BOOKSHELF

Just north of where the old ranch was located, the new Glendale Airport is under construction. The two parcels of a once unblemished desert lie side by side. One is a rich vein of Arizona's past; the other, a path to her future. It was here, at what is now 107th Avenue and West Camelback Road, that Herbert V. Young was born 100 years ago this month.

The Young property was a hardscrabble homestead ranch, literally hacked out of the desert wilderness. It was 16 dreary wagon miles from the village of Phoenix. Time, distance, and the ever present pressure of economy meant there would be no hospital or doctor. Eva Young bore her child at home with the aid of her husband. It was October 23, 1887.

When Herb was 10 years old, his father died. His mother kept the five children together, and Herb managed to complete three years of high school and a stenographic course at Lamson Business College in Phoenix. On February 1, 1912, just two weeks before Arizona became a state, Herbert V. Young went to work in the executive department of the United Verde Copper Company in Jerome. He remained when Phelps Dodge acquired the property, and in 1953 he retired.

Retired? Well, not really.

It may have been training, instinct, or a combination of the two, but Herbert Young habitually filed records, family letters, and newspaper clippings he thought might be of future interest. Ever since he was a child, he had two secret loves, writing and history. So now Herb Young began to write Magazine articles, poetry, and three highly regarded books have seen the light of print. The Ghosts of Cleopatra Hill, Young's first book, is a clear and candid history of Jerome. It covers the life span of that colorful mining camp from when Angus McKinnon and Morris Ruffner first scratched the surface of Mingus Mountain to the "spooks" that wander around the sometime ghost town every Halloween. That in itself is a century. The Ghosts of Cleopatra Hill (unfortunately now out of print) enjoyed four printings in 20 years. That speaks well of author and book.

They Came to Jerome, published in 1972, is a social history of Jerome. It deals with the diverse ethnic backgrounds of the people; how they lived, worked, and played. It is the typical anatomy of a mining camp in the early American West.

Young's third book, Water by the Inch, published by Northland Press in 1983, is perhaps the most significant of all. It is autobiographical, a chronicle of a desert homestead family of a century ago. It recites basic values as fresh and numerous as leaves on a cottonwood tree. Here, hard labor is the essential tool of survival, and water is the blood of the land.

Herb Young has given us a unique body of literature, but he has no thought of putting down his pen just because he is 100 years old this month. He is presently at work on a youth novel. The working title: North of Lizard Run. It is the story of a boy living in the shadow of a heroic father. The lad wants his own identity but has grave doubts about his ability to attain it. Teddy Roosevelt, by the way, is president.

For a man who lives and writes in Clarkdale between the shadows of red rocks and verdant Mingus Mountain, poetry came easy. The last stanza of one of Herb's poems, titled Release, confirms the point: What joy to stand in misty dark, Where sweet winds blow from fragrant pines, And ferns sway green on rain-washed slopes. Dusk fades to night while burdens ease; Then star-gemmed Arcady is here.

Happy Birthday, Herb! Happy Birthday!