APRIL 2017

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE

q Explore q sonoita- Patagonia

Special Collector’s Issue � 44 IT’S GOOD TO BE HOME He’s been an actor, a model and a musi- Grand Canyon National Park cian. He dates beautiful women, travels, surfs, rides motorcycles and advocates for causes he believes in. But there are Jerome two places singer-songwriter Mark Prescott Wystrach feels grounded — at home Fort Apache April 2017 on the family ranch near Sonoita, and PHOENIX onstage with his Midland bandmates. By Kelly Vaughn Duncan 2 EDITOR’S LETTER Photographs by Scott Baxter Sonoita 3 CONTRIBUTORS Bisbee 50 RUNE WITH A VIEW Patagonia 4 LETTERS In history books, a rune is a letter of an POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE ancient Germanic alphabet. In Southern 5 THE JOURNAL Arizona, it’s the name of a new winery — People, places and things from around the one that pairs award-winning viogniers state, including Fort Apache Historic Park; and mourvèdres with spectacular views American bison, and where to find them of the Mustang Mountains. in Arizona; the old “666” highway; and the By Noah Austin GET MORE ONLINE 150th birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright. Photograph by Paul Markow www.arizonahighways.com

16 THE BIG PICTURES: 52 SCENIC DRIVE /azhighways Prescott Lakes Loop: As the name SONOITA-PATAGONIA @azhighways suggests, this scenic drive is highlighted A Portfolio Edited by Jeff Kida @arizonahighways by a series of lakes, but the route also 32 DEAR JIM ... includes aspens, spruce and oaks; an old pink car; and a chance for a plate An Essay by Kelly Vaughn of potato pancakes. Photographs by Scott Baxter By Kathy Montgomery 36 SAN IGNACIO DEL BABACOMARI 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH The romantic saga of four centuries of Woodchute Trail: Of the many wilder- European culture on historic soil. A story ness areas in Arizona, Woodchute is originally published in our September among the smallest. In all, it protects 1966 issue. only 5,887 acres, but within that space is By Frank Cullen Brophy this great hike, where you might see black bears, bobcats and bald eagles. By Robert Stieve Photographs by Joel Hazelton ◗ An elk climbs Greens Peak, about 56 WHERE IS THIS? 10 miles northwest of Greer, amid morning fog. The peak’s summit has an elevation of 10,134 feet. Paul Gill CANON EOS 5D MARK III, 1/8000 SEC, F/8, ISO 400, 105 MM LENS

FRONT COVER: Sonoita-Patagonia illustration by Chris Gall

BACK COVER: Mark Wystrach, the lead singer of the country band Midland, is photographed at his family home near Sonoita. Scott Baxter FUJIFILM X-T1, 1/250 SEC, F/4, ISO 200, 35 MM LENS

2 OCTOBER 2015 PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS AVAILABLE Prints of some photographs in this issue are available for purchase. To view options, visit www.arizona highwaysprints.com. For more information, call 866-962-1191. www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s LETTER CONTRIBUTORS

SCOTT BAXTER Scott Baxter, a frequent Arizona Highways APRIL 2017 VOL. 93 NO. 4 “In theory, I should never have liked you,” she contributor, and Kelly Vaughn, our manag- writes in Dear Jim ... . “The naturalist Bukowski, 800-543-5432 ing editor, share a passion: Santa Cruz free with your stories of women and wine. You www.arizonahighways.com County, the focus of this month’s issue on were rough, occasionally vulgar. You smelled of Sonoita and Patagonia. “If Kelly and I were smoke and your skin had started to yellow and the each to pick our favorite county in the state, PUBLISHER Win Holden part of me that wasn’t in awe of you was a little bit it would probably be Santa Cruz,” Baxter EDITOR Robert Stieve frightened. But you wrote from your bones, your says. This month, his photos accompany own marrow into poetry, novellas. And you made ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, two of Vaughn’s pieces: an essay on the late Rodgers and Hammerstein DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero get most of the credit, but we had a little some­ me believe that there was something to writing.” Jim Harrison (see Dear Jim ... , page 32) and a thing to do with Oklahoma!, too. The movie, not Kelly never heard back from Mr. Harrison after MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn profile of country singer Mark Wystrach (see the musical. Like many things in the history of her first piece, and it seems unlikely she’ll get a ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin It’s Good to Be Home, page 44). Baxter’s

Arizona Highways, our involvement was seren­di­ response to this one. However, he surely would EDITORIAL chance meeting with Harrison several years pitous. In this case, it goes back to the 1950s, have appreciated the uncompromising honesty ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel ago led to an earlier Arizona Highways story when a road crew for the production company was scouting locations for the and heartfelt affection of her words. Or, maybe PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida on the legendary writer, but Baxter wasn’t film. They started in Oklahoma, for obvious reasons, but after racking up he would have used the pages to start a campfire. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney familiar with Wystrach — not right away, more than 250,000 miles in the Sooner State, they gave up and made the call. Or roll a cigarette. Sadly, we’ll never know. Rest ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney anyway. “He ended up being really down

“Ummm ... hello, Mr. Hammerstein. I’m afraid we’ve got some bad news. in peace, dear Jim. MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey to earth — great guy, great family,” he says. “The whole shoot was very comfortable. I

We’ve looked everywhere, and this isn’t going to work. Not in Oklahoma, Despite his larger-than-life personality, Jim PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi hate to use the cliché, but it was kind of like an old shoe.” Baxter is currently working on an Arizona Highways project about the state’s Native American spiritual leaders. His other anyway. Too many oil wells cluttering the landscape. There’s no way to re- Harrison was hardly representative of most men WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow create the wide-open spaces that existed in the early 1900s. Oh, and another in Sonoita. Most men down there are proper recent credits include a February 2017 feature in Cowboys & Indians magazine. CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman thing, there are too many planes in the sky.” gentlemen, cut from the same cloth as the singing FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen So, Oklahoma was out, and there wasn’t a Plan B. That is, until Arthur cowboys in Oklahoma!. J.P.S. Brown, one of our OPERATIONS/ Hornblow Jr., the movie’s producer, picked up a copy of Arizona Highways. As good friends and a longtime contributor, is one of IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis he was flipping through the pages, he saw a beautiful color photograph of those gentlemen. And so is Mark Wystrach.

the spacious San Rafael Valley. Most likely, it was a shot by Josef Muench. Or As I write this column, Kelly is busy writing CORPORATE OR maybe Esther Henderson. Regardless, the lush grasslands, rolling hills and a profile of the latter — we’re both pushing our TRADE SALES 602-712-2018 stormy monsoon clouds of Southern Arizona were enough to convince the deadlines to the very brink this month. Although SPONSORSHIP SALES REPRESENTATION On Media Publications Hollywood executive to film the exterior scenes of the movie in San Rafael, I haven’t seen her story yet, here’s what I can Todd Bresnahan along with Elgin, Sonoita and Patagonia. tell you about her subject: Mark Wystrach was 602-445-7169 If you’ve never been to those places, you might be wondering how a state raised on a ranch near Sonoita, his parents own

