LETTERS AND E-MAIL

BY: PATRICIA A. WILLMAN,MIKE SHALETT,SANDRA STEPHENS, Burke, VA,PETER ALESHIRE,HENRY EHRLE,LOWELL ANTON

letters Agave Grower

I have received a thank-you letter from a relative in Denmark to whom I sent an Arizona Highways subscription. He says: "I study [the magazines] with great interest. You have a wonderful country. One of the results of my studies is that I have bought an agave. It stands in my garden [and I shall] bring it indoors in the winter. I think it is a wonderful plant and I hope to have it for many years."

Sheep Raising

Janet Webb Farnsworth missed it by 230 years! In her otherwise enjoyable article about a sheep drive ("On a Sheep Drive," May '02), she states that sheep raising in Arizona began in the 1860s. Perhaps Juan Candelaria was responsible for commercial sheep raising in Arizona Territory, but the Hopis of Oraibi, Shogopovi and Awatovi began raising sheep in 1629. Last time I drove through the area, they still were.

Yes, the Hopi have raised sheep since the 16th century. By the 18th century, wool weaving was a key element of the Hopi economy.

Critical Reader

As much as I love and treasure your magazine, I have one major criticism. No matter how long I stall before I start reading it, no matter how slow I proceed in reading it, no matter how long I procrastinate in reading it, I always finish it much too soon and have to wait forever for the next issue. Why not make it twice as big?

The poor old editor loves this suggestion but, alas, the costs are prohibitive. But we can dream.

Rod's Steakhouse

The article about Williams ("Weekend Getaway," May '02) and picture of Rod's Steakhouse brought back fond memories. My wife and I got married in 1962 and drove across the country on our honeymoon. We stopped in Williams and ate lunch at Rod's. I still have a menu. The lunch special was a chicken fried steak with soup, salad, potatoes, biscuits and honey, and coffee for $1.65. The most expensive thing on the menu was the "cattleman's special" sirloin with soup, salad, potatoes, biscuits and honey, and drink for $4.75. How nice to find that Rod's Steakhouse in Williams is still in business and, apparently, doing very well. In 1955, My husband and I were on our way to his new duty station at Camp Pendleton, CA. We went to the Grand Canyon, stayed a night in Williams and had an excellent dinner at Rod's Steakhouse. I still have a rather unique menu from that establishment. They encouraged taking the menus as souvenirs and provided envelopes for mailing them to friends and relatives. I am sure the prices have changed a great deal in the last 47 years, but evidently the high quality has not.

Peter Aleshire

Congratulations to Peter Aleshire for the two excellent articles in the May '02 issue ("Cibecue Canyon" and "In Pursuit of Splendor"). His style and overall performance are outstanding. His description of these areas is most certainly encouraging many people to visit them. I have one other compliment for Peter. He mentioned his father a couple of times. I knew his father very well during World War II. We were bomber test pilots together and close friends at Hunter Field, GA. Our job was to be sure the new bombers were ready to be turned over to the recently trained bomber crews and flown across the Atlantic to England and France. It's a small world!

Prairie Dog

It is easy to see in your picture of a prairie dog ("Taking the Off-ramp," May '02) why that animal is so intelligent. It appears that the head is about one-fourth the size of the entire body. The prairie dog must have a relatively huge brain.

Our article refers only to the prairie dog's surprising communication skills, with no direct correlation to brain size. The poor old editor knows for a fact that brain size has no relationship to the intelligence of this big-headed dog.

Back Roading

We loved Leo Banks' article on Lake Mohave ("Back Road Adventure," January '02). Last spring we took the very trip he did, except we spent a night there, watching nighthawks diving from the cliff down to the lake for a sip of water. The absolute silence and spectacular clear and brilliant sky with millions of stars will stay in our memories forever.

We have traveled to Arizona for 15 years but just recently started back road exploring, so we are looking forward to future proposals in your great magazine.