Hidden grottoes, sparkling waters, and deep woods

UNDER THE TONTO RIM

Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon's tenuous connection with Arizona would have been lost to history had not his name been tacked onto the state's most renowned spectacular escarpment rim. Old Juan was governor of New Mexico, 1712-1715, when Arizona was a hinterland joined to New Mexico Territory under Spanish rule, with the capital in Santa Fe.

The Mogollon Rim extends diagonally across central Arizona from northwest to southeast into New Mexico. Attempting the Spanish pronunciation, the local rim folks twang the mountain as "Muggyown." Unknowledgeable radio and television commentators have been known to desecrate it as "Mongolian." Author Zane Grey is credited with popularizing it as "Tonto Rim" with his novel Under the Tonto Rim. Most natives call it simply, "the rim."

As part of the Rocky Mountain system, the rim is a geologic fault caused by a gigantic upheaval during the late Mesozoic Age. It presents drama in scenery, geology, and vegetation. Scored by gargantuan canyons, serrated by jagged cliffs, and patterned with a primal forest of Englemann spruce, Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, quaking aspen, and thicket manzanita. The terrain is interrupted with layers of bare sedimentary stone. Bereft of plant life, the colorful rocks tell the story of ancient seas cementing layers of mud, sand and lime from pastel pink to blushing rose, from earthy tan to chocolate brown to mousey silver. Gray-blue and gold-encrusted granite boulders with filigree of yellow and green lichen interpose themselves without plan.

The towering rim encompasses the horizon. In winter the 7000-foot elevation is costumed white with snow; in summer the virgin greenery may be eclipsed by thunderheads; and after a storm, rags of clouds mop the moisture from the blue roof of sky.

Newcomers wax eloquent when viewing the rim and verbalize with superlatives of majestic, awesome, magnificent, incredible, breathtaking. Old-timers, equally magnetized but secure in their proprietorship, quietly add a reverence to their homage.

The rim is pitted with evidence of a vanished people. Some years ago, a roving cowboy discovered a cave with a sealed pot of beans. An archeologist estimated the beans were from 600 to 1000 years old. When planted, the beans grew trailing vines ten feet long with edible and tasty fruit. The dried legumes were spotted black and white with a few brown-spotted, similar to our pinto beans.

Below the rim, the Tonto Basin de scends for 60 miles south. "Upper Tonto" begins at the Tonto Fish Hatchery where an ice-cold spring at the base of the mountain gives birth to Tonto Creek, which follows the entire basin to empty into Roosevelt Lake.

Lower Tonto Basin is hemmed in on the east by the Sierra Ancha Mountains and on the west by the Mazatzal range. The head of the basin abuts the Mogollon Rim in the north, and the south end trails into the Roosevelt section.

From the Salt River Valley, State Route 87 (Beeline Highway) winds north to Tonto Basin by way of Sunflower. It is known as "the friendliest stop on the Beeline," and one may be renewed by food, drink, and conversation. The road parallels a rockstrewn creek with age-old sycamore trees stretching skeletal arms in winter, providing caressing shade in summer, and dropping curled leaves that float away on the water like golden ships in autumn.

Tonto Creek, as the main artery, plunges from its frigid birthplace southward where at times it becomes a "river upside down" as the Indians term it, running underground for miles. Even in dry times, the submerged stream nurtures trees of elderberry, hackberry, tamarisk, cottonwood tagged with mistletoe, burro brush, and batamote. On the hillsides flourish mesquite and paloverde trees, creosote bushes, ocotillo, and prickly pear cactus.

The stretches of barren riverbed were not always thus. In 1926, at the Tonto Grazing conference in Phoenix, U. S. Forest Ranger Fred W. Coxon presented a report from personal interviews with old-timers of the area.

"Mr. Florance Packard says that Tonto Creek was timbered...from bluff to bluff... fishes over a foot in length could be caught with little trouble. Blackfoot and Crowfoot grama grass touched one's stirrups when riding through it."

Coxon quoted Clifford C. Griffin, then owner of the 76 Quarter Circle Ranch near Gisela, as saying, "George Allen put up alfilaria hay collecting it in windrows, it grew so rank." Other settlers testified to ample supply of water and forage.

The late George Cline, a rancher born in Lower Tonto in 1886, expressed his faith during the drought times. He said, "It'll rain-it always has-one day too late." Regardless of this prediction, the country contains some of the best grazing (and the roughest riding) land in the state, and forthe past century has supported profitable cattle ranches.