best known for its canyons and cactuses could stand in for the Great Plains The Steak Out restaurant in town, he’s been a LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] of Oklahoma. It’ll make more sense when you get to this month’s portfolio. model and an actor, and now he’s the lead singer 2039 W. Lewis Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85009 As you’ll see, Southern Arizona is different. It defies the stereotype, and just for an incredible Austin-based band called Mid­ about everyone who visits wants to move there. There’s an allure that’s hard land. Last winter, Rolling Stone named the band GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey to put into words. Keith Whitney says it’s the serenity, the isolation and the one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to DIRECTOR, simplicity of a place that hasn’t changed much since Oklahoma! was filmed Know.” And Entertainment Weekly calls it one of DEPARTMENT in the ’50s. the “10 Artists Who Will Rule in 2017.” OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski Keith, affectionately known as “the Brochacho,” is our talented art director, The first song off their first EP is titled Drinkin’ and he’s been exploring Sonoita all his life — his grandfather bought a ranch Problem — “People say I got a drinkin’ problem, Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published month- ly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Subscrip- down there around the same time Rodgers and Hammerstein showed up. For but I got no problem drinkin’ at all.” Rolling Stone JOEL HAZELTON tion price: $24 a year in the U.S., $44 outside the U.S. a while now, some of us have been pushing Keith to set up a satellite office on says it “rolls along on a slinky barroom shuffle Single copy: $4.99 U.S. Call 800-543-5432. Subscription You may have seen Joel Hazelton’s name and photographs popping up a lot lately in the family spread. “I don’t know,” he says. “It’s pretty rustic.” By that, he as if it’s coming straight out of a neon-lit jukebox cor­respon­dence and change of address information: Ari- Arizona Highways. But the magazine, he says, had an impact on him long before he zona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. means, “There’s no indoor plumbing.” But that won’t stop us from pushing. circa 1978.” They like it. Obviously. And so does Periodical postage paid at Phoenix, AZ, and at additional became a contributor. “My parents had a subscription to Arizona Highways, and I would We’re dying to get out of the heat and spend our summers down there. In the everyone else, it seems. It’s one of those great mailing office.CANADA POST INTERNATIONAL PUBLI- stare at the magazine for hours,” he says. “This was during the early 2000s, when guys same way Jim Harrison spent his winters on the nearby Alto Ranch. songs that get stuck in your head. People say I got a CATIONS MAIL PRODUCT (CANA­DIAN DISTRIBUTION) like Jeff Snyder and Nick Berezenko were out shooting these crazy canyons, and that SALES AGREE­MENT NO. 40732015. SEND RETURNS TO That ranch is owned by Bill and Bob Bergier. In many ways, though, it drinkin’ problem ... QUAD/GRAPHICS, P.O. BOX 456, NIAGARA FALLS ON L2E was the style that really spoke to me and largely influenced the work I do now.” In 2010, belonged to Jim Harrison, the brilliant and unabashedly bawdy author of I think even Rodgers and Hammerstein would 6V2. POSTMASTER­ : Send address changes to Arizona another contributor, Derek von Briesen, emailed Hazelton to compliment his work and Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copy­ urge him to pitch it to the magazine. After some guidance from Photo Editor Jeff Kida, Legends of the Fall. Five years ago, Kelly Vaughn profiled Mr. Harrison for be singing along. right © 2017 by the Ari­zona Department of Trans­­por­­tation. our August issue. This month, we’re running an essay that she wrote about Repro­duc­tion in whole or in part with­­out permission is pro- Hazelton finally made it intoArizona Highways in 2014. This month, he shot photos of the a year ago, the day after her literary hero died at his home away from home hibited. The magazine does not accept and is not respon- Woodchute Trail (see Hike of the Month, page 54), which Hazelton and his girlfriend have ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR sible for un­solicited ma­ter­ials. along Sonoita Creek. Follow me on Instagram: @arizonahighways visited twice on backpacking trips, camping on a flat summit near the northwestern edge of Woodchute Mountain. “I enjoy the accessibility, the solitude — especially in spite of the PRODUCED IN THE USA accessibility — the groomed trail and the huge views from the rim,” he says. — NOAH AUSTIN

2 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP LILY BAXTER ABOVE, RIGHT JONATHAN BUFORD www.arizonahighways.com 3 LETTERS [email protected] THE JOURNAL Balancing act I LOVED THE ESSAY TITLED An Essay by Kelly Vaughn Balancing Act [February 2017]. From the headline on, Kelly Vaughn’s article cap­ tures the family trip with the best and fewest of words. I just sent it to my son, a ESSAY TK My Stars! believer in Vaughn’s “grand idea.” I will The Milky Way galaxy forever carry an image of her two children stretches across a starry sky grabbing each other’s hands under that over an old building at Cliff dark Arizona sky — the sky I remember Dwellers Lodge, located

With a storm and from my own Arizona childhood. rainbow in the beneath the Vermilion Cliffs distance, a petrified log “pedestal” rises from the landscape of Petrified Forest National Park’s Blue Mesa area. Michèle Peterson, Santa Barbara, California Jack Dykinga in Northern Arizona. The ruin 30 FEBRUARY 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 31 dates to the 1920s, when the February 2017 Russell family established a small trading post there. For he Petrified Forest portfolio is amaz­ had in that area. Toroweap is now on my budget and/or technology. In conclusion, more information, call 928- 355-2261 or visit www ing [February 2017]. However, I’m con­ bucket list. I would say I am for artistic choices: .cliffdwellerslodge.com. T fused. If the age of many of the trees Linda Rolf, Littleton, Colorado B&W, color, sepia and even colorization NIKON D500, 25 SEC, F/2.8, and, I assume, tree pieces are more than of B&W. They all work when desired. ISO 3200, 16 MM LENS 200 million years old, why is it that many thought about writing a comment a Charles Lopresto, Phoenix of the petrified tree sections appear to while back in regard to your “Black have been sawed cleanly apart? A bit I & White Issue” [November 2016], was immediately drawn to the pho­ more of the scientific explanation of the but I got sidetracked. Lately, however, tograph of the phenomenon known as actual process of petrifying would have I’ve seen in your Letters more than one I an inversion at the Grand Canyon [The been fascinating to read about. criticism of that issue. I’m not one who Journal, February 2017]. It was perhaps Bob Klages, Oxford, Michigan would want to criticize other readers 25 years ago when my wife, three chil­ about something as subjective as the dren and I planned to spend two nights EDITOR’S NOTE: That’s a great question, Bob. merits of color photography versus black at one of the lodges on the South Rim. The answer is too long to include here, so we’ll and white photography. But as a former We arrived late afternoon and headed follow up personally with an email. For anyone art major at Arizona State University to one of the vista points for a quick else who might be interested, please visit our and one who used to be in the graphics view of the magnificent Canyon before blog at www.arizonahighways.com/blog. business, I’m perplexed by this notion eating dinner. We had the entire next that somehow B&W is inferior to color. day to explore and marvel at the beauty uring the summer of 1968, I worked Do people not realize it’s an alternative ... or so we thought. After dinner and a at Grand Canyon National Park as a that embodies features and character­ restful night’s sleep, we awoke to one D seasonal employee and was assigned istics making it unique from color? The of those very rare inversions. All of the to be a secretary in the chief ranger’s gritty, hard-edge features of a desert set­ park rangers were excited, because it office. Every morning around 8 a.m., ting, with weathered wood and craggy happens so seldom. For us, however, we John Riffey, “from the monument,” rocks and the deep shadows that are were extremely disappointed that we would call in by radio to report on con­ cast by a blistering sun, all make B&W wouldn’t be able to enjoy the views of ditions. His cheerful, upbeat voice gave a punctuating portrait of the desert and this park. Fortunately, we did take one energy to the day and I enjoyed talking the canyon country. And, clearly, your photograph of the five of us in front of with him. He was so friendly and I could magazine, with its pursuit of quality, has the Canyon. It became our family photo, tell how much he loved his job. I never photography as its main purpose and it’s which we sent with our Christmas cards met him, though, and was curious about always been the main purpose. So B&W that year. It also became a story that all his life at the monument. Imagine my is obviously not the solution to some of us will recall … not so fondly. surprise and delight to read the article cost-saving decision. People in an odd Jim Lavold, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin [Fringe Benefits] about John Riffey and way have a strange conception of B&W Toroweap in the January 2017 issue, and films in much the same way. They often contact us If you have thoughts or com- to see a photograph of the ranger station can’t comprehend that B&W is an artis­ ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d where he lived and broadcasted from. I tic and fully intended decision, not just love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis enjoyed the entire article, especially the a convenience from an earlier time when Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, part about his life and the influence he color cinematography was limited by visit www.arizonahighways.com.

4 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SHERMAN around arizona J

Description: The Fort Apache post office pictured here serves the small local community. . Photo by: Photographer: Mark W. Lipczynski. D_041706A.tif.

Fort Apache Historic Park

NOAH AUSTIN

FORT APACHE, located on the White Mountain Apache Tribe’s land in Eastern Arizona, has seen several uses in its nearly 150-year history. It was established as a U.S. Army post in the 1870s and became a focal point of the Apache Wars. When the Army abandoned the post in the Visitors explore the 1920s, the Interior Department took over, monument near repurposing some of the buildings for use Faraway Ranch in as the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Board- the 1920s. ing School. The tribe now operates the site’s school, which became a National Historic Landmark in 2012. It and the other old Army buildings — including the Fort Apache adjutant’s office (pictured), built of adobe around 1876 and now used as a post office — are part of Fort Apache Historic Park. A historic district that encompasses the park has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE TRIBE Fort Apache Historic Park, 928-338-4525, www.wmat.nsn.us/fortapachepark.htm

6 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LIPCZYNSKI www.arizonahighways.com 7 J history photography J

