RETREAT to an Idyllic Mountain Frontier JUNE 2005 get wet9! ‘Crevicing’ for Critters Saddle Up, City Slickers Ball Courts Pose Ancient Mystery Grand Canyon {departments} National Park 2 LETTERS & E-MAIL JUNE 2005 Buck Mountain 3 ALL WHO WANDER Greenlee County Four Peaks 4 TA K I N G THE OFF-RAMP YUMA PHOENIX Explore Arizona oddities, TUCSON attractions and pleasures. Ironwood Forest National Monument Patagonia 40 ALONG THE WAY Mountains COVER/PORTFOLIO NATURE The searing heat of lightning POINTS OF INTEREST 20 32 and the watchfulness of man FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE Time for a Swim Look in the Rocks combine to chart the course of a forest. in the Great Outdoors for Desert Critters 42 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE If you love our deserts and mountains, you’ll be full A community of intriguing creatures thrives Ironwood Forest National Monument of bliss when you take a dip in any of our world-class happily and safely between piles of boulders, The loop drive around this desert region proves backcountry swimming holes. where human “crevicers” shine reflected light to rustic and lonesome, with superb distant BY CARRIE M. MINER glimpse a hidden world. views and reminders of early mining days. WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY KIM WISMANN 46 DESTINATION TRAVEL Yuma’s Sanguinetti House Museum RECREATION 8 Quiet Retreat The old adobe structure, once owned by a remarkable 36 City Folks Saddle Up pioneer merchant, now tells diverse stories of to Greenlee County the area’s Indians, soldiers and explorers. In far-eastern Arizona, this forested mountain region for a Trail Adventure 48 HIKE OF THE MONTH is officially a “frontier” — and its superb scenery and Down in southern Arizona’s Patagonia Mountains, Buck Mountain trekkers can visit a 1939-vintage serenity create a tonic for what ails you. city dwellers get a feel of the Old West on an wooden lookout tower listed on the National Register BY DOUGLAS KREUTZ PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACK DYKINGA overnight horseback escapade. of Historic Places. BY SAM NEGRI PHOTOGRAPHS BY KERRICK JAMES ARCHAEOLOGY 18 highways online Did Heads Really Roll [THIS PAGE] A rising moon peeks over the rock-strewn hillside crowned { } at arizonahighways.com by the ancient Sinaguan pueblo Tuzigoot north of Cottonwood. LARRY LINDAHL on Ancient Ball Courts? [FRONT COVER] Safely sealed in an Ewa-marine plastic PVC housing and HUMOR BY GENE PERRET No one knows for sure if these ruins found around the held just at the stream’s surface, photographer Nick Berezenko’s 35 mm Modern medicine has come a long way, but . Olympus captures Phoenix resident Bök Lundgren and some companion the hospital gowns are still a bit airy in the back. state were used for deadly games or rituals, but some fish gliding through Fossil Creek. See portfolio, page 20. NICK BEREZENKO clues remain in art. [BACK COVER] Navajo Falls provides a backdrop for adolescent exuberance in Havasu ONLINE EXTRA Canyon on the Havasupai Indian Reservation. See portfolio, page 20. KERRICK JAMES BY ANNE MONTGOMERY Fishing for Northern Pike The sporty, non-native fish is a major predator of other species, but catching them is an adventure. WEEKEND GETAWAY Chiricahua National Monument Visitors can explore elaborate geology where nature has carved gravity-defying formations. EXPERIENCE ARIZONA A listing of major events in the state is available online. {highways on television} Arizona Highways magazine has inspired an independently produced weekly television series, hosted by Phoenix TV news anchor Robin Sewell. The half-hour program can be seen in several cities in English and Spanish. For channels and show times, log on to arizonahighways.com; click on DISCOVER ARIZONA; then click on the ‘Arizona Highways goes to television!’ link on the right-hand side. Photographic Prints Each month, prints of some photographs from Available Arizona Highways will be offered for sale. The selected photos will be designated in the picture captions and will be available in two formats. To order prints by phone, call toll-free (866) 962-1191 or visit www.magazineprints.com. (For other magazine-related business: In Phoenix or outside the U.S., call (602) 712-2000, or call toll-free (800) 543-5432.) {letters & e-mail} by Peter Aleshire, editor {all who wander} JUNE 2005 VOL. 81, NO. 6 Publisher WIN HOLDEN Editor PETER ALESHIRE Embracing the Fear Ostriches in Arizona Senior Editor BETH DEVENY Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN Wisdom of the Mule Whisperer: Spare the Spurs, Smell the Cholla In your first “All Who Wander” column in the April This afternoon, I read “No Dummies, These Big Research Editor LORI K. BAKER Editorial Administrator CONNIE BOCH 2005 issue, you touched upon the emotion of fear. Ostriches” (January ’05). My first encounter with Administrative Assistant NIKKI KIMBEL andy sets her ears and plants her mule shoes. like