arizonahighways.com MAY 2003

indian jewelry Imaginative New Traditions MAY 2003

COVER/PORTFOLIO 14 BIRDS RECREATION 18 Innovative New Silversmiths At War With Woodpeckers 6 Black River Fishing Navajo and Hopi jewelry artists are bursting with A weary homeowner confronts noisy, and Feasting page 18 renewed creativity and output of their bothersome antagonists, and later finds the fine handiwork. hammering hellions are raising a family. It’s tough to get there, but an eastern Arizona outing offers a treat for gourmet anglers. 55 GENE PERRET’S WIT STOP 34 HISTORY Friend of Arizona and funnyman Bob Hope, for whom Remembering a our author used to write jokes, turns 100 this month. Frontier Showman 44 HUMOR “Arizona Charlie” was a rascal with wild schemes, 2 LETTERS AND E-MAIL an entrepreneur and a peer of “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Zane Grey. 46 DESTINATION Montezuma Castle TRAVEL Stately 900-year-old ruins and a nearby spring-fed well yield a faint picture of Sinagua Indian life. 38 Driving the Trail of Dreams 3 TAKING THE OFF-RAMP Turkey Creek Road leads you to scenic, rugged Explore Arizona oddities, attractions and pleasures. places in the Bradshaw Mountains where dreams of gold and silver went boom and bust. 54 EXPERIENCE ARIZONA Snap your fingers in Sedona along with top jazz bands; bid on Indian arts and crafts in Ganado; tour Jerome’s historic private homes and public buildings; and relive the O.K. Corral legends in Tombstone.

[this page] Shadows fall over 49 ALONG THE WAY Coal Mine Canyon on the Navajo Indian Reservation, as the day’s When a visitor takes an Arizona cactus back to San last light illuminates only the Francisco, a low-key but pleasant relationship blooms. pinnacles of the canyon’s rocky spires. ralph lee hopkins [front cover] Happy Frejo, a 50 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE Pawnee Seminole Indian, models Overland Road Historic Trail Native American jewelry provided It’s hard to imagine the rough 19th-century travel by the Heard Museum Shop. Her necklaces were made by artists conditions along the Overland Road Historic Trail Mary Lovato (Santo Domingo) south of Williams, but today you can hike it and and Debbie Silversmith (Navajo). drive next to it. Earrings are by Myron Panteah (Zuni). See story, page 18. [above right] Silver and stone 56 HIKE OF THE MONTH inlay bracelets (left) are by Towel Creek Verma Nequatewa and Ramona Hike for 5.5 miles one-way Poleyma (both Hopi). Brushed Grand Canyon Navajo Indian silver and stone bracelets (right) on this Coconino National Park Reservation are by Shawn Bluejacket National Forest route Hopi Indian (Shawnee). Gary Reeves (Navajo) north of Phoenix to Reservation created the multistoned concho find a cluster WILLIAMS belt. The rings on the right were CAMP VERDE Montezuma Castle designed by Bluejacket and the of Sinagua National Monument one on the left is by Silversmith. Indian ruins. Bradshaw CLEATOR Mae Mallahan Thompson Mountains (Navajo) designed the clothing PHOENIX Black River worn by Frejo. rick odell [back cover] A resplendent YUMA bouquet of saguaro cactus flowers graces the banks of POINTS OF TUCSON INTEREST Turkey Creek in the Bradshaw FEATURED IN Mountains. chuck lawsen THIS ISSUE and e-mail takingthe

MAY 2003 VOL. 79, NO. 5 Arizona oddities, attractions and pleasures Publisher WIN HOLDEN Editor ROBERT J. EARLY off-ramp Senior Editor BETH DEVENY Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN Research Editor MARY PRATT Editorial Administrator CONNIE BOCH THIS MONTH IN Fiction or Nonfiction? That is the Question and pictures that would be what most of us Administrative Assistant NIKKI KIMBEL Cacti with Limbs of Steel This question requires a truly Solomon-like intended that our subscription money be Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER ARIZONA decision. Take your cutlass, cut the magazine in spent for. Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK ick Phanton thought they metal fence stays form an ocotillo.

two; one with fiction, one without. By the way, John Strom, Victorville, CA Art Director MARY WINKELMAN VELGOS might laugh when they saw Phanton has a full-time job send me either one. I like Arizona Highways. Be Deputy Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY his cacti. building Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP R Phoenix, with a sure to print all the complaints. Makes for a great I have enjoyed the fiction that you run They didn’t laugh. exhibitions of 1881 Associate Art Director BETH ANDERSON population of laugh while enjoying the stories and pictures occasionally, but I wouldn’t want it to appear Art Assistant PAULY HELLER They smiled. artificial rocks, approximately Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY 2,500, holds its of a great state. in every issue. Then, they bought. mountains first election Arizona Highways Books . Vosco Lee Rash, Nampa, ID Shirley Schardine, Springville, UT ® Phanton creates and caves for WitWorks Books The poor old editor feels about as old as Solomon Editor BOB ALBANO desert plants from museums. Now

but certainly not as wise. Thanks to all those who Since you asked, I must agree that it’s a shame Associate Editor EVELYN HOWELL KEVIN KIBSEY steel rods, washers, he has seen what Associate Editor PK PERKIN McMAHON 1882A fire in a weighed in on the fiction question. Here is a to waste such a beautiful magazine on fiction. nuts, bolts, screws a little collection saloon destroys Production Director CINDY MACKEY the business sampling of the letters: If I want to read Westerns, I can pick up a Louis Production Coordinator KIM ENSENBERGER Cinderella Cactus and nails. As he of nuts and section of L’Amour paperback. Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON explains, “I go into bolts can do. Tombstone. Webmaster VICKY SNOW As a longtime subscriber, my vote is for no Ruth L. Heisey, Dayton, OH Gets Just One a hardware store, He can make fiction. On the other hand, I don’t mind if you Marketing Director PATRICIA POWERS-ZERMEÑO Night of Beauty and it’s a plant ’em smile. run one from time to time. There will always be I love the fiction stories in the issues. Please factory to me.” “That’s what The Tombstone Circulation Director LEE FRANKLIN 1887 Epitaph some articles I like better than others, and if keep them coming. hen spring comes to While his plants makes me happy,” Finance Director ROBERT M. STEELE erroneously some subscribers like the fiction stories, I can Jody Adams, Mesa Tohono Chul Park in replicate their he says, and reports that a understand that. Fulfillment Director VALERIE J. BECKETT Tucson, the colors come as natural brethren predicts, “I’m volcano erupted W in the Dragoon Ken Hessel, Albuquerque, NM Fiction should be included sometime. I liked FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES well. The creosote blossoms in size and going to be Mountains “The Life and Death of Sally Brand” (July and OR TO ORDER BY PHONE: yellow; the fairy duster sports pink shape, they also starting on following a

Call toll-free: (800) 543-5432 PHANTON RICK severe Here is a vote for continuing with the fiction. August ‘02). Diversity is good. In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., and red. Wildflowers go crazy in have a whimsical flowers next.” earthquake, Call (602) 712-2000 It makes for a well-rounded magazine and Don Gunther, Tucson purple and gold. Amid all this quality about them. White Information: Metallo Plants, which did occur. Or visit us online at: provides some action to go with the spectacular arizonahighways.com flash, who would bother to look washers crown the saguaro and (520) 790-6239. photographs. Poor Old Editor: How do you do it? Manage such For Corporate or Trade Sales at the small, ground-hugging, Call (602) 712-2050 Kathy Stark, Duluth, MN a great magazine and get all those negative skinny-limbed, gray-toned cereus 1892Stagecoach lines are letters. E-MAIL “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”: cactus? reward via Willcox, Allen’s [email protected] finalized We live on a small sum, and I don’t like fiction. Bring on more fiction stories of the caliber Appearances can be so deceiving. One Good Horse hometown. He was between Regular Mail: Flagstaff and If I thought that fiction would be in more of “The Life and Death of Sally Brand.” I could Editor One night a year, sometime he world of racing has buried there in the Grand issues, I would take my money and go out and hardly wait for the second installment. 2039 W. Lewis Ave. from the end of May through the Man o’ War, literature has Railroad Avenue Canyon. Phoenix, AZ 85009 buy Western books with only true history. Michael Bruhn, St. George, UT early weeks of August, the cereus Black Beauty and Arizona Park near the Governor Janet Napolitano T I love history. Director, Department of Transportation (Peniocereus gregii) takes the throne. has Koko, Barb Piper, Camp Verde Why not have fiction stories about Arizona? They Victor M. Mendez The cactus bursts into blossom The Wonder 1898The price of a Arizona Department of Transportation shave is at an are fun to read. 2001 Winner of the Governor’s Award For Quality with such power that the perfume Horse. Koko all-time high of I love your short stories on Arizona history — Lucille Wichern, Phoenix flows across the garden and out to carried railroad 25 cents. ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION BOARD fiction, true or somewhere in between. Chairman Ingo Radicke, Globe the streets. The cereus shows the Arizona-born depot. S.B. Blossfeld, Green Valley Good fiction that is well researched to fit the Vice Chairman Bill Jeffers, Holbrook world why she holds the title of singing cowboy Rex Allen Members Dallas “Rusty” Gant, Wickenburg President For those who love history, we have a series of locale is very interesting. It can tend to be as Richard “Dick” Hileman, Lake Havasu City Reina de la Noche, or Queen of Rex Allen through died in 1902 Theodore Wild West books that are really great reading. See educational and enlightening as nonfiction. James W. Martin, Willcox the Night. And, in homage, the 1950s and the years 1999. His Joe Lane, Phoenix Roosevelt our Web site at arizonahighways.com. John Wolfe, Oakland, MD S.L. Schorr, Tucson Tohono Chul Park remains open of Hollywood movies, ashes were makes his first until midnight on blooming night, television and countless rodeo scattered in trip to Arizona, INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION and describes We vote yes to using fiction from time to time. December Issue 2001, 2000, 1998, 1992, 1990 Magazine of the Year allowing visitors access to the more appearances. Folks loved the same park, the Grand My first loves were Zane Grey books and Arizona A few months ago, after a three-day trip to WESTERN PUBLICATIONS ASSOCIATION than 250 cereus cacti in the Allen to the tune of 1,000 cowboy and horse Canyon as 2001 Best Travel & In-transit Magazine “awful.” Highways pictures. I am a native “Okie,” but I Arizona, I told a friend of mine who lives 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1992 gardens. fan letters a day. But he had to together again. Best Regional & State Magazine have enjoyed 47 vacations in Arizona. in Flagstaff that there wasn’t enough variety in SOCIETY OF AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITERS FOUNDATION Cereus-blooming lovers and those share top billing with that To pay your last Allen A. Watson, Edmond, OK the landscape to tempt me to move to 2000, 1997 Gold Awards who would like the experience chocolate brown horse with respects, or your Best Monthly Travel Magazine 1911Former Arizona. Let me be the first to say I was wrong. must wait for an announcement in the white mane and tail. first, check out Koko’s President Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published Theodore I have to agree with Richard Manion of Your beautiful “A Land For All” portfolio monthly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. the local media that the night has “You get mail from a little place along historic Subscription price: $24 a year in the U.S., $34 in Canada, Roosevelt Waveland, MS (“Letters,” December ’02), who (December ’02) took my breath away. What $37 elsewhere outside the U.S. Single copy: $3.99 U.S. arrived. They can e-mail the park, boy,” recalled Allen in a 1994 Railroad Avenue, across dedicates Send subscription correspon­ dence­ and change of address Theodore didn’t want to see any more distractions in a wonderful and unique way to showcase your information to Arizona High­ways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., [email protected], interview with Arizona from the Rex Allen Phoenix, AZ 85009. Periodical postage paid at Phoenix, Roosevelt Dam, what we purists feel should be a magazine state’s stunning, varied panoramas. I can’t wait AZ and at additional mailing office. POST­MASTER: send requesting to be contacted when Highways magazine. “He Arizona Cowboy the largest address changes to Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis dedicated to the highways, byways and dirt to come back and stand in awe before each Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. Copyright­ © 2003 by the Ari-­ the Queen decides to dress for says, ‘I really like your movies. Museum. masonry dam in zona Department of Trans­por­tation. Repro­duc­tion in the world. roads of Arizona. By making room for fiction, and every one. whole or in part with­­out permission is prohibited. The dinner. Please send me a picture of Koko.’ ” Information: magazine does not accept and is not responsible for un-­ ulie oodard MUSEUM COWBOY REX ALLEN ARIZONA you’re taking space from a prospective article J W , Indianapolis, IN solicited ma­terials provided for editorial con­sideration. Information: (520) 742-6455. Koko went to his heavenly (520) 384-4583.

Produced in the USA 2 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 3 off-ramptakingthe JANA SOCHA JANA Arizona produce and Tailing the A Phoenix homemade baked goods. Artisans and art lovers Elegant Trogon Frybread Fix also stop for a view of n small campgrounds along n the past, unless you had local crafts. But the Cave Creek Canyon near relatives or good friends who ranch, the creation of a IPortal, in southeastern Arizona’s Iwere Indian, you had to wait Tucson couple in the Chiricahua Mountains, you might until the annual Arizona l990s, also includes glimpse a rare bird called the State Fair to get your the Amado Territory elegant trogon. In late spring “frybread fix.” Ranch Inn, the Amado Cafe, through early fall, trogons Cecelia Miller Exit Amado and Kristofer’s, a gourmet deli swoop through the recognized the for a Food Stop overseen by a white-hatted sycamore and popularity of chef. The corn outside may be cottonwood that Indian eed a short stop on your fresh-picked from Sonoita, but trees in the specialty and Saturday shopping trip to the crab cakes inside began their canyons calling Faces From a opened The LINDA LONGMIRE LINDA

Nogales? Turn left at Exit 48 trip in Alaska. to each other. To see T Frybread House. O M Faraway Land

