EDITOR'S PAGE

THE NAME of Bill Ahrendt is a familiar one to readers of Arizona Highways. The talented artist has been a frequent contributor to these pages in the last five years. Most recently he illustrated a childhood memoir of Eva Antonia Wilbur-Cruce for our February issue and Eldon Bowman's article about the old Stoneman Road that appeared in March. This month we are pleased to introduce a new series of historical paintings by Bill Ahrendt that we call “Arizona Highways Cavalcade.” Each scene will reflect a moment sometime in the past, somewhere in Arizona. The first of these (pages 20 and 21) depicts the Presidio of Tubac as it probably appeared in 1774, the year before Captain Juan Bautista de Anza departed from that Spanish outpost with the expedition that would found San Francisco.Ahrendt has undertaken detailed research for each of the paintings in the Cavalcade series (which will appear at two or three-month intervals), and for each he is writing a brief introductory text. Beginning next fall, the paintings will be reproduced by offset lithography and made avail able as individual prints. Another Ahrendt work appears on this page, one of numerous interpretations of life in Arizona in an earlier day that the artist has produced in recent years. Here an Indian child is teaching a young Mexican friend how to play a Tohono O'odham (Papago) stick-and-ball game called taka. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Bill first came to Arizona when he was fourteen, but later returned to Ohio to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art. He also studied at the Los Angeles Art Center, the Fine Arts Academy of Munich, and Arizona State University. For eleven years he lived in Europe, but settled in Arizona in 1968. His home and studio are near Pine, just below the Mogollon Rim. There he lives with his wife, Renate, whom he met while living and teaching in Germany. Elsewhere in this month's magazine, our subjects range from the imaginative experiments of the University of Arizona's Environmental Research Laboratory to the growing impact and influence of the Phoenix Art Museum. The particular Arizona highway route we focus upon in this issue is Interstate 17, which links Phoenix with that important north-country center, Flagstaff. Speaking of the northland, those who appreciate the majestic sculpture and ever-changing moods of Monument Valley should enjoy the photographic portfolio that begins on page 24.Far to the south of that famous area, in another part of our sprawling desert region, towers the curious boojum tree, native to Sonora and Baja California in Mexico but also represented now by specimens in several Arizona botanical collections. Pausing in Tucson, we visit an unusual school whose courageous students cope with the difficulties of impaired vision or hearing.

And, renewing an intermittent series that presents obser vations about Arizona by newcomers, visitors, and neigh bors, we offer the comments of a longtime California colleague.

We hope you enjoy the variety of this issue. And we wish you a happy May Day!