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

■ On April 4, 1988, Rose Mofford is sworn in as Arizona’s first woman gov- ernor, following Governor Evan Mecham’s removal from office. Mofford had become acting governor when Mecham was impeached that February. ■ Charles Poston, often known as the “Father of Arizona,” is born on April 20, 1825. Poston helped convince President Abra- ham Lincoln to create the Arizona Territory. ■ The Gadsden Purchase Frank Lloyd Wright is ratified and signed by There aren’t many American architects with household names. Frank Lloyd Wright, President Franklin Pierce who would be 150 this year, is one of the few. Especially in Arizona, a place he called on April 25, 1854. Under home permanently from 1937 until his death in 1959. the agreement, the U.S. purchases nearly 30,000 BRIANNA COSSAVELLA square miles, including most of present-day rchitect, writer and educator Frank another seven decades. Southern Arizona, from Lloyd Wright was as prolific as he was Wright’s designs were built in several states Mexico for $10 million. creative. Of the more than 1,100 works and around the world. One of his most famous A he designed or influenced, more than designs was the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. In 500 were built, and several of those, including 1923, a major earthquake struck that city, but Q&A: John Sherman the David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix the hotel stood strong and became a relief 50 YEARS AGO IN ARIZONA HIGHWAYS PHOTO EDITOR JEFF KIDA PHOTO and Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium in center. Later in Wright’s career, he delivered WORKSHOP Tempe, are still standing in Arizona today. lectures at universities and wrote books about Wright’s creations fit seamlessly in Ari­ art and architecture. JK: Tell us about this photograph. one taking off with a trout that has lift my telephoto lens up, get focus zona’s desert landscape, as they did in other Wright took his work seriously, and it’s been JS: This is an osprey at Frances a hook, line and sinker coming out and try to align myself with where parts of the U.S. But each Wright building is said that he put the same amount of mental Short Pond in Flagstaff. An osprey of its mouth. it will be when it hits the water. also a symbol of the architect’s approach to energy into his architecture as the Founding will hover above a body of water, his craft. He strived for “organic architecture” Fathers put into creating a sustainable country. then dive to the surface to catch JK: What goes into making JK: You rarely shoot with your Slot and wanted every design to respect not just its He made it his duty to produce designs that a fish. As it climbs back into the air a photo like this? lenses wide open. Why? Canyons and landscape, but also its client and materials. enhanced American civilization and quality of with the fish in its grasp, it’ll shake JS: This photo in particular, I knew JS: If you’re using a long lens — the Paria “Constant reference to the principles of life. “Without Art and Architecture, civiliza­ off the water, as this osprey is doing. I had a great backlight situation, 500 mm, in this case — to photo- Plateau Nature is the only sure basis of the true Image tion has no soul,” he wrote. and combined with the trees in graph a bird in flight and its wing- September 20-24, Page JK: Why do you like photograph- the background, I knew I could tips are your focus point, its head — whether in Arizona, Africa or the South-Sea Wright died in 1959, but his influence Navajo photographer Isles,” Wright wrote in a 1956 Arizona Highways endures. In honor of his work and philosophy, Tonto Creek was the focus ing these birds? highlight the burst of water when will be out of focus if you’re shoot- LeRoy DeJolie leads essay. “Right or wrong, ethics in line with the there are two Frank Lloyd Wright School of of the April 1967 issue of JS: Their behavior is pretty the osprey shook it off. This pond is ing wide open. I’ll shoot that way in participants on an exploration of some principles of Nature never do go wrong.” Architecture campuses: Taliesin, in Wright’s Arizona Highways, and predictable, and it’s exciting to nice because you can walk around low light, but as the sun comes up of the world’s most Born 150 years ago in Richland Center, native state of Wisconsin, and Taliesin West, Frank Elmer’s front cover watch them dive in to catch a fish it and pick your angle based on and everything gets brighter, if I go intriguing and pho- Wisconsin, Wright originally pursued a in Scottsdale, Arizona. photo showed the mean- — they’re generally really good at the light and the prevailing wind — down to f/7.1 or f/8, it gives me an togenic landscapes. career as an engineer. In 1886, he moved to dering waterway at Kohls it. It’s always funny to see a bunch knowing that the osprey will want extra 6 to 8 inches of depth of field Locations include Lower Antelope ABOVE: In 1929, Frank Lloyd Wright lived at Ocatillo, a camp Chicago, where his architectural pursuits took Ranch east of Payson. of people fishing at the pond and to face into the wind. I prefer to to make the photo work. Canyon, Horseshoe he designed near South Mountain in the Phoenix area, off. He worked for the firm Adler & Sullivan Another feature detailed not catching anything, and then an shoot without a tripod, and once Bend and Lake Powell. while working on a resort project that was doomed by that Information: 888-790- for about five years, then left to seek indi­ year’s stock market crash. Here, he poses with his third wife, how Charolais cattle osprey shows up and gets a fish I see the bird hover, there’s a good TOP: An osprey takes flight with a fresh 7042 or www.ahpw.org vidual endeavors. His career flourished for Olgivanna, and daughters Svetlana and Iovanna. imported from France right away. I’ve got a crazy photo of chance it’s about to dive, so I can catch at Frances Short Pond in Flagstaff. were adapting to the rich SCOTTSDALE Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 480-627-5340, www.franklloydwright.org grasslands of Arizona. To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography.

8 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPH: CHANDLER MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP JOHN SHERMAN ABOVE, RIGHT MEGAN GALOPE www.arizonahighways.com 9 J from our archives [August 1963]

The August 1963 issue of Arizona Highways celebrated the Coronado Trail, a “highly spectacular” route from Springerville to Clifton. “You could spend an entire summer exploring the Coronado Trail country,” Editor Raymond Carlson wrote, “and much will remain to be discovered when you return again and again.” Back then, as shown in this Dale L. Slocum photo, the road was designated U.S. Route 666; in the 1990s, it became part of the slightly less beastly U.S. Route 191.

10 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 11 J dining nature J

all his dough, Roof uses olive oil (a rarity) and very little salt or sugar, plus a little stone-ground, whole- wheat flour mixed into the pizza flour. The house-made sauce includes a proprietary blend of seasonings and a little Romano cheese. Roof also blends two whole-milk moz­ zarellas to get just the right balance of salt and butterfat; he grates the cheeses daily and allows them to rest, like wine. The final elements are generous portions of high-quality toppings, with produce hand-picked and “gourmet cut” into round slices for presentation. The aptly named Not So Humble includes pepperoni, sausage, beef, mushrooms, bell peppers and black olives. Add ham, onions and green olives to get the Downright Proud. Then there’s the lasagna, which customers get so gushy about, it’s enough to make a person blush. Roof initially invested in And great pizza it is. Located in the a pizza franchise based in the Phoenix Humble Pie correspondingly small Southeastern Ari­ area, eventually buying his partners out. American Although it’s best known as a zona town of Duncan, the tiny pizzeria Then he tired of the city and of managing Bison community of ranchers and miners draws customers from Silver City, New employees, and he sold the business. In Mexico, more than an hour away. Its 1996, Roof moved his family to Duncan, American bison (Bison on the banks of the Gila River, bison), among the largest faithful includes truckers who happily a community of ranchers and miners on extant members of the Duncan is also home to some of the detour off the interstate to get their fix. the banks of the Gila River. best pizza in Arizona — its faithful cow family, are found Humble Pie is, in its truest sense, a “We really liked the area,” he says. “It in two areas in Arizona includes truckers who happily detour mom-and-pop operation. Other than was quiet. It was simple.” And he and — the Kaibab Plateau, off the interstate to get their fix. occasional appearances by their adult Chris were done with pizza. north of the Grand children, the only people you’ll find Then a friend told him he had a God- Canyon, and Raymond KATHY MONTGOMERY behind the Dutch door that serves as given gift, and that Duncan needed him. Wildlife Area, east of a counter are Roof and his wife, Chris, With two brothers in medicine and a Flagstaff. Despite their NEARLY EVERYTHING ABOUT Hum­ who have been making pizza together daughter who aspired to law school, Roof size, they’re quick — ble Pie is, well, humble. The 513-square- for so many years, you can’t tell his from had his doubts. His mother, a minister’s adults can run a quarter- foot building is sparsely decorated, with hers. And that control over every pizza is wife, reassured him. “Whatever you do mile at 35 mph. Also, with massive bodies and three picnic tables, a soda machine and the key to Humble Pie’s success. in life, do your best and let God do the great, bearded faces, the a clock with a pizza face. It’s almost as if Roof learned pizza-making nearly rest,” she told him. animals are easy to spot. owner Pete Roof put so much energy into 30 years ago, and through constant “I was finally at peace that I’m just a Just don’t expect them to turning out great pizza, he had nothing refinements, he’s made the recipe his pizza guy,” Roof says, however humble spot you. Although their left over for decorating. own. Mixing, balling and cold-proofing that may seem. hearing is sharp, their eyesight is poor. DUNCAN Humble Pie, 117 Main Street, 928-359-9866 — Kelly Vaughn

12 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW PHOTOGRAPH BY BRUCE D. TAUBERT www.arizonahighways.com 13 J lodging

an apartment building — adding bath­ School House Inn rooms and interior walls to the large You won’t see a lot of third- and fourth-graders reading and writing at this classrooms, but keeping their signature B&B in Bisbee, but 99 years ago, that was the norm. Today, the old red-brick high ceilings. It was converted to a B&B building is more about recess and less about schoolwork. in the late 1980s. The current owners, John Lambert and NOAH AUSTIN Paula Roth, got into the lodging business the same way their predecessors did: 35% IF YOUR TIME IN GRADE SCHOOL As the name implies, the School House The couple booked a stay and fell in love was less like The Family Circus and more started out as the Garfield School. It was with the place, then ended up buying off like Calvin & Hobbes, the School House built in 1918, on a hill above present-day it. That was 11 years ago. “I still love it,” Inn could bring back some bad memories. Tombstone Canyon Road, in anticipation says Lambert, who’s quick to call himself Luckily, those bad memories don’t stand of the mining town’s continued growth. the School House’s “hall monitor.” The a chance against the charm of this nine- For two decades, first- through fourth- guests, who’ve come from as far away as room Bisbee bed and breakfast, housed graders got an education in the red-brick Egypt and Australia, love it, too. in a building whose owners gleefully building. After the school closed in 1938, In keeping with the property’s history, embrace its nearly 100 years of history. an attorney bought it and turned it into each of the nine rooms has a school- themed name. For solo guests, there’s the cozy Art Room, with a full-size bed — that room’s décor includes reproductions of oil paintings and tools used by portrait painters. Couples might prefer the queen beds in the spacious Geography Room, decorated with a variety of maps, and the Music Room, which features musical

