TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

taking the off-ramp THIS MONTH IN ARIZONA

Bisbee miners ceased work to lynch a drunken murderer.

The Southern Pacific Railroad reached the Colorado River at Yuma.

Phoenix Union High School was established for whites only with 90 students.

Two Sisters of Mercy opened Phoenix's first medicalcare facility, St. Joseph Hospital, an adobe building with six rooms and a 12-patient capacity.

All taxpayers were allowed to vote during municipal elections, regardless of sex.

Tucson passed an ordinance requiring residents to register their automobiles and display their number.

A tent city sprang up outside Tucson after the City Council passed an ordinance forbidding tuberculosis patients from erecting tents in town.

Hopi Days: Selling Smiles and Shirts

Hopi marathon runners use it as their uniform. Hopi tribal ambassadors give it as gifts. Patrick Swayze, William Devane and former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt own one. Even the staid British Museum displays one. And for fifteen bucks, you, too, can have a piece of Hopi popular culture. The "Don't Worry, Be Hopi" T-shirt, sold exclusively at the Tsakurshovi Trading Post on Second Mesa, is the brainchild of proprietors Janice and Joseph Day. Janice's father, a Hopi farmer, frustrated by a 1989 drought, complained that the clouds were toying with him. Janice joked, "Don't worry, Dad, be Hopi," and an icon was born. After the Days' first 10 dozen shirts sold out in a week, they ordered blank shirts by the gross.

The walls of Tsakurshovi are papered with hundreds of pictures taken by T-shirt owners from across the globe who wear the shirts proudly in their hometowns. The shirts proved especially popular with reggae groups, including Ziggy Marley, son of the legendary Bob Marley. Tsakurshovi is located 1.5 miles east of the Hopi Cultural Center on State Route 164. Information: (928) 734-2478.

Strolling for Art

Even on a chilly, rainy fall evening, people stroll the streets of downtown Flagstaff, taking advantage of the First Friday Art Walk. On the first Friday of each month, a half-dozen galleries, most located in a four-block area, stay open from 6 until 8 P.M., lur-ing visitors with free nibbles and the chance to rub elbows with local artists.

At West of the Moon gallery, 111 E. Aspen Ave., visitors find the hand-stamped silver jewelry of Jay McCormick and the applique glass bead creations of Carolyn Young, the gallery's co-owners. McCormick says he's sold his jewelry "from Brentwood to Soho," but he's especially pleased to have a retail space where he also can feature works of photographers John Running and David Edwards and artist Drake Seaman.

Other participating galleries carry paintings, ceramics, glassware, pottery, textiles and woodworks, mostly by Arizona artists and craftspeople. Maps are available at galleries. Information: (928) 773-0958.

By the Booklet: See the Land of Legends

Discover everything from golf to ghost towns while touring the southeastern region of Arizona highlighted in the free visi-tors guide Cochise County, Land of Legends. The guide covers the county's top six communities Benson, Bisbee, Douglas, Sierra Vista, Tombstone and Willcox.

The booklet points birders to the area's canyons and the riparian habitat along the San Pedro River, and cavers to Kartchner Caverns State Park. Outdoor enthusiasts learn about prime hiking opportunities. The history of the Old West is the focus in Tombstone, and archaeological sites in the region introduce visitors to the native cultures that once inhabited this part of the state. Shopping, museums, dining, events and other suggested activities also are found in its pages. For a copy of the guide, call toll-free (800) 862-5273.

Cooking With Cactus

Meanwhile, Back at the Date Ranch

They came knocking early that day in December 1996, when the historic Glendale ranch house opened for tours while the docent (who stayed the night for security reasons) was still in her nightgown. Once visible only in snippets through breaks in an overgrown date palm grove along Northern Avenue just west of cen-tral Phoenix, the 19th-century Manistee Ranch House had piqued local curiosity for decades.

Not surprisingly, when the Sands family donated a portion of the land and buildings to the Glendale Historical Society, visitors came by the carload during the first open house. Originally acquired in 1907 by Louis M. Sands as a home for hisnew bride, the Queen Anne Revival house and accompanying ranch exemplify Glendale's rich agricul-ture history. From the novel "sky parlor," a unique square tower that rises above the center of the house, Sands could observe the activities on his farm. Due to open for viewing next month is the restored farm store and office building, with its ornate 19thcentury, eight-station bank teller windows inside.

See a 'Pea-sized' Railroad Depot

If historic railroads inspire donning your striped engineer's cap, check out the picture postcardperfect Skull Valley Depot Museum. Maintained by the local historical society, the pint-sized red and white building commemorates the original "Peavine" passenger and freight line established in 1895. The hamlet of Skull Valley served as a passenger stop between Prescott and Phoenix A restoration-in-progress, Manistee Ranch, 5127 W. Northern Ave., is open for tours presented by the Glendale Historical Society on certain Saturdays and Sundays. Admission: $5. Information: (623) 435-0072.

until 1962, and a freight depot for local ranches until 1969. While the depot offers the best photo op, the small white section house behind it displays the balance of the Skull Valley Historical Society's collection. The building originally housed shifts of railroad crews and, when abandoned, was moved 7 miles down the tracks to become the museum. Look for the seam where the house was literally sawn in half for the ride.