In Lower Tonto, the creek dictates the lives of those inhabitants "across the crick" on the east side away from the highway. The arid creek bed changes character after a spring runoff of melting snow in the mountains. It turns into a raging gigantic river, rolling boulders, tree trunks, and animal carcasses downstream with unstoppable fury. The stream can widen to onequarter mile, isolating the people.

When the water is "tolerable high," the inhabitants cross by horseback or in a four-wheeled vehicle to get supplies or reach the post office. In the direst of floods, the mail is ferried by boat at the north end of Roosevelt Lake.

The natives say, "Those politicians been promising us a bridge for forty years-and we're still a-waitin'." It is understandable that the people plan their lives by "if the creek don't rise and God willin'."

UNDER THE TONTO RIM

Payson each year bursts with 55,000 vacationing families. Dick Dietrich photo (CENTER PANEL, FROM LEFT) Larry and Beaulah Lilly at their Sunflower Store. Alan Benoit photo Postal hijinks on a rural route. Alan Benoit photo Ms. Evelyn Jaquette, docent at the Strawberry schoolhouse. J. Peter Mortimer photo (BELOW, RIGHT) Master-planned lifestyles in a modern Payson-West mobile home community. Bruce Whiting photo Coming west on State Route 188, the traveler is apprised of Punkin Center by a large orange pumpkin sign atop "The Store." The gray stone building with genial help welcomes the visitor. Need an item? Horseshoe nails? Frozen broccoli? Fish bait? Ice cubes? The Store has it. In the rear of the building, you may "name yore poison"-whiskey, vodka, beer. The place is the purveyor of news-national, state, but mostly local. Who's branding. Whose tomatoes are ripe. One finds out the joys and the tragedies, the life of the home folks. Hunters find this area rich with deer, rabbit, dove, javelina. Gambel's quail abound. In the fall, Canadian honkers "veedown" to land on Tonto Creek and the water of Roosevelt Lake. Bass and crappie offer good fishing at the lake. The country is a winter-season land for warm enjoyment. A dirt road leads to Camp Reno, the short-lived (1867-1870) outpost of Fort McDowell. The camp was established at the foot of the Mazatzal Mountains to protect the Tonto Basin settlers from the hostiles. Ill-placed, it was exposed on an open hillside where the outlying Apaches had the advantage. Now there remains only an eroded remnant of an adobe building. Black walnut trees bathe their feet in Reno Creek, and in their branches the birds' songs break the eerie silence of the ghost camp.

North on State Route 188 is another watering place, Jakes Corner, surrounded by desert tamarisk trees and a few mobile homes. A few years past, the store's proprietor was Pete Connolly. Noting the traffic of fishermen headed for Roosevelt Lake, he put out his own enticing lure: "Pete has worms." A few miles toward Payson on State Route 87 is the turnoff for Gisela, a small community of old-time ranchers, farmers, and newcomers. The moderate climate, the fertility of the soil, and the accessibility of water make this ideal for growing apricots, apples, peaches, pecans, and vegetables. The quiet area holds a tragic story in its past when times were primitive, tempers volatile, and laws remote. Jayne Peace, native author, writes in her book The History of Gisela about Zech Booth who paid the penalty for killing two sheepherders camped with their animals on his cattle range. "Zechariah, or Zech as he was called... spent his early years as a 'hellfire-anddamnation preacher of no particular denomination.' Later he played the role of the rough, tough cowboy...showing off... stirring his coffee with his six-gun muzzle. More than once he was known to run his horse to death... and was a hard man when crossed. On September 6, 1905, he was hanged in Globe, Arizona, for the murders of Juan Vigil and Wiley Buries...." Just a skip and a holler up the road is Rye, a one-store-bar edifice with mobile homes under the mesquite and greasewood and a gravel-pit operation across the road in Rye Creek. History records that John Gilleland, one of the first men wounded in the Pleasant Valley War, rode thirty miles to Rye where a resident removed a bullet from his neck with a razor. Dallas Wilbanks of Payson relates that he carried mail from Rye to Young on horseback and packed his horse feed with him. He says, "My friends in Young stole my grain and made whiskey-but I got even with them-I drank their likker." State Route 87 ascends Oxbow Hill, so named when a soldier expedition in the 1870s found ox yokes the Indians had discarded after stealing the oxen. In the 1920s Julian Journigan traveled the road when it was a narrow, steep, winding dirt way. He drove the GlobePayson stage, an aged Cadillac touring car converted for carrying mail and passengers. Extra burden and weight came from Julian's doing favors and errands for the folks along his route. When he left the mail sack at the roadside mailbox, he might find a note: "Julian, pick up my chickens at Aunt Maude's. Get me a spool of blue thread to match this scrap of material." On the Oxbow climb, the passengers would get out to lighten the load at "impassable" spots. Atop Oxbow the overpowering sight of the distant Mogollon Rim comes into view. The mighty ridge commands attention, always with hovering clouds. After a battle of rain, banners of shredded clouds are pinioned to the towering ramparts, fluttering and obedient to the wind's whimsey. On the east side of State Route 87 is the eighty-five-acre Tonto Apache Village, a permanent home site for its 100 members after a century of moving. After the end of the Apache wars, the forebears of these people were placed by government edict on the reservation at Camp Verde and later transferred to San Carlos.