Reprinted from the July 1946 issue of Arizona Highways. © 1946Arizona Highways

instruments and a potentially melody- Map by George M. Avey, reprinted from the August 1940 issue of Arizona Highways © Copyright 2015 Arizona Highways inspiring view of the hills and canyons GEORGE AVEY 1946 NATIONAL PARKS MAP GEORGE AVEY 1940 ARIZONA MAP around Bisbee. And larger groups can 18 x 24 inches #ANPS6 Was $19.99 Now $12.99* 18 x 24 inches #AGMP5 Was $19.99 Now $12.99* spring for the Principal’s Office Suite, which has a queen bed in one room and two twins in another. All rooms have pri­ vate baths and free Wi-Fi. A. Lambert and Roth take care of every­ VINTAGE 10 OZ. DINER MUGS thing at the School House — there’s no Were $9.99 Ea. Now $6.49 Ea. A. Monument Valley #AMMV6 hired help. “We always joke that she runs B. Tombstone #AMTS6 around with a potted plant and I run C. Kaibab Forest #AMKF6 around with a monkey wrench,” Lambert says. And their work includes the daily meatless breakfast, which changes daily — during a recent stay, it included frit­ tatas with homemade salsa, fresh fruit and muffins. Shared tables in the dining area give guests a chance to mingle, and an extensive library and a lounge with a TV and DVD player offer after-hours entertainment. You might expect those with careers in education to steer clear of the School RETRO MAP PUZZLE B. C. House Inn — after all, everyone needs a 500 Piece Puzzle, 18˝ x 24˝ #APUZ6 break. But Lambert says teachers make Was $19.99 Now $12.99 up a good portion of the B&B’s guests. So, if teachers can book a stay there, so can troublemakers. Just maybe not in the To order, visit www.shoparizonahighways.com or call 800-543-5432. Principal’s Office Suite. Use code P7D5AC when ordering to take advantage of this special offer. Offer expires April 30, 2017. *Pricing does not include shipping and handling charges. BISBEE School House Inn, 818 Tombstone Canyon Road, 520-432-2996, www.schoolhouseinnbb.com

14 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN MECKLER Cottonwoods line the dry Santa Cruz River near its headwaters in the San Rafael Valley southeast of Patagonia. Most of the river, which flows into Mexico before re-entering Arizona, is dry except after significant rainfall. George Stocking

The Big Pictures: SONOITA-PATAGONIA A PORTFOLIO EDITED BY JEFF KIDA

16 APRIL 2017 “Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.” — JOSEPH CONRAD

LEFT: A summer monsoon storm moves over tall grasses near Sonoita. The Sonoita area’s soil, climate and rainfall are ideal for growing grapes, and more than a dozen wineries now exist there. Jeff Maltzman

ABOVE: Milkweed blooms in the Canelo Hills, located south of Sonoita and east of Patagonia. Milkweed plants are critical for monarch butterflies, whose caterpillars use them as host plants. Eirini Pajak

www.arizonahighways.com 19 “Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.” — JOSEPH CONRAD

“Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.” — JOSEPH CONRAD

The blades of a windmill blur together just north of Sonoita. In the distance, to the northeast, are the Whetstone Mountains. Derek von Briesen

20 APRIL 2017 “Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.” — JOSEPH CONRAD

23 APRIL 2017

22 APRIL 2017 PRECEDING PANEL: Bees pollinate butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and other wildflowers in the verdant Canelo Hills. The area supports several rare plant species, including Pinos Altos fameflowers. Jack Dykinga

BELOW: A pronghorn takes in the view at Las Cienegas National Conservation Area near Sonoita. Although the Southern Arizona pronghorn population is increasing, a 2015 survey counted just 263 of them in the Sonoita and Patagonia area. Eirini Pajak

RIGHT: Agave blooms reach skyward amid windblown grasses near Sonoita. Insects, birds and bats pollinate the agave blooms, “Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws and javelinas eat the plants’ fleshy leaves. Jack Dykinga its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.” — JOSEPH CONRAD

24 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 25 Early morning light strikes Patagonia Lake, along with distant Mount Hopkins (left) and Mount Wrightson. The latter, at 9,360 feet, is the highest peak in the Santa Rita Mountains. Randy Prentice

26 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 27 Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conser- vation organization that works locally, with global reach, to protect the state’s fresh water, forests, critical lands, wildlife and rich biodiversity. TNC’s Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve protects some of the largest Fremont cottonwoods in the United States, and rare plants found in the Sonoita Creek watershed include Huachuca water umbels and Santa Cruz beehive cactuses. A diverse avian population makes this a popular spot for birders in spring and summer. The pre- serve is open Wednesdays through Sundays, and a small fee is required.

For more information, please visit www.nature.org/ patagonia or call 520-394-2400.

ABOVE: A painted lady butterfly searches for nectar on a wild­ flower bloom near Patagonia. Bruce D. Taubert

RIGHT: Watercress flourishes on Sonoita Creek in the Patagonia- Sonoita Creek Preserve beneath a canopy that includes cotton­ wood, willow and ash trees. Randy Prentice

28 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 29 The Santa Rita Mountains dominate the horizon above rolling grasslands, dotted with oaks and mesquites, near Sonoita at dawn. Jack Dykinga

30 APRIL 2017 Dear Jim ...

An Essay by Kelly Vaughn Photographs by Scott Baxter

www.arizonahighways.com 33 you’d head back to Montana, but in those moments in South­ ern Arizona, the light began to fade and the trees began to darken. We drove to your favorite bar, and when we got out of the car, you wrapped your arm around me, introduced me to your friends as your new bride. Eye rolls and laughter and the start of stories about you and Hunter S. Thompson and a hand­ ful of other contemporaries. In theory, I should never have liked you. The naturalist It started this way, Jim: Bukowski, free with your stories of women and wine. You were There might be an interesting story for the magazine rough, occasionally vulgar. You smelled of smoke and your skin down there. Jim Harrison, the writer, lives next to the Ber- had started to yellow and the part of me that wasn’t in awe of giers and uses one of their old ranch houses to write in for you was a little bit frightened. the last 20+ years. He winters in Patagonia & summers in But you wrote from your bones, your own marrow into Livingston, Montana. He wrote, “Legends of the Fall.” Just poetry, novellas. And you made me believe that there was an idea. He seems a bit of a character. Just a thought. something to writing. That storytelling really was something Verbatim. An email from a friend, photographer romantic, magic even. So, there, at the Wagon Wheel Saloon, Scott Baxter. We worked on a project about ranchers, I loved you a little. and the connections grew from there. Nearly a year That August, our story was published. I sent you a copy and after his note, we sat on your porch in Patagonia, never heard anything. I figured that you never read it. In my watching you watch birds. There were hundreds of heart, though, I hoped that you had, then used it as a coaster them, and you knew their names, rattling one off for a fat glass of Bordeaux. every now and then between long, choking drags of On the morning of March 27, 2016, Jim Harrison, I read you your American Spirits. You smoked so much that day, were dead. I cried. For the loss of you, of course — and the loss I thought your lungs might fail in front of me, heave of the marrow, too. No one, for me, will ever write about birds one final Come on, Jim, and give up. or sky or grass the way you did: We talked of commas and Legends and Paris, and you settled into the role of writer being written. BIRDS AGAIN You’d been there before, but you were gracious in A secret came a week ago though I already the retelling of your wildest stories. knew it just beyond the bruised lips of consciousness. I remember the way the light sifted through the The very alive souls of thirty-five hundred dead birds cottage windows, air coated in gossamer dust, the are harbored in my body. It’s not uncomfortable. glass bottles and cactuses and horseshoes and rugs. I’m only temporary habitat for these not-quite-weightless creatures. The jaguar skin. The books. The ephemera of story I offered a wordless invitation and time and language. You wrote in ink on plain and now they’re roosting within me, recalling sheets of paper. how I had watched them at night At one point, you looked out into the yard. in fall and spring passing across earth moons, little clouds of black con- I remember a tree. More birds. You let me look over fetti, chattering and singing your shoulder — a line about a woman wearing lav­ on their way north or south. Now in my dreams ender. I see from the air the rumpled green and beige, Minutes later, Scott made your portrait. I stood the watery face of earth as if they’re carrying near the tree, I think, and watched. me rather than me carrying them. Next winter You flirted with me a little, comfortable as an old I’ll release them near the estuary west of Alvarado man with a loose tongue. We bantered. and south of Veracruz. I can see them perching I don’t remember a breeze, but it was March, on undiscovered Olmec heads. We’ll say goodbye the gray area between winter and warm. Shortly, and I’ll return my dreams to earth.