The collection includes an elegant ivory lace wedding gown worn by a Kansas City opera singer who married a local rancher, wooden clothes washers, pieces of the highly collectible "yellow poppy" pattern Santa Fe Railroad china, farm and mining implements and more than 100 Indian metates.

To find the tiny museum, which is open only on Sundays between 2 and 4 P.M., turn south at the Skull Valley General Store and go about .2 of a mile. Information: (520) 442-3658.

Old Adobe Becomes New Art Space

The historic Stevens House, one of the first Anglo residences built in Tucson in 1866, opened as a new gallery space for the Tucson Museum of Art earlier this year. The mud adobe building, renamed the Palice Pavilion, once stood within the walls of the Spanish presidio. Its 10 rooms now house the museum's collection of the art of the Americas including Pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, Post Colonial and Latin American Folk Art. The exhibit, arranged in chronological order from 800 B.C. to the present, takes visitors through the colorful history of Mexico, South America and the southwestern United States. Information: (520) 624-2333.

In Case of Gila Monster Bite...

DR. WARD OF PHOENIX, an old practitioner in the valley, says: "I have never been called to attend a case of Gila monster bite, and I don't want to be. I think a man who is fool enough to get bitten by a Gila monster ought to die. The creature is so sluggish and slow of movement that the victim of its bite is compelled to help largely in order to get bitten."

The Tuba City Truck Stop's Navajo Taco Is Worth Singing About

In the ongoing debate over who makes the best Navajo tacos, Buck Griffin proclaims his the best in the Southwest. Buck and his wife, Marsha, owners of the Tuba City Truck Stop Cafe on the Navajo Indian Reservation, have served these gastronomic wonders for more than 20 years. A Navajo taco, for those who may not yet have laid taste to one, is a pillow of golden fry bread, topped with chili beans, grated cheese, diced tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and strips of green chiles.

Though the menu lists two sizes, they actually come in four, explains longtime cafe employee Rhonda Lomahaptewa: extra large, regular, mini and child's size. There's a vegetarian version, too.

The cafe has pretty much stuck to the same recipe and the same basic decor since the 1960s, when Leonard and Margaret Kilgore were the proprietors. Formica tabletops, bubble gum machines, postcard racks and photographs of the famous and not-so-famous line the walls. The thing Buck likes best about it? "It doesn't pretend to be anything but a small cafe."

With advertising only by word of mouth, the eatery's fame has spread far and wide. Late one night an Englishman came in, and he told Buck he'd heard of the place in a pub in England from a visiting Aussie. It even earned a song from Arizona's official balladeer, Dolan Ellis. The chorus goes like this: Who's gonna run the truck stop in Tuba City? Keep the back bar clean and the place a-lookin' pretty When you get right down to the nubby nitty-gritty Who's gonna run the truck stop in Tuba City when I'm gone? The cafe is located in Tuba City at the intersection of U.S. Route 160 and State Route 264. It's open daily, 6 A.M. until 10 P.M. Information: (928) 283-4975.

Out of the Kitchen and Into the Garden

Those who love good food and those who love a morning outside can get the best of both worlds on Saturdays at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson. That's when award-winning executive chef Jason Jonilonis (pictured) heads out to his massive kitchen garden and the public is invited to go along.Amid the vegetable beds and fruit trees, visitors can learn about the diverse culinary delights offered by a Southwestern garden, and talk the language of a gourmet kitchen with Chef Jason. He creates his evening menu from nature's bounty, and anyone who likes getting down in the dirt and up in the trees can assist in the picking. The harvest begins at 10 A.M., but visitors should give themselves an extra few minutes to enjoy the nature trail down to the garden. For directions, stop in the lobby or call the Westward Look Resort, (520) 297-1151.

Question of the Month

What is the fastestmoving town in Arizona?

Due to a honeycomb of underground mine shafts and tunnels that weaken the hillside, Jerome, a former mining town turnedtourists-and-artistsgathering-place, is making its way down Cleopatra Hill at a rate of 4 inches per year.

LIFE IN ARIZONA L A T E 1 8 0 0 s CURES FOR WHAT AILED THEM

The wild Western frontier held many dangers for settlers raiding Indians, extreme weather and the medicine cabinet. The lack of medical care prompted many pioneers to treat their own ailments with "granny" medications that some hardy folks actually survived.

Do-it-yourself remedies excerpted from Doctors of the Old West: A Pictorial History of Medicine on the Frontier: