GREAT WEEKENDS

Apple Orchards, Antiques, an Old Fort, and Barbecue to-die-for — That's Willcox

If you like small-town liv-ing, or think you might, try a weekend in Willcox. Willcox, population about 3,000, may seem to have more cows than people, more open land than town, but it offers plenty of history, rugged beau-ty, and down-home good times. Located 80 miles east of Tucson, Willcox honestly lays claim to being part of the legendary Old West. Nearby lie sites of the bloody clashes that marked the 30 years of hostilities between the new Westerners and the old Apaches. This was the homeland of Cochise and Geronimo. Warren Earp, Wyatt's brother, missed the O.K. Corral violence in 1881 only to die in Willcox nine years later. He was shot in one of the many saloons that once lined Railroad Avenue. On a more modern Western note, the last of the singing cowboys was born here, Rex Allen, a contemporary in music and movies of the late Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Willcox also is a ranching and farming community, where visitors are invited to come back to the land. From midJuly through October, you can pick your own almost everything: pumpkins, chiles, corn, melons, beanseven okra, if you must. In the u-pick-it orchards, there also are pears, peaches, and an almost endless variety of apples. My fellow traveler and I made the trip to Willcox in late October, the end of the produce season but still a good time. The weather was moving toward cool, and the fields and trees were still full. Though anxious to get there, we did make one stop along the way. The Singing Wind Bookshop can be found on a ranch outside Benson, two miles north of Interstate 10 Exit 304, then east on Singing Wind Road, 36 miles before you arrive in Willcox. This is a place you don't want to miss, owned by a woman you do want to meet. Winn Bundy opened her bookstore 24 years ago. No small collection of well-loved but muchthumbed volumes, Winn's new editions fill two rooms from floor to ceiling with topics stretching from Southwestern history to the theories of Jung. "I just believed people would come for books," she said. They do, from all over the world, for the books and for a visit with this friendly, book-loving woman. But you have apples to pick. Apple Annie's Orchard offers a fine place to start, acres of fruit trees five and a half miles north of 1-10 on Fort Grant Road, the main drag into Willcox's farmland. The Holcomb family started selling apples out of their carport. Now their operation welcomes tens of thousands of people who want to pick their own. This time of year they were there for Granny Smiths. Anne Holcomb, the orchard owner, advised reaching for the ones with "the pink blush." Chances are that first shy apple you find will end up in your mouth rather than your bucket. Even Eve would be tempted a second time by the thought of that snap-crackle bite into an apple fresh off the tree on a cool October morning. An equally direct way to savor the moment is by scoffing down a slice of fresh apple pie baked on the premises. Take yours à la mode, and it will be topped with a mound of vanilla ice cream large enough to fell an elephant. There are other upick orchards in Willcox. Watch for the signs and for farmers who set up table displays in garages and along Fort Grant Road. The large Hunsdon Farms celebrates Halloween pumpkinpicking with hayrides out to the fields the first four weekends in October.

For those who enjoy the search for the old and the collectible as much as any search for the ripe and the round, there is Railroad Avenue, the historic center of Willcox. Here you find the Willcox Commercial, the oldest mercantile building still in use in Arizona and the place to buy your Western duds. There are the Rex Allen Museum and the Rex Allen Theatre, where admission to a first-run film is $3.50. Talk about the good old days.

Down at the Wildwood Gallery & Book Bank, they sell used paperbacks three for $1; new books from local authors;and old issues of Arizona Highways, including collector's editions. Also on the shelves are art, crafts, and foodstuffs produced by area residents.

A new store opened on the avenue the weekend we were there. The Second Whistle promises "new and almost new" clothing and "maybe some antiques." Hugging one wall was a small wooden icecream-parlor chair with a handcarved seat. The price - who could forget was $8. Open only Friday through Sunday, the store doesn't have a phone yet, but stop by and say hello.

Motherlode Antiques sits a block up the avenue, and is crammed with grandma's best stuff. Across the street you'll find the recently renovated railroad depot. The trains that brought life and prosperity to small towns like Willcox in the late 1880s don't stop here anymore. But you will, for a while at least.

There are a few motels in town and a bed and breakfast, Heritage Manor, on the farming side of the freeway. Linda and David Benson own this house with the long front porch and a view of the fields. They will leave the light on for your return after an evening meal out.

One choice for dining is the Regal Restaurant and Lounge, where the booths are orange leatherette and the waitresses friendly. Daily specials and a killer enchilada smothered in green chiles and cheese and stuffed with hunks of beef highlight the menu.

