ARIZONIQUES

ARIZONIQUES THE GHOST OF COAL CANYON

On summer nights when the moon is bright, the ghost of Eagle Woman floats through the inky abyss of Coal Canyon between Oraibi and Moenkopi in northern Arizona. That, at least, is how Hopi legend explains the luminous hundredfoot-tall apparition that raises goosebumps on nearly everyone who sees it. One day in 1872 at the pueblo of Oraibi, Quayowuuti, "Eagle Woman," who has a history of despondency, tells the villagers she plans to walk to Moenkopi, thirty-five miles away. The woman gives no valid reason for such a difficult two-day trek across the high desert, but the villagers cannot dissuade her from departing. They alert one of her sons, who catches up with her but fails to persuade her to accompany him back to Oraibi. Quayowuuti continues on into the night, but never arrives in Moenkopi. Searchers later find her body at the base of the high, sheer cliffs of Coal Canyon.

Whether she has fallen or jumped from the heights, no one will ever know, but the Hopis who find her treat her death as suicide, and, as is their custom, cover her broken body with rocks.

Quayowuuti's spirit rests until 1912, when Hopi miners in Coal Canyon first see her shimmering ghost. The glowing form frightens but does not surprise them, for the Hopi believe that "you see a light wherever someone has died."

Today scientists tell us the "ghost" is actually a coal-bearing rock pinnacle that becomes heated by the summer sun, then releases phosphorescent vapors. The gas can linger into the night and shimmer in the moonlight, creating a striking animated illusion.

Whether you choose the legendary or the scientific explanation, Quayowuuti is fascinating. And some loyal observers make annual pilgrimages to Coal Canyon to view the phenomenon.

PELICAN PEREGRINATION

This month you may sight a pelican or two in Arizona. Pelicans? In Arizona? C'mon, the nearest ocean water is more than sixty miles away.

Yes, but every summer when monsoons roar across Arizona from the Sea of Cortes, the winds occasionally blow fledgling brown pelicans off course. Disoriented, the unlucky young birds can become dehydrated and starve on the desert sands of southern Arizona.

If someone spots a pelican and the Arizona Game and Fish Department gets to it in time, it is delivered to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, at Tucson, where wildlife specialists try to nurse it back to health. Often they are successful.

When the birds recover sufficiently, they are flown by commercial airline to San Diego's Sea World, where they are kept in an open-topped pen and fed until they are strong enough to fly back to the sea.

Strong summer storms occasionally blow brown pelicans from the environs of the Gulf of California and strand them on the Arizona desert. JAMES TALLON

THE ANCIENTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Today, most people perceive those of ancient cultures as having lived in harmony with the environment and having shown more respect for Mother Earth than does modern man. But scientists now believe most ancient civilizations were no better than we in this regard, and sometimes abused their land to the point where it endangered their very existence.

Archeologist Julio L. Betancourt and his colleagues at the University of Arizona studied the Anasazi culture, which flourished in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and other areas of the Southwest between A.D. 1000 and 1200. The Anasazi, thought to be the ancestors of the Hopi Indians of northern Arizona, were an advanced society that constructed fivestory stone and adobe apartment buildings housing hundreds of families. These pueblo communities, comprising the largest and tallest buildings in North America before the modern age, were occupied for little more than a century, then abandoned.

Evidence derived from studying seeds and plant fragments preserved in pack rat middens near the cliff dwellings at Chaco Canyon led Betancourt to believe the Anasazi left their homes because they had severely damaged the environment that supported them. They denuded the surrounding land, exploiting the piñon and juniper woodlands, causing the creation of arroyos, ending the natural irrigation system. No longer able to raise food crops, the Anasazi were forced to move on or starve.

"It's perfectly evident to me that people beat the hell out of the environment there, and then they moved," Betancourt said.

Other areas that offer evidence of ancient man's abuse of his environment are the Southern Argolid, in Greece, currently being studied by Stanford archeologists, and Easter Island.

Dr. Jared M. Diamond, professor of physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, summed up the importance of these studies to modern man in an article in the British journal Nature.

"By nature, present-day man is neither more nor less destructive of the land than were his forebears," he wrote. "It's just that the technology of destruction is vastly more efficient than it was in the past."

BLAZING BICENTENNIAL

A laser light show and fireworks will illuminate the courtyard of Tucson's Sheraton El Conquistador Resort July 4 in celebration of the U. S. Constitution's bicentennial and Independence Day. WILLIAM ANDERSON

CALENDAR

July 1 through 5, Prescott. Annual Frontier Days celebration includes the world's oldest rodeo, a parade, softball tournament, fireworks, and concerts in historic Prescott. Telephone 445-2000.

July 2 through 5, Pinetop. National juried Small Painting Show and Sale and Outdoor Arts and Crafts Fair attracts fine artists and crafts people to the cool White Mountains. Telephone 537-2452.

July 3 through 5, Jerome. The annual Arts and Crafts Festival fills Lawrence Hall and Lower Park with the works of local and regional artists in this picturesque and lively "ghost town" cum arts center. Telephone 634-5716.

July 3 through 9, Flagstaff. Hopi Craftsmen Exhibition, Museum of Northern Arizona. The finest in Hopi kachina dolls, pottery, basketry, jewelry, paintings, and sculpture-with demonstrations of the various crafts. Telephone 774-5211.

July 16 through 19, Flagstaff. The Intermountain Weavers Conference at Northern Arizona University offers workshops taught by nationally known fiber experts. An accompanying exhibit, "Fibers Celebrated," runs from July 1 through August 1 at the NAU Art Gallery. Telephone 523-3321.

July 23 and 24, Snowflake. Pioneer Days observe the town's 109th anniversary with a family rodeo, golf tournament, parade, dances, race, softball, arts, crafts, and fireworks. Telephone 536-7103.

July 25 and 26, Payson. Loggers Sawdust Festival. Loggers compete in the skills of their trade for prizes and applause. Telephone 474-4515.

July 25 and 26, Globe-Miami. The annual Old-Time Fiddlers Contest attracts some of the region's top talent to the two-day affair. Telephone 425-1018.

July 25 through August 2, Flagstaff. Navajo Craftsmen Exhibition, Museum of Northern Arizona. Navajo rugs, silver jewelry, sandpainting, pottery, paintings, and sculpture plus demonstrations by the artists. Telephone 774-5211.

July 31, Williams. The Arizona Cowpunchers' Reunion and Old-Timers' Rodeo brings the good old boys together to ride, rope, and reminisce. Telephone 635-2041.

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