FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

JULY 1996 VOL. 72, NO. 7 Publisher-Nina M. La France Editor-Robert J. Early Managing Editor-Richard G. Stahl Associate Editor-Rebecca Mong Photography Director-Peter Ensenberger Art Director-Mary Winkelman Velgos Deputy Art Director-Barbara Denney Associate Art Director-Russ Wall Production Assistant-Vicky Snow Managing Editor, Books-Bob Albano Associate Editor, Books-Robert J. Farrell Finance Director-Robert M. Steele Fulfillment Director-Bethany Braley Information Systems Manager-Brian McGrath Production Director-Cindy Mackey Coordinator-Kim Gibson Design Manager-Patricia Romano McNear Governor Fife Symington Director, Department of Transportation Larry S. Bonine Arizona Transportation Board Chairman: Sharon B. Megdal, Ph.D., Tucson Vice Chairman: Donovan M. Kramer St., Casa Grande Members: E. Rockne Arnett, Mesa; John I. Hudson, Yuma; Jack Husted, Springerville; Burton Kruglick, Phoenix; Jerry C. Williams, Morenci Toll-free nationwide number for customer inquiries and orders: (800) 543-5432 In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call (602) 258-1000 Fax: (602) 254-4505 Our Web site Internet address is: http://www.arizhwys.com/ Internet "Letters to the Editor": [email protected]

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Best Monthly Travel Magazine 1994 Silver Award, 1993 Bronze Award, 1992 Bronze Award Society of American Travel Writers Foundation Arizona Highways (ISSN 0004-1521) is published monthly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Subscription price: $19 a year in the U.S., $29 elsewhere; single copy $2.50. Send subscription correspondence and change of address information to Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. Second-class postage paid at Phoenix, AZ and at additional mailing office. Postmaster: send address changes to Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. Copyright © 1996 by the Arizona Department of Transpor-tation. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited materials provided for editorial consideration.

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Tree Talk

A story in response to “A Little Bit of Plain Tree Talk Brings Results” (“Along the Way,” Feb-ruary '96): one year I bought a beautiful live blue spruce Christ-mas tree.

After Christmas I planted it in the front yard, and we renamed it Albert. Every day I would speak to it when I got home, telling it how pretty it was.

Eventually we moved across town, and my sister-in-law and her family moved in.

Within six weeks Albert was dead.

Charles A. Burdeshaw Hermitage, TN

A New Friend

I really don't like to read unless I've got no choice, but when my teacher brought in some of her issues and read some of the articles, I found that I enjoyed reading Arizona Highways.

The best article I've read was “The Worst Train Robbers in the West” (September '93). It was pretty funny. I also enjoy reading your “Legends of the Lost” articles.

I used “Focus on Nature” to write a science report on sun spiders, the solpugids.

I am currently 17 years old and got myself into some trouble with the law. They gave me 12 months in a limited-security facility. When I get out to go live with my father, I think I will subscribe to Arizona Highways.

Thanks to you, I now enjoy reading.

Damien D. Lansing, NY

Antiquity Laws

Your February '96 story “A Pinaleno Mountain Odyssey” says, “The next morning, Huck and I played amateur archaeologists in logger middens from turn-of-the-century Chlarson Sawmill.... We scraped away a few inches of the loosely packed earth. Our efforts uncovered a ceramic-glazed coffee pot, a copper tub, and many tin cans.” Shame on you for printing that. Are you aware of Arizona's antiquity laws? The author probably committed a violation.

Karen Wilhelm Springerville In the recent past, my local chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society has written to Arizona Highways to complain about your articles being too specific in the location of archaeological sites.

I am very tempted to withdraw my subscription and urge others to do likewise if your articles in the archaeology field do not improve.

Anita Langford Kingman

Back Road Adventure

I appreciate your magazine every month, especially the “Back Road Adventure.” Although I am a native Arizonan, I have seen places in these articles that I never even knew existed.

I just returned from a trip to Pleasant Valley (February '96), and I've got to say it was quite spectacular.

Gerard Cudmore Phoenix

Geronimo

J.E. Cook's letter (March '96) about Geronimo's purchase of sugar in packages weighing only one pound because he could not judge the weight of threeor five-pound packages is just another story not related to truth. Geronimo wanted the onepound packages in lots of three or five based on the number of women with babies who had The sugar mixed with water was fed to the ba-bies, just as many mothers in the United States do today.

The Indians here in the Rio Grande Valley who claim rela-tionship to those in Geronimo's band were not amused by the letter.

Ed Moorehead Combes, TX

Lozen Painting

The picture of Lozen and her Apache warriors (Cover, Feb-ruary '96) touched me so deeply that I have had it framed.

The picture is especially interesting to me because in my youth I lived on the campus of the Rice Indian Boarding School on the San Carlos Indian Reservation.

Helen V. Higgins St. Petersburg, FL It is a glaring error on your part to present a traditional Apache woman dressed in short skirts, showing her legs. To present such illustrations, presumably historically correct, is to distort facts and cultural reality.

Garth Nielsen Tucson The cover painting was based on historical photographs of Geronimo's band by C.S. Fly and others. The only picture believed to be of Lozen shows her barelegged. Our research found that she often dressed like male warriors.

Dentistry at Work

Since my dentist introduced me to your great magazine, I have become a subscriber and repeated visitor to Arizona. Your magazine also introduced me and my wife to the Sedona jazz festival, which we attended twice with great pleasure.

Horst Hohenboken Hamburg, Germany