A Wilderness Christmas

Now it is almost Christmas. The men remember better times in homes left far behind: tables piled high with goose and turkey and ham; parents and loved ones gathered around a glowing hearth singing carols and sharing good times past. But Prescott struggles in wilderness, and although it is late December, a celebration of the Yuletide season seems impossible. As winter's storms pile more layers upon already deep snow, gloom settles over the tiny camp. It is a Mr. Rodenburg, a German, who, on the 23rd of December, first proposes a Christmas tree and a celebration of the holiday to brighten everyone's spirits. His neighbors quickly agree. Soon a committee is formed. Five men and Rodenburg, bearing arms and axes, go into the forest to find a young fir.

Hours pass, then, just before nightfall, the weary men return, smiling happily. In tow, they have the most beautiful tree anyone has ever seen in the forest. But what will we do for decorations? asks a miner, after the tree is set in a makeshift stand in Rodenburg's cabin. And what about sweets for the children? And there are no toys, comments another. A black man from New Orleans has one solution. He fetches a sack of brown sugar and late into the night makes three kinds of blackjack candy. Then other men wrap pieces in manila paper sealed with flour paste. So much for the sweets. For Christmas tree lights someone suggests cutting in half the large tallow candles everyone has in their wagon boxes and tying them to the tree branches with rawhide strips. While this is done, women Equipped with a silk cord for hanging as a piece of art is another Louis Prang masterpiece “chromolithograph” card created in 1883. Prang's lithographs were printed in as many, as 17 colors. Courtesy Hallmark Historical Collection Left, Comin' Down from the High Country, by Melvin C. Warren, 28 by 40 inches, oil.

Search their trunks for snips of ribbon and bits of jewelry to hang on the young fir tree. Meanwhile, men handy with jackknife whittle toys and women sew rag dolls and garments. By late evening there are dolls and doll dresses and animals, soldiers, boats, and little carts carved from cottonwood. Just one problem remains on the morning of December 24th. What to do for music? In the whole community, only one battered old violin exists-out of tune and missing one string. Worse, the owner knows only "The Arkansas Traveler." No matter. He offers to play the tune halfway through, then repeat it with variations. On Christmas Eve everything is ready for the gathering at Rodenburg's one-room log home. The men are dressed in boiled shirts, and the handful of ladies have donned their best frocks. Gathered too are all the children who can be found in the settlement, 11 in all - some small, some half-grown. While adults toast the holiday, the bright-eyed children unwrap gifts of candy and rag dolls for the girls, carved toys for the boys. Grim thoughts of the long winter still ahead are put aside while the little group joins in the ages-old pageantry of Christmas. The story is true. Many years later, Rodenburg, by then an old man, had an opportunity to compare that long ago Christmas in the deep woods with a more civilized version-in a full-fledged town complete with street lights, stores, and homes. "Electric lights may glow in many colors from Christmas trees of the present day," he said. "Trained voices may chant melodies, diamonds may ornament guests, children may devour the gaily colored sweets run out by the ton; but that old blackjack was just as good, that old tree was just as handsome, and above all, there was the devoted spirit around the Christmas tree of long, long ago, that cannot be duplicated...."

In audaciously aspiring to produce "America's premier holiday greeting card," the editors of Arizona Highways enlisted the aid of unquestioned experts, Hallmark Cards, Incorporated of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Greeting Card Association of Washington, D.C. Hallmark generously opened its archives of 50,000 historical cards to us, and the national trade association likewise made loan of original prizewinning cards from the 19th century. Appreciation also is extended to contributing artists, photographers, and authors whose individual works are credited. American Color Corporation prepared our front cover for color reproduction, and our friends at the W.A. Krueger Company took special pains to print this issue as a showcase of modern, highspeed offset lithography. Their press for Highways is an American Type Founders 25" by 38" five-unit web-fed offset. Body paper is 60pound Consoweb Modern manufactured by Consolidated Paper Company and supplied by the Butler Paper Company of Phoenix, Arizona. Cover stock is 110pound Mead Web Enamel manufactured and supplied by the Mead Paper Company. Typography is by Morneau Typographers, Phoenix. Don Dedera

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS