Separate But One

pinetoplakeside

Merged communities at the gateway to the White Mountains offer distinctly different pasts and personalities marble-cake mix of quaint log cabins, glitzy motels and oh-so-cute antique shops. Pinetop-Lakeside seems as cohesive as any other town. Yet it sports a hyphenated name that implies dual personalities. Most tourists and recent residents don't think much about that hyphen. They're too busy golfing, fishing, hunting, skiing or just enjoying the pine-fresh air of this booming resort area in the White Mountains, 180 miles northeast of Phoenix. But an old-timer or seasoned tourist like me remembers when Pinetop and Lakeside were separated by 2 miles of undeveloped forest. Over the years, small businesses, government buildings and strip malls transformed those woods into a continuous commercial strip. Finally, in 1984, the physically merged towns incorporated to form the single community of PinetopLakeside with shared schools and municipal services.

The roadside sign that separated the two villages came tumbling down. Soon only the locals knew that the stoplight near the Safeway shopping center marked the former Pinetop-Lakeside border. "I'm from Pinetop, not Lakeside," said Mina Henning, who was born in McNary, the former lumber town nearby. "And people from Lakeside feel just as strongly about being a part of their community." She explained, "The Pinetop area is more of a country-club type of place. From early on, developers regarded Pinetop as a real resort-building opportunity. Lakeside, on the other hand-how should I put this? - still takes strong pride in its traditional heritage."

As you drive along busy White Mountain Boulevard, you realize that Henning is right. In Lakeside, older motels and log tourist cabins line the highway. The granddaddy of them all, the two-story Lakeview Lodge, built in 1916, stands closed for now. But even in its vacancy, it exudes the mellowness of a beloved local landmark. "To me, this place represents the essence of Lakeside's old-time personality," former manager Jackie Moeller said about the lodge with its massive stone fireplace in the antiques-filled great room. Shelves of old books and classic board games encouraged guests to entertain themselves without the din of sitcoms and car commercials. "As a rustic lodge [without in-room phones and TVs], we went back to the days when farm wives brought people into their homes and entertained them around the kitchen table," Moeller explained.

It's easy to understand how she came up with her old-fashioned version of inn-keeping. Remains of homesteads where that kind of hospitality once thrived surround the lodge. As a further reminder of the past, the pond that still brightens the lodge's grounds is part of the chain of irrigation lakes created by Lakeside's founders.

In 1884, the leading founder, a Mormon family man named Hans Hansen Sr., homesteaded a cattle ranch in the area. Today, only the sagging ruins of barns along White Mountain Boulevard remain of Lakeside's rural heritage. A turnoff toward the PinetopLakeside Civic Center reveals sunflowerlined pastures, where an occasional horse or cow still flicks its tail. Between these pastures, gnarled apple trees mark the sites of long-gone pioneer cabins.

In Pinetop (the area southeast of the Safeway shopping center), old apple trees surround the grave of town founder Johnny Phipps, who opened a saloon here in 1885. Located in a lush meadow behind the Nine Pines Motel, his gravesite can be viewed from a distance. Just ask for permission in the motel office.

Phipps' main clientele, soldiers from Fort Apache, dubbed his bar "Pinetop." The town that grew around it became a rambunctious place, where loggers, miners and cowboys could blow a paycheck on a Saturday night. True to its saloon legacy, Pinetop still contains places that jump on weekends. The bar area of Charlie Clark's Steak House, for example, draws locals as it has since 1938. Jukebox music thumps beneath the laughter and chatter of the tightly packed crowd. The air vibrates with the smells of sizzling steaks and beer. In the soft glow of beer-ad lights, pastel caricatures of regular customers beam down on the party.

