ARIZONIQUES

ARIZONIQUES CARNIVOROUS PLANTS

Just below the calm surface of a few high mountain lakes lurks Arizona's only carnivorous plant. Luring its prey within reach with sugary secretions, the bladderwort sucks its victim into its digestive bladder through a one-way trapdoor, which snaps up the victim in tento fifteen-thousandths of a second. Enzymes and acids quickly begin to digest the bladderwort's meal, and the hungry plant is ready to consume another victim within a half an hour. You don't have to worry about a bladderwort gobbling up unwary humans; the diminutive yellowflowering plant resembles a small snapdragon and only eats mosquito larvae and other tiny aquatic animals.For more on this subject, ask at your library for Carnivorous Plants, by Adrian Slack, Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy Press, Cambridge, 1979; and Water Plants: A Study of Aquatic Angiosperms, by Agnes Arber, Hafner Publishing Company, New York, 1963.

THE LONGEST SOFTGROUND TUNNEL

Something never before seen on or under the earth is slowly chewing its way beneath the streets of downtown Phoenix, leaving in its wake a twenty-two-footdiameter tunnel thirty-five feet below the ground. Relentlessly, day and night, week after week, it devours the clay, gravel, and sand beneath the desert floor as the city bustles obliviously above.It's not a malevolent mutant mole from some science fiction movie. It's a unique tunneling machine designed and manufactured in Japan specifically to dig the storm sewers for downtown Phoenix and the Papago Freeway. Anonymously christened the "U.S.S. Enterprise," the machine, operated by miners, bores 150 feet of new tunnel every day to create what will be the longest soft-ground tunnel in the United States.

The fifty-million-dollar project should be completed by mid-1987 and will drain forty-four square miles of downtown Phoenix, including the path of the Papago Freeway, which is being con-structed in a depressed channel as it crosses town. The machine will save an estimated 130 million dollars off the cost of the conventional "cut and cover" method of tunnel building, which would have snarled traffic and cut every major utility line in the city.

WILDWHEAT

How do we feed the starving in arid countries such as Ethiopia? Two Tucson scientists may have the answer. After ten years of research, ecologist Nicholas P. Yensen and his wife, Susanna Bojorquez de Yensen, a doctoral student in nutrition at the University of Arizona, have developed a nutritious grain-trademark "WildWheat"-that grows with little or no fertilizer, withstands temperatures from below thirty-two to above 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and thrives on small amounts of fresh or salt water. More than thirty varieties of the hardy WildWheat flourish in a wide range of adverse conditions, including those imposed by eight-month drought and irrigation water one and a half times as salty as seawater. Yet WildWheat has a delicious flavor, which does not taste salty. Nutritionally superior to conventional wheat, with nearly triple the fiber and lower by half in protein, the grain has a well-balanced mix of essential amino acids for a cereal. The Yensens predict several more years of research will produce a high-yield variety of WildWheat that will make feasible its cultivation as a food crop.

THE DOWNTOWN LOST DUTCHMAN

During the hot days of August, escape to the cool depths of the "Dutchman's Treasure Mine," a re-creation of the Superstition Mountains' famous Lost Dutchman gold mine. The Dutchman's Treasure Mine, a permanent exhibit at the Mesa Southwest Museum, explores the legends and mysteries of what has been called the "most found lost mine in the world." Visitors are guided through a realistic mine setting where special lighting reveals minerals imbedded in the rock. You'll see mining tools, Spanish armor, gold relics, and the authentic Peralta Stones that, according to legend, provide a primitive map to the real Lost Dutchman Mine. The Mesa Southwest Museum is located at 53 North Macdonald in downtown Mesa; telephone 834-2230.

4000 DOLLARS BEFORE BREAKFAST

In August of 1863, the Weaver-Peeples party made one of Arizona's richer placer gold strikes. East of today's Congress Junction, between Prescott and Wickenburg, members of the prospecting party went searching for some mules that wandered off during the night. Climbing Antelope Hill for a better view, one of the argonauts noticed the ground around him was littered with gold nuggets. It is said the men gathered 4000 dollars each before breakfast. (It is not recorded what time they stopped for their meal.) Within three months, more than 200,000 dollars in gold was either gathered by hand or pried loose with hunting knives from Antelope and nearby Richmond Hill.

SIN AND SALVATION

Although early-day Prescott was better known for its "Whiskey Row," the saloonand dance-hall lined block of Montezuma Street, citizens of the new capital held Arizona Territory's first Protestant Sunday school session on August 7, 1864. By that time, Catholic missionaries from Spain and Mexico had been holding catechism classes for centuries in what is now Arizona.

VACATION FIRST AID

The American Red Cross offers a new product you can put at the top of your vacation checklist. It's the Automobile First Aid Kit, and no car should be without one. The kit contains bandages, gauze, wash-and-dry swabs, scissors, and a rescue blanket. Separate compartments imprinted with easy-to-read first aid instructions hold appropriate articles for treating severe bleeding and burns, moderate cuts and scrapes, and small cuts and scrapes. There is an extra pocket for your personal medications. Unlike most first aid kits, this one is specially designed as a soft cushion package that will not injure anyone if it becomes a projectile during a car accident. You can order the kit for $24.95 plus $3.20 shipping and handling from the American Red Cross, P.O. Box D, Haworth, New Jersey 07641. The kit carries a ten-day money-back guarantee.

CALENDAR

August 1 through 10, Flagstaff. The thirty-seventh Navajo Craftsman Exhibition at the Museum of Northern Arizona features the finest in Navajo arts and crafts, including jewelry, basketry, pottery, weaving, and painting. Telephone 774-5211.

August 8 through 10, Prescott. Mountain Artists Guild Art Show and Sale decorates the Plaza with the works of area artists. Telephone 445-2510. Also in Prescott, August 9, the Smoki Ceremonials imitate American Indian dances and rites in a colorful evening performance. Telephone 445-2000.

August 9, Payson. The fourth annual Chili Cook-off Festival includes a parade and entertainment, but the real attraction is all those varieties of red served up by the best chili cooks in the state. Telephone 474-4515.

August 29 and 30, Eagar and Springerville. Valle Redondo Days celebrate the history of these towns with an old-time fiddlers' contest, country fair, junior rodeo, and dances. Telephone 333-2123.

August 27 through September 1, Whiteriver. The annual Apache Tribal Fair and Rodeo Celebration combines arts and crafts exhibitions, a parade, nightly Indian ceremonial dances, a carnival, an all-Indian rodeo, and the traditional Sunrise Dance. Telephone 338-4621.

August 30 and 31, Jerome. The Jerome Antique Show dazzles the eye when the ghost-town-turned-arts-center trots out memorabilia from its prosperous mining days. Telephone 634-2603.

August 30 through September 1, Tombstone. Wild West Days and the Wild Bunch Rendezvous of Gunfighters liven up the "town too tough to die" with reenactments of famous shoot-outs, incidents of the Old West, and slapstick comedy. Telephone 457-2211.

August 31 through September 2, Oatman. Gold Camp Days offer a trip back to this Mohave County boomtown's history. Entertainment includes games, contests, a parade, and the renowned International Burro Biscuit Throwing Contest. Telephone 768-3486.

For a more complete calendar, free of charge, please write the Arizona Office of Tourism, Department CE, 1480 East Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, AZ 85014. Unless otherwise noted, all telephone numbers are within area code 602.