murders of Juan Vigil and Wiley Buries...." Just a skip and a holler up the road is Rye, a one-store-bar edifice with mobile homes under the mesquite and greasewood and a gravel-pit operation across the road in Rye Creek. History records that John Gilleland, one of the first men wounded in the Pleasant Valley War, rode thirty miles to Rye where a resident removed a bullet from his neck with a razor. Dallas Wilbanks of Payson relates that he carried mail from Rye to Young on horseback and packed his horse feed with him. He says, "My friends in Young stole my grain and made whiskey-but I got even with them-I drank their likker." State Route 87 ascends Oxbow Hill, so named when a soldier expedition in the 1870s found ox yokes the Indians had discarded after stealing the oxen. In the 1920s Julian Journigan traveled the road when it was a narrow, steep, winding dirt way. He drove the GlobePayson stage, an aged Cadillac touring car converted for carrying mail and passengers. Extra burden and weight came from Julian's doing favors and errands for the folks along his route. When he left the mail sack at the roadside mailbox, he might find a note: "Julian, pick up my chickens at Aunt Maude's. Get me a spool of blue thread to match this scrap of material." On the Oxbow climb, the passengers would get out to lighten the load at "impassable" spots. Atop Oxbow the overpowering sight of the distant Mogollon Rim comes into view. The mighty ridge commands attention, always with hovering clouds. After a battle of rain, banners of shredded clouds are pinioned to the towering ramparts, fluttering and obedient to the wind's whimsey. On the east side of State Route 87 is the eighty-five-acre Tonto Apache Village, a permanent home site for its 100 members after a century of moving. After the end of the Apache wars, the forebears of these people were placed by government edict on the reservation at Camp Verde and later transferred to San Carlos.

UNDER THE TONTO RIM

These Tonto Apaches were not compatible with the amalgamation of different tribes the government had muddled together, groups alien to one another. They left the reservation. During the years, the homesick Tontos wandered from place to place and returning to the Payson area found their former homesites usurped by the whites.

Sympathetic friends, understanding the problem, started action. In 1972 Congress set aside a desirable juniperstudded hillside for them on the edge of town. With the help of the government, attractive homes and a community hall were built. Headed by "Chief" Melton Campbell, the tribe operates a construction firm and an arts and craft business. Members also work around town.

The northern part of Gila County is a latecomer to the county. The Payson area was in Yavapai County until admitted to Gila in 1890; and by that unfathomable legerdemain of political back scratching, 1500 square miles were purchased for $11,000, two cents an acre.

There are no bargains now. Scarcity of land and a recent appreciation of the healthful climate are pushing real estate prices upward toward the Sedona and Scottsdale levels. Only three percent of land in Gila County is deeded, the rest being national forest, state land, or Indian reservation.

A news release noted that the Payson-Pine area was one of the three most healthful climates in the world because it lies in the famous Ozone Belt; the other two Ozone Belts are at Lake Pontchartrain (Louisiana) and in the Hartz Mountains of Germany. Payson supports the theme of calling itself "The Healthiest Town in the West." This spot lies at the foot of the Mogollon Rim.