a semi dragging a crumpled Volkswagen. Gary and There should be a sense of fear in all of us, and we ostriches in Arizona was in the late 1960s when I Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER Mountain on my right, cliff on my left — nowhere to Dixie left a perfect mule-man hole through that tree, should feel its existence every day of our lives. Fear was 9 years old. My family owned Coyote Springs Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK go but forward. decorated with bits of Gary. Dixie dragged him along for S serves as a reminder that we are alive and willing to Ranch located at the base of Mingus Mountain Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY “Hehhah,” I yell, a cowboy in command. another 10 feet before she stopped and stared down at stretch the limits of our known horizons. outside of Prescott. Disney filmed The Feather Farm, Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP Nothing. her prostrate foe. Art Assistant PAULY HELLER With your eyes wide open, you are knowingly a “Wonderful World of Disney” Sunday night movie, Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY “Forward, you mangy, mule-headed can of dog chow,” I Dazed, Gary unwrapped the reins, staggered to his pushing a distinguished writing career into the on our ranch. The stars of the movie were ostriches Arizona Highways Books holler, slapping Sandy across the haunches with the reins, feet, stumbled toward his gear, and pulled out his uncharted and possibly raging waters that will greet that Disney brought to the ranch. Editor BOB ALBANO the low point in a long day at Sandy’s mercy as I chased .45-caliber semiautomatic. Associate Editor EVELYN HOWELL a new magazine editor. I sense you embrace the fear. One of the ostriches laid an egg, and it was given Associate Editor PK PERKIN MCMAHON wacko cattle up and down some hellacious hillsides. Up strolled Jed, the head wrangler. Therefore, I suspect you will enjoy your tenure as the to my oldest sister who took it to Prescott High Production Director KIM ENSENBERGER This I do not need. “Whatcha doing?” asked Jed casually. ninth editor of this very special magazine. School where it was put in an incubator (it never Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON Life harbors enough frustrations. My kids are moving “I’m gonna shoot that mule,” said Gary, wiping a trickle Webmaster VICKY SNOW William Ramsay III, Carlsbad, CA hatched). There was a big snowstorm during the away, getting odd jobs and just generally growing beyond of blood from his cheek. Director of Sales & Marketing KELLY MERO filming, and the ostriches were snowed in, so the my reach. I have a new job I can barely manage and a Jed nodded sagely. Missing the Humor film crew burned a wood fence for warmth and a Circulation Director HOLLY CARNAHAN desk so piled with papers I can’t find a level surface. “I’m gonna shoot that mule right between the eyes,” I was terribly disappointed when Gene Perret’s helicopter dropped food to them. Finance Director BOB ALLEN I don’t need this lunkhead mule said Gary. writings were removed from your magazine. In The Feather Farm aired on October 26, 1969. Fulfillment Director VALERIE J. BECKETT giving me trouble. “Simple justice,” Jed observed. the April 2005 issue, I was doubly disappointed to Though my six siblings and I now live all across the Information Technology Manager I jerk the reins and thump her “You’re not going to try to stop me?” asked Gary, eyes discover the “Highway to Humor” page was missing. country, we all have memories of that special time. CINDY BORMANIS with my heels. narrowed. I have been a subscriber for many years. I do not We even have ostrich ornaments to hang on our FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES Abruptly, she half turns and backs “Nope,” Jed said, staring speculatively at Dixie, who OR TO ORDER BY PHONE: plan to renew. Christmas trees. Call toll-free: (800) 543-5432 rapidly down-slope toward disaster. in turn watched Gary with self-satisfied contempt. “Of Humor, to me, is just as important as food and Susan B. Hofstra, Gaithersburg, MD In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., My mind grows wondrously course, you’ll have to pay for her.” Call (602) 712-2000 drink. Any publication without a humor section is of Or visit us online at: clear — several overlooked details “That’s all right,” Gary said. no value to me. Arizona Highways seems to fit that Inspiration in Stones arizonahighways.com come forcefully to mind. For “Eight hundred dollars.” category. Adios. I enjoyed reading your article “The Peralta Stones: For Corporate or Trade Sales: DOLORES FIELD instance, Sandy outweighs me nearly Gary paused. “It’s worth it.” John Roark, Stanford, MT Maps to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine or Hoax?” in Call (602) 712-2045 10 to one— and could out-muscle “Of course, there’s one other thing.” Alas, I, too, mourn the dearly departed humor page.