N V off Interstate 19 and follow the Make your own trip to the one, listen for its distinctive E Now she’s turning Z waving hands and flags of the Amado Farmers’ Market on the call that sounds something like O hey look out from the dough into cold cash. boys directing you into the second and fourth Saturday of that of a turkey. Guidebooks walls of the Arizona Located just minutes from Amado Territory Ranch and the the month. The deli, cafe and inn describe it as four to six low THistorical Society in downtown Phoenix, at 4140 N. Amado Farmers’ Market. You may welcome visitors throughout croaks. Sit quietly with binoculars Tucson, the faces of China. 7th Ave., the restaurant serves be in for a surprise. the week. at the ready, and when you hear Many of the photographic lunch and dinner featuring the BETH ANDERSON Residents and visitors alike Information: toll-free (888) the call, follow the sound. portraits from the early 1900s deep-fried bread. Indian tacos and go there to stock up on fresh 398-8684. The green, parrotlike bird’s most have no names attached, just green or red chili stew are some of Apache distinctive feature is its brilliant faces that somehow made the favorite toppings. The versatile Wedding scarlet breast. Above the blaze of it across half a world, from bread also can be served warm and Question Blessing LIFE IN ARIZONA 1921 scarlet, a broad white band China to Arizona. They came drizzled with honey or powdered of the Now you will separates the scarlet from the as railroad workers and sugar for dessert. Month feel no rain green body and the black head. stayed to farm and then to Cecelia, a member of the The long tail is white with faint own the corner grocery Tohono O’odham Nation, runs the Ranching For each of you copper-colored stripes. Trogons stores. Oh, the stories they business with her husband, Joedd. in Arizona will be the shelter Q elsewhere, such as in Texas, have a could tell. In October 1992 they opened usually means to the other. brown tail. The Arizona bird, The small collection of their first modest four-table cattle, but what Now you will initially called the coppery-tailed photographs and artifacts restaurant. Although they have other ranching feel no cold trogon, appears in up-to-date has told part of its stories in expanded the dining area, her son industry was For each of you ? guides as the elegant trogon. an exhibit titled “Carrillo’s thinks they’ve already outgrown established in the will be the warmth Chinese Gardens — the the location. state during the ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, TUCSON TUCSON SOCIETY, HISTORICAL ARIZONA to the other. Chinese of Tucson” at the Lunchtime brings in a mixed late 1800s? Now there is no A Store for Nuts Arizona Historical Society. these faces of China. One wonders crowd of high-rise office workers more loneliness More of their photographs can be if these were the pictures they and a few Indian patrons who long From its For each of you will he mouth waters. Pecan logs, found in the Buehman Collection in planned to send home. for food that tastes like home. A home on be the companion SOCIETY HISTORICAL PIMERIA ALTA T chocolate-covered pecan toffee, hot the society’s library. They beguile, Information: (520) 628-5774. Information: (602) 351-2345. the desert range, to the other. and spicy pecans — they fill the counters the gangly Now you are The Makings of a Posse of The Pecan Store in Sahuarita, 20 ostrich provided two bodies minutes south of Tucson. For those who Indoor-Outdoor Prison over the issue, and the jail — one concrete room — plumage for n old-time posse rode out of the towns and ranches of 1921 prefer to create their own treats, bags wasn’t built until a few years later. European But there is only of unshelled and fashions. Arizona one life before you. AArizona and headed south. They wanted to join the posses ensitivity didn’t rate high on the priority list of The town without a jail had developed its own forming to capture the murderers of Frank Pearson, postmaster shelled pecans any Arizona mining town in the 1930s. Ruby, way of dealing with civic problems like drunks. ostrich ranchers Go now to your and storekeeper in Ruby, and his wife, Myrtle. The convicted killers fill the bins. Arizona, proved no exception. The town near the Quoted in one Tucson newspaper, a deputy sheriff now market eggs, dwelling place S had escaped while being transferred by car to the state penitentiary Nut lovers Mexican border had long attracted the tough men explained, “We tie them to trees and let ’em go the leather and meat. To enter into the in Florence. eat and bake who worked the lead, next morning.” days of your A photograph (above) taken in Nogales shows the men, the only with these pecans, copper, silver and zinc Too late now togetherness two without hats, following their recapture near the Santa Rita assured of their just-off- mines of the area. Then, in to ask those And may your days Mountains in southern Arizona. This time they completed that trip to the-tree freshness. The store 1935, someone suggested a miscreants if they CONTRIBUTORS be good and long Florence, Placido Silvas (right) to serve a life sentence and Manuel sits in the middle of a massive pecan jail might be in order to preferred their BOBBIE BOOKHOUT upon the Earth. Martinez (left) to be hanged, although he proclaimed his innocence orchard, 4,400 acres with 106,000 trees. handle those who needed mornings-after CARRIE M. MINER MARY PRATT

to the end. Silvas, a trustee working at a prison farm, later quietly Here the nuts have truly taken over and BETH ANDERSON handling in the area’s confined behind escaped and was never recaptured. nobody seems to mind. population of 1,000. But bars or lashed to PATTY TALAHONGVA KATHLEEN WALKER

Information: toll-free, (800) 327-3226. Ruby didn’t get in a rush BLY DAVE a mesquite.

4 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 5 s I stood knee-deep in the frigid waters of the Black River, the sudden tug on the line evoked surprise more than expectation. A Asnag, no doubt. Like Santiago, the jinxed fisherman in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, I had set out that morning hoping to succeed, yet braced for failure. I sub- scribed to the flawed notion that if you don’t expect anything, you won’t be disappointed. It was my second trip to the Black, which starts in the Mount Baldy region of eastern Arizona near the town of Alpine and snakes westward for what Arizona outdoor writer Bob Hirsch called “One Hundred Sixty Miles of Lonely.” Lonely it may be, desolate it is not, abounding with bears, mountain lions, elk, deer, wild turkeys, pronghorn antelopes and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Its restless waters, which bisect the White Mountain Apache and San Carlos Apache reservations, teem with trout, bass and catfish. Or so I thought. On my first trip to the Black — in the autumn — my companions and I accomplished the near impossible, land­- ing one luckless trout in three days of fish- ing. Embarrassing, to say the least, given the river’s reputation for larger-than-life catches. A cursory analysis of our failure suggested it was attrib­utable to the weather . . . the time of year . . . the bait . . . truculent fish. As it turned out, the real culprit was our igno- rance of the river. To remedy that, I invited veteran Black River anglers Woody Wilson and Merle Bird to join a second attempt in May. Woody set the conditions in an e-mail. “The deal is: I cook and everyone else pitches in to clean up.” Now, as my line moved out and away, bending the rod (and dispelling the snag theory), it seemed a small price to pay. I set the hook with a jerk of the rod and reeled in a plump smallmouth bass. There would be fillets tonight. I recalled that Woody liked to cook years ago, when we wrote for the same Phoenix Hike a Little, Fish a Lot and Eat Like Lucky newspaper. While other guys took their dates to restaurants, he often treated his to Gourmets Text by DAVE ESKES Photographs by DON B. STEVENSON ANGLING gourmet meals made from scratch. The West [opposite page] From its source in the Mount Baldy Wilderness, the Black River meanders through the White Mountain Apache and San ON THE Carlos Apache reservations. Clear and cold, the river shelters trout and smallmouth bass in its languid pools. [top] If the river’s remote and wild beauty isn’t enough of a reward, a stringer of plump smallmouth bass will certainly add to any angler’s appreciation. [above] Campfire cookery fuels camaraderie and mouth-watering anticipation at day’s end. BL ACKRIVER ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 7 Virginia native came by it naturally, having being no garbage pickup along the Black. been taught by his father, a talented camp Although we carried a cell phone for chef. “If you can’t eat well,” his dad liked to emergencies, the likelihood of patching it say, “it’s not worth going.” So, when our through in such a remote area was doubt- restructured fishing party arrived at the mini- ful at best. Our chief advantage lay in hav- ng town of Globe en route to the Black, we ing journeyed in four-wheel-drive vehicles, filled up a cart at the supermarket. a necessary precaution in country where The ensuing 75 miles across the San Car- rain and snow can immobilize conventional los Apache Reservation differed from the first transportation. trip. The windswept stretches of Antelope None of these “drawbacks” came to mind, and Ash flats seemed browner this time, while however, as I peered over the edge of the the lonely corrals and water holes were nearly canyon wall. There, hundreds of feet below, bereft of cattle. It was the drought. Even after the Black wound tranquilly through an ascending 3,000 feet onto the Natanes Eden of pine, sycamore and oak trees. Plateau, the junipers­ and pines appeared That night we ate steak, baked potatoes, sepia-tinged. An hour later, after rocking and broccoli and salad, then sat around the fire­ groaning over rutted roads, the trees grew pit, drinks in hand, swapping stories about denser and the temperatures cooled. We former news­paper days. Photographer Don were nearing the campsite. ­Stevenson had worked for a competing pub- Like most campsites in the region, this one lication back then. Merle, an accounting firm offered no amenities — no water, hookups, grills or toilets. The mere presence of a dilap- idated picnic table marked us as privileged characters, but not privileged enough to avoid packing out what we packed in, there

[below] Woody Wilson admires the results of his morning’s efforts. [right] When it comes to a smallmouth bass’s favorite foods, nothing ranks higher than a tasty crawfish. [far right] At a mile-high elevation on the San Carlos reservation, the crystal-clear Black River sparkles in the sun.

partner, had provided financial services to the paper where Woody and I worked. Of course, the tales were fun- nier in retrospect than the situations that inspired them, given the passage of time. Even better, we looked good in the telling. Overhead, the ponderosa pines darkened as Emmylou Harris’ voice wafted from a boom box. At 6,000 feet elevation, the campsite grew cold long before the stories. The next morning, stiff and groggy from a night of sliding off my air mat- tress, I filled my metal canteen cup with hot coffee and promptly burned my lips. I resolved to get a Japanese folding mattress — the type used on futons — and donate the air mattress to a needy

8 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 9 felon. After a hurried breakfast of sau­sage primitive trail. The trail crossed the river at them makes good sport in itself. On the first and scrambled eggs, we hoisted the food several points, ratcheting up the exertion trip to the Black, we had lured them out coolers into a tree to protect them from the level. The challenge of keeping our balance from under rocks with lunch meat tied to bears that roam the countryside. Then amid slippery rocks and rushing water strings. Once they locked onto the meat, we Woody led the way down the steep canyon brought to mind the ill-fated trapeze artists, lifted them into jars. Woody eschewed this trail and across a parched meadow to the the Flying Wallendas. Once, we ran into a dilettante’s approach, preferring to turn a jumping-off point on the river. handful of cattle led by a large bull with a rock over slowly and, very deliberately, According to Merle, the Black was run- baleful stare, calling for a discreet detour. move his hand toward the immobile craw- ning about 60 percent of what it had been Our destination was a deep hole that Woody fish. At the precise moment, he grabbed it. on his last visit. Nevertheless, it was run- and Merle had fished on other occasions. This technique involved bending over for ning strong. “When you fish the Black,” Farther upriver stood the Black River extended periods, which invited muscle Woody said, “you have to get in it. You have pumping­ station, where, on the first trip, fatigue. Tai Chi it was not. Even the slight- to ford it and walk both banks looking for our party had sighted an adolescent bear est slip stirred up muddy clouds of water deep holes and rocks and riffles where bass flipping rocks in search of crawfish. He that obscured everything but the colorful might be.” To that end, we carried sneakers could not have been more than 30 yards language. and wading boots down to the river and put away but seemed oblivious to our presence. When we had filled two or three plastic them on before starting out. We left our hik- Later, we learned that he was an orphan — sandwich bags with crawfish and water, ing boots by a log in order to have dry foot­ a very hungry one, obviously. it was time to fish. Woody and Merle drew wear for the climb back up the switchbacks. After hiking 2 miles or so, we stopped in strikes right away. They sensed from long With Woody setting a brisk pace, we the shallows to gather crawfish, a dietary sta- experience where the bass lurked. Woody trudged upstream along a shaded, often ple of Black River smallmouth bass. Catching leaned forward, reading the situation

[left] The Black River’s remoteness rewards the dedicated fly fisherman with a surpassing scenic beauty. [above] Our intrepid fishermen aren’t the only ones to enjoy the river’s fishing opportunities. Here, they hurry past a sign warning of the area’s healthy black bear population. [right] An adolescent black bear searches for crawfish under rocks at the river’s edge.

and listen­ing— in a way, becoming part of the river. Then, as though it were predestined, his line straightened,­ pulling the rod downward, and a bass broke the surface. After a while, I began to get strikes, too, although pre- destination had nothing to do with it. Call it luck. For the moment, at least, I felt a part of the brotherhood. I could hear fillets siz- zling in the iron skillet. As the afternoon wore on, we moved upriver a bit. But the golden time had passed, and the fish did not bite as often. Still, it was a pleasure just to feel the water cours- ing around my knees and to know that I had made the cut. Lunch, consisting of two tortillas folded around lunch meat and cheese, never tasted so good. Later, Woody sat on a slanting river boul- der and filleted the fish. At 3 o’clock, we headed back — night comes early in the canyon. “A friend and I were having so much fun once,” Woody recalled, “that we didn’t start back until 5 o’clock. It got dark on the

arizonahighways.com trail, and we had to use a flashlight to get out.” mountain men set their traps only in his- The return trip reminded us that we had tory books while the beavers, reduced to a used a great deal of energy walking upriver. handful, furtively carry on in the upper The 2.5 miles of primitive wilderness path, reaches of the Black. with overturned logs, vines that trip and After getting back to the jumping-off whiplike branches, equaled at least 4 miles point, we doffed our clothing and skinny- of cleared trail. Moreover, water supplies dipped in the river. It was the fitting end to and concentration were running short, a strenuous day and the payoff for having greatly increasing the “stumble factor.” That stuck with it. Then it was back up to camp said, nature had her compensations. We and a dinner of bass fillets fried in bread were pleasantly surprised, for example, by crumbs and flour, with salad and corn on a javelina, a big gray fellow with a bushy tail the cob. who nonchalantly ambled past us and up Conversation around the firepit took a the canyon wall. topical turn this time, ranging from Merle’s Farther on, we spotted a wild turkey, then new passion for fly-fishing to conjecture a couple of mallard ducks winging down- river. What was it like, I wondered, when famed Arizona mountain men Bill Williams and James Pattie trapped beavers along the Black in the early 19th century? A savage paradise, by most accounts, offering riches, unfettered freedom and death. Today, the

[below] A Black River water-pumping station offers fairly convenient access to the river as long as one realizes the 386 steps down means 386 very weary steps back up. [right] An angler surveys the Black River from the lofty edge of its canyon. [far right] A dam at the water-pumping station creates deep, lazy pools, perfect for quiet contemplation and a haven for the river’s smallmouths.

about why rattlers had not been spot- ted down by the river. After a while, Don, who had to lug around 40 extra pounds of camera equipment, turned in, and I soon fol- lowed. As I drifted off to sleep, Merle and Woody were still talking by the fire. We would fish again tomorrow at a serene, translucent stretch of river no more than a hundred yards downstream from our starting point. We would enjoy another evening at camp, high- lighted by the fashionably late appear- ance of a skunk that quickened pulse LOCATION: Indian Route 2000 north or 1500 maps of the Black River region, 87˚ to a low of 38˚. Winter brings rain rates as it wobbled amiably about, sniff- Approximately 160 miles northwest to your chosen area, which including primitive roads and and freezing weather, often turning ing for goodies. But as far as I was con- northwest of Phoenix on can be reached by primitive side roads. campsites that do not appear in other roads into quagmires. cerned, anything after today would be the San Carlos Apache TRAVEL ADVISORY: Use a publications. WARNING: Keep an eye out for an anticlimax. Today was redemption. Reservation. high-clearance, preferably four- FEES: Each person must purchase a rattlesnakes and bears. Make sure GETTING THERE: From Phoenix, take wheel-drive vehicle with a full tank of daily reservation fishing permit. Fees food is kept out of reach and away Even a skunk could not spoil that. U.S. Route 60 east to Globe, then U.S. gas on entering the reservation. Avoid may be paid at the San Carlos Apache from sleeping quarters. Carry plenty Dave Eskes’ purported success as an angler is Route 70 to Indian Route 8, a paved visiting the Black River during Recreation and Wildlife Office in of water and stay on identifiable less “reel” than imagined. He lives in Phoenix. road just past the Peridot turnoff. inclement weather. Purchase The Black Peridot, located north of U.S. Route trails. If possible, take an extra This was Don Stevenson’s first trip to the lower Follow 8 north and west as it becomes River: A Fishing and Camping Guide 70 on State Route 170. vehicle battery. Black River. Each morning, he had a difficult time Indian Route 1000, to Point of Pines, or the Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer WEATHER: Optimum conditions ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: San deciding which to pick up: his cameras or his a cluster of cabins on the Natanes from a map store or sporting goods extend from May to mid-October, with Carlos Apache Recreation and Wildlife ­fishing rods. He lives in Tempe. Plateau. From there, take graded outlet. They contain topographical temperatures ranging from a high of office, (938) 475-2343.

