Back Road Adventure

Back Road Adventure Lush Desert Scenery, History, and a Tribute to Tom Mix Await along the Pinal Pioneer Parkway

The he country road that connects Florence and Tucson appears held together by mountain ranges that stand like bookends to the north and south. Most of the year, shifting clouds above the jagged outline of the Catalina Mountains at Tucson and the Superstition Mountains north of Florence keep changing the color and texture of the rocky promontories in the distance. The best time to drive the 70-mile paved section of State Route 79 (formerly U.S. 89) that links historic Florence with Tucson is when the desert is bone-dry. Wild grasses and the spiny ocotillo bushes in surrounding fields may look like desiccated skeletons, but the numerous paloverde trees in the hilly landscape along this road seem to thrive on dryness, erupting every spring with thousands of brightyellow blossoms. Paloverde is Spanish for "green stick," a reference to the showy tree's limegreen bark.

A portion of State 79 south of Florence is known as the Pinal Pioneer Parkway. Florence, the Pinal County seat, sits just south of the Superstitions but in view of the stately Catalina Mountains. Around Arizona, any mention of Florence usually brings to mind the state prison located along its outskirts. However, the prison is far enough removed from the residential portion of the town to keep it from detracting from the community's authentic historic atmosphere.

Hollywood producers, attracted to the town because of its Old West small-town ambience, a few years ago used its main street as the setting for Murphy's Romance, a motion picture starring Sally Field and James Garner. The locals still talk about who was easier to get along with (Sally won, hands down).

One story has it that Florence was named in 1868 for the sister of Gov. Richard McCormick.

Today the town is a collection of old flat-roofed adobe houses lining streets that fan out from an imposing 100-year-old Victorian courthouse. More than 130 of Florence's buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Use the courthouse as a start-ing point for your excursion to Tucson, but don't bother setting your watch by the clock in its tower. It is always 16 minutes before 12 at this courthouse. Some like to say it isn't really 11:44 but closer to 8:57, but no one really knows. The clock is fake, and its painted hands are nearly the same size.

"The only thing we know for sure is that it's absolutely correct twice a day, which is more than you can say for most clocks," a county official said a couple of years ago.

It's best not to make jokes about this painted clock when you're in Florence because the locals have a strong affection for it. In 1991, when the building celebrated its 100th anniversary, the Board of Supervisors voted to install a real clock in the tower. Local residents protested vigorously. Even people who had since moved to other parts of the country took time to write and express their outrage, which is why the painted clock remains.

There is plenty for folks to see in Florence, including the McFarland State Park, which is a fine museum in the building that was the town's original courthouse from 1878 to 1891. There's also a visitors center in a restored 110-year-old house at Pinal and Eighth streets, and a spacious historical museum sits at the south end of Main Street at Gressinger.

From Florence, drive south on State 79. A mile south of town there's a flashing yellow light at a junction. Continue south (turning west will take you to Coolidge), pass the rodeo grounds, and watch the landscape unfold. If you're new (ABOVE) Saguaro cacti and century plants flourish south of town along a portion of State Route 79 that's known as the Pinal Pioneer Parkway.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) Probably the best-known landmark along the Parkway is the Tom Mix monument, a steel sculpture of a riderless horse erected near the spot where the famous cowboy actor was killed in 1940 when his flashy convertible hit a detour barrier. After years of abuse from vandals, the original sculpture was stolen in 1980. What you see there now is its replacement, manufactured by inmates at the nearby state prison.