Payson, population 6000, is the area's largest town. At 5000 feet, it is on the edge of the ponderosa pine and juniper belt. The town is built on the site of the ancient Mogollon culture. Archeologists conclude the period was from before Christ to A.D. 1200 or later. The present thriving town celebrated its centennial in 1982, and in 1984 the centennial of its "world's oldest continuous rodeo."

After the end of the Civil War in 1865, soldiers stationed in central Arizona wandered into this region. Finding mineral sign, they told others. Prospectors seeking gold located claims. Their hopes and dreams were greater than the pay dirt.

But the area was rich in grazing land, and word spread. Cattlemen moved onto the lush ranges, and cattle established the first economy. Today the beef industry remains important.

In 1876 William Burch, miner-rancher, built the first cabin in Payson on the site of number five green on the golf course. The hills teemed with wild game, and the streams with fish. Grains, fruits, vegetables found fertile ground. Discovering this good life, people trekked into the wilderness, their only deterrent being the isolation. Today tourism leads the economy.

The biggest fright and tragedy occurred in 1882. Marauding Apaches fled the reservation at Cibicue. Sixteen miles north of Payson, at the Meadows Ranch (now the Whispering Pines subdivision), the Indians attacked, killing the elder Meadows and wounding two sons. They continued to the top of the rim and encamped. Pursuing soldiers annihilated them. This Battle of Big Dry Wash marked the last major encounter in Arizona. Four years later Geronimo surrendered, and the Indian conflict was considered over.

For many years Payson knew little growth because of its inaccessibility. A rutted 100-mile road to Globe for winter travel and a widened trail to Flagstaff for summer made outside contact arduous. Wagons with ten-horse teams brought in freight.

Burro pack trains carried supplies from the Salt River Valley over the Reno Trail gouged out earlier by the Army when Camp Reno was set up. In 1897 Lewis R. Pyle, eighteen, alone took his father's freight outfit of nineteen burros and packed supplies into Payson. The town turned out with a joyous welcome when they heard the bells on the returning burros.

Years later when he became a forest ranger, he was known as "Johnny Appleseed of the Mogollons." He carried wild-flower seeds in his pocket to scatter, and many areas now bloom through his efforts. The Lewis R. Pyle Memorial Hospital in Payson honors him.

Julia Randall, descendent of a first family, has the record of the longest teaching career in Arizona, with fifty years in Gila County. Beginning in 1923, she retired in 1969, with forty-six years' service in Payson. A multitude of long-ago first grade graduates attest to her influence, guidance, and proficiency as a mentor. She still lives in the house her father built in 1910.

Although Payson was not an unruly pioneer town, the saloons were highly patronized and often incited commotion. Rambunctious drunks were chained to a tree to sleep off their problem. The settlers were mainly peaceable families, colonizing and stabilizing new borders, but they were neither timid nor cowardly when the need came to take care of themselves.

Jack Lane, a newcomer from Texas, left one of the saloons after an excessive drinking bout. He rode up and down the street, shooting his pistol. Myrl Evans and Myrth Jones, eighty-two, (then known as "the Pyle twins") say they were playing croquet with their friends when Jake ran his horse through their game, "scattering us like quail." The judge advised Jake to put away his little shooter. Instead, Lane pointed his gun at William Colcord. This was a mistake-and his last. Guns blasted. Lane toppled from his horse, dead from Colcord's Luger. The court cleared Colcord.

During Prohibition, Payson gained a reputation as a moonshine center-the best whiskey west of the Mississippi. Cash was scarce, and some natives took to bootlegging. Prohibition agents seldom apprehended anyone. Once they raided the Women's Club, much to the indignation of the meeting ladies. The women had just purchased the frame building which had been a storage for the town's bootlegger, but the revenuers weren't aware of the change.

In Star Valley, four miles from Payson, a ranch house sheltered the only phone in the area. When federal agents arrived in Payson, the lone phone rang. Burros kept in the corral were belled, turned loose, hit on the rump, and chased into the back country. The bootleggers heard the warning.

One man supported his aged mother in a rest home in Globe with "still money" from a hideaway at Tonto Natural Bridge. A Payson woman expressed her wrath that the revenue agents "would take an honest livin' away from an honest man."

Sickness, accident, death stalked the early families in this isolated area. Local herbs, homemade remedies, folklore, and prayer were often the only medical aid. Theresa Boardman served forty years as nurse to the community. She gave special help to the Tonto Apaches. Years later when she was in a retirement home in Phoenix, she received a letter she said she cherished above all others, from her beloved Apaches.