You died in Patagonia, there along the creek where you walked, where the birds came to visit, where you told too many stories and smoked too much. I keep looking for the woman in lavender.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A version of this essay originally appeared on Songbirds Southwest: The Women’s Writing Project (www.songbirdssouthwest.com).

34 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 35 FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Originally published in September 1966

SAN IGNACIO DEL BABACOMARI The romantic saga of four centuries of European culture on historic soil. BY FRANK CULLEN BROPHY

Cowboys round up cattle at Babacomari Ranch near Sonoita. The date of this photo is unknown. Arizona Historical Society

he first European to set foot Then he may have marched over the Canelo Hills, which lie The following year, Coronado and his army came this way embraces,” and Kino noted in his diary that [Quiburi] “has more in what is now Arizona was northwest of the Huachuca Mountains, and walked down the on their famed but unsuccessful search for the Seven Cities than 400 souls assembled together and a fortification or earthen Fray Marcos de Niza. He had valley of the Babacomari for the next few days until he reached of Cibola and the ever-elusive El Dorado. Then this ancient enclosure.” From his headquarters mission and ranch at Dolores been ordered to find the fab­ the Rio San Pedro. He described his obviously unexpected land fell back into the prehistoric silence, which had been so to the south, Kino brought “a few cattle and a small drove of ulous, but nonexistent, Seven welcome: unexpectedly shattered by the coming of the white man and mares for the beginnings of a little ranch” on his next visit. This Cities of Cibola, with their “I then followed this program (taking formal possession) for his restless search for souls and treasure. A hundred and fifty was the beginning of livestock-raising on the Babacomari. reputed abundance of golden five days, during which I continually came into settlements years elapsed before the black robes of the Jesuit priests were Professor H.E. Bolton, who rediscovered the long-forgotten treasure. That was in 1539 where I was welcomed heartily and entertained.” seen in the Babacomari Valley, with the redoubtable Father Kino in the historical archives in Mexico City, astounded the — less than fifty years after This was the first formal taking possession of the land in the Eusebio Francisco Kino leading the way. This was the year 1692, modern world with the exploits of this remarkable priest. Columbus had discovered name of the king of Spain in what was later to be known as the when Father Kino first made the acquaintance of Chief Coro Today the statue of Father Kino represents the state of Arizona the New World. It was also Pimeria Alta in Nueva Vizcaya, and it happened in the beauti­ at his extensive village of Quiburi, where the Rio Babacomari in the Hall of Statuary in Washington, D.C. Bolton describes some seventy years before the English settlement was estab­ ful, well-watered grasslands that still unexpectedly gladden the empties into the San Pedro, and caused Kino to remark: the Babacomari of Kino’s time in this way: lished at Jamestown in Virginia and the landing of the Pilgrims eyes of visitors as they emerge from the Arizona-Sonora desert. “It is true that I found them somewhat less docile than the “Now crossing the Canelo Hills, much as the road runs today, Tat Plymouth Rock on the New England coast. Now, some 400 years later, the records of these early dwell­ foregoing people of the West.” The next day, he proceeded up they swing northeastward, and at the end of fourteen leagues After marching across a weird and desert landscape, he ers who welcomed Fray Marcos have been uncovered and the Babacomari to the cienega and village at Basosucan (mod­ from Santa Maria (about ten miles south of the present interna­ reached the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River, where the studied. An aboriginal life is revealed that goes back to the ernized Huachuca), where he met Chief El Taravilla, which tional border at Lochiel) they halted for the night at Huachuca topography and climate suddenly changed. Here it was that year A.D. 1000 at least. At the Babacomari Village site, where means “the prattler.” (present-day headquarters of the Babacomari Ranch), the village the Franciscan friar wrote in his diary on April 12, 1539: the Upper Pimas dwelled, it has descended from prehistoric By 1696, the trail from Quiburi on the San Pedro, up the where lived Chief Taravilla. Here the travelers were welcomed “The country round about here looked better than any I had ancestors; and they made handsome ceramics, built houses of Babacomari Valley and over the Canelo Pass to Santa Maria, by eighty persons and lodged in an adobe house with beams and passed through so far. I decided to erect two crosses and to take local materials and cremated their dead, placing the remains was a familiar one. On December 5 of that year, Chief Coro and an earthen roof. Huachuca was situated in a fertile valley, with possession of the land, following the instructions I had received.” in burial urns, or ollas. his Indians met [Kino] as an old friend with “handshakes and carrizales, or reed marshes, where plentiful crops were raised.