12 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 13 Pec kPECK Peck Woodpecker’s P e cK Thunder and War Gives Way to Heavenly Silence Flustered homeowner discovers her adversaries in a ‘family way’ text by Carrie M. Miner

REMEMBER HAVING A CHILDHOOD AFFECTION for the comic antics of Woody Woodpecker. His unique rat-a-tat-tat laugh, screwball thinking and mis- chievous playfulness tickled my funny bone. But then I grew up and shied away ifrom the colorful cartoon characters of my youth. That is, until the living incarna- tion of Woody Woodpecker appeared in the back yard of my first home. When I moved in, I took precautions to prevent encounters with indigenous Southwestern pests, including scorpions, black widow spiders and rattlesnakes. How could I [opposite page] The mountain- dwelling red-naped sapsucker have known to prepare for an aerial raid? provides nutrients to its young Early one spring morning, I awoke to loud and other forest animals by hammering, so I pulled the pillow over my head drilling food “wells” into tree in a vain attempt to drown out trunks. tom vezo [left] The Gila woodpecker, the sound. Frustrated, I finally put which grows to 8 to 10 inches on a robe and ventured outside long, nests in cavities in cacti. to discover what was making paul and joyce berquist such a racket. To my surprise, the hammering abruptly stopped and a bird flew away from the house in a streak of black and white. It perched on a nearby palm tree and watched as I went to the side of the house to inspect its drilling work. But as soon as I went back inside, the woodpecker returned to continue

14 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com its handicraft. Steadily, the hole grew to about heights. I finished with a quick paint job lofty saguaros for nesting. However, they favored by the gods, I was committed to 4 inches in diameter until the woodpecker and put everything away, certain that the only occupy a nest site for a season or two win this war. moved on and started another one, alternately woodpecker would go peck its holes some- and then move on, abandoning the hole I hunkered down and began to fortify flitting back and forth to drill at both holes. where else. to a succession of other birds, including my house against attack. I rubbed linseed Woodpeckers, flickers and sapsuckers are No such luck. The next morning, I woke elf owls, kestrels, flycatchers, and purple oil in the wood, covered the cooler with all members of the Picidae family, and in to the continual rat-a-tat-tat of my arch- martins, all of which depend on those my mattress pad, hung chicken wire from [left] During fall addition to their persistent drumming, they nemesis. This time the bird focused its atten- abandoned saguaro condos. the rafters and tied orange windsocks and months, acorn woodpeckers bore holes can be identified by their sharp, pointed tion on the evaporative cooler. I ran outside The woodpecker’s eager drumming has strings of aluminum from the eaves. Noth- in trees in which to beaks, short legs and stiff tail feathers. in my nightshirt, wielding a golf club and been related to thunder and war in many ing worked. store acorns. tom vezo Twenty-two species of woodpeckers drill screaming at the top of my lungs. No doubt cultures worldwide. The family name Pici- By this time, my woodpecker delighted [below] The largest and hammer in the United States. Among about it. I needed professional help. dae comes from the Greek myth of the in drawing me from one side of the house woodpecker in Arizona, the jay-size male the dozen Arizona species, the acorn wood- I called the Arizona-Sonora Desert woodland god Picus, who refused advances to the other. Only now my attempts were gilded flicker wears a pecker, Gila woodpecker, ladder-backed Museum in Tucson and explained my prob- from the sorceress Circe. For his folly, she limited to half-hearted thumping on the red mustache. The woodpecker and red-shafted flicker are the lem. The operator suggested I try a plastic turned him into the world’s first wood- windows or screaming from the back flicker may frequently be found on the most common. The red-naped sapsucker owl as a scare tactic, so I went shopping. pecker. door. Because my feathered foe always ground catching ants to and the three-toed woodpecker, because of When I returned, the pecker monster was The Pueblo Indians tell of the flicker’s retreated to the same palm tree in the feed to its young. their threatened habitats, rate special atten- having a heyday on the other side of the close touch with fire, which turned its tail neighbor’s yard, I began to plot a midnight craig k. lorenz tion as “watchlisted” species by the Arizona house. Once again, I pulled out the ladder red. And it was Woodpecker Boy who excursion with a chainsaw. Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Plan, a and wondered how I’d come to be crawling opened the hole in the sky so that the And then one day, when I’d given up coalition of government agencies and con- on the roof. After a small struggle, I man- Zuni people could emerge into the cur- hope, I awoke to silence. Curious, I went servation groups dedicated to protecting aged to secure my plastic predator near the rent world. The Hopi Tribe uses wood- outside and began to search for my oppo- declining bird species. cooler. pecker feathers to represent the dawning nent. The woodpecker was neither Most woodpeckers feed primarily on Now we’ll see who has the last laugh, I of the ceremonial year, and the Navajo uti- perched on my house nor hanging out at insects, but they supplement their diet with thought. lize their plumage in ceremonial masks to his palm hideout. As I circled around to nuts, berries, fruits, invertebrates and The next morning, I woke to a quiet symbolize the sun and storms. the front, I saw it fly into a fresh hole cut seeds. This adaptable bird utilizes its sharp- dawn and sighed in relief. My mistake. Because the woodpecker’s tapping in a saguaro across the street. I walked clawed toes, two forward- and two back- Later that day, the unrelenting percus- reminds us of thunder, we often associate over to take a closer look and was sur- ward-facing, to cling to the sides of trees, sionist was back at it — announcing to the birds with storms, but they also are con- prised to see not one woodpecker, but utility poles and wood siding. For added the world that it had no intention of being sidered a bird of war. Most woodpeckers two. It appeared my opponent had shifted balance, it uses its stiff tail feathers as a scared away from its territory. Wondering sport black and white feathers with a touch his pursuits. brace. Bristly feathers around the nostrils if the owl had been dislodged, I went up of red on the head, tail or feathers, but the In my tactical sessions, I learned that filter out wood dust during their chiseling, again and discovered that the mighty owl flashy award goes to the red-shafted flicker, after woodpeckers pair up for mating, they strong neck muscles provide added force had suffered serious pecking damage to which has an abundance of red on its tail take turns excavating a nest. The female during drilling, and spongy tissue between its head. and wings. As such, the Zuni favor it, using lays between three to six white, unmarked the beak and skull absorbs the shock. I did my homework, resolute about the colorful feathers to eggs at the bottom of the hole. [below] A conspicuous In their search for insects, woodpeckers defeating my enemy. I discovered that my symbolize bloody war bat- and noisy bird, the Gila Both birds take turns incubating will often tap on the surface and then listen adversary was a Gila woodpecker, one of tles. But, even knowing woodpecker sometimes them, but the more aggressive for any morsels moving around within the the noisiest woodpeckers found in south- that woodpeckers are pro- occupies the same nest for male usually guards the eggs at tree. However, they don’t always use their ern Arizona. tected by federal law and more than one season — if night, when most predators are it can manage to avoid the skill of pounding away at 100 strokes a Gila woodpeckers, especially notorious attention of owls, kestrels, on the prowl. After 12 to 14 days, minute in the pursuit of food, as I had dis- for their drumming and damage, usually snakes or large lizards, its the eggs hatch, and the young covered. In the spring, they often peck to inhabit the saguaro stands of the Sono- common predators. will spend the next three to four designate their territory and attract poten- ran Desert. Even though most wood- marty cordano weeks nesting before heading out tial mates. Flocks of woodpeckers reportedly peckers survive almost entirely on on their own. In Arizona’s warm have decimated orange and pecan groves as insects, desert-dwelling woodpeck- climate, the Gila woodpecker well as man-made wooden structures. But ers have to be generalists. So the and some others nest as early as February it’s not always wood that gets their attention, Gila woodpecker eats cactus and will raise two to three broods a year. especially when they’re out to make a racket. fruit, mistletoe berries and I returned home to dismantle my Woodpeckers have been known to drum on many other items, includ- defenses, but just when I began savoring stucco, trash-can lids, evaporative coolers ing the sugar water from my victory, I was startled by that trade- and other resonant objects. hummingbird feeders, mark laugh. Surprised, I peeked into the Like other frustrated homeowners who which they and flickers family room where my sons were enrap- worry about damage by a determined pecker, raid by hanging upside tured by a new generation of Woody I decided to take further action. With a bor- down and using their Woodpecker cartoons. And suddenly, the rowed ladder, I gingerly climbed up the side long, bristly tongues to horrible realization struck me that my of the house to the eaves, hoping to divert steal the sweet stuff. own Woody would be back next season. the woodpecker by covering up its holes Even though they occa- Only this time, I knew he wouldn’t be with the tops of family-size soup cans. As sionally pester homeown- all alone. the ornery bird watched from its stakeout ers, Gila woodpeckers on the palm tree, I reached overhead and play a crucial ecological Carrie Miner of Glendale has always enjoyed the aerial displays of Nature’s carpenters, but she wishes the hammered the tin circles over the openings, role in their desert habitat. ­woodpeckers in her neighborhood would confine their all the while trying to conquer my fear of They drill out cavities in the ­activities to the trees down the street.

16 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 17 NATIVE AMERICAN SILVERSMITHING IMAGINATIONS ON FIRE TEXT BY LEO W. BANKS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICK ODELL

Techniques passed down from generations of Native American silversmiths are used to craft contemporary jewelry designs as well as traditional pieces, like this Navajo bracelet in sterling silver and turquoise. In recent decades, the use of new gemstones and multistone inlays has led to high-quality Indian jewelry that is innovative and much in demand. NATIVE AMERICAN JEWELRY-MAKERS n Native American jewelry, nothing mat- young smith working out of a tumbleweed ters more than what happens at the shack in some remote corner of the Navajo point of creation — those moments and Indian Reservation can stay linked to cus- hours the artist spends hunched over a tomers if so inclined. Some don’t want to Iworkbench, dripping sweat, maybe some be found, preferring to live the old way — blood and a few tears, to produce something only crafting and selling a piece when they beautiful. need money, then returning to the silence That hasn’t changed since the Spanish of the reservation, untouched by the noise conquistadores brought silversmithing to of modern life. PUSHING the Southwest in the 16th century. But the As for today’s jewelry buyers, they’re bet- jewelry itself has changed, the most pro- ter educated than those in the early- and found transition coming in the last 30 years. mid-1970s, when Indian jewelry enjoyed “We’re seeing a great number of new gem- unprecedented popularity. stones being used, and a lot more contem- “That boom spawned a lot of new silver- porary jewelry,” says Bruce McGee, director smiths and new techniques, and a lot of bad of retail sales at the Heard Museum Shop and jewelry,” explains Jeff Ogg, owner of Ogg’s CREATIVITY Bookstore in Phoenix. “By that I mean pieces Hogan in Prescott. “Now we have smarter you wouldn’t recognize as Native American buyers, and there’s not nearly as much junk if you were seeing them for the first time. But out there.” they compare with any jewelry anywhere in Another change since the 1970s: Because the world in terms of quality.” it’s a byproduct of copper mining, good Navajo silversmiths, traditionally known domestic turquoise has become scarce. The for stamped silver, often without stones, big producers from years ago — the copper now do multistone inlay work similar to mines at Bisbee and at Clifton-Morenci, for TO THE that long practiced by the Zuni people of example — have either shut down or now New Mexico. operate at greatly reduced capacities. Only In addition to turquoise and coral, the one Arizona mine, the Sleeping Beauty Mine old standbys, Navajos today add zip to their in Miami, still produces turquoise. pieces with stones such as opals, sugalite, “But that’s only one look, clear blue,” says amber and lapis from Afghanistan. Chet Jones, owner of the Pueblo Trading Hopi smiths have also branched out from Post in Zuni, New Mexico. “If you want a LIMIT their traditional and still-popular technique character stone, something that’s blue-green, called overlay, in which two pieces of silver ultradark Bisbee blue, or say a Morenci stone are combined — the top one cut out and the with a pyrite fleck in it, forget it. In this coun- bottom one oxidized, giving the piece a try, it’s gone.” dimensional look. Many silversmiths know someone with Classic Hopi work rarely involves stones, a private stash of turquoise. An artist search- and the designs — water waves, cloud pat- ing for a particular look will often drive terns and lightning — mimic those found hundreds of miles to meet with an under- on pots and baskets. But today’s innovative ground stone salesman, and price is nego- Hopi artists adorn their silverwork with tiable. But a pound of good Morenci that amazingly intricate designs, some fine might have cost $100 in 1975 can run $800 enough to depict entire scenes, such as tiny and higher today. kachinas dancing in villages with clouds The artist knows he has something spe- overhead. Stonework is more common now, cial when he holds the turquoise in his too, as is the use of gold. hands. It’s not only the look that excites him In short, the imaginations of Arizona’s but also the sound the stones make when best Navajo and Hopi silversmiths are on he rubs them together. fire, the surge of innovation driven primar- Most turquoise is too soft to drill or ily by customer demand. reshape for use in jewelry unless it is first A hundred years ago, Indian smiths made stabilized, says Jones, considered one of the jewelry for other Indians. Today, they sell Southwest’s leading experts on stones of all almost exclusively to non-Indians. kinds. “But if the stones are really dense and Some of the most celebrated artists now don’t have any voids, they’ll transmit a solid [this page] Sterling-silver live off their reservations, in Flagstaff or clicking sound,” he says. “That means they’re water-motif necklace by Debbie Holbrook, or farther away in the Phoenix hard and will have a real polished glint right Silversmith (Navajo). valley, putting them in closer contact with off the saw.” [opposite page, top to bottom] Silver, gold and agate pin or pendant by Myron the shops and galleries that carry their work. As these private stashes play out — and Panteah (Zuni); silver and gold channel This allows them to better tune in to the they’re going fast — craftsmen will have to inlay bracelet of opal, sugalite, coral, desires of buyers and ferret out new ideas. adjust, as some already have, by switching turquoise and onyx by Fannie Bitsoi and Phil Russell (Navajo); hand-motif pin in coral and But with cellular phones and the Internet, to, say, turquoise from China. Coral is even turquoise by Mary Lovato (Santa Domingo Pueblo). paved roads and pickup trucks, even a scarcer and more expensive —it may cost

