COME TO WILLIAMS THIS SUMMER

WILLIAMS Text by LEO W. BANKS Photographs by EDWARD MCCAIN DAVE POUQUETTE KICKS BACK ON A

quiet northern Arizona morning, the air thick with the sweet scent of pine. He's telling the story of Williams, his town. The words come out fine, even halfway elegantly. But they can't compete with the "song" we hear playing a few blocks away. When it plays, as it does several times a day, conversations hereabouts cease, and for a fleeting, almost reverential moment every ear cocks in its direction. A train whistle has that effect, especially the toetingling, belly-shaking holler-and-squeal of the Grand Canyon Railway's big steam locomotive.

In that long, loud, romantic, and thoroughly beautiful sound hangs the still unfolding story of a community's resurrection. "Before 1989, when the railroad started again," says Pouquette as the whistle ebbs, "this town had its little face down on the sidewalk, feeling sorry for itself."

Streets were potholed, sidewalks cracking, and businesses had a stuck-in-the-mud look. The sour economic climate resulted, in part, from the October, 1984, opening of Interstate 40, which runs past Williams, but not through its downtown, as venerable old Route 66 did.

"We were the last town on 66 to be bypassed, and it made things kind of nasty," says the 55-year-old former Coconino County sheriff's deputy. "Then the Grand Canyon Railroad got this town off its duff. Everybody looked around and said, 'My gosh, there are going to be a thousand people in town today to ride the train. We'd better wash our windows.'"

The town known through the decades as the "Gateway to the Grand Canyon"

remains very much that, a way station for the 130,000 railway customers who pass through every year on their way to the Canyon, 57 miles north. But passing through was about as much as Williams could expect from its tourists in years past. These days, an increasing number stay for a while in this hamlet of 2,600, surrounded by pine forests, cool lakes, hiking paths, and bike trails winding over lonesome mountain roads. The local golf course offers a sign of how things have changed in little Williams. As recently as 1990, the greens at Elephant Rocks didn't even have grass. They were the old-fashioned sand-and-oil mixture that had to be raked before playing. The nine-hole course today is a largely unknown treat, picturesque and quiet, except for, if you play like me, the sound of balls thwacking off the trees lining the fairways. And if you stick around at night, you might hear the blare of the sensor alarms guarding the seventh and eighth greens against intruders.

The intruders aren't human. They're elk that lumber in from the hillside forests to romp on the fairways and greens. "One morning we found dig marks around one of the cups, like an elk was trying to get it out of the ground with its hoof," says club pro John McCahan. "Another morning we found an elk horn sticking up from the seventh green. It had broken off when they were playing."

But the course will soon be hosting many more humans than elk. An additional nine holes is under way at Elephant Rocks, an expansion that's expected to at least triple the volume of play.

Other changes are occurring around Williams, too. Historical and ecological exhibits are being built in the visitors center, and

Twisters Soda Fountain

on a 1950s-style musical called Once Upon a Jukebox. Patton Swartzfager, one of the show's creators, describes it as Cinderella meets Grease, a comic tour on Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.

"The women wear poodle skirts, the men white T-shirts and jeans, and everybody who sees it leaves with a smile," says Swartzfager, a transplanted New York comic.

The Sultana was built in 1912 and stands as a symbol of the town's ranching and railroading heyday. But it has been mostly silent for decades. Swartzfager's Route 66 Players give that historic venue a new gleam, and provide tourists with rousing nighttime entertainment.

As for outdoor attractions, Williams has five lakes within 30 minutes of town — Cataract, Dogtown, J.D., White Horse, and Kaibab as well as the scenic peak of 9,264-foot-high Bill Williams Mountain. The drive to the top takes 30 minutes — a bit longer if hairpin turns rattle your nerves. Gear for radio transmissions litters the peak itself, but it's possible to get above that by climbing a Forest Service viewing tower.

A steel frame job, it's open at the sides, except for a single handrail, with stairs zigzagging up about 50 feet. The combination of being on a mountaintop with panoramic views across miles of forest and climbing on Swiss cheese stairs with open air between them can weaken the stoutest legs. But the view is grand.

Those unable to make the climb can descend about a half mile to where the trees break, and the landscape rolls to the western horizon. The view is beyond beautiful. From that elevation, Interstate 40 appears as a glistening thread, barely visible as it runs through the pine ocean all the way to the sunset.

I ended my last night in Williams at Twisters, Dave Pouquette's 1950s-style soda fountain and gift shop. The place is a colorful throwback to Elvis, Route 66, and the days when guys had greasy hair on purpose and only the girls had ponytails.

Any time of day or night, you can find ex-teenage rebels, now silver-haired Winnebago wanderers, hunched over banana splits, dreaming about easier times while the jukebox plays Dion and the Belmonts.

"After folks finish here, they can walk down main street with

WHEN YOU GO

All area codes are (520) unless otherwise noted.

Williams is located 170 miles north of Phoenix via Interstates 17 and 40.

Restaurants, Theaters, and Services: Twisters Soda Fountain, 417 E. Williams Ave., 635-0266. Grand Canyon Coffee and Cafe, 125 W. Route 66, 635-1255. Sultana Theater, 301 W. Route 66; call the chamber for schedule, 635-1418. Elephant Rocks Golf Course at Elephant Rocks Country Club, 2200 Country Club Drive, 635-4935. Route 66 Place, 417 E. Bill Williams Ave., 635-0266.

July Events: Small Town Fourth of July, July 4, with the Main Street Parade, a street dance, and fireworks show;

WILLIAMS

their kids and not feel any danger," says Pouquette. "It's laid back, like the old days. You don't hear a lot of pagers going off."

Not long ago, Pouquette was standing at his cash register when a man who'd been sitting at a table for a couple of hours, soak-ing it all in, approached to settle his bill.

"I have a proposition for you," the man said. "I'll trade you my job, my house in the Phoenix valley, and everything I have, for this store, your house, and everything you have here."

Pouquette didn't need to think about it. "I don't believe I like that deal," he said. "I make a lot of money," the man per-sisted.

But the grin on Pouquette's face only widened.

"You know," he tells me later, still smil-ing, "I was born in Williams, and it just tickles me to hear that kind of reaction to our town."

Firefighters Retreat and Muster, July 17-18; Cowpuncher's Reunion Rodeo, July 30-31 and August 1.

Early reservations are advised. For more information, call 1-800-THE-TRAIN. Additional Information: For a complete calendar of summer events and information on lodging and recreational opportunities, contact the Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce, or the Williams and Forest Service Visitors Center, 200 W. Railroad Ave., 635-4707, or toll-free (800) 863-0546.