36 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 37 The spot was manifestly La Cienaga — now the site (headquar­ lower end of the Babacomari and relocated them near the stra­ happy ending on the Babacomari Ranch in 1852, and is there­ ters) of Babacomari Ranch. The name of the village is still pre­ tegic pueblo and old Jesuit visita of San Augustin del Tucson. fore a part of the varied and unexpected story of this ancient served in the Huachuca Mountains and Fort Huachuca nearby. This was in 1762. He gave the settlement the name of San Jose land grant. Bartlett, in his personal narrative reviewing the Huachuca was the last village of the people whom the Spaniards del Tucson. Here, the actual site of a presidio was located and work and travels of the International Boundary Commission, called Pimas Proper; those beyond were Sobaipuris.” laid out by General Hugo O’Connor on August 20, 1775. The relates: After that visit, the Babacomari began to prepare for a mis­ latter was an Irish soldier serving in the Royal Spanish Army, “Her name is Inez Gonzalez, daughter of Jesus Gonzalez of sionary, and thereafter it was known as the visita of San Joa­ like many other Irish refugees of that day who were gaining Santa Cruz, near the San Pedro River in Sonora. She was then quin de Basosucan (Huachuca). Another mission house was distinction in the armies of France, Austria, Spain and in the in her fifteenth year. In the preceding September she had left also being built some twenty miles away where the Babaco­ Continental Army during the American War of Independence. her home, in company with her aunt and uncle, another female mari joins the San Pedro at Santa Cruz (now Fairbank). From Captain Francisco Elias Gonzalez de Zaya descends and a boy, to visit Magdalena, where the Feast of St. Francis By 1706, the Pimeria was flourishing, and this included the the Elias family in Sonora and Arizona. For six generations, the was celebrated each year. They were escorted by a guard of ten last outpost of the Upper Pimas on the Babacomari. Under Eliases have produced important figures in the military, reli­ soldiers. When one day’s journey out they were attacked by a these happy circumstances, Kino wrote in his justly famous gious, governmental and economic life of the Mexican states band of Pinal Indians, who lay in ambush in a narrow canyon. Memoir of Pimeria Alta: “In all those posts or pueblos there of Chihuahua and Sonora, and the American state of Arizona. Her uncle was killed, and all the guard, save three people are very good beginnings of Christianity, houses in which to These have included a president of the Mexican Republic, two who made their escape. Inez with her two female companions live, churches in which to say Mass, fields and crops of wheat governors of Sonora, a governor of Chihuahua and soldiers and the boy, Francisco Pacheco, were carried away in captiv­ and maize, and the cattle, sheep, goats and horses which the who fought with distinction against the Apaches, against the ity. She had been with the Indians since. The other captives, Natives for years have been tending with all fidelity.” French under Emperor Maximilian, and the notorious Ameri­ she understands, were purchased and taken to the north by And all this some seventy years before the leaders of a new can filibusters under Crabbe. Several of the Eliases were dis­ a party of New Mexicans. Inez lived on with the Indians and nation met to sign the Declaration of Independence in Phila­ tinguished priests of the church of Mexico. As landowners and no improper freedom was taken with her person, but she was delphia. livestock raisers, their achievements were extraordinary. From robbed of her clothing save her skirt and under linens, and In 1773, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was suppressed 1766 to 1855, various members of the Elias family acquired and was made to work very hard. She spent the whole period of her through­out the world, due to the attacks of emerging world- operated no less than thirty large land grants and ranches captivity at two of the regular planting grounds of the Pinals.” revolutionary forces and a combination of church and dynastic in Sonora and that part of Arizona that was acquired by the These Pinal Indians were a small band of the Apache tribe, politics. Eventually word came from Rome. Soon the magnifi­ United States after the Mexican War of 1848. and they ranged in the rugged area between the Upper San cent missionaries, who had opened up and mapped the Terra In the year 1829, Don Ignacio Elias and Dona Eulalia Elias Around 1960, Josef Muench photographed Babacomari Ranch’s grasslands near Francisco River, near the modern town of Clifton and the Incognita, and preached the message and promises of Christian­ purchased from the Mexican government, under provisions of the Mustang Mountains. Northern Arizona University Cline Library Sierra Pinal and the Sierra Blanca. Being cut off from the main­ ity to a world that received it gratefully, obeyed like soldiers the 1824 Law of Colonization, eight leagues (sitios), more or less, streams of Apache life by mountain ranges or deserts, their and marched sorrowfully out of the Pimeria. The little flocks “for raising large herds of cattle and horses.” This allotment was ways and customs were often different. One notable exception of the faithful remained, with the new faith they had received; located in what was then known as the parish (paraje) of San head, besides a large number of horses. The same cause which was that they held prisoners, rather than kill them. They used and still remain among Arizona’s earliest Christians. However, Ignacio del Babacomari in the jurisdiction of the Presidio of led to the abandonment of so many other ranches and villages, the men for hunting and they made the women (who were in marauding Apaches and the warlike Jacomes recognized the Santa Cruz. Its boundaries were somewhat indefinite, but it is had been the ruin of this. The Apaches encroached, drove off the majority of the prisoners) work with their own [women] change, and soon began to make existence so precarious on the assumed that its usable area was approximately 130,000 acres. the animals and murdered their herdsmen. The owners, to doing the drudgery and less interesting work. When occasion outskirts of the Pimeria that the settlements on the San Pedro The actual title to this land grant was issued by the treasurer save the rest, drove them further into the interior and left the arose, they sold these women prisoners. That was what eventu­ and Babacomari broke up and the families moved toward the general of the state of Sonora on December 25, 1832. place. Many cattle and horses remained, however, and ranged ally happened to Inez. Through sheer good luck, her purchas­ interior. During the next eighteen years, the Eliases built the original over the hills and valleys nearby. From these, numerous wild ers, one Peter Blacklaws, a trader from Santa Fe, and Pedro Meanwhile, the Spanish military forces had established pre­ fortified headquarters, and grazed thousands of cattle and herds have sprung which now cover the entire length of the Archeveque and Jose Valdez, two New Mexican natives out to sidios in Tubac, Tucson, Fronteras and other settled communi­ horses on the lush, well-watered grasslands that extended from San Pedro and its tributary, the Babacomari.” make some easy money, ran afoul of the international boundary ties. Eventually, orders of the crown were issued to encourage the Santa Rita Mountains to the San Pedro River. But as soon Soon after Bartlett had explored the ancient route of the commissioner, who was a man of honor as well as courage and the settlement and development of these distant lands in this as an organized purposeful operation was evidently success­ Babacomari, one of the first authentic Arizona pioneers, Cap­ intelligence. When he saw Inez and recognized her as a person still very New World. Grants of land suitable for stock-raising fully on its way, the forces of destruction and pillage appeared tain James H. Tevis, camped at the old ranch headquarters and of good breeding who had been gently reared, he rescued her and agricultural pursuits were made to officers and soldiers with the increasingly frequent raids of the Apache. Within two describes it in his reminiscences, Arizona in the Fifties: “The old from the traveling group and determined to try to find her by the crown, who had the ambition to acquire and organize decades, two Elias brothers had been murdered by these Indian Mexican fort on the Babacomari, which is now used as a ranch, family, who he assumed were somewhere in Northern Sonora, them. This was a challenge that appealed to the self-reliant raiders, and by 1849, the family was forced to abandon their stood on the tableland about two hundred yards from the west where he was headed. This was indeed the long arm of coin­ and farsighted ones. Later, when Mexico won its indepen­ flourishing hacienda and return to Arizpe in Sonora. side of the Babacomari Creek. ... The fort, which consisted of cidence reaching far out into a relatively unknown land. Let dence from the Spanish crown, in 1822, the new government A few years later, the U.S. Boundary Commission, under the adobe buildings, covered about an acre of ground. A wall about Commissioner Bartlett continue the narrative. continued to follow the same policy, and the acquisition of leadership of J.R. Bartlett, set out, in 1851, to establish what fifteen feet high encircled it, with one entrance at the east “The fair captive was of course taken care of by the Commis­ land grants went on for some years at an accelerated pace. As was to become the international boundary line between the side large enough to drive a wagon through; and the rooms for sion. She was well clad with such materials as the Commissary subsequent events have proved, these are the oldest and most United States and Mexico. When they stopped at the Babaco­ quarters were built on the east, south and west sides of the of the Commission could furnish. … But with all the attentions consistent patents of ownership of land that exist in the Ameri­ mari Ranch, Commissioner Bartlett wrote the following: enclosure with lookout posts on top of the walls.” extended to her, her situation was far from enviable in a camp can Southwest today. “The valley of the Babacomari, is here from a quarter to half a of over a hundred men, without a single other female. She mile in breadth, and covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. The Story of Inez found employment in making her own garments, being expert The Elias Saga The stream which is about twenty feet wide winds through at the needle, and occasionally spent time reading the few this valley, with willows and large cottonwood trees growing he mid-nineteenth century in the Pimeria Alta was not an Spanish books in our possession.” aptain Francisco Elias Gonzalez de Zaya arrived in Mexico along its margin. ... This hacienda, as I afterwards learned, was era of romance. On the contrary, most tales of fact or fic­ After several months of reconnaissance and hard travel, the from La Rioja, near Bilbao in northern Spain, in 1729, at the one of the largest cattle establishments in the State of Sonora. T tion of that period deal with murder, massacres, pillage, expedition arrived at the San Pedro River in Arizona and then C age of twelve. Thirty years later, as a captain in the Spanish The cattle roamed the entire length of the valley, and at the torture and treachery. But there is one outstanding incident of proceeded up Babacomari Creek on the old missionary route Army, he escorted a large band of Sobaipuri Indians from the time it was abandoned there were no less than forty thousand romance during this bleak interval that had its surprising and to Santa Cruz, where the Mexican commissioner, General