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 21 well over $1,000 per pound, depending on seeing his father, Leonard, pound silver and galleries demand more of their work,” explains McGee. “They never duplicate on a northeast Arizona community of 3,500 at and customized it to be so expressive and the richness of the color. with a hammer. “What’re you doing, Dad?” says Steve Beiser of Puchteca, an Indian arts watches and feel that having 500 out there the base of the Chuska Mountains. unique,” says Susan Garland of Garland’s But switching stones isn’t a simple matter. the 6-year-old asked. shop in downtown Flagstaff. “But native cheapens their work.” He and his wife grew up there and Indian Jewelry in Sedona. “His pieces don’t If a Navajo smith has always used a partic- “Don’t bother me,” his father replied. “I’m artists don’t work that way. They’re more Indian artists have always walked two wanted to stay, and by the time he gradu- look native, but they’re so colorful you just ular kind of turquoise, it becomes part of making money.” connected to the pace of nature than the worlds, never more so than now. ated from the University of New Mexico in go, ‘Wow!’ Both Alvin and Edison Cummings him — by habit, by spirit and, if his father The youngster reacted with wonder, pace of our neurotic American lifestyle.” Conversations with 34-year-old Haskie 1996, Haskie had found the self-confidence are doing things no other native artists are used it, by blood as well. As much as things unaware that someone could make money The tension often creates a collision of reveal his modern side. He suggests learning to work out of Lukachukai. doing.” have changed in Indian silversmithing, tra- pounding metal. With that idea in his head, ideals. more about him by “googling” him on the “I figured I’m an educated Indian now. I Hopi Farron Joseyesva fits that category dition still exerts a mighty tug. Vernon took a Tonka truck he’d gotten for The Heard Museum’s Bruce McGee wears Internet, a contemporary term for using the can work out here and everything will be as well. He works in traditional overlay, but Ask any artist today, Navajo or Hopi, how Christmas and pounded it flat with a ham- a watchband that illustrates the point. Google search engine. all right,” he says. provides a unique twist with astronomical he got started, and the answer rarely mer. His mother asked what he was doing. Crafted by Navajos Phil and Fannie Russell But in the next breath, as Haskie explains It has worked out, thanks to savvy pro- designs, like planets, stars and soaring changes — silversmithing was in the family. “I’m making money,” little Vernon of Chinle, the band has onyx on the side how he deals with a large crush of orders, motion, the Internet and a travel schedule comets. Ruben Monroe Saufkie Sr., a young Hopi answered. and Australian opals inlaid in gold down he goes back to the traditional Indian ten- that frequently takes him to shows from Los Joe Day sells Joseyesva’s pieces at Tsakur- smith from Second Mesa, comes from a In Leonard Haskie’s day, silversmithing the center. The striking piece drew the atten- dency of referring to inanimate objects as Angeles to Palm Beach. shovi and has trouble keeping them long line of artists. His grandfather, Paul was a means of survival in a reservation tion of a major watchmaking company in living organisms. “If a piece wants to be Hopi Ruben Saufkie also loves his home stocked. “The Japanese love him,” says Day. Saufkie, helped pioneer the overlay tech- economy where jobs were scarce, and it’s New York, whose representatives asked the made right away,” he explains, “I’ll make it in the village of Shungopavi, where he serves “He’s a great silversmith, and his stuff is way nique in the 1940s. “I basically do what I still true. The pace of the market and the couple to produce 500 of them. right away.” on the board of Second Mesa Day School. out there.” do because of him,” says Ruben. pace of reservation life still don’t mix. “The Russells said no, although they Haskie works at home in the deepest cor- Saufkie’s silversmithing style began as Hopi Roy Talahaftewa tried to impart that Vernon Haskie, a Navajo, remembers “As soon as someone gets popular, shops probably would’ve made a ton of money,” ner of the Navajo reservation, in Lukachukai, classic overlay. But like his friend and occa- kind of energy to students at his silver- sional co-worker, Victor Lee Masayesva, an smithing school on Second Mesa, called So- innovative silversmith from Bacavi, he has oh’s Tunatya — in English, “grandmother’s begun combining it with tufa-casting, a dream.” process in which melted silver is poured He taught tufa-casting, stone mounting into a mold. and other techniques to Saufkie, to 34-year- Saufkie sells most of his pieces at two old Gerald Honwytewa, another talented shops, Tsakurshovi and Hopi Fine Arts, Second Mesa smith, and others, in an effort both within hollering distance of the single- to encourage experimentation. wide trailer where he works and lives with Talahaftewa, an award-winning silver- his wife and four children. He is not bur- smith, returned to the Hopi Indian Reser- dened by thoughts of a wealthier life else- vation in 1994, after years of working in the where because, in his view, nothing is richer Phoenix area. He followed a familiar path: than being able to live “with my people and art school, apprenticing, then setting out to my culture.” make it on his own. “I’m doing well, I’m still hungry and still “It’s a hard life with a new family, travel- real young,” says Saufkie, 35. “I see silver- ing all the time, entering big shows, trying smithing as a gift given to me by the Cre- to get into fine galleries,” says Talahaftewa, ator, and I’m grateful to be able to do it.” 47, of Keams Canyon. “It’s a ton of work, But even traditionalists realize that the and a lot of the young smiths up here don’t surest way to get noticed in a highly com- have the confidence to do it.” petitive business is to do something new, He started his nonprofit school to change and do it well. that and to give beginning Hopis a chance to Edison Cummings of Mesa has done that provide for their families. So-oh’s Tunatya with a cutting-edge style, consisting of sim- operated for more than a year, then closed for ple, clean, finely crafted pieces, such as his lack of funds in January 2002. ­Talahaftewa upward-curving gold bracelet inlaid with a struggled to keep it open, holding occa- single small coral stone. Admirers say his sional raffles and spending some of his own work is more reminiscent of European jew- money to cover expenses, and is currently elry than Indian. But he is Navajo. looking for a grant to help pay for a build- Alvin Yellowhorse, another Navajo inno- ing lease. vator, has made his reputation carving The experience has shown Talahaftewa pieces with petroglyph designs matching that on one point, little has changed from those found on cliffs near his reservation when he started out: Undiscovered talent home in Lupton. He fills the carving lines abounds on the Hopi mesas, and on the [clockwise from with sterling silver, highlighting bear claws, Navajo reservation. above] Australian snakes and other figures. “These young smiths just need someone opal and sugalite with 18-karat gold discs by Yellowhorse, 34, also carves scenes into to push them along to develop their own Cheryll Yestewa (Hopi); his pieces. He makes a bracelet depicting style and learn something about promo- tortoise in 18-karat gold with the night sky over Monument Valley, cou- tion,” says Talahaftewa. “If they do that, turquoise beads by Larry Golsh pled with a traditional Zuni sun face, a buyers will find them, as long as the crafts- (Mission-Palo); gold bead necklace with coral by Debbie Silversmith series of bright stones inlaid above it like manship is there.” (Navajo); moonstone necklace in 18- the feathers of a war bonnet. And as long as beauty happens at the karat gold by Shawn Bluejacket (Shawnee). “Alvin has taken an established inlay style point of creation.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 23 [opposite page] Perry Shorty melts silver coins to craft traditional Navajo jewelry of sterling silver and natural turquoise. [this page] Shorty’s work includes a Naja drop pendant on a beaded necklace. The top bracelet has a four-petal blossom motif; the lower bracelet shows off untreated turquoise.

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST PERRY SHORTY

he movie business is famous for sto- of Northern Arizona. “His work is gone as coins have to meet his exacting specifica- ries about young video clerks who soon as he makes it.” tions, too — he melts only Charles Barber- Tgo on to become celebrated direc- Shorty’s technique mimics that of turn-of- designed coins, in circulation between 1890 tors and screenwriters. Now silversmithing the-century Navajo silversmiths. He melts in 1915. has a similar tale to tell. old coins and pours the liquid into a tufa “I used to make buttons with them and When in his early 20s, Navajo silversmith mold shaped like an ingot bar. While still they sort of grew on me,” says Shorty. Perry Shorty worked the counter at Thun- hot, he removes the silver strip and places it Friends in Los Angeles hunt down Barber derbird Supply Co. in Gallup, New Mexico, on an anvil, pounding it with a hammer until coins for him and send them to Tuba City, selling silver and stones to mostly Indian it is forged to the desired thickness. on the northeast corner of the Navajo reser- craftsmen. Over four years, he peppered his To Shorty, a bracelet made from mass- vation. He lives there with his wife, Carol, customers with questions and wrangled produced silver, the modern method, feels and three children. advice that proved instrumental in launch- hollow and flat. “When I was at Thunderbird, I didn’t set ing his own career. “Customers say my bracelets feel right on out to be the smith I am today,” he says. “I Today, the 38-year-old Pentecostal their wrists, and I think that’s because of all just wanted to make old jewelry. I like doing preacher produces some of the most sought- the hammering, sanding and filing I do,” he it. But I don’t work as hard as I used to.” after jewelry in Indian country. “People line says. “And I like the way light bounces off He also serves as pastor at Potter’s House up at his booth at the Indian Market in coin silver.” Pentecostal Church. He preaches to the Santa Fe,” says Steve Pickle, retail manager Shorty works with as few tools as possible faithful three times a week. His style? “Fire at the museum store at Flagstaff’s Museum and prefers natural, untreated turquoise. His and brimstone,” says Shorty, smiling.

24 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com [left] A bola tie slide and bracelet by Hopi silversmith Jason Takala, shown relaxing in his shop, are decorated with a 14-karat gold man-in-the-maze design overlaid on a sterling-silver background. [below] His seed-pot design, 3 inches in diameter, was hand-cut from a sheet of silver and overlaid on a silver pot.

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST JASON TAKALA

opi silversmith Jason Takala attended in conversation with Takala. He portrays no birth certificate. He got one, and a mar- to his house to watch him work, sometimes high school in Woodstock, Vermont, himself as almost a passive participant in riage license, at the same time. He was 23. with magnifying glasses. Only then do his Hbut the walls of his dorm room were the creation of his popular pieces. In the mid-1980s, after 10 years of trying skeptical visitors believe that his intricate bare. To spice things up, he painted a mural “I take my direction from the silver,” says to find his way as an artist in Phoenix, he cutting is really done by hand. depicting a landscape cut by a waterfall. the 47-year-old Holbrook resident and father moved to Old Oraibi on the Hopi reserva- “The Internet has made Jason’s jewelry pop- Then he attached a frame around it. of five. “In a sense, it talks to me.” tion, where his wife, Margie, had grown up. ular with Japanese movie stars,” says Bruce When school officials saw the work, they Takala studied design in Phoenix for five “After that I really started creating,” he says. McGee’s brother, Ron McGee, of McGee’s were floored by its beauty and promptly years under the famous French jeweler “Everything is so calm there, your mind goes Indian Art Gallery in Keams Canyon. “He’s added art classes to Takala’s schedule. With Pierre Touraine. The master constantly to a different level. It all came to me then.” quite the fad with them.” the exception of a few crude efforts, this was urged his protege to “let the jewelry repre- Takala is known for his man-in-the-maze Because the Japanese have no “L” sound his first attempt at painting. sent itself.” design, which represents man emerging in their language, they pronounce Takala “The picture was in my head already,” Takala was born in the village of Shun- from the center of the Earth and migrating with an “R.” In their dictionary, takara Takala says. “All I did was use the paintbrush.” gopavi, on the Hopi reservation. When he to the four directions. He is particularly means “precious,” or “treasured thing.” How That humble way of thinking arises often wanted to get married, he learned he had popular among Japanese buyers, who come fitting.

arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 27 [opposite page] Hopi silversmith Verma Nequatewa creates contemporary jewelry using techniques she learned from her uncle. [this page, left to right] Nequatewa’s work includes silver- cast earrings with channel inlay of coral and turquoise; gold bracelet inlaid with lapis, turquoise and coral; silver-cast bracelet reflecting traditional design with a heavy custom bezel holding the turquoise stone; gold bola tie slide with lapis, turquoise, sugalite and coral.

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST VERMA NEQUATEWA

erma Nequatewa is in a rare class — design around it,” says Nequatewa. “The my uncle, but I was so shy,” says a female gold and silversmith. She stones give me ideas, then I don’t want Nequatewa. “But then you sell a Vlearned from her uncle, Charles sleep. I want to make more.” piece, it opens you up.” She laughs. Loloma, the legendary Hopi smith who died Bill Foust, of the Foust Gallery in Scotts- “Now I don’t stop talking.” in 1991. She started working with him in dale, describes her art as a refinement of She sometimes hosts tour his studio, near the village of Hotevilla, Loloma’s. groups at her studio. She tells when she was 16. “Verma’s pieces are smaller and more them to watch for the red Jaguar “He never talked about me being a wearable,” Foust says. “Her design sense parked outside. No one gets lost. woman, so I didn’t think about it,” says the appeals more to the feminine side. When Red Jaguars aren’t exactly com- 54-year-old Nequatewa. “He told me Hopis people unfamiliar with her work see it for mon on the Hopi reservation. are born artists, and I was just proud to be the first time, they’re blown away.” Nequatewa also owns a six- able to do something that’s good art.” Her studio sits on the edge of Third Mesa. passenger private plane that she She crafts her jewelry in a contemporary The view from her windows is all light and and husband Bob Rhodes, an style, using colorful lapis, coral and tur­ rock and emptiness, a hard beauty. As she administrator at the University quoise stones set in designs of gold and sil- works, she sometimes listens to tapes of of Phoenix, park on a paved strip ver. Her work departs from traditional Hopi country great Waylon Jennings or the Ital- at nearby Polacca. overlay, which joins two sheets of silver and ian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Flying to shows lets her look rarely involves gold or stones. Nequatewa treats silversmithing with the down on the beauty every- Innovation was part of Loloma’s instruc- utmost professionalism. She is a good busi- where. It is her hallmark. tion. He also taught her to relish the excite- nesswoman, not quite the bashful artist of Every piece she makes is ment of creation. years ago. inscribed with the Hopi word “I like to find an interesting stone and “When I was young I went to shows with sonwai, which means “beautiful.”

28 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST VICTOR BECK

ictor Beck found his special calling of the best coral he could find. His descrip- through a dream. He’d worked as a tion of the trip sounds like something from Vlegal aide counselor, a bank teller, a a Robert Ludlum novel. car repo man and a wholesaler of Indian He stepped off the train holding a note [above] Navajo Victor jewelry. with a man’s name on it. This led to a small- Beck shows off his son, Then one night in 1972, while staying town police station. No one spoke English. Victor Jr., and his jewelry. The ring, with his parents in Pinon, the Navajo com- “They didn’t know what I was talking earrings and bracelet munity where he grew up, he dreamed that about until I said Grand Canyon,” says Beck, (right) and necklace all the jewelry he was selling from his truck of Phoenix, whose late brother was the (far right) showcase was lost. His father, feeling a foreboding, renowned painter Clifford Beck. “They Beck’s work with 14- karat yellow gold advised his son to see a medicine man for a went, ‘Aha, yes! Arizona!’” decorated with Blessingway ceremony, a ritual to restore A cop took him to a large warehouse. turquoise and coral. life’s balance. After knocking, a door panel slid open and Everything in Beck’s life changed after two eyes appeared on the other side. Once that. He found the right path. Today, the inside, Beck bought $23,000 worth of coral, 61-year-old father of two grown daughters fresh out of the sea. and a 2-year-old boy, is one of Arizona’s “I watched ladies sitting at long tables, most respected silversmiths. cutting and drilling the coral,” he says. “I “It took years for me to realize how wanted to see how it was done.” important that dream was,” says Beck. “But Beck’s distinctions include making a it was my destiny.” rosary for Pope Paul VI, which included His jewelry style is contemporary — sim- stones signifying the Navajos’ four sacred ple, elegant, innovative. One of his signa- mountains, and he has represented Pinon ture pieces is a raised ring with a stone inlaid on the Navajo Tribal Council. on the side. He returns home often to visit relatives and “Victor’s work is very refined,” says Andrea attend sweat lodge. Every four years he goes Robinson, a buyer at the Heard Museum to a Blessingway ceremony. “It rejuvenates Shop and Bookstore in Phoenix. “Everything me,” says Beck, of the ritual. “You can’t just he does is perfect. Never a rough edge or receive and receive. You have to say thanks misplaced stone.” for the good things that happen. That’s why In 1994, Beck traveled to Italy in search I pray over every piece of jewelry I make.”