The late Howard Childers, longtime sheriff's deputy and cowboy, was transporting an Indian woman to the Cottonwood hospital for an imminent birth. Childers said he was going seventy miles an hour when he reached Fossil Creek and she hollered, "Stop!"

"All I had with me was twine string, a bottle of alcohol, and my pocket knife. On my radio I called Phoenix. They called Cottonwood Hospital and then relayed instructions to me." The woman was delivered of a fine boy, and Howard rushed on to the hospital. The doctors complimented him. The baby's name? That's right. Howard, thereafter called "Little Howard."

With the rapid growth of Payson, 240 percent in the last decade, the town no longer has to call on law officers for medical help. Payson is experiencing overflow from Phoenix, the ninth largest city in America. Only eighty-nine miles, one and one-half hours from the Salt River Valley, Payson advertises it is "just a halftank of gasoline away."

Known as the City of Festivals, it offers the Loggers Sawdust Festival, the Country Music Fete, the Old-Time Fiddlers Contest, the Square Dance Jamboree, the Artfest, the annual Payson Rodeo, the Junior Rodeo, and numerous gymkhanas and jackpot roping contests.

But Payson has not lost its cowboy image. Western dress is the mode, not from publicity or advertising but because it is a way of life. Genuine ranch men and women wear the dress for utility and from custom; townspeople accept it for ease and comfort. Booted men attend Rotary in bola ties and broad-brimmed Stetsons; cosmeticians perform their beauty work attired in denims. Payson is a pickup town-trucks, that is. Prestige goes not with Cadillacs or Lincolns but with the ubiquitous pickup truck.

As a cattle-ranching area, Payson had trouble with livestock wandering off the range into the landscaped yards of city dwellers. The open range law of Arizona gives cattle freedom to roam and eat, leaving the homeowners responsible for fencing themselves in and the cattle out. Raymond Cline, Star Valley rancher, was a prime mover in solving this dilemma. With the cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service, the Town Council, and the ranchers whose animals were the culprits, the Town Fence, a legal four-strand barbed wire, was erected to encircle the city limits. This works well to keep the cows out of the petunias.

Subdivisions proliferate. Retirees have found this a place to enjoy. The many civic and social clubs extend a welcome hand. The hunting and fishing are rewarding, wild game in the outlying areas, trout in the nearby streams, and roads that lead to lake fishing on top of the rim. Camping and outdoor living fit in.

People come to Payson for various reasons. Some like the atmosphere where friend meets friend at the post office for a visit; where natives like Anna Mae Deming do not say goodbye to a visitor but hand the guest a jar of homemade crabapple jelly or blackberry jam.

UNDER THE TONTO RIM

reasons. Some like the atmosphere where friend meets friend at the post office for a visit; where natives like Anna Mae Deming do not say goodbye to a visitor but hand the guest a jar of homemade crabapple jelly or blackberry jam.

Hugo DiZinno, former vice-president and art director in Pittsburgh of the twentieth largest advertising firm in the nation, says, "On a camping trip I came through Payson. When I saw the clean air I said, 'This is the place I've got to live for the rest of my life.'" In six months his family moved here.

DiZinno, like other talented and skilled retirees, contributes his time and experience to the town. He designed the logos for the city's centennial in 1982 and the rodeo's centennial in 1984.

Tonto Natural Bridge is fifteen miles north of Payson on State Route 87. The world's largest travertine span, it offers an awesome, dramatic sight with an orchard on top and columbine and fern growing in the cold water flowing beneath. A restaurant and cocktail lounge are in the main ten-room lodge. Camping facilities are available. The lodge hosts party groups for church or private parties.

Pine perches three miles north at an elevation of 5500 feet. Originally settled by Mormons, it has evolved into a retirement community with vacationists and part-time inhabitants. Its pride is the oldfashioned Pine-Payson Gila County Fair with exhibits of homemade pickles, crocheted afghans, patchwork quilts, outsized pumpkins, and sunbonnets. Well-known artists Larry Toschick and Bill Ahrendt have studio-homes here.

Strawberry, 5500 elevation, boasts the oldest standing schoolhouse in Arizona, built in 1885. The log structure is a clearing house for local events and a "study room" for the school children who learn "how it used to be."

