seller when it first appeared in 1964.

Although the name's the same, and the new Mustang looks a lot like its predecessor at least the 1964 version the resemblance stops there.

The new Mustang is smaller than the original and at least seven inches shorter it is truly a small car.

But it's hardly a Spartan vehicle. Proving ground drivers pounded prototypes for thousands of miles to test its unusual suspension, which Ford claims is far superior to anything in its size or class; thousands more miles tested fit and finish of other components.

Ford claims it spent some $160 million in development of the Mustang II. Both Ford and GM contribute several million dollars a year to the state's economy, with the other proving grounds in the state (with the exception of Fort Huachuca) somewhat less.

Although the Arizona of today rarely tests its citizens as it did the days of the old Butterfield Stage, it is today an ideal place to test automobiles.

In either case, only the best and strongest manage to survive.

EXPLORE EXCITING GILA COUNTY

Any single issue is worth the price of the whole year's subscription!

Start your gift subscriptions with the fifty-two page full color Christmas issue which will be mailed in a specially designed envelope.

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GENERALLY, YOU KNOW THIS LAND

How can it be explained? One does not come here to live cozily, As between a hillock and a marsh, Or near a town where ridges of muslin trees Stand on the low horizon; to a city Of walls and towers, lost in the smoke of day.

One comes here to live In-the-sight-of-the-eye-of-the-universe, In the openness of skyward mountains Hovering in the distant air often A hundred miles away; to unbelievable nights And first-seen constellations.

And one comes here, to lose and find himself; For he, who will not be lost, who Will shelter and comfort himself Away from this immensity of earth and stars, Neither will he be found.

Generally, you know this land The cacti holding their wristless arms To the trembling sky, yucca, tumbleweed, And clumps of mauve grass, drawn like wire, Dotting the desert earth. But know, also That our mountains are Edens of plants And waterfalls, the tufa tumbled over By splashing rains, the day, bird-red and blue; The night as cool as sleeping.

For elevation determines this weather: Where the sky is pierced by spire, shaft, and ridge, It gathers thickly among the dripping pines; Caught and condensed by seining climbs of air.

But over the desert, the sky, high and pale, Dries to parchment in the cloudless blue. Here the fauna of the earth, The enemies of heat, creep into the sand-hot night Long after Scorpio has gained the southern sky And the reina-de-la-noche has begun to tremble in her petals: Rat, fox, lizard, snake, come forth To do some little living in the blessed dark.

THIS IS A SPANISH VILLAGE

This is a Spanish village, High, where the mountains are hills, Its houses are crumbling adobe, All with blue window sills, As ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is always the topic of conversation in each and every letter from a good friend in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada to whom we sent a two-year subscription the following must have been inspired. As stated in her last letter "my 'muse' is kissing me so much that I just have to make verses, like a factory making bread. I pour them out like a sickness after receiving ARIZONA HIGHWAYS each month.

THE ANCIENT LAND

Walking the rocky beach of the river I felt stones beneath my feet aquiver. Bending, taking one into my hand Before my inner eye I saw a strange land Of many thousand years ago, pristine, unspoiled, From Civilization still not soiled. Crystal clear waters streaming down the hills, Through forests, on to valleys and fills With sparkling lakes that give life And abundance to birth and death and strife.

The forms of animals not living anymore, The tropic flowers and the fires in the mountains' core, Are all vanished as in a dream Yet, it's the same sun that sends its beam To shine upon the stone cradled in my hand Which has seen this ancient, time absorbed land.

At this small stone I gaze in fascination A humble witness to mysterious creation. (Doris Hoogestraat) By the way, we feel the September issue to be one of the finest, it is just great! Sincerely, Libby M. McNeill Tucson, Arizona I would like to commend you on your September 1973 issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. I have subscribed to the magazine for two years and this issue has to be one of your best. The photography is absolutely exquisite and the mood it captures as well as portrays is equally lovely. So often these days we look but never really see. Mother Nature is so good to us on a daily basis, yet few of us stop to ever take notice, let alone say "thank you." In this rushed world of ours, you and ARIZONA HIGHWAYS help to teach us all that which we take daily for granted.

YOU ARE WELCOME!

I write to you in a twofold capacity; 1) as a prisoner in a Federal Correctional Institution, and 2) as Chairman of the Literary Committee for the Cultural Forum, a small and growing manifested body of inmates seeking direction for positive energy projection, within and without these walls.

The Literary Committee has two basic problems. First, we have no funds (we are recognized, but the budget is too small to do anything with), and, second, we have only one or two subscriptions to the many periodical publications that could help us to achieve our goals.

This letter is a request to you, as a publisher, that you might see the benefit in extending to our group a complimentary subscription.

We can only make this request in such a brazen form because we think you will be able to justify the extension of such a kindness as an investment, not only in securing potential subscribers, but also in a goal which we as a group and you as a publisher have in common; that of raising the level of consciousness of ourselves and those around us.

Think about it, anyway: we've got the time, if you have the inclination. Your assistance would be most appreciated, And we thank you, Name Withheld CHAIRMAN: Literary Committee P.O. Box W Lompoc, Calif. 93436 I must commend you most heartily on the recent article "The Bright Side of Arizona's Wildlife Picture."

With so much misinformation regarding wildlife currently being circulated it is extremely refreshing to read some common sense for a change.

I especially appreciated Mr. Sizer's observation that some wildlife is never especially plentiful, no matter what the conditions. And that for an animal to be "saved" is akin to being a desirable game (hunted) species.

Did the Defenders of Wildlife, Friend of the Earth, etc., contribute one dime to the study, preservation, proliferation of Gila Trout, bighorn sheep, masked bobwhite? No, they spend all their money on anti-hunting campaigns, while the hunters of Arizona contributed thousands of dollars to help these species.

Thanks again for printing an article of common sense and truth, instead of the more glamorous, emotional tirades.

For keeping the Devil away, Who, everyone knows, fears blue; Let him wait out-of-doors with his fevers And hunger and dying, too.

This is a fragrant village, The smoke of the pinon is sweet; Chili and beans in the morning, Then chili and beans and meat.

This is a Spanish village, Each has its mayor and saint, Safe in the towering forest By reason of God and blue paint.