30 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 31 NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST

[left and far left] THOMAS CURTIS Stampwork in heavy- gauge silver trademarks the work of Navajo silversmith Thomas hen you meet Thomas Curtis, he don’t do these things for fun,” says Curtis. approached after the show, desperate to own Curtis, who taught the pulls up outside the general store “They’re my tradition; they’re survival. the award-winning item. craft to his daughter, near his home in remote Dilkon, They’re life to me.” The two wrangled, then settled on a Jennifer Curtis-Skeets W (both above). Most on the Navajo reservation north of Winslow, He learned to be a smith as a boy watching trade. Curtis would hand over the vase if present-day silversmiths and pokes his head out of his truck. his grandfather work, and Curtis’ daughter,­ the man handed over his pickup truck, plus lack the patience for the “You found me,” says the 61-year-old sil- 39-year-old Jennifer Curtis-Skeets, learned $2,500. The 1966 flatbed Ford has been meticulous and tedious versmith, a mischievous grin spreading by watching him. Jennifer won a blue rib- Curtis’ prized possession ever since. detail required to produce Curtis-type across his face. bon in the first contest she entered, in 1994. Jennifer says her dad also inspires her to designs, and consider the No easy task. It took messages taped to “I’m not surprised Jennifer has become be a better smith. effort cost-ineffective. the chapter house door, messages stuffed so accomplished, because she learned from “I enter competitions to know where I into his post office box in Indian Wells, mes- a master,” says Jeff Ogg, owner of Ogg’s stand with my dad, not with other artists,” sages tacked to community bulletin boards. Hogan, an Indian art and clothing shop in she says. He has no phone and will call back when downtown Prescott. “Thomas does the tra- “I compete with him. He’s my standard. he gets within a mile or two of one, when- ditional silverwork I really admire. Deep But I don’t think I’ll ever be better than ever that is. stamping is his trademark. Not fancy, but he is.” Curtis is an old-fashioned Navajo who very high quality.” lives close to the way he has always lived, Curtis and Jennifer live a mile apart and Leo W. Banks of Tucson has been writing stories loving the things he has always loved — rid- work out of their homes. They rely on each about the Navajo and Hopi Indians for more than 20 ing his horses and crafting jewelry. other. Curtis left Phoenix Indian School after years. He considered it a privilege to meet and interview the finest silver craftsmen in Arizona. Banks also wrote His home is full of memorabilia from his third grade, so Jennifer helps him with his “Arizona Charlie” in this issue. days as a champion bull rider, broncbuster business paperwork. She in turn gets an up- Rick Odell of Phoenix turned professional at the age and roper. The box where he keeps his sil- close look at her father’s for­midable trad- of 12 in Kansas City. Using a Polaroid camera, he versmithing ribbons is overflowing. They ing skills. ­photographed a metal trash can lid suspended by a wire. Passing it off as a picture of a flying saucer, he sold the number almost 300. At Santa Fe Indian Market in 1987, he photo for five bucks to a kid in the neighborhood.­ He “Riding horses and making jewelry, I won “Best of Class” for a silver vase. A man vows never to do that again.

32 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 33 braham Henson Meadows could be hard to miss — 6 feet 6 inches tall, handsome, friendly described in a hundred ways, every one of — as he rode into the arena on his white horse, Snow- them true. He was a Wild West showman, storm. And he wasn’t shy about his talent. marksman, entrepreneur,­ a would-be king In April 1888, a Prescott newspaper published the aof a cannibal island, an occasionally crooked gambler­ following blurb: and a rapscallion whose greatest fear was that he might “Charlie Meadows of Payson, this territory, chal- pass this realm unnoticed. It seemed that every sig- lenges any man in the world to an all-around cow- nificant episode of his life — and even of his death, boy contest for $500 or $1,000 a side. He also wagers which occurred just prior to a rare snowstorm in either of the above amounts with any man on the Yuma — was orchestrated to make sure that he would steer-tying contest, either three or five steers to be be remembered. tied. Expert cow-punchers make a note of this.” He adopted the colorful nickname of “Arizona The boast drew the attention of former Indian scout Charlie,” wore a big diamond ring and sported a flow- Tom Horn, who took up Meadows’ challenge. The two ing Gen. George Custer haircut that was just this side men met in several roping and tying competitions of ridiculous. But he managed to pull it off. that filled Arizona arenas, for the first time drawing Despite his garish appear­ ance, Meadows lived the life King of the he portrayed in performances around the world, including Wild West Text by Leo W. Banks appearances with William F. Illustrations by Walter Porter “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s famous troupe. arizona He was born in a covered wagon under an oak tree during a snowstorm in Visalia, California, March 10, 1860. By age 10, at the insistence of his Confederate-sympathizing father, John, a preacher and rancher who hated Abraham Lincoln, the boy’s name was changed female spectators eager for a glimpse of the flashy to Charlie. charliecowboy from the Tonto Basin. Even though Charlie By 1877, John Meadows wanted more space for his was uncanny at attracting women, he wasn’t particu- big family, which eventually numbered 12 children. larly adept at keeping them, including two wives. He found it in wild Diamond Valley, near present-day Although Horn won on occasion, Charlie’s panache Payson. The men cleared land, planted corn and built made him a darling of newspapers, even some in the two log cabins. East, one of which printed a poem about him: At dawn on July 15, 1882, John learned just how untamed Arizona Territory was when renegade Apaches To the West! To The West! To the Land of the Free, visited. After waking up to dogs barking in the timber, Where Tall Charlie Meadows is Having a Spree, John and his oldest son, Henry, went to investigate. And the Mexican Bronco is Arching His Back, John stood about 80 yards from the cabins when To the Shooting Iron’s Frequent Apache gunfire dropped him in his tracks. and Petulant Crack Henry was hit, too, and so was John Jr., another son. When the Meadows women came outside, John When Charlie squared off against Horn in Phoenix Jr. yelled, “My God, get inside or we’ll all be killed!” in 1889, William Cody sat in the audience. He was so With the children hiding under the bed, the family impressed he offered both cowboys top spots in a held off the Apaches. Finally the intruders rounded up Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Horn huffed that he was the livestock they wanted and departed. not a drugstore cowboy and declined. John Meadows Sr. was the first person buried in But Charlie jumped at the chance, agreeing to meet what became Payson’s Pioneer Cemetery. Henry died Cody at his Wyoming ranch to discuss details. When of his wounds months later, while the bullet John Jr. he arrived, Cody wasn’t there. He had forgotten the carried in his leg for 20 years eventually festered, and appointment and gone to Chicago. required the leg be amputated. Charlie’s disappointment was huge, but the inci- Only two days before the raid, Charlie had signed dent helped convince him that he wanted to be like on to help the U.S. Cavalry chase the renegades. He’d Cody. He grew his hair long and began writing letters been reluctant to go, but his father had assured him to circuses and Wild West shows looking for work. the family would be okay. Through much of the 1890s, he traveled the world, “He regretted the decision the rest of his life,” said meeting famous people and racking up adventures. Jean Beach King of Granada Hills, California, who In Australia, one of the troupe’s horses was injured wrote a biography of Meadows published in 1989. “I in a fake attack on a stagecoach and had to be dragged know it left him with a hatred for Apaches.” from the arena by the saddle horn as the crowd roared After the tragedy, Charlie, then 22, began hiring its approval, believing it part of the act. out at ranches throughout Tonto Basin. He also “It would have been a different story,” Charlie wrote entered the first rodeos held in the Territory and was later, “had the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 35 Payson, and earned a passage of description . . . he was in the South Sandwich Islands in the writer’s 1928 book, Stairs of Sand. and exercising his horse on the deck In Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Charlie of the traveling ship when the horse jumped, built the Palace Grand Theater, using lum- ber from two paddle-wheel steamboats he’d landing Charlie in the ocean. purchased. The venue opened in July 1899 and was known as the most opulent such to Animals known he was really dead.” establishment north of San Francisco. It is now a part According to King, Charlie’s biographer and grand- of the Dawson Historic Complex National Historic niece, he was in the South Sandwich Islands and exer- Site of Canada. cising his horse on the deck of the traveling ship when The Palace lasted only as long as Dawson’s gold. the horse jumped, landing Charlie in the ocean. His When that dried up, Charlie, who thought nothing fellow cowboys drew their show ropes and lassoed impossible, considered floating his huge building him and his horse back to safety. down the Yukon River and across the sound to Nome, At Buffalo Bill’s invitation, Charlie traveled to Eng- where the latest gold strike was unfolding. But he land in 1892 to perform with Cody’s show for sev- concluded the building probably would break up eral weeks. At a reception welcoming Charlie to during passage, and he sold it in 1901. Europe, Cody suggested the name “Arizona Charlie” By then Charlie was working on his strang­est and it stuck. endeavor — a plot to invade Tiburon Island in Mex- But Charlie wanted to form his own show and did, ico’s Sea of Cortes, and establish his own empire there. hiring longhaired Maricopa Indians to play “savages” What drove him, apart from egomania, was the and acquiring a real Tombstone stagecoach to re-enact idea of recovering Montezuma’s treasure, an estimated hold­ups. “Arizona Charlie’s Historical Wild West” 19 million gold pesos, which he believed was buried opened to a gallery of 2,500 in Phoenix on March on the island. Charlie also wanted to vanquish the 25, 1893. inhabitants of the island, the Seri Indians, alleged to When the show left on tour, The Arizona Republican be cannibals. commented that his cowboys were among the finest According to King, stories from Tiburon claimed ever assembled, “. . . able to lasso anything from a that white men had disappeared on the island and Missouri mosquito to an elephant from the wilds of were presumed killed and eaten by Seris. But that tri- the Congo.” fle only made Charlie more eager. “I am a man who Charlie’s temperament guaranteed the troupe is not afraid of the devil with his horns sharpened,” wouldn’t stay together long. Amid bickering by the he declared. cast a few months later, he stormed away. Publicity described Charlie’s “war preparations,” Whether acting in an arena, or simply living his including construction of a small battleship. Throngs life, Charlie never strayed far from great drama. When of men — among them the sheriffs of Cochise and Arizona’s Territorial Legislature offered a $5,000 reward Gila counties in Arizona — came forward to join the for capturing an outlaw named Apache Kid, Charlie so-called King of Tiburon. put together a posse of cowboys to go after him. Charlie asked his friend, President Theodore Roosevelt,­ pregnant, Meadows traveled to England to perform the old Palace Grand of Dawson City. The Kid stayed missing, but Charlie never figured to come along. The invitation was an engraved plate with Cody’s troupe. Marion Mae threatened to leave But the King of the Cowboys, as he was known, he’d lost if the publicity was good. And he was a mas- with a real Apache scalp attached. him if he went, and he did just that. demands recognition from Arizonans, too. As one ter at getting it. “You should have seen the face on the bug-eyed She never informed him of her whereabouts, or that Yuma old-timer told Charlie’s grandniece, “I . . . still A double-horseback wedding, with Charlie’s sister, reporter from the Los Angeles Times when I told him a healthy baby girl, Marion, had been born. The remember how attractive he was when he rode. He Maggie, as one of the brides, took place in the Tonto I had personally lifted the ‘receipt for a good Apache’ daughter grew up believing Charlie was dead, a lie her sat so erect and looked like royalty.” In a way, Charlie Basin in 1890. At its conclusion, Charlie handed a in Pleasant Valley in 1884,” Charlie boasted. mother told, and finally tracked him down after read- was royalty, cowboy royalty, one of the Territory’s first lariat to each of the grooms and said they could keep Needless to say, Roosevelt declined to accept and ing a newspaper article about his brother, John Jr. celebrities. as wedding gifts every head of his wild cattle they warned Charlie against proceeding. The expedition Charlie’s contact with his daughter angered his sec- The night of his burial, it snowed in Yuma, one of could find and brand before sundown. fizzled after Mexico’s president refused to let Sonora’s ond wife, Ida Mae, whom he’d married prior to depart- the few times in recorded history, bearing out his long- “The chase was begun at once,” reported the Arizona governor sell Tiburon to Charlie. ing for Dawson. That tension, plus Charlie’s growing time prediction and providing a fitting end for a man Journal-Miner. “The young women, who are expert For the last 30 years of his life, Charlie lived in cussedness in later years, caused Ida Mae to leave him. who himself was a force of nature. riders, carrying the branding irons and assisting in Yuma, hunting, fishing, mining for gold and running But Charlie came to know his daughter and renewed Additional Reading: “Arizona Charlie’s” contem- tying down the cattle.” Charlie lost 36 head of stock a ranch. Because he was born in a snowstorm, he also friendly relations with her mother. In fact, Marion Mae, poraries come to life in the pages of They Left Their that day. believed he’d die in one, and he figured living in the who had married twice more and had two additional Mark and Days of Destiny, part of the 11-volume Wild In 1897, he joined the Klondike gold stampede, a desert would delay that eventuality. children after she and Charlie had split, was planning West Collection published by Arizona Highways great migration through harsh Alaskan terrain. En In Yuma, as everywhere, he worked at standing to move to Yuma and live with Charlie again when she Books. To order ($7.95 each plus shipping and han- route he met Jack London, a 21-year-old aspiring out. He sometimes rode his horse through the swing- got word of his death. dling), call toll-free (800) 543-5432 or go online to writer, who listened as Charlie spun stories of his ing doors of the Ruby Saloon and herded stock with On December 9, 1932, refusing to see a doctor, the arizonahighways.com. association with Rudyard Kipling, another writer his 1929 Model A Ford. He also published a muck- 72-year-old took a pocketknife to his painful varicose Charlie had met years before in India. London chron- raking newspaper, The Valley Hornet, which, as he veins and bled to death from his cockeyed attempt at Tucson-based Leo W. Banks thinks “Arizona Charlie” was every bit icled Charlie’s gold rush experience in his great book, once cracked, forced him to stay out of dark alleys self-surgery. He is remembered today primarily for as colorful as “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Walter Porter of Tucson recently illustrated a book dealing with The Call of the Wild. on publication day. the two Arizona Charlie’s Hotel and Casinos in Las circumnavigation through the Southern Ocean, near the South Charlie also knew Zane Grey, who lived near In 1892, knowing that his wife, Marion Mae, was Vegas, named for him. One of them has a facade like Sandwich Islands, where Charlie was rescued.