Tuffy Peach, who, until his death recently at age ninety-one, always attended the annual celebration of his former school. As a student, he used to "come bright and early to make the fire." He said that when he was a "little feller," his brother said he was tough. "I knew how to spell, and so I wrote my name T-U-F-F."

Tuffy was the last man to carry the mail by horseback between Camp Verde and Payson. When he began in 1910, he was under sixteen. He said, "I fudged on my age 'cause I needed a job bad." His last ride was in 1914 when the service was discontinued. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stayed that courier. "And neither did the Verde River," he said.

"Many's the time I swum her when she was runnin' bank to bank, but I always got the mail through." Tuffy Peach will be sorely missed. State Route 260 from Payson leads to Star Valley, Kohl's Ranch, Christopher Creek, and to Young, in Pleasant Valley. Along this route, climbing upward, are public and commercial campgrounds. Star Valley was named after the first inhabitant. "Ol' Man Star was married to an Indian, lived in a dugout, was killed by Indians, and buried under a wild cherry tree on his place," so the story goes. Star Valley today offers a host of accommodations plus a relaxed life-style. Kohl's Ranch, fifteen miles north of Payson on State Route 260, is a modern, spacious lodge with cottages, store, bar, dining room, swimming pool, and riding stables set in a picturesque ambience of ancient apple trees, orange-barked ponderosa pines, and Tonto Creek gurgling through it.Christopher Creek community, at a 6000 foot elevation, boasts of crisp cool air in summer and extensive forest. The area has cafes, motels, service stations, and is a sylvan spot for escapees to find privacy away from the rush of the world. (See "The Wonderful World of Pearl Grey," page 30, for directions to an extraordinary historical preservation under the Tonto Rim.) The Rim Country, isolated for long years by dirt roads, had a rebirth when the paved Beeline Highway (State Route 87) was completed in 1959. An old-timer says, "In Payson we got three stoplights. I recollect when our light was coal oil lamps until Grady Harrison brung in a plant to make direct current, and we really thought we was eatin' high on the hog." Now that the world has found the rim and is magnetized by its offerings, Payson says, "Come and enjoy the good life."

A retired schoolteacher and author of the popular novel Filaree, Marguerite Noble lives in Zane Grey Country, below the Tonto Rim.Being something of an almanac, a sampler, a calendar, and a guide

ARIZO KEEPING COOL IN THE DESERT

Although we seldom brag about summer temperatures on the Arizona desert, it does get hot. Most Arizonans live in the warmer areas but manage to escape the heat by driving to cooler mountain environs a couple of hours away. If you find yourself in the desert when summer really heats up, take heart, below are a few ways to keep cool:Both Tucson and Phoenix have beautiful, huge indoor ice rinks that'll deliciously chill you to the bone and provide hours of fun for kids of all ages. (The rinks are an especially great place to drop the kids when you want to do some summer shopping in the air conditioned malls found in both cities.) Check the local phone books for listings.

ICE SKATING: SWIMMING:

Sometimes it seems there are more swimming pools than saguaro cacti in Arizona. Nearly every hotel and apartment complex has a plunge and so do a lot of homes. If you can't find one of these to dive into, there are always public pools. Tucson and Phoenix parks and recreation departments pride themselves on spotlessly clean, super-safe public pools located at parks throughout these cities. Tucson has fifteen and Phoenix has twenty-one. Most are open daily throughout the summer, and two Tucson public pools are open year-round. In Phoenix, call (602) 262-6541; and in Tucson (602) 791-4873.

RESORT GETAWAY WEEKENDS:

Have you always wanted to stay at a luxury resort like The Pointe, the Arizona Biltmore, or the Arizona Inn, but the winter rates scared you away? During summer many of Arizona's finer hotels slash their rates and offer weekend package deals that include use of all the hotels' patronpampering facilities. Pick your favorite resort fantasy and find out how affordable luxury can be.

SURFING IN ARIZONA:

Although the ocean waves closest to Arizona are 190 miles away in California, nearly four million people have swum, surfed, body surfed, and boogie boarded on five-foot waves in the central Arizona city of Tempe. At Big Surf, a two-and-a-half acre, nine-foot-deep lagoon filled with four million gallons of recirculating, treated water, a specially designed hydraulic pump system creates breaker waves just like an underwater reef in an ocean. Arizona's tiny ocean features equipment rentals and food concessions, plus water slides, a three-and-a-half-story water roller coaster, volleyball, and a 600-foot-long beach. The facility is open daily except Mondays, March through September. Admission is $4.50; $2.50 for those under seven years old. For more information, contact Big Surf at (602) 947-2478.