38 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 39 “In violation of the treaties with Mexico and the Act of Con­ “In testimony whereof I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of gress of July 22, 1854, the pueblos and private land grants in Ari­ the United States of America, have caused these letters to be zona have been surveyed and certified for sale as public domain. made Patent, and the Seal of the General Land Office to be “The Mexicans have no juster grievance against the Ameri­ hereunto affixed. cans than the violation of their rights to land in California, “Given unto my hand at the City of Washington this six­ New Mexico and Arizona. teenth day of May in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine “The grants are, some of them, from the Spanish Government Hundred and Four and of the Independence of the United and over 100 years old. Those from the Mexican government States, the One hundred and twenty-eighth. date since 1825, and whatever may be the result, it is certain “By the President, T. Roosevelt.” that the rights of the claimants would never have been ques­ tioned by the Mexican government. From Ballybrophy to Babacomari “That the titles should remain unsettled for a generation is an injustice to the claimants as well as the settler, and will retard he Brophys are an old Irish family long settled in the the settlement and prosperity of the Territory.” County Leix in their ancient patrimony of Magh Sedna, Dr. Perrin and his brother came from Green County, Ala­ T which some centuries later was Anglicized Ballybrophy. bama, where their father was an eminent physician and This is a fertile part of Ireland that the Danes invaded in the wealthy Southern planter. Dr. E.B. Perrin was educated for his ninth century, and where the Normans came after they had profession in New Orleans and Philadelphia. When the War conquered Britain in the eleventh century. Over the years the Between the States broke out, he volunteered as a private sol­ Norse, Norman and Gaelic bloods have mingled in the families dier in the Army of the Confederacy, but he was soon assigned of later centuries. It is the paradoxical story of Ireland that the to duty on the staff of the medical director of Beauregard’s conquered frequently absorbed their conquerors through inter­ Army. During the war, he served on the staff of General Pend­ marriage, language and customs. Hence the oppressors of one leton, General Robert E. Lee’s chief of artillery, and at war’s generation often produced the rebels of a later one. end was chief surgeon of a division of cavalry commanded by The story of the Brophys in the American Southwest, and General Forrest. After the war, he moved west to San Fran­ particularly in what is now Arizona, properly begins with cisco and engaged in a spectacular career of land acquisition, Michael Brophy, who resided near Kilkenny, Ireland, in the Horses cool off as their riders chat in a Babacomari Ranch lake, as photographed by Josef Muench around 1960.Northern Arizona University Cline Library which brought him into the twentieth century as one of the mid-eighteenth century. He had participated in the abor­ great landowners of the country. His extraordinary insight tive rebellion of 1783 and was one of the leaders in the tragic Conde, told them the family of Inez was living. While camped defending the herds and people of the Babacomari Ranch. and energy led him into the magnificent valleys of California, rebellion of 1798. Having been captured by the British regu­ at the old fortress ranch headquarters on the Babacomari, From the day when Marcos de Niza took possession in the where he acquired the famed Chowchilla Ranch of 115,000 lars under General Lake in the Battle of Vinegar Hill, he was Commissioner Bartlett sent a party out to reconnoiter. He then name of the king of Spain, tragedy, romance and coincidence acres and later developed numerous successful colonies in the promptly executed by his captors as a dangerous man. But he describes what happened: are intricately woven into the curious pattern that has been the rich inland agricultural valleys. Along the right-of-way of the left a legacy to Ireland and the frontier world of the nineteenth “They (the scouting party) followed the San Pedro to the history of the San Ignacio del Babacomari grant. new railroad in Northern Arizona, the Atlantic and Pacific, he century in his eleven sons. It was from these sons and their mouth of the Babacomari, thinking we should move our camp acquired some 265,000 acres, and in the newly annexed land descendants that some of the qualities of this Irish patriot and that way, and had fallen in with a large party of Mexicans who Dr . Perrin Proves His Point of Southern Arizona, he purchased the rights and title to San rebel leader can still be traced in Australia, India, South Africa, were engaged in hunting wild cattle. They told the Mexicans Ignacio del Babacomari from the heirs of the Elias family, who Canada, Latin America and Arizona. who we were and of our desire to get to Santa Cruz. They hen the American Civil War ended, the government of had originally established the grant in 1829. The story of the first Brophy in Arizona would never have also told them about the captive girl Inez Gonzalez, whom we the United States found that it had an Apache war on This was the beginning of a legal battle the result of which been known had it not been for a letter written in 1852 by an hoped to restore to her family. This Mexican party turned out W its hands in the new Territory of Arizona, which Presi­ hung in the balance for a quarter-century. But Dr. Perrin was aged Irish-French priest, Father George Brophy, who had been to be from Santa Cruz, and singularly enough it included her dent Abraham Lincoln had established in 1863. Troop G of the not a man to quit. In spite of discouragements, reverses and at the bedside of Lafayette when he died in France in 1834. It father, uncle and many friends. This was the first intimation 1st U.S. Cavalry was sent into what had become the heart of unanticipated difficulties, he and his brother Robert persisted. was written to a nephew whom he had never seen, then resid­ they had that the poor girl was living and had been rescued Apache land. On December 11, 1866, Camp Wallen was estab­ Finally, on February 10, 1900, the Court of Private Land Claims ing in Canada; and it told of the death of Francis Brophy in from her savage captors. To a man, they left their hunting lished on the banks of the Babacomari, using the old walled confirmed the title to “Ignacio and Eulalia Elias, their heirs, Cebolleta, New Mexico (New Mexico and Arizona were one ground and accompanied Carroll to our camp. hacienda of San Ignacio del Babacomari for its quarters. Dur­ successors in interest and assigns.” in those days). He wrote: “One of your cousins, Mr. Francis “The joy of the father and friends in again beholding the face ing the next two years, these troops fought three successful Yet this was not the end. The boundaries had to be estab­ Brophy, who was educated in Trinity College Dublin, died last of her, whom they supposed was forever lost, was unbounded. engagements with the fast-moving Apaches under Cochise in lished and the acreage determined. Using the time-honored year in the United States Army in Mexico at the age of twenty.” Each in turn embraced her after the Spanish custom; and it was the rich grass country that lies between the Huachuca Moun­ method of surveying Spanish land grants from a central point Records of the U.S. War Department reveal that Francis Bro­ long ere one could utter a word. Tears of joy burst from all; and tains on the south and the Chiricahua Mountains some eighty within the property, a rectangular plot, with stone markers set phy enlisted March 26, 1849, in the 3rd U.S. Infantry, and that the sunburnt and brawny men, in whom the finer feelings of miles to the north and east. Camp Wallen was abandoned on at every half-mile, covering a distance of forty-six miles, was he died at Cebolleta, New Mexico, near the present boundary nature are usually supposed not to exist, wept like children, as October 31, 1869, and it was not until 1877 that a new military established and recognized by the office of the U.S. Surveyor line between Arizona and New Mexico, on January 5, 1851, of they looked with astonishment on the rescued girl. The mem­ post some eight miles south of the Babacomari Ranch was General and filed at Phoenix on September 10, 1902. The area disease. He was twenty-two years of age. bers of the Commission could not but participate in the feelings established. That was the present Fort Huachuca. It was also thus determined consisted of 33,792.20 acres. About the same time, another grandson of Michael Brophy of the poor child and her friends. Big tears rolled down their the year that Dr. E.B. Perrin and his brother Robert, of San Finally Dr. Perrin received his letter of patent, which came into this virtually unknown Southwest via the U.S. Army. weather-beaten and bearded faces, which showed how fully Francisco, California, started the long, protracted effort to brought the long court action to an end: He, too, was a soldier and fought with the American Army in they sympathized with the feelings of our Mexican friends.” establish the validity of the title of the Babacomari grant under “To Have and to Hold the said tract of land with the appurte­ Mexico. According to his biographer: “As a non-commissioned And thus the tragedy of Inez ended at the old hacienda of the laws of the government of the United States. An article nances thereunto belonging unto the said Ignacio and Eulalia officer he led the attack at Cherubusco, there received eleven the Babacomari in a burst of joyful reunion. This happened in the Arizona Sentinel, published at Yuma on January 25, 1879, Elias and to their heirs, successors in interest and assigns for­ wounds, was left on the field for dead, and was so reported.” only a few years after the two Elias brothers were killed while succinctly stated the problem that confronted the Perrins: ever with the stipulations aforesaid. However, this was not yet to be. He recovered, returned

40 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 41 to the States and settled in California, where he served as an its title and the continuity of its productivity with a legal battle officer in the California Militia. True to the inexplicable affin­ that lasted for more than a quarter-century. ity of this family for Arizona, this Michael Brophy’s grandson, In 1935, when the Brophys took control, most of the old Brother Bernardino Brophy, O.F.M., is today a missionary dangers and uncertainties had disappeared, but there was a among the Indians of Arizona, and is currently helping the new, and in some ways a no less menacing, situation to face. St. John’s Indian School spread the Arizona story around the Some fifty years of uncontrolled open range operation in this world with successful tours of its famed St. John’s Indian Danc­ area led to serious overgrazing. During this period, there ers under his leadership. were several dry cycles where drought diminished the grass A generation later, in 1867, came James Brophy from near cover and caused deep trails and gullies to be worn into the Kilkenny, Ireland. According to the War Department records, parched earth. As the grass disappeared and the water holes he enlisted in the 8th U.S. Cavalry, commanded by Colonel dried up, cattle died in the severe drought of the early ’90s in John I. Gregg, and served through five Apache campaigns in such numbers that one account describes the skeletons and Arizona. On June 11, 1869, “Private James Brophy of Troop B, 8th carcasses extending over miles of country and never being U.S. Cavalry, was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in more than a stone’s throw distant from one another. Then, scouts and actions with Indians in Arizona in the year 1868.” when the drought broke, years of torrential rains followed. The The next generation produced James E. Brophy, who arrived cow paths and gullies deepened into arroyos and sometimes in Arizona in 1881. Soon after he reached the new boomtown canyons. The topsoil began to disappear as the summer floods of Tombstone, he established a ranch holding at Soldier’s boiled down the newly made watercourses. What had once Hole and went to work for the Chiricahua Cattle Co. There been a rich, undulating valley of grassland that had supported he became a member of the Chiricahua Rangers, a voluntary vast herds of cattle and horses was now fast becoming the military organization under the command of J.C. Pursley, and point of origin for thousands of tons of priceless soil waiting to fought when called upon through the last years of the devastat­ be borne down the Babacomari into the San Pedro River and ing Geronimo period of Apache warfare in Arizona and Mexico. finally on to the Colorado, where it would be dumped into the William Henry Brophy, a younger brother who had just come ever-changing estuary of the Gulf of Lower California. For the out from Ireland, helped dig what is still known as the Brophy past three decades, a fight has been waged to stop this erosion Well near Soldier’s Hole in the Sulphur Spring Valley. Many by controlling the floodwaters. years later, the same William Henry Brophy served with the Men of the land have always had to match their strength rank of major, U.S. Army, as deputy commissioner and chief of and imagination against the capriciousness of Nature. But stores for the American Red Cross in France in 1917-18. F.C. Bro­ when man abuses Nature’s choicest gift — the good earth itself phy, his son, was a lieutenant of field artillery with the [Ameri­ — then he faces disaster itself, though he seldom recognizes can Expeditionary Forces] in France in World War I. And his it until too late. The penalty for abusing the land is the life son, William Henry Brophy II, enlisted and served as a fighter penalty. When the rich topsoil is squandered, the lean, hard As distant rainfall produces a rainbow, thistles grow amid the tall grasses of the Sonoita area. Eirini Pajak pilot with the U.S. Air Force in Europe during World War II, years begin. Nature not only rebels, it reacts. The long valleys where his unit was cited and decorated by the United States of wind-rippled grass, where matronly cows and calves like and Belgian governments. yearlings once grazed, now change with the abruptness of a BABACOMARI: When the Brophy family acquired the Babacomari Ranch stage set. In their stead, one faces the sunbaked swales filled in 1935, it became the third owner of this historic ranch since with stunted yellow weeds and scraggly white thistles. The 50 Years Later the king of Spain, four hundred years earlier. The Upper Pimas dwindling cows look smaller and longer-legged, and the calf and their ancestors had lived there from prehistoric days until that lags behind is lean and lacks luster. The nearest water hole ccording to Ben Brophy, the Arizona Game and Fish protect another 12,000 acres and rainfall patterns at the the marauding Apaches drove them into the interior during is always a little too far when the dry years set in. The sky and the last paragraph of Department, Fort Huachuca over the next few years. ranch have changed from year the eighteenth century. Then the Elias family took possession faraway mountains retain their subtle charm, but the once- A Frank Cullen Brophy’s and the Arizona Land and An ongoing challenge is the to year. The ongoing drought and built the old fort-like hacienda in 1833. They, too, had to beautiful land grows gaunt and ugly. Outraged Nature dons essay is still an accurate Water Trust — to maintain ranch’s sacaton grass, which presents challenges, but Bro­ contend with the dread Apaches, and in time were forced to her meanest garb. description of Babacomari the natural integrity of the Brophy says takes up a few phy says the ranch is in great withdraw into safer territory. This almost happened at San Ignacio del Babacomari. For Ranch, with the exception of ranch. “Our role is to be stew­ thousand acres and grows shape overall. After the Americans were legally established in Arizona, Dr. decades, a quiet war has been fought, where dikes and furrows the racehorses, which are no ards of the land,” he explains. about 5 feet tall. Every five Peter Warren of The Perrin and his brother arrived on the scene. The future of the were placed like companies of soldiers to stop or divert the longer bred and trained there. “We focus our efforts through years, the grass becomes Nature Conservancy says Bab­ Babacomari Ranch was then obscured by the outcome of the attacking waters after the summer downpour sets in. New, as The Brophy family still owns conservation strategies and coarse and dry. Through con­ acomari Ranch is an ecologi­ Mexican-American War of 1846-48 and the subsequent Treaty well as old, grass varieties were seeded year after year. Gullies the ranch, and Ben Brophy has holistic approaches to man­ trolled burning by experts cal gem. “It’s what much of of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The court record of the proceed­ were plugged and arroyos dammed. Seeps were turned into been the manager since 1995 agement.” Those efforts were during the winter, the ranch Southeastern Arizona looked ings involved in establishing the status of the Babacomari grant water holes. New wells were dug, and drainage basins changed — he followed in the footsteps recognized in 2008 with a stabilizes the grass and keeps like before people began set­ contain the names of dozens of prominent pioneer citizens of from millraces into ponds large enough to attract stragglers of his father, Bill, who had regional Environmental Stew­ it up to par for wildlife. tling and impacting the land,” early Sonora and Arizona. Had it not been for the knowledge from the mysterious bird migrations. managed the ranch since the ardship Award, which honors With the help of the federal he says. “What used to be and experience of Dr. E.B. Perrin, to say nothing of the forti­ After thirty years of conservation warfare, peace has come mid-1960s. cattle operations that empha­ Natural Resources Conserva­ beautiful grassland valleys, tude and determination required for decades of legal contro­ again to San Ignacio del Babacomari. The horses win their Brophy says his family size conservation. tion Service, which assists streams and trees is gone now, versy and expense, the status of the Babacomari might still be share on the racecourse; the cattle prove up at the weighing has worked closely with In all, the Brophy family private landowners with land but Babacomari survived and in question today. Just as the Eliases had made it the first and scales when the shipping days arrive. The land is full of hope public, private and nonprofit has protected nearly 3,300 management, the family and still represents that.” foremost livestock venture in Southern Arizona, in the face of and awaits the summer rain with the anticipation of the bride organizations — including acres of grasslands through its partners have been able — Brianna Cossavella great physical danger, so Dr. Perrin preserved the integrity of for her beloved. The Nature Conservancy, easements, and it plans to to observe how plant counts