36 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 37 Dream

land of gold and silver Turkey Creek Road winds through Bradshaw Mountains where old-time miners boomed and busted

O SIGNPOSTS LEND a hand on the rough four-wheel-drive road down to Turkey Creek and the area’s gold- and silver- mining past. The road takes off from the west corner of the ramshackle bar in the tiny commu- nnity of Cleator. Few travelers are aware of Turkey Creek Road, known to locals as Thunderbolt Mine Road and Forest Service Road 101. Most are heading to Crown King, a mining town turned tourist attrac- tion on top of the Bradshaw Mountains. Four-wheelers leaving “downtown” Cleator find that Turkey Creek Road does a snakelike weave between occupied cabins and mining ruins, with confusing side roads tempting them to stray. Visitors should stick to the most trav- eled section of road or they may end up in

text by BOB THOMAS photographs by CHARLES LAWSEN

38 MAY 2003 someone’s front yard or looking down an full of out-of-work men living off [preceding panel, pages 38 and 39] In this view from Silver Cord Indian threat and the difficulty of trans about 2.5 miles below Cleator. Both were Mine,” said Van Tilborg, who was born in abandoned mine shaft. the land and looking for enough Mine, evening shadows blanket a nearly dry Turkey Creek in the porting supplies across the extremely rugged running high with snowmelt, Poland Creek Crown King and whose relatives back to his After about a half-mile of twists and turns, gold nuggets to buy bacon and Bradshaw Mountains, south of Cleator, where miners struggled terrain, discouraged mining. But every now with slightly more water. It was the first of great-grandfather worked mines and ran in the 1800s and early 1900s to dig out the gold and silver that the road begins its descent toward Turkey beans and maybe some .22 shells lured so many into the rugged hills. and then someone would hit a rich placer 10 water crossings on the road. cattle ranches in the Bradshaws. Creek and, farther down, the tiny settlement for the rifle. [above] A strawberry hedgehog cactus imparts a vivid color deposit, and the hills would again ring with “Up Poland Creek is the old French Lilly “Up there,” Van Tilborg said, pointing of Bumble Bee, 13 miles away on the old “My uncle, Don Van Tilborg, accent to a slope in the Bradshaws. the shouts of expectant prospectors. Black Canyon stage road. At Bumble Bee, you was one of them. During the Bouncing along Turkey Creek Road below can loop back to Cleator by driving up the Depression, he got tuberculosis and the doc- with indifferent success until he started up Cleator in Van Tilborg’s four-wheel-drive old Black Canyon road to its junction with tor told him he just had a few months to Black Canyon and then Turkey Creek. vehicle, we looked down on a landscape of the road to Crown King, or head south to get live,” Van Tilborg said. “Uncle Don said he Although credited for publicizing the find tortured canyons that bled off each side of on Interstate 10. might as well have some fun before he died, and giving his name to the mountain range, the road. Each time we turned, a new view Lower Turkey Creek begins at the old con- so he took off for the mountains to prospect. Bradshaw was not the first person to prospect presented itself — cliffs, rocky slopes so steep crete bridge on the Crown King road. Most After three years out there, he decided he Turkey Creek. Prior to his arrival, Mexican they resembled cliffs, narrow side canyons travelers barely notice the bridge because they wasn’t going to die, so he came back home miners had placer diggings thereabouts and countless dry arroyos. Prickly pear, cholla are looking across at the massive dump and and went to work.” before Yavapai Indians drove them away. and saguaro cacti dotted the country, and Hearing of the Mexicans’ finds, high up, on the mountain horizon, stood a H i k e r s w i l l f i n d t h e s e t r a i l s a s r u g g e d f o r Bradshaw and a few dozen Amer- scattering of ponderosa pines. ican miners headed to the site. “On the left is Townsend Butte,” said wa l k i n g a s t h e r o a d i s f o r d r i v i n g . They found some gold in their Van Tilborg. “It’s named for a pioneer pans, but not enough to get rich Indian fighter who had a homestead there. mill foundations of the great Golden Turkey­ Turkey Creek’s long history of boom and on, and soon most left the area for richer He was so good at killing Indians that the Mine, which produced more than $3 mil­lion bust gold mining ranges back more than 140 grounds. Bradshaw took to drink and com- City of Prescott, in 1871, awarded him a in gold and silver between 1933 and 1942. years. William Bradshaw, the star-crossed mitted suicide the next year in La Paz, a Col- brand-new rifle and a thousand rounds of “There were a lot of people looking for gold forty-niner who gave the area its name, first orado River steamboat landing. ammunition. But he got into one too many in the old days, as you can see by the number prospected here in 1863. Bradshaw, a mem- Bradshaw’s brother Isaac, or Ike, led Indian fights.” A couple of years later he [top] Hikers and four-wheel-drive explorers have the pleasure of following Turkey Creek through a of wrecked buildings,” said Grant “Butch” Van ber of the Paulino Weaver-Abraham Peeples another party of miners into Turkey Creek was mortally wounded while trailing Indi- wet desert canyon during periods of rain or snowmelt, which usually occurs in winter and spring. [above left] A precarious, rock-strewn entrance greets visitors at the abandoned Howard Silver Mine Tilborg, a Prescott National Forest employee party that found a bonanza at Rich Hill near in 1868. They found gold, too, but it was ans who had raided his ranch. near Turkey Creek. at the time of our adventure. “They say that the ghost towns of Stanton, Weaver and not the mother lode everyone sought. That We caught our first glimpse of Turkey [above right] Enduring memorials to long-dissipated dreams of riches, these mining structures cling during the Great Depression, the hills were Octave, prospected the Bradshaws’ edges modest find, along with the ever-present Creek at its confluence with Poland Creek to the hillside at Silver Cord Mine.

40 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 41 west at some tangled peaks, “was the Silver silver. But then he was a rancher, not a those wet years in the 1980s, they must [left] Saguaro cacti dot the hillside over the road leading to Howard out to Horsethief Basin. down toward Bumble Bee. Finally, about 3 Christmas Mine. There’s an old road that miner, and did not go back to the site. have swum all the way upstream from Lake Copper Mine, near Turkey Creek. “The Castle Creek Trail miles short of our destination, we decided [above] Adventurous travelers to Silver Cord Mine get a gilded reward goes to the Silver Christmas and another “Later, my dad went up there looking for Pleasant. But then a few years ago, we had at day’s end on a journey through the Bradshaws. goes from Castle Creek to turn around rather than risk flooding out that once led to the town of Middelton. the arrastra, but he never found it, and those bad droughts, and all the pools dried Cabin on the west side of in the swift, muddy water. Middelton’s a ghost town, or rather it was. great-grandfather Kaufman never could up and the fish died. So you never know.” smiled and said, “Well, you’re not going Turkey Creek on up to the Kentuck Spring “Maybe we could get through all right, There’s hardly anything left there. Used to remember exactly where it was,” Van Tilborg During winter and spring, Turkey Creek to get rich, but it’s fun.” Campground road in Horsethief Basin. Plus and maybe we couldn’t,” said Van Tilborg. be the site of the railroad construction camp chuckled. “There’s a whole lot of mountain attracts droves of recreational gold panners. The area also attacts four-wheelers and there are any number of little trails and “But I don’t want to chance it. Wading when they were cutting through the right- up there.” Amateurs work the streambed and banks hikers, said Van Tilborg. The road offers paths leading from one mine workings to around in the cold water trying to push a of-way and laying track up to Crown King. As we followed the creek, we ran through with gold pans, sluices and dredges under quite a few challenges for any four-wheeler. another.” Hikers will find these trails as stalled vehicle is not my idea of fun.” “The Thunderbolt Mine and Mill was the clusters of cottonwoods, mesquite thickets, a placer claim agreement with the U.S. Creek crossings can be an obstacle. High rugged for walking as the road is for driving. As we retraced our route back to Cleator, main ore producer in the area and the willows, small grassy flats and high chaparral. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). water can stall out a motor and underwater “Kentuck” was the nickname of William Van Tilborg said, “You know, with all the longest lasting. It was also the biggest The stream, like most Arizona water­courses, We happened upon a pair of recreational boulders or holes can trap a vehicle. We had Bell, a Civil War veteran from Kentucky who earthmoving and work that went into min- employer. The Silver Cord Mine, that’s its has occasional flash floods. At one place, a gold sluicers from Phoenix. They looked to probe one crossing with a long stick to was buried near his cabin there. ing this area, it’s still one of the prettiest tailings dump on the left, was pretty rich line of cottonwood trees had been snapped like they could have just stepped out of an see how deep the water was. The hiking trails, because of the steep places to visit in the whole Bradshaws.” too,” he said. off about a dozen feet above the ground, 1880s lithograph. One had a long white The Forest Service occasionally grades climbs, lack of drinking water and escalat- Bob Thomas of Phoenix says he plans to go back to While the early miners panned for gold in mute testimony to the power of the floods. beard and wore a flannel shirt, with his the road, but maintenance stops at the ing elevations, offer a tough challenge. Turkey Creek for a camping trip — and to look around the creek, it was the hard-rock miners who Numerous little grassy flats beside the pants tucked into rubber boots. The other, Prescott National Forest boundary 6 miles As we continued down the road, we passed for a gold nugget or two. Charles Lawsen of Glendale enjoys photographing­ found the richest lodes in the hills. Nearly creek offered ideal spots for pitching a tent. fit-looking with stubbled cheeks, wore from Cleator. The road was pretty rough in many ruins of mines and the remains of stone beautiful desert views of mountains populated­ by all the abandoned mines, their gold and sil- In the warm summer months, families flock similar dress. He said he got tired of cities the forest, but it was really rugged and cabins, some of which were mine workings saguaro cacti, and poking around abandoned mines. ver ores exhausted, cling to the sides of steep here to camp out over the weekend and and sold all his possessions and moved to rocky the last 6 or 7 miles on BLM land. that had been shored up with rock walls. Location: About 70 miles north of mountains far above the creek. enjoy the cool water. Arizona. Neither of these agencies allow off-roading, Along the stream, countless mounds of sand Phoenix. “My mom’s grandfather was a cowman, “There’s usually a good flow of water dur- They belong to the Roadrunners Pros­ so stay on the paths already blazed. and gravel mark the location of old placer Travel Advisory: The rugged 13- and one day while he was up somewhere ing the winter and spring,” said Van Tilborg. pectors Club, which has 268 mining claims “There’s a number of hiking trails off mining sites. Nature and the passing years mile-long Turkey Creek Road in the Bradshaw Mountains requires a four- above Turkey Creek, he happened upon an “In the summer, the creek tends to dry up in Arizona. “This one is a placer claim of Turkey Creek,” Van Tilborg said. “The Bill have disguised the piles with brush and trees. wheel-drive vehicle. Submerged boulders and deep old arrastra [a mule-powered ore crusher] except for some deep pools. There’s one 40 acres. We spend our time out in the Arp Springs and Mine trail, which takes Each little side canyon we passed had stream crossings that can drown an engine are always with the pole still embedded in the center pool down here that I used to take my kids boondocks prospecting for gold,” one of you from the Howard Silver Mine and the running water from recent storms, which a danger. Bring sufficient food and water and tools, stone. Nearby were some pretty rocks, so to for swimming and fishing. It had small the miners said. “Been doing it for five R and H Mine and connects with the Twin added to Turkey Creek’s flow and depth, especially winches or “come-a-long” cable pullers, tow straps and shovels. he picked up one and took it home. Later, sunfish and bass in it. The only way I can years now.” Peaks Trail all the way up to the Twin making every creek crossing a little bit Additional Information: Prescott National Forest, someone told him it was filled with horn figure the fish got there is when we had Asked if their mining was productive, he Peaks [elevation 6,881 feet] and eventually deeper as we slowly four-wheeled our way Bradshaw Ranger District; (928) 443-8000.

42 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 43 “You’ve made me what I am today. Now let’s hear your side of the story.“ *

by JIM WILLOUGHBY EARLY-DAY ARIZONA

hy are you scratching your head, little boy?" ‘‘ Wasked the kindly lady. "Cause I'm the only one who knows where it itches," replied the lad. Coconino Sun, December 19, 1924

Sautern from Chablis.” the universe, which is infinite and Teddy Carney goes on forever. Boca Raton, FL My 8-year-old niece, Morgan, turned to her younger brother, Andrew, and little boy explained, “Then the universe must be Areturned from called Grandpa.” school every day Walt Weider with a star on his Vienna, MO test papers. One day a zero was on top of IDENTIFYING MOM his sheet. His mom am an Arizona police officer and one LOVE IS BLIND asked for an explanation. He said, “The Iday responded to an accident Tucson acquaintance and lifelong teacher was all out of stars, so she gave involving two vehicles. I was getting A bachelor always had his own me a moon.” information from one of the parties, thoughts on the subject of marriage, Stephen L. Cross who happened to be a mother with a calling it an institution in which a man Le Roy, NY 4- or 5-year-old boy. He wanted to help loses his bachelor’s degree and the and, as he stared at me, interjected woman gets her master’s. uestion: What do you get when you several times, “That’s my mom.” When Unusual So naturally, when word came of his Q dine under an Arizona starry sky? I finally asked him how he knew it was recent nuptials, I was floored. He had Answer: An astronomical his mom, he wore a look of deep Perspective finally caved in and tied the knot. gastronomical delight. thought on his face for a moment and By Linda Perret After the newlyweds’ first quarrel, Guy Belleranti replied, “Because I’ve had her for a the wife said to her husband, “I was a Oro Valley really long time.” quaw Peak fool when I married you.” To which Rocky Forthofer in the the husband replied, “Yes, dear, but I failed my astronomy class. Mesa Phoenix was in love and didn’t notice it.” IApparently, Ursa Minor is not the S ichael oeffler Mountains M L key of Beethoven’s Fifth. TO SUBMIT HUMOR Preserve draws Milford, OH Tommy Cannon Send your jokes and humorous Arizona anecdotes to hundreds of Glendale Humor, Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ hikers each day. 85009 or e-mail us at [email protected]. We’ll pay $50 for each item used. Please include your name, That’s a lot of The Night Sky uestion: What did the policeman address and telephone number with each submission. Odor-Eaters®. We asked for night sky jokes from Q star say to the speeding comet? our readers. Here is a sample of what Answer: Stop or I’ll shoot! they sent. Tamara Torok Chicago, IL Reader’s Corner his was in a letter written to me Our topic this month is ghost towns. Tby my father, W.H. Schutte, who at pointed out the Big Dipper and Ghost towns are big tourist the time worked as the manager of I Little Dipper to my niece and attractions. Shoot, if I wanted to a food service in Tucson: nephew one evening. spend my vacation looking at 4 EASY WAYS TO ORDER “We sit out and watch the stars I explained how a group of stars something covered in dust, I would at night . . . wish I knew more makes up a galaxy and that all the just as well stay home. Log on to arizonahighways.com about astronomy. I don’t know stars and planets together make up