AUGUST WEEKEND WANDERING:

AUGUST 1 THROUGH 5, PINETOP: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BATHTUB RACES. Men's and women's teams from all over the state convert bathtubs into rolling stock and push and pull water-filled tubs for cash prizes and trophies. (602) 336-4290. AUGUST 11 AND 12, GLOBE: OLDTIME FIDDLERS' CONTEST. Fiddles whine in this copper mining town in the Pinal Mountains. Camping and fishing nearby. (602) 425-2087. AUGUST 17 THROUGH 19, PAYSON'S 100TH ANNUAL RODEO. A top quality, friendly rodeo in the pines beneath the Mogollon Rim. This year's will be special for the centennial. (602) 474-4515.

NIQUES

To places, events, and people unique to Arizona and the Southwest.

NOGALES: AMERICA'S SALAD BOWL:

The twin cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, are the largest port of entry in the world for fruits and vegetables. Last year, 500 trucks and piggyback trailers crossed the border each day, carrying a record yearly volume of seven million tons of produce. Once the food passes the border inspection, sixty-nine Arizona distributing companies sell the fruits and vegetables throughout North America and as far away as Finland and Japan, and pay the U.S. Government more than $35 million in duties. For fifteen years, Mexico has supplied more than half of the fresh winter fruits and vegetables for the United States and Canada-and most of it comes through Nogales.

RESERVATIONS ABOUT HIKING:

Grand Canyon National Park opened a new backcountry reservations office near Mather Campground to assist the growing number of hikers in the Canyon. Permits are required for overnight camping below the rim, and reservations can be made up to fifteen months in advance by mail or in person. For more information write or call Backcountry Reservations Office, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023, (602) 638-2474.

IMAX COMES TO THE GRAND CANYON:

A new 520seat state-of-the-art IMAX theatre is now open at Tusayan, just outside the southern boundary of Grand Canyon National Park. The IMAX format is shot in 70mm and projected through a horizontal rolling loop rather than the conventional 35mm vertical method. The larger format film results in a sharper image on the ultra-wide sixty-five by 100 foot screen. The debut feature at the theatre is the documentary Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets. It's directed by academy award winner Kieth Merrill and depicts the explorations of the Canyon by Major John Wesley Powell and his men, the first party to successfully navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon Theatre plans to operate daily with continual showings hourly. For information, write: Grand Canyon Theatre, P.O. Box 1397, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023.

SOLAR WATER HEATER WORKSHOP:

Arizona has plenty of sunshine (4000 hours annually) and Arizonans love to put the sun to work. In fact, the state has the most solar energy devices per capita in the world. Most of the solar units are water heaters for homes or swimming pools-the simplest and most cost-effective solar application. If purchased from a retailer these solar heaters cost from $2200 to $6000 each, but Dr. Sidney Mumma, a professor in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University, has developed a workshop where you can build your own solar water heater for only $675. And with tax credits and reduced utility costs, the heater pays for itself in about a year. The two-session workshops, often held weekly, have become so successful the U.S. Department of Energy provided funding to spread them nationwide. For more information, call (602) 965-5500, 965-5380.

GRAND CANYON RAILROAD:

In the spring of 1985 you'll be able to do something no one's done for twenty years-take a train ride to the Grand Canyon. Pulled by an antique steam engine, you'll travel through lush pine forests and high plateau country on the same narrow-gage track that carried thousands of the Canyon's first visitors from Williams, on Interstate 40, to the Canyon's South Rim. The historic sixty-three-milelong line, operated by the Santa Fe Railroad from the turn of the century to the mid1950s, shut down due to falling profits. But last year, Railroad Resources Incorporated of Phoenix bought the track, and in conjunction with Del Webb Corporation's Recreational Properties Division will feature daily train travel to the Canyon. For information call (602) 264-8481.

August in Navajo is Bini' ant' ááts' ózí, the month of maturing crops. August is when summer rains water Navajo gardens in their arid high plateau homeland. On these pages are only a few of the fascinating events scheduled this month in Arizona. For a more complete calendar, please write: Arizona Office of Tourism, 1480 E. Bethany Home Road, Department CE, Suite 180, Phoenix, AZ 85014