You can choose to pack your calories in at Sunday morning breakfast. This fuel will help carry you over and up the hills to the Fort Bowie National Historic Site, a great side trip.

The fort, built on the northern edge of the Chiricahua Mountains southeast of Willcox, played a major role in United States military campaigns against the Apaches. Operating from 1862 until 1894, Fort Bowie was where Geronimo and his band were brought following his final surrender in September, 1886, ending the Apache wars.

To reach the fort, take State Route 186 south out of Willcox for 27 miles. Follow the signs to eight miles of dirt road. Then you have an easy 1.5-mile walk to the site; however, you may soon be demanding the name of the guy who did the measur-ing. The walk seems longer than 1.5 miles, but enjoy it all the way. You are smack dab in the middle of history. You cross the path of the old Butterfield Stage, walk through the ruins of the stagecoach station, move through the grassland of Apache Pass, and cool off under the shade of the trees along Apache Spring.

That pass through the mountains and the fresh water are what brought the people to this part of the Territory. Ambushes, massacres, and war became the result.

Be prepared for a surprise when you reach the fort. Although all that is left are the ruins of the adobe walls, you can still appreciate the fort's massive size. The fort encompassed quarters, çorrals, stores, a hospital, and a saloon - stan-dard issue. But there also were a tennis court, and one - say hallelujah - flush toilet.

The fort's setting is beautiful, the backdrop of mountains, the land rolling down through the pass and along the path you traveled. Modern-day amenities include picnic tables, a small gift shop, and museum. You can refill your water bottles here for the return hike.

Instead of bouncing eight miles back to town on that dirt road, continue east and north to the town of Bowie on a paved road. You can pick up I-10 west and go back to Willcox for one last memorable stop: Rodney Brown's restaurant.

Rodney's is on North Railroad Avenue. Well, the kitchen is. You'll find the rest of the place out back, a small patio under a fig tree. There you can sit and eat a plate of the restaurant's delicious ribs. You won't need a knife with this meal. You barely need teeth. The meat pulls away from the bone at the touch of a fork. The sauce is perfection, and the mouth waters with just the memory of whatever it is he does to green beans. "I dabble," said Rodney of his cooking. He dabbles; you devour.

He offered some advice about dining decisions.

"You can only trust a cook when he's smiling," he said with a smile.

After two days on the land, with a trunkful of apples, apple bread, apple butter, apple jelly, and honey, you may be doing some grinning of your own. Mine was as wide as the road ahead. Behind me on the backseat of my car sat a little wooden chair, ice-cream-parlor style.

LOCATION: 192 miles southeast of Phoenix; 81 miles southeast of Tucson.

WEATHER: Average temperature in October: high 80° F.; low, 40°.

PHONE NUMBERS: All are in area code 520 unless noted; 800 numbers are toll-free.

LODGING: Heritage Manor Bed & Breakfast, Exit 340 off Interstate 10, about 10 miles west on Fort Grant Road, 8251 N. Fort Grant Road (HCR1, Box 93, Willcox, AZ 85643), 384-2953. Best Western, 1100 W. Rex Allen Drive, 384-3556. Days Inn, 724 N. Bisbee Ave., 384-4222.

RESTAURANTS: Regal Restaurant & Lounge, 301 N. Haskell Ave., 384-9959. Rodney's, 118 N. Railroad Ave., 384-5180.

ATTRACTIONS: Singing Wind Bookshop, 700 W. Singing Wind Road, Benson, 586-2425. Apple Annie's Orchard, Exit 340 off 1-10, north 5.5 miles on Fort Grant Road, follow apple signs to farm, (800) 840-2084. Hunsdon Farms, Exit 340 off 1-10, 13 miles on Fort Grant Road, (800) 351-6698; 384-4362. Willcox Commercial, 180 N. Railroad Ave., 384-2448. Rex Allen Museum, 150 N. Railroad Ave., 384-4583. Wildwood Gallery & Book Bank, 154 N. Railroad Ave., 384-4882. Motherlode Antiques, 114 S. Railroad Ave., 384-2875. Second Whistle, 156 N. Railroad Ave.; open Friday through Sunday; no phone. Railroad Depot 101 S. Railroad Ave., call the Chamber of Commerce for information, (800) 200-2272. Fort Bowie National Historic Site, 27 miles south of Willcox via State Route 186 and 8 miles on a graded dirt road, 847-2500.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Willcox Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, 1500 N. Circle I Road, Willcox, AZ 85643; (800) 200-2272.