Send us your ghost town jokes, and Call toll-free at 1-800-543-5432 1 3 1 3 8 ⁄4" x 10 ⁄4" Softcover. 136 pages 8 ⁄4" x 10 ⁄4" Softcover. 160 pages From the Witworks® humor book Marriage is Forever . . . Some Days Longer by we’ll pay $50 for each one we publish. (in the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call 602-712-2000) * #TBRS99 $12.95 #ATRS9 $15.95 Gene Perret. To order, call toll-free (800) 543-5432. $6.95 (plus shipping & handling). Fax your order to 602-254-4505 44 MAY 2003 Complete and mail the attached order card Photograph by Randy Prentice national monument since 1906, offers a royal treat to 850,000 visitors a year. Unfortunately, by REBECCA MONG / photographs by DAVID H. SMITH some of them don’t drive 11 destination miles farther up the road to see Montezuma Well, also part of the monument. The scenic “well,” a sinkhole surrounded by acacia and juniper trees and fed by a “MOM, IT’S GOOD WE DON’T LIVE WAY UP Verde and traded for pottery, copper bells and spring, irrigated those ancient MONTEZUMA there,” said the boy. “I’d never get my macaws from as far away as Mexico. The women crops and today shelters an CASTLE ­skateboard up to my room.” wove cotton into cloth and ground mesquite abundance of wildlife. But not The 35 or so people who did live in the beans for dinner. The children played, perhaps fish. Although the well looks like and a Nearby soaring cliff dwelling some 900 years ago had with the tiny stone “dolls” archaeologists would the perfect fishing hole, no to use ladders made of poles lashed together later discover. At dusk, the families climbed to potential fillets swim there, ever. Spring-fed WELL with yucca or agave fibers to reach the doorways their rooms to sleep, never dreaming that white “The unique thing for visitors is Yield Clues to of their five-story, 20-room pueblo. men would someday describe their pueblo as so that Montezuma Castle is in such One of the Southwest’s best-preserved ruins, grand it must have been built by Montezuma, good shape, is so old and is so 900-year-old Montezuma Castle looms 90 miles north of ruler of the great Aztec empire in Mexico. real,” National Park Service Ranger Phoenix and just 2 paved miles off Interstate 17. Despite Montezuma Castle’s misleading Robert Del Carlo told me one SINAGUA INDIAN Tucked in a deep recess beneath a sheltering name, neither the emperor nor his people summer day. “There’s been some Life and Culture overhang, it looks down 100 feet onto Beaver ever heard of the place. The Sinagua Indians stabilization done, but 90 percent Creek and the viewing path. occupied the limestone and mortar “castle” of it is original, what the Sinagua Near the banks of this stream in the hilly during the 12th and 13th centuries, and built.” It’s best to see the exhibits Verde Valley, Sinagua Indian villagers grew Montezuma wasn’t born until the 15th century. in the visitors center before taking corn, beans, squash and cotton. The men By then, the Sinagua had moved on, perhaps the tour, he advised. “That way [below] Beaver Creek used creosote resin for securing arrow points to because of overcrowding, farmed-out land or you get an idea of who the Sinagua follows a winding southwesterly course past wooden shafts to make spears for hunting, and strife, probably joining up with the Hopis and were and how they lived.” Montezuma Castle they carved turkey callers out of animal bones. other pueblo peoples. New exhibits, installed in National Monument to They collected salt from near present-day Camp Nevertheless, the emperor’s namesake, a November 2002, explain the the Verde River. Sinaguan civilization within the context of world history, emphasizing­ the Indians’ efficient use of local natural resources. Visitors haven’t been allowed into the castle’s fragile rooms since 1951. Instead, they view the pueblo from below, walking a level, self-guided, one-third-mile trail. Lush trees, most notably towering Arizona sycamores with their distinctive mottled-white trunks and maplelike leaves, provide welcome shade. When a visitor asked why the [above] The limestone ruins Sinagua built this dwelling so high up, Del Rob’t Hart, a civil servant in Holland. “I have of Montezuma Castle have Carlo said it was just “an opportunistic a picture of the castle hanging in my study, intrigued visitors since Spanish explorer Antonio de choice.” The huge overhang was there, and and I wanted my boys to see it.” His wife, Espejo’s chronicler, Diego they took advantage of it for protection from Xandra, gazed up the pueblo and kept an eye Perez de Luxan, first noted summer heat and, because it faces south, to on 8-year-old twins, David and Marnix, who them in his journal in 1583. catch the warmest of the sun’s winter rays. A had abandoned castle-viewing for the antics of gradually inclining ridge partway up the cliff a plump rock squirrel. inspired Del Carlo’s theory that the Sinagua Down the trail, the scant remnants of “Castle walked up along that, then climbed ladders to A” — probably destroyed by fire — hug the the rooms, which measure about 10 feet by 10 base of the cliff. Larger than its sister pueblo, feet — overall, about the square-footage of a Castle A rose six stories and had 45 rooms. modern-day three-bedroom house. Del Carlo Savvy tourists go on from here to Montezuma said there are handprints and smoke stains on Well, where contemporaries of the castle- interior walls, along with ax marks on the dwellers lived. Here 92-year-old Jack Beckman, wooden beams. a volunteer for 30 years, tells visitors stories not Visitors come from all over, some more than found in guidebooks. Some time back, he said, once. “I was here before,” said camera-toting a medicine man told him that 8,000 years ago

46 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 47 along the

by LARRY TRITTEN there was a pueblo at smoke-blackened cave ruin and the “swallet,” way the bottom of the well, a crack where the water flows 150 feet through and that it was a place the rock wall to the other side. There, ancient of “emergence.” Today, farmers channeled the water into irrigation Beckman added, canals. “Apaches, Hopis, After climbing back up from the swallet, Navajos and Pimas visitors sometimes relax on shaded rocks to WHEN I RETURNED TO SAN FRANCISCO FROM specifically of Arizona history, and the first come to the well to watch for animals — and catch their breath. KID CACTUS, Arizona, I decided to put something on display one that came to mind was Ringo. When I obtain some of its “Listen . . . and watch the steps,” advised one His Spiky Friend in the apartment to remind me of the trip, was a kid, Ringo was one of those perfect ‘sacred water,’” middle-aged rock-sitter. “You’ll hear them which had been upbeat and educational. I had Western-sounding names. John Wayne was presumably to be used coming back up before you see them.” And From Arizona, the usual souvenirs — a cup depicting saguaros the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach. in ceremonials. sure enough, moments before the tops of their silhouetted against a sunset, a small stuffed But the name has never been the same since The 368-foot-wide, heads appeared, we heard the huffing and Is DOING WELL, javelina keychain, and napkins from Big Nose the Beatles came along. I remembered once 55-foot-deep circular puffing of out-of-shape climbers. Thank You Kate’s Saloon in Tombstone. But I needed reading a description of Ringo Starr as looking well formed 11,000 A two-for-the-price-of-one attraction, the ­something more broadly symbolic and like “an anteater on barbiturates,” and I didn’t years ago when the well and the castle offer an intriguing glimpse recognizable. It occurred to me that a cactus want to have to think of that line every time I roof of an underground of the people who lived in this high desert was the perfect choice. looked at my cactus. So Ringo was out. I finally cavern collapsed. long before the first white settlers arrived. The cacti of Arizona came up with Kid Cactus, which I thought had Clear spring water And long before Montezuma’s day, too. The had captivated­ my the right ring. that remains at 76 emperor of the Aztecs never knew what he attention­ — and not A cactus, I had assumed, would be self-reliant degrees year-round missed. just the saguaros, like the archetypal Western loner, so when I feeds the well, but the which tend to bought the plant, I hadn’t been prepared for water’s concentration ­dominate the the complicated briefing I got on its care and Location: 90 miles north of Phoenix. of carbon dioxide Getting There: From Phoenix, take ­landscape with ­feeding. This included a list of instructions about [above] Arizona sycamore (due to percolation Interstate 17 north to Exit 289; follow ­exhibitionistic watering, light, soil, fertilizer, temperature,­ trees, found in riparian through the limestone) measures hundreds of signs 2 paved miles farther to monument. ­chutzpah — but diseases and pests — and how to get along with areas of Arizona and New times that of a normal water environment. No The well is 11 paved miles farther north countless other your cactus. But I didn’t let it intimidate me. on I-17; take Exit 293 and follow signs. Mexico, shade the one- fish can tolerate the water, but algae love it, ­varieties of every shape Indeed, I did want a relationship with my third-mile trail from which Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; closes 7 p.m. visitors may view the and so do leeches, turtles, water scorpions Memorial Day to Labor Day. National monuments are open and size. Some cacti cactus, albeit a low-key one. I wouldn’t go so ancient pueblo. and tiny shrimplike amphipods. Muskrats like all holidays. loom above the desert far as to play Brahms for my plant, like some Fees: $3, adults; free, 16 and under. No additional it there, too, along with foxes, snakes and admission at the well. floor as dramatically­ as people do. What I wanted from Kid Cactus was

Canada geese, teals and mallards. Attractions: At the castle, a visitors center with WILL TERRY skyscrapers in the city, just a touch of Southwest ambience, a reminder Visitors view the well from along a paved exhibits, bookstore, brochures, rest rooms; a shady while others sport shapes of Arizona, where the scenery at its best is as one-third-mile trail. Stone steps lead down to a creekside picnic area with tables. At or near the well, reminiscent of barrels or compelling as what you’ll see in the Louvre. a staffed information building, rest rooms, a grassy, waterside oasis away from the sinkhole. Steps tree-shaded picnic ground with visible canals. hydrants. There are bushy, I should probably mention that there’s not a also take visitors down to the well, past a Additional Information: (928) 567-3322. shrubby ones, cacti with single other plant in my apartment. Kid Cactus tangled stems like green coral is strictly a solo act. I grew up in the backwoods­ formations, others looking like of northern Idaho among thickly forested kin to artichokes or with mountains, and when I came to the city it OTHER INDIAN RUINS NEAR MONTEZUMA CASTLE paddle-shaped joints. Many always seemed redundant to me when people Tuzigoot National Monument leads to the ruins, the other to the cacti appear tricked up with filled their living quarters with ­ornamental About the same age as Montezuma rock art. There are a small visitors flowers as eye-catching as Fifth Avenue greenery. For me, Kid Cactus stands as a Castle, imposing Tuzigoot crowns center, bookstore and rest rooms. a ridge and housed 225 people; it Located about 10 miles northeast of Easter bonnets. stylistic exception, a symbolic acknowledgment once had two to three stories, but Cottonwood, then about 8 miles So I bought myself a small potted cactus, of Arizona’s seductive appeal. today only the ground story remains. north of State Route 89A. On 89A, making the choice impulsively rather than Kid Cactus — Ferocactus diguetii — has been There are two paved ­quarter-mile about one-half mile north of trails, a small museum and bookstore. Milepost 364, turn left onto Forest ­getting into an appraisal that would involve here a good while now, and I couldn’t be more Located immediately north of Service Road 525, Red Canyon Road, complicated and intricate comparisons. I pleased with his measure of self-reliance. He Clarkdale. Take Interstate 17 Exit 287 and proceed to Palatki. To reach brought the cactus home and put it near a doesn’t require food (maybe a bit of fertilizer and drive west on State Route 260 Honanki, bear left from FR 525 at ­window, where it would get whatever sunshine every three months), litter, shots, toys or to Cottonwood. In town take Main its intersection with Forest Service Street north toward Clarkdale and Road 795. A high-clearance vehicle San Francisco’s weather sees fit to dole out. ­custodial attention. An occasional nip of H2O follow signs. Summer hours, 8 a.m.– is recommended for this section of To give the cactus a more intimate role in its and a little sunshine now and then keep him 7 p.m.; winter, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed rough road. Neither site is new home, I decided to name it. You might in tip-top shape. We coexist smoothly, he and on Christmas Day. Admission: $3, ­recommended for younger than think it’s going too far to name a plant, but ever I, and while I’m in no danger of becoming a adults; free, 16 and under. third-graders. Open daily, 9:30 a.m.- (928) 634–5564. 3:30 p.m. Admission is free, but a $5 since it was discovered that plants can exhibit ­horticulturist, I do enjoy the presence of this Red Rock Pass is required when emotions, I have waffled in this matter. exotic and stalwart life form. Moreover, a Palatki Ruin/Honanki Ruin parking on the national forest land Considering that frontiersmen gave their rifles glimpse of Kid Cactus invariably brings back Best known for its well-preserved in Red Rock Country. Pass may be [above] Coconino National Forest protects names — “Old Betsy,” for example— it didn’t pleasant memories of all his spiky kin in pictographs, some of which are purchased at the visitors center. the Sinagua Indian ruin Palatki, a Hopi seem so strange to name my plant. Arizona, a state where the cactus gets a lot of 6,000 or more years old, Palatki (928) 282–3854 or Red Rock word meaning “red house.” encompasses two pueblos. One trail Ranger District, (928) 282–4119. I wanted a name evocative of the West, respect.

48 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 49 adventure backroadby BETTY MARVIN / photographs by BERNADETTE HEATH

WALKING IN PIONEERS’ FOOTSTEPS ALWAYS from Prescott to Flagstaff — had probably ­broken Circuitous appeals to my love for history, so, when more wagon wheels than any other frontier­ road. Scenic Route ­photographer Bernadette Heath told me about A Forest Service report calls it “ . . . the worst 23 miles of the Overland Road Historic Trail in travel conditions anywhere for 19th-century­ Parallels the Kaibab National Forest, now open to foot, animal-drawn wagons and stagecoaches.”­ ­horseback or mountain bike traffic, I started Some speculate that the original path may OVERLAND ROAD packing. We decided to stay with friends who have followed a Hopi Indian trading route. In HISTORIC TRAIL live in the area, then scout the route the next any case, Overland Trail’s modern history began day. From our map, we’d discovered the trail’s in 1863 when the U.S. Army laid out and built South of ­northern section swung close to Williams (as the route to connect Prescott and its short-lived the eagle flies, about 55 miles due north of gold rush with main routes across the state. Williams Prescott) and could be “sampled” by driving Few Anglos had tackled the terrain of central parallel to it on Forest Service roads and Arizona territory, so rugged and hostile with ­exploring at several trailheads. Indians that even Spanish explorers had My reading indicated the ruthlessly rocky 85- avoided it for centuries.­ Getting to Prescott from mile original route — the first “white-man” path Flagstaff meant braving marauding Indians, lava rock and high, steep canyons. To a country in dire need of gold to finance the Civil War, though, defying­ the odds suddenly­ seemed worth the risk. The Overland Trail slowly ­disappeared after 1882 with the arrival of the railroad and the ­discovery of less treacherous trails. We began in Williams, an easy 30- mile drive west from Flagstaff on Interstate 40. Following 4th Street as it becomes County Road 73 south out of Williams for about 7 miles, we turned left on Forest Service Road 113 (which becomes Forest Service Road 139, then Forest Service Road 13). [above] Along the All the trailheads Overland Road Historic along the Overland Trail Trail in northern — including Dead Horse Arizona’s Kaibab National Forest, Tank, where we first grasslands provide rich abandoned our car to grazing for sheep, as hike the trail, just .9 mile well as buffalo, deer, pronghorn antelope east of County Road 73 and other livestock. — had interpretive signs [left] Dead Horse and easily followed­ line- Tank mirrors of-sight rock cairns and ponderosa pine trees and a cloudless sky. brass-topped guideposts. [opposite page] Soft An original stretch of light filtering through the pioneer road lies pine boughs enlivens just across the road marsh grasses and lily pads, while from the Dead Horse muting reflections Tank parking­ lot. Elk at LO Spring. bugled as we strolled a ­delightful forest path and spotted the “tank,” or small watering pond, about a mile east on the far side of a large, rocky meadow. Those 19th-century

50 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com [opposite page] From soldiers must have Sycamore Vista, a reveled­ in this spiky carpet of ­pleasant prairie view. ponderosa pine trees Forest Service appears to cover the Earth below. personnel­ also [above] An old barn ­recommended we see slowly decays near Dow Pomeroy Tanks, a Spring along the Overland Trail. favorite pioneer [right] Seemingly ­watering hole, so we anchored to the ground Road 141, where we turned right. The road Warning: Back road returned to the car by a stone chimney, a soon emptied onto Garland Prairie, a vast, tree- travel can be hazardous and continued driving whitewashed house less grassland once dotted with hardscrabble if you are not prepared marks the junction of for the unexpected. east 6.5 miles on FR Forest Service roads homesteads and sheep ranches. It made a sharp Whether traveling in 139 to Forest Service 141 and 131. right, and became one with Forest Service Road the desert or high Road 109. We turned 131 within about a mile. country, be aware of weather and road conditions. Make right, going south onto FR 109, a road bumpy Staying on FR 131, we passed the Milepost 28 sure you and your vehicle are in top enough to churn milk into butter. No matter. marker and turned right into the parking lot shape. Carry plenty of water. Don’t A 10-minute walk on the Pomeroy Tanks for Dow Spring. One look at the rock- and travel alone, and let someone at home Trail brought us to a rocky but idyllic spot in ravine-covered terrain and not even my vivid know where you’re going and when you plan to return. Odometer readings the forest just above two pools of paradise. ­imagination could conjure a stagecoach in the story may vary by vehicle. Hide-and-seek sunshine silhouetted flattened ­dropping mail and passengers from Prescott at Additional Information: Kaibab grass below us where elk or deer had bedded this post office. Only a mounded railroad bed National Forest, Williams Ranger down between two ponds sheltered by aspen and collapsed, rotted logs of a tiny house and District, (928) 635-5600. and pine trees. One cliff that bordered a tank barn remain to mark this once-busy way station.­ looked like it had exploded from the ground In 1863, when Army explorer Fred Hughes and had frozen in mid-rupture.­ camped here, he reported “ . . . a veritable Heath and I skidded down a steep hunter’s paradise . . . [where] bear, elk, deer, ­embankment to the water. For the next two antelope and turkey abound.” On the prairie, hours, only our occasional quiet comments we, too, had spotted numerous pronghorn broke the stillness. I doubted this outdoor ­antelope and a score of elk; 14 mule deer cathedral had changed much since 1863. crossed the road in front of our car. Seldom-visited Sycamore Canyon, which Down the hill, below the stage stop, locals refer to as a mini-Grand Canyon, had we hiked the path east across a creek been on my “must-see” list for some time. After bed, up the hillside and down into 64 walking back to the car, we returned to the a ravine, and found another WILLIAMS To Flagstaff 40 intersection of FR 139/FR 109, we turned watering hole, enchanting START HERE right, traveling east on FR 13. Within 2 miles LO Spring, a series of lily-