42 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 43 IT’S GOOD TO BE

HomeHe’s been an actor, a model and a musician. He dates beautiful women, travels, surfs, rides motorcycles and advocates for causes he believes in. But there are two places singer-songwriter Mark Wystrach feels grounded — at home on the family ranch near Sonoita, and onstage with his Midland bandmates.

BY KELLY VAUGHN PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT BAXTER

44 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 45 It’s a Saturday night in Phoenix, and “My whole family’s up here from the cattle, turning the rich soil of this the Celebrity Theatre is at capacity. our ranch in Sonoita, where I learned region to mud. Moths flutter under parking lot lights, all about honky-tonk,” Wystrach says. But the house, built in 1979, is warm. casting funny little shadows and lifting “It’s good to be home.” Grace runs the ranch. Wystrach’s father, and dropping and fluttering over Willie Michael, a former U.S. Marine Corps Nelson’s tour bus. colonel and pilot, oversees the fam­ Two snaking lines — one for mer­ ily’s lodging and dining operations in chandise, the other for beer — are out A FEW WEEKS LATER, Wystrach should be town, the Sonoita Inn and The Steak the theater door. The building hums. unloading bags of feed from a trailer. Out. Four older sisters often visit the IThat’s for Willie, of course. But when Instead, he’s sitting in front of the ranch, as does Wystrach’s twin brother, the house lights go down, the stage fireplace in his parents’ ranch house, Mike. One sister, Amie, helps Grace lights go up and the opening act, Mid­ playing his 1968 Fender Newporter and with the day-to-day operations. land, comes on, there’s a collective hush. singing an old Johnny Horton song. The ranch is a family affair, and Then whispers. … While one survivor, wounded and weak, it’s here that Wystrach began cutting Who are they, again? Comanche, the brave horse, lay at the gen- his musical teeth. Whoa. eral’s feet. … “My mother grew up here in Rain Val­ Old-style honky-tonk. Modern coun­ Wystrach’s mother, Grace, stands ley,” he says. “It’s very isolated, and she try rumble. Close your eyes, and you’re in the kitchen, listening. She joins him and her sisters had a record player and in a roadside bar in the sticks. Open in the song for a few lines. Just quietly, could go and buy a record once a month. your eyes, and you’re pulled to the three though — maybe a little moved and She basically grew up on Hank Wil­ friends from Dripping Springs, Texas, proud and trying not to split at the liams Sr. and became a country music who are making all the noise. seams about it. fiend.” The lead singer, Mark Wystrach, It’s the Friday morning after Thanks­ So, naturally, Wystrach and his sib­ croons: “Second row, pretty girls, we giving at the Mountain View Hereford lings grew up on the classics. Johnny turn ’em on. Then we’re gone.” And the Ranch in Rain Valley, near Elgin. The Horton. Jim Reeves. Marty Robbins. pretty girls in the second row — and air is cold, the sky leaning toward sepia Conway Twitty. George Jones. Johnny elsewhere in the theater — eat it up. — that color of an almost storm. If the Cash. Waylon Jennings. Wystrach is — as the saying goes — rain comes, it might build over the hills “Music was so important to my par­ one tall drink of water. to the south, rich mounds of mesquite ents,” Wystrach says. “They went to see Then this, as he ends the song, Elec- and grass that line the Mexican border, shows, and when they were growing up, tric Rodeo: then sweep into the valley, drenching they only had AM radio and books. My

Singer Mark Wystrach plays his 1968 Fender Newporter guitar at his family’s ranch house in Rain Valley, near Elgin.

46 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 47 dad was gone a lot for work, so we’d just hang out at the ranch and my mom would play tapes for us.” After the Wystrachs bought The Steak Out in 1978, the children spent every Friday, Saturday and Sunday there, working as they got older and lis­ tening to live country music. It both fed Colonel Wystrach’s own dreams and planted a seed in the head of his young­ est child, who, when he was born, was a surprise. The Wystrachs expected one baby. Instead, they got two, in the form of the twin boys. “My dad wanted to be an “My dad wanted to be an actor and a musician so badly,” Wystrach says. actor and a musician so “I get being a ham from him. I get my sin­ cerity, my sensitivity, my emotion from badly,” Wystrach says. my mother. But whatever charm I have? That comes from him.” “I get being a ham from him. The “whatever” charm he tries to M downplay is, in reality, a helluva lot of I get my sincerity, my charm. And he’s done all right by it in his career. sensitivity, my emotion Before he started to make it as a musi­ cian, Wystrach was both a model and from my mother. But an actor, maybe best known for his role as Fox Crane on the NBC soap whatever charm I have? opera Passions. He’s been in a Gucci ad campaign and on the pages of fashion That comes from him.” magazines here and in Europe. He dates beautiful women, travels, surfs, rides motorcycles, advocates for causes he believes in. But there are two places Wystrach feels grounded — home at the ranch, and onstage with the men he calls his brothers, bandmates Jess Car­ son and Cameron Duddy. “Music was always this huge part of me, and now it’s this dream coming true,” Wystrach says. “And how it’s hap­ pened was never premeditated. It’s ser­ endipitous. We all met each other in Los Angeles and had commonalities about lie, too, of course, for several shows. fence mending and more. plays shows of three or three-and-a- The ranch is still very much a part of Mark Wystrach’s life, and he visits often, both to see his family and to work, often alongside Bella, an Australian shepherd. the sorts of music we like to listen to This summer, they’ll tour with Faith Hill “It’s a privilege to get to do this for half hours. It’s exhausting, Wystrach and wanted to make.” and Tim McGraw. A full-length album a living,” he says. “We want to give says, and people don’t know who you Although they became friends in L.A., should drop in September. The band, it everyone the bang for their buck, just are, and sometimes it’s just a grind. they played together for the first time seems, is riding the wave of acclaim that like Willie Nelson and our other inspi­ That’s when he escapes to the ranch, The Chiricahua Apaches made their last his hair. It’s a habit. Part of the charm, at Duddy’s wedding in Jackson Hole, came with its self-titled EP, released last rations do. You get a sense that they’re when he goes back to Sonoita, even if stand right over here. This was a sacred maybe, as is the beautiful swell of emo