A few blocks away, loud bands with names like Apache Spirit pack folks into the Lion's Den Bar and Grill. Another history-filled hangout, the low-ceilinged old-fashioned barroom suggests the days when tough men flocked into Pinetop to let loose. "I remember how Walsh Mack, the big black gentleman who owned the bar next to the Lion's Den, would break up a fight by lifting one man in each hand and tossing 'em out the door," recalled longtime Pinetop resident and shopping-center owner Tilden Wilbur. Some of the troublemakers must have spent the night in Pinetop's small stone jail. In 1988, this historic structure was moved and put on display on White Mountain Boulevard. Ironically, the lockup's new location is in Lakeside, which for years boasted it didn't need a jail, in part because not even a public dance hall was allowed in the strongly religious community. For that kind of entertainment, you had to drive down the road to Pinetop. Before her recent death, Loyce MaGillPenrod shared stories of the Depression years, when her husband, Bus Penrod, owned a large dance hall on the site of what is now the Crown Dancer Gift Shop. Like many other antique and curio shops, the Crown Dancer inhabits one of the area's older buildings. Its armchairs, draped with Navajo rugs, invite you to relax, while a wall near a fireplace displays ancient water baskets and clay ollas. A glass case up front holds rare Apache ceremonial objects: a bear-tooth necklace, a prayer fan, rattles and a pipe.. After settling into an armchair, Penrodrecalled the dance hall days. "We'd serve beer and sandwiches and book big-name bands. On Saturday nights, people would drive in from miles around to dance on our polished wooden floor." On those same Saturday nights, folks around Lakeside would ride their farm mules and buckboards to the schoolhouse, where they'd savor apple pies and drink homemade root beer. "We'd have a fiddler, maybe someone who could chord on the piano, maybe a guitar," Erwin Hansen, grandson of Lakeside's founder, recalled in 1977. The now-deceased farmer delighted in

Lakeside

Bands clad in sunbonnets and cowboy hats belt out tunes on stages that rise above food stalls and crafts stands.

Confessing, “I used to play the saxophone. How we’d kick up our heels!” You can still find that kind of music at annual events like the Bluegrass Festival, which takes place in a pasture near Lakeside every August. Bands clad in sunbonnets and cowboy hats belt out tunes on stages that rise above food stalls and crafts stands. Tagplaying kids raise dust that blends with the smells of popcorn and pine resin, while woodpeckers in the nearby forest keep time to the high, lonesome rhythms.

It’s a down-home contrast to an upscale afternoon of golf at one of Pinetop’s three country clubs. While two of these clubs are open only to members and their guests, Pinetop Lakes welcomes the public. After shooting a bucket of practice balls near clumps of tawny day lilies, players tee off on the club’s Easter-green fairways, where tassel-eared squirrels scamper in the trees. At the end of a game, visitors stop at the clubhouse for dinner at a table overlooking the sunset-glowing course. The décor-green and rustic - pleasantly combines sport and luxury.

Primo golf and other outdoor sports have drawn a year-round population of more than 8,000 to the Pinetop-Lakeside area. In the summer months, that number more than triples. Recently retired Tucsonans Kay and Jerry Helm represent typical part-time residents. Owners of a cathedral-ceilinged condo, they spend each summer playing the region’s eight golf courses and hiking the 180 miles of multiuse nature trails. In the winter, the couple often drives up from Tucson to ski several of the 65 downhill runs at nearby Sunrise Park Resort.

All year the Helmses try their luck at the Hondah Resort Casino and Conference Center, located 3 miles southeast of Pinetop. In addition to dining and entertainment, the 24-hour casino features slot machines, video games and traditional poker tables run by dealers in black bola ties.

“It’s good that the casino is near rowdy old Pinetop,” Kay Helm said. “Lakeside is still pretty religious; I don’t think gambling would fly there.” It’s true that many Lakesiders prefer to spend their time enjoying church and family activities. On a Sunday afternoon, they might gather for a stroll around Rainbow Lake, where hundreds of Northern orioles, Western tanagers and red-winged black-birds twitter in the reeds. One of the “40 mountain lakes within 40 miles” touted by tourist brochures, Rainbow Lake’s landscape captures the essence of what fuels the area’s dynamic growth. Conifers, aspens and willows surround the 80-acre lake, which is stocked with rainbow trout, large-mouth bass, sunfish and catfish.

Graphic artist and rock musician Doug