KAIBAB NATIONAL 1 it intersected with Forest Service Road 56, and covered pools. 4 FOREST 1 KEVIN KIBSEY

To Kingman R

we turned right again, this time heading south, Back in the car, going 73 Garl F and following the signs to Sycamore Vista. A five- north on FR 131, we turned Pr ai F FR 141 ri minute stroll brought us to the canyon’s edge. right at the first corner­ onto R 1 e 3 39 11 F R 13 A word of caution: There are no guardrails FR 141, looped 9.6 miles R Pomeroy F 6 FR 131 at this sheer drop-off — up to 600 feet — but back to I-40 (about 14 miles Tanks 5 Dead Horse R Dow Spring F there’s a fabulous view of the chasm with east of Williams), crossed the Tank FR 109 Sy Sycamore cam o Vista Sycamore Creek far below and miles of overpass, turned left at the “T,” and, re Cy craggy cliffs and pine-covered slopes. The a half mile later, pulled into historic Parks n. Overland Trail passed about 1.5 miles north in the Pines General Store. of here, and we couldn’t help wondering if Hours of imagining life along Overland Trail some ­unfortunate scout had ever wandered and a need to reconnect with the 21st century off course and fallen from the rim. called for a cup of coffee. On the other hand, I’d We opted for the least bumpy road to get to heard that remnants of 20th-century U.S. Route our last stop, Dow Spring, and that took us 3 66 lay just outside the store’s back door. Hmmm miles back north on FR 56 to Forest Service . . . now where’s my map? arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 53 experience

Festivals,arizona powwows and get-togethers / by CARRIE M. MINER

Latin Jazz Festival NORMALLY I OPEN THIS COLUMN WITH during the song and do jokes May 2-3; Sedona The Legend a salient fact about Arizona. This piece is an about different locations. There were 12 Deeply rooted in black traditions, jazz and Laugh Master exception. Then, again, it’s not. Arizona is such pauses in the medley. We writers reflects a musical melange with ties to part of America and this article pays tribute worked on it for several months, and the West Africa, American folk songs and BOB HOPE to a great American. This month marks the gags were working well — except for one 19th-century European classical styles. 100th anniversary of Bob Hope’s birth. place. Hope was never satisfied with the The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a group LARRY LINDAHL Turns 100 Hope was born on May 29, 1903, but in Boston gags. No matter what we wrote, that of white New Orleans musicians, produced the biannual Native Tenor saxophonist Eltham, England, not America. He one spot never seemed to play well. So each Gato Barbieri CHUCK LAWSEN the first jazz record in 1917. However, Latin American Arts performed at moved to this country when he was 3 night we’d get a call to do more Boston jokes. Capture Fall’s Brilliant jazz, also sometimes called Afro-Cuban jazz, Auction held at the Sedona Jazz on the years old. He says he left England as We got sick of Boston jokes. olor on rand anyon s didn’t show up on the scene until the Hubbell Trading Post Rocks 2002 Hot soon as he found out they already One evening I told the other writers, “Let’s C G C ’ Latin Jazzfest. North Rim 1940s, when Dizzy Gillespie and Machito National Historic had a king. knock ourselves out and really get some mixed jazz sounds with Latin percussion. Site. Information: Bob Hope is primarily a funny great lines for this number so we can get rid Join Friends of Arizona See the best national and international (928) 755-3475. man. He lives for laughter. I know of it once and for all.” The guys did. Highways October 5-9, 2003, to explore the scenic bands in the biz perform in concert at the because I used to write his jokes. I called Hope the next day and asked how North Rim of the Grand 2nd Annual Sedona Jazz on the Rocks Hot Historic Home Tour And he demanded plenty of them. the new lines worked. He said they were big, Canyon. This workshop Latin Jazzfest held at the Sedona Cultural May 17-18; Jerome I used to kid him by telling him that they played beautifully. “In fact,” he said, “the offers a small group of photographers the Park. Information: (928) 282-1985 or In 1921, James S. “Rawhide Jimmy” when I first went to work for him, he Boston stuff worked so well, that now you opportunity to capture some of the most astounding views Mother Nature has to www.sedonajazz.com. Douglas, owner of the Little Daisy Mine was 34 years older than I was. After guys have to come up with better gags for offer. At this magical time of year, forests in Jerome, built the Honeymoon Cottage, toiling as his writer for just a few years, the other 11 spots.” lie like a golden shawl across the hillsides Wyatt Earp a French country-style home, for his son we were the same age. Bob Hope was a funny comedian of the Rim, and aspens thrust their May 24-26; Tombstone Lewis W. and his new bride. Today the M He wanted a lot of gags, and he and a legendary showman, but behind the O

colorful branches toward a crisp blue sky. C

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Maple trees and scrub oaks glow in fiery Wyatt Earp — lawman, gambler, miner Honeymoon Cottage is a private residence, L wanted them to be surefire. One day stage persona was a patriot, a philanthropist

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reds, especially when they catch the warm and sports fanatic — was just one of many but during the 38th Annual Paseo de Casas S I ad-libbed a line to him. He and a wonderfully human personality. To R

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early morning and late evening light. L

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frontier justices patrolling the Wild West. you can walk through this and several other . looked at me and said, “That’s me, Bob Hope represents first an idol, then

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But today he is best known for his role in private homes and public buildings listed K not very funny.” I said, “I a mentor. Eventually, he became my boss

frequently published in Arizona Highways R O

Y magazine, will instruct participants on the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. on the tour. Information: (928) 634-5477. know, Bob, but it has a and a good friend. W E N

composition and the best use of natural , That 30-second altercation and subsequent . lot of meaning. If you I worked with Bob Hope for almost 30 D T L light. We’ll visit colorful vistas such as events transformed Wyatt into an icon of S use that line on stage, years and traveled around the world with Other Events E I Cape Royal and Point Imperial, as well R E L the American West — in some accounts as Verde Valley Fair; April 30-May 4; Cottonwood; L you’ll get big him several times. When he was bringing a as Transept Canyon and the East Rim A G

(928) 634-3290. Livestock show and sale, carnival, live N Viewpoint. a hero and in others as an outlaw. E applause.” He Christmas show to war-torn Beirut, he D I E entertainment, horticulture and arts and crafts. F For more information or a free workshop Discover just a few of the myths behind O stared at me with invited me to go along as his writer. I was G Route 66 Fun Run; May 2-4; Seligman-Topock; R brochure, contact Friends of Arizona A the man at the 25th Annual Wyatt Earp Days. M that famous sneer happy to be included, but I asked him, “Bob, (928) 753-5001. A road rally on the longest remaining / Highways at (602) 712-2004, toll-free D L E at (888) 790-7042 or visit their Web site Event highlights include gunfight stretch of historic U.S. Route 66. F of his and said, why me?” He said, “Because you write fast, H C Cinco de Mayo Parade and Celebration; May 5; Yuma; S at www.friendsofazhighways.com. re-enactments, an 1880’s fashion show, R “How long have you write funny and you’re expendable.” I

H (928) 783-2423. Parade, folklorico dancers, art exhibits L

a parade, a chili cook-off and live A you been writing He was kidding . . . I think. and ethnic food at Historic Main Street. OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS ­entertainment. Information: (520) 457-3197. © philosophy?” Hope journeyed to the trouble spots of the September 17-21 Fiesta de las Aves; May 10-11; Bisbee; (520) 432-5421. Photograph two of Navajoland’s An International Migration Celebration of the region’s He wanted world for more than half a decade. premier locations — Monument Valley Going Once, Going Twice migratory birds, with seminars and tours of southern jokes — funny ones. Whenever fighting would break out Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. and Canyon de Chelly — with Navajo May 10; Ganado Hope played Arizona anywhere on the globe, he would call me photographer LeRoy DeJolie. Spring Arts and Crafts Festival; May 10-11; Prescott; September 21-27 Purchased by John Lorenzo Hubbell in (928) 445-2510. More than 160 artists and crafts people many times. In 1974 he appeared and say simply, “Pack.” Join photographer Jerry Sieve as we 1878, the Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest from the Southwest display work and offer demonstrations following the Phoenix Symphony. He He traveled to these places because he follow the “Footprints of the Anasazi” continuously operated trading post on the at Courthouse Plaza. quipped, “Boy, following the Phoenix had friends there — the men and women ; Tucson; (520) 628-5774. from Chaco Canyon and Ute Mountain Navajo Indian Reservation. The Hubbell Waila Festival; May 17 “If God had Symphony. That’s quite a change from in uniform.­ He brought songs, dances Tribal Park to Arizona’s own Canyon Tohono O’odham Indian social dance performances, family traded goods with the Navajo and meant for us to working with Crosby.” and jokes to these friends, but mostly he de Chelly. craft demonstrations and native food. enjoy flying and Hopi Indians for 89 years until the post was Rendezvous Days; May 23-25; Williams; (928) 635-1418. dining, He would In 1986 Hope was inducted into the brought a touch of home. His message to sold to the National Park Service in 1967. A mountain man re-enactment, black-powder shootout, have made us all Phoenix Open Hall of Fame. He said of that the military serving overseas was, “We parade, carnival and trading post. buzzards,” says The 160-acre original homestead stands as Trappings of the American West; May 23-June 15; honor, “This is my second biggest milestone haven’t forgotten you.” a testimonial to one of the best-loved traders Gene Perret in in golf. The first was when I finally got my Hope ranks as one of our most beloved Flagstaff; (928) 779-2300. Paintings, photography, Someday I Want in the Southwest, and the trading post runs sculpture, jewelry and cowboy artifacts at the Coconino to Go to All the caddy to stop giggling.” entertainers. People love the folks who make much as it has for nearly 100 years. Center for the Arts. Places My Luggage Has Been. To order Hope performed everywhere. He used to them laugh. I know when humorists get to Festival of Hispanic Arts and Crafts; May 24-25; Bid on authentic Indian baskets, rugs, this book ($7.95 plus shipping and do a song in his concert about his travels. It the Pearly Gates, St. Peter might have to do Flagstaff; (928) 774-5213. Mexican arts and crafts, handling) or other Perret humor kachinas, pottery, jewelry and paintings at folklorico performances and historical exhibits. books, call toll-free (800) 543-5432. shows how he could quickly age his writers. some research on them, but not for long. The In Phoenix, call (602) 712-2000. This number was a medley of songs about folks inside will yell, “Hey, let him in, Peter. Note: Dates and activities could change. Before planning to attend events, phone for fees and to confirm days and times. Or use arizonahighways.com. places in the United States. He’d pause He’s a lot of laughs.”

54 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 55 To Flagstaff COCONINO NATIONAL of the month CAMP VERDE FOREST General Crook Trail

PRESCOTT NATIONAL 17 FOREST 260 by TOM KUHN / photographs by BERNADETTE HEATH V FR e 7 rd 0 hike e 8 R To Phoenix iv er Needle Hackberry Rock TRAILHEAD Mtn. Cr. Towel Towel A CLUSTER OF SOUTHERN Tank

Pe KEVIN KIBSEY SINAGUA INDIAN Sinagua Indian ruins that once Towel aks Ruins Await served as an outpost for prehistoric trade routes along the Verde River 2.5 miles to Towel Tank, where nearly year- Hikers Along can be explored today along Towel Creek round water provides a haven for Gambel’s Trail, about 85 miles north of Phoenix, in the quail. The trail from the tank to the ruins TOWEL CREEK Coconino National Forest. descends 1,000 feet in 2 miles over tipsy rocks Trail Near The 700- to 900-year-old ruins, reachable by and loose gravel that kept me dancing for a 5.5-mile one-way day hike on Forest Trail 67 balance. I encountered only one other set of Camp Verde from Forest Service Road 708 southeast of the footprints on the May hike. town of Camp Verde, are among several sites The hump of 5,831-foot Hackberry Mountain spaced along the river between Phoenix and appears over your right shoulder and 5,546-foot the Mogollon Rim. Towel Peaks over your left. Towel Creek in There’s another, shorter route to the Towel springtime forms clear, cool pools, but local springs prove unreliable for drinking water, so carry what you need. Two of the Towel ruins remain well- preserved beneath sandstone bluffs. The first one you’ll spot forms a wall of mud- mortared rock across the mouth of a 60- foot cave that in summer shelters bats and stinks of guano. Another, slightly smaller, bat-free habitat just to the west features a chimney slot near the roofline. Rubble from structures that may have stored food is found in other caves. From the ruins, looking southwest, a former ranch building nicknamed the “Salt Shack” for the salt licks once stored there now serves as a hiker’s storm shelter. Rancher Clifford Finch of Camp Verde, [above] Sinagua Indian who maintains a headquarters near Needle Location: About 85 miles ruins near Towel Creek ruins that involves Rock, says hikers stand a chance of seeing north of Phoenix. in central Arizona fording the Verde cougars, coyotes and mule deer. Towel Creek intrigue the hardy Getting There: From River from the west. Trail, rated moderate, proves generally easy to Interstate 17, take the hikers who make the General Crook Trail, State 5.5-mile trek in, but Spring high water follow. In places where it’s vague, hikers have Route 260, into Camp the Forest Service has and summer erected rock cairns. Verde. Follow SR 260 urged people to look without touching the cloudbursts make After the hike, head for Cottonwood. Where across the Verde for 7 miles, then turn this way a gamble, the town stands was probably a stop for south on the graveled FR 708 for 8.5 fragile site. miles to Needle Rock. Parking is [opposite page] however. Sinaguans passing northward along Towel Creek, limited to a clearing east of the road Monkey flowers and Hiking in from FR and it is the site of the major ancient settlement just past Needle Rock. Don’t block the cottonwood trees thrive along Towel 708 lets you keep of Tuzigoot, now a national monument. ranch road on the west side. your feet dry to the Ground Positioning System [GPS] Creek. UTM coordinates: Verde Road trailhead, ruins — all For families, novices and experts, 436864mE, 3809957mN; Towel Tank, accessible by an easy climb from the main trail. Arizona Hiking: Urban Trails, Easy 435022mE, 3807699mN; first ruin, Watch for a yellow fence gate along Verde River Paths & Overnight Treks features a 5430721mE, 3807907mN. trail mix ranging from urban-area Travel Advisory: Leave all historical Road, about 500 yards south of Needle Rock, preserves to the Grand Canyon. and archaeological artifacts in place. that marks the trailhead. A brown sign on the The book brims with how-to and October through May is the best time to east side of the road, readable only from the where-to-go information on more hike this trail. Carry water and a walking opposite direction, offers another clue. There’s than 70 hikes, plus 120 color stick; wear sturdy footwear. photos. To order ($16.95 plus Additional Information: Red Rock a wire livestock gate for riders. shipping and handling), call (800) 543-5432. Or use Ranger District, (928) 282-4119. Cross the wash, follow the old jeep road for arizonahighways.com.

56 MAY 2003 arizonahighways.com