Phoenix-Nogales Connected by Oil

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Phoenix and Tucson Connected by Oil Network of Highways Brings Arizonians Closer to Numerous Points of Scenic Grandeur and Historic Interest

PHOENIX and Tucson, Arizona's two principal cities, are now for the first time, connected by a smooth ribbon of pavement-type highway. Oil surfacing of the last gap, a tenmile stretch south of Chandler on State Highway 87, was completed this month. An automobile journey which only a few years ago required tedious hours of jolting through vast clouds of dust may be made in comfort today at almost any speed the motorist desires. The rate is governed only by mechanical limitations of the car, no longer by those of the highway. As smooth as the highest type pavement, this new road follows the most direct route between the two cities, through Mesa, Chandler and Coolidge past historic Picacho Peak and along the line of the Southern Pacific railway to the Old Pueblo.

At Tucson, it connects with U. S. 89, El Camino Real, another completely oilsurfaced highway, and provides the automobile driver with a paved route all the way from the state capital to the Port of Nogales on the Mexican boundary.

At the Old Pueblo, the Phoenix-Tucson road also connects with U. S. 80, through Vail, Benson, St. David, Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas to the New Mexico border, Lordsburg and El Paso -a completely oiled route, except for three short stretches, from Phoenix to the New Mexico line. The gaps probably will be filled in this year.

From Nogales to Tombstone, through Patagonia, Sonoita, Elgin and Fairbanks, runs an excellent gravel-surfaced highway, the lower end of the Coronado Trail, and the great cattle country of Southern Arizona is tapped by another well improved road from Sonoita to Vail. Connecting with U. S. 80 at Douglas, State Highway 81 runs north past the Chiricahua National Monument and the Wonderland of Rocks through Cochise and Willcox to Safford.

From Douglas east through the famous old Slaughter ranch on the Mexican border runs the new Geronimo Trail into the Peloncillo Mountains on the New Mexico line.