TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

taking the off-ramp Arizona oddities, attractions and pleasures Prescott's Very Own Spaceship on Wheels

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a ... spaceship on wheels?

A 1940s-era spaceship perched on the side of a hill along State Route 69 entering Prescott has long intrigued passing motorists. The vessel has rested on the hill above the local Coca-Cola distributorship since antique car collector Steve LaVigne purchased it in 1984.

Built on a semitrailer, the ship features a 24-seat theater, vibrating floors and a "control panel" with B movie-type gizmos.

The spaceship had been owned by Rodney Walsh as a part of his local amusement park, Walsh's Mountain Fantasy. When the park closed, Walsh donated the ship to the City of Prescott, which donated it to a local rehabilitation facility. Eventually, LaVigne and a friend bought it for $100 and the promise to haul It away. A Prescott construction firm offered to transport the unique purchase at no charge if employees could "drive it around town some." They did, right down Whiskey Row, startling imbibers along the way to the ship's designated parking spot on LaVigne's property.

LaVigne traced the ship's registration to California, but otherwise isn't sure where it came from. Some longtime residents say the craft was used as a prop for the Buck Rogers movie serials.

Now seeking a non-profit organization to restore his spaceship on wheels, LaVigne would like to learn more about its history. Information: (928) 445-5050.

THIS MONTH IN ARIZONA

Columbus discovered the New World. Einstein proposed the theory of relativity. Charles Lewis, a Bisbee baker, invented "Pie in a Cup."

Ever Try Pie in a Cup?

"I guess it was my destiny," says the 39-year-old entrepreneur who runs the Daily Diner on Tombstone Canyon Road, just west of downtown Bisbee.

Pie in a Cup, in case you've never had the privilege, is an individualsize, custom-made pie, just a tad bit bigger than a regular slice, complete with crust and filling that's baked in a giant coffee cup.Lewis can't keep them on his shelf. But never fear. If your favorite Pie in a Cup flavor isn't on the menu that day, Lewis can slap in a crust, pour in your filling of choice and have it ready in three minutes."

It's made right at your table," he says.

Lewis has always made pies.

"My first job was running the pie machine at a Marie Callender's restaurant in Long Beach," he says. When he was 19, he made pumpkin pies as Christmas gifts. But it wasn't until he moved to Bisbee that the notorious Pie in a Cup brainstorm struck him.

"At first it was a joke," he says. "But then the idea grew on me."

It has certainly grown on Bisbee and on the many regulars who come to feast not only on Pie in a Cup but also on Lewis' breakfast burritos, burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches.

In August he traveled to Pietown, New Mexico, to enter the tiny burg's annual bake-off. He didn't win, but his pies had already proved prize worthy. In 1996, after graduating from culinary school in Las Vegas, he entered his special Bisbeeberry pie (only then his secret mix of blackberries and raspberries was called Bryanberry) in Utah's Iron County Fair. For decades, the same woman had swept the pie-baking contest. Lewis went in and changed all that.

The Daily Diner is at 411 Tombstone Canyon Road in Bisbee. Information: (520) 432-2046.

Airborne in Arizona

Even though Arizona was the last of the contiguous 48 states admitted to the Union, on February 14, 1912, it boasts the nation's first municipal airport, which opened in Tucson on June 9, 1919.

Now, after more than 80 years of civilian air transportation, nearly every city in the United States has an airport or a landing strip.

1859 Tucson celebrates St. John's Day with cockfights, horse races, liquor and fist fights.

1869 At Picacho Mountain, Bugler George Gates and Pvt. Joseph Watson, Company F, 8th Cavalry, "killed an Indian warrior and captured his arms." For these actions, they are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1881 A whiskey barrel in front of a Tombstone saloon explodes when a bartender lights a match to look inside and the ensuing fire destroys the town's business section.

1895 The editor of the Phoenix Gazette, J.O. Dunbar, calls the governor, attorney general and marshal "assassins, looters, hoodoos, patronage peddlers and land grant sharks." Later he was tried and convicted of libel in a Tucson court, and fined $1,000.

1924 Indians gain recognition as full U.S. citizens, including the right to votefour years after the U.S. Constitution's 19th Amendment granted women's voting rights.

See Pine's Rich Past

Don't hurry through the mountain village of Pine, north of Payson, or you'll miss out on the rich past that still lives at the Pine Museum, located in the old Mormon church building on State Route 87, opposite the post office. The six-room museum houses furnishings and artifacts donated by the area's founding families. Be sure to check out the structure's original stamped-tin ceiling and the handcrafted metal door. "People always tell us they never expected to see such a nice museum in such a small town," says acquisitions officer Barbara Grillo. Open daily in summer, Mondays through Saturdays during the rest of the year. Information: (928) 476-3547.

Heard Online

Collectors of Indian arts and crafts flock to Phoenix's world-renowned Heard Museum during its annual fairs to purchase one-of-a-kind Southwestern artworks. However, now collectors can purchase unique, authentic Indian art while in cyber-space at the Heard Museum Shop Online Store (www.heard.org). Select from more than 80 original items, including jewelry, sandpaintings, kachina doll carvings, fine art, textiles, pottery, baskets and Zuni fetish carvings.

Passing Time

Bumper-to-bumper Tucson traffic along the Aviation Parkway-Broadway Boulevard interchange enters a welcome artistic time warp. Stephen Farley's murals, "Windows to the Past, Gateway to the Future," his rendition of a bustling 20th-century Tucson, unfurl across four walls of the busy Broadway underpass. Giant photographic mosaics placed in four locations through the interchange, the displays were constructed from more than 16,000 6-inch tiles pieced together to depict the faces and images of Tucson's past. Farley used "tilography," a process he created to transfer black-and-white photographs onto glazed, graffiti-resistant ceramic tiles. His murals tower 18 feet above rush-hour traffic in the city's eclectic art district. Images include a 1920 Tucson streetscape and a city bus traveling from the former Broadway underpass in 1969. Another displays a solemn 1920 photograph of George Roskruge, the city's first civil engineer, at a corner at Stone Avenue and Broadway Boulevard. The largest mural, a 14-shot photo collage of various strolling Tucsonans, measures 160 feet across. The 14 candid mid-century scenes were captured by novice street photographers trying to make a curbside buck in what would become Arizona's second-largest metropolis.

Custom Saddlemaking a Dying Skill

As far as George Parker knows, he's one of only 11 custom saddlemakers left in Arizona. There used to be 13, he says, but two have passed on. A Hoosier by birth, Parker cowboyed in Montana as a teenager. That's where he learned his craft, mainly by fixing his own gear. After retiring to Arizona, he and his wife, Armetta, fell into owning a piece of desert land near Chloride, north of Kingman. Parker figured, "If I could repair saddles, I can make 'em." If you stop in at Shep's, which houses an antique business and the leather workshop, across from the county park on Second Street in Chloride, the Parkers are more than happy to share the picture album displaying their goods-handmade saddles, holsters, boots, rattlesnake belts, even leather clocks. "I make just about anything you want," Parker says, and he takes orders from around the world. Parker uses only American leather. Armetta does all the tooling. He says it takes him about two to three weeks to make a basic saddle; one that is completely tooled can take up to six weeks. Parker's custom saddles begin at $1,200. Information: (928) 5659708.

The Art of Blacksmithing

Cathi Borthwick knows well the meaning of the phrase “too many irons in the fire.” For close to 20 years, she has worked as a blacksmith, firing up the furnace at Flag Forge, about 8 miles northeast of Flagstaff off State Route 89. Her early attempts at working with iron didn't really capture her, she confesses, because she felt she was fighting the metal. “Then one day, I gave in,” she says, laughing. Displaying considerable skill and talent, Borthwick turns out what she calls “functional art.” Her works include various one-of-a-kind items for the home, such as hooks, candlesticks and almost any other kind of metal piece that's both usable and artistic. The natural world around her inspires Borthwick, and her whimsical works often include animal and plant motifs.

Blacksmithing is not a craft for the faint of heart. It's hot, dirty, loud work that punishes the body. Borthwick fires her forge to 2,000 degrees, heating the iron to a redhot glow and the consistency of modeling clay. She has adapted the tools to help her work, including an air hammer, a machine more commonly found in a welding and fabrication shop. And like all blacksmiths, should she need a special tool, she simply makes it herself.

Blacksmithing is far from a dying art. For those with more interest, the Arizona Artist Blacksmith Association meets regularly and offers demonstrations at Flag Forge and other locations throughout the state. Borthwick's pieces are sold at the Arizona Handmade Gallery in downtown Flagstaff, and through Flag Forge. Information: (928) 526-8594.

Question of the Month

Who is that guy on Arizona's state seal?

That miner is George Warren, who contributed to discovering Bisbee's Copper Queen mine. Wagering his entire share of the mine, a drunken Warren bet he could outrun a horse in a race up Brewery Gulch. The horse was fast (and sober) enough to run him out of his share, which would one day be worth $20 million.

A State Park in Ruins

Scattered pottery shards and crumbling walls made these prehistoric Anasazi villages at Homolovi prime digging grounds for treasure hunters. In an effort to protect the northern Arizona site from privateers, state park officials, in cooperation with the Hopi tribe, opened a state park and campground in 1993. While archaeologists excavate and continue research at the ruins, visitors can see the sites from various trails, explore the information center and museum and stay at the campground.

The campground is open all year and, at 4,900 feet elevation, campers enjoy mild winters and summers. All campsites have electrical hookups, picnic tables, grills and individual water faucets. However, take note: In summertime, there are both showers and rest rooms. In winter, only rest rooms and one central potable water source are available for use. Campsite fee is $15. Homolovi Ruins State Park is 3.5 miles northeast of Winslow (north of Interstate 40). Information: (928) 289-4106.

CARLOS MONTEZUMA

Carlos Montezuma was an Arizona-born Indian who became a doctor to Anglo men and fought for the betterment of his people. The latter earned him criticism as a “radical Indian” and praise as the “Apache Abraham Lincoln,” even though Dr. Montezuma was, in fact, a Yavapai.

Wassaja, as he was first known, was born in 1866 in the Superstition Mountains. In about 1871, when Pima Indians attacked his village, he watched as they tossed his mother and infant sibling into a fire. He was taken to Florence and sold to an Italian man, Carlos Gentile, for $30. Gentile renamed the boy Carlos, after his own given name, and Montezuma, after the great Aztec emperor.

Montezuma went on to graduate from medical school and become nationally known as a crusader for Indian rights. Both Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson offered to make him head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which he declined, arguing for its abolishment instead. Wilson, in 1917, helped secure thedoctor's release from prison, where he'd landed for protesting the drafting of Indians into the armed services when Indians were denied the rights of citizenship. Penniless and despised by some, Montezuma died in a wickiup on the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation in 1923. Fellow Indians insisted on carrying the heavy coffin more than a mile from the chapel to the Fort McDowell cemetery.

A historical marker commemorating Montezuma's life stands at Milepost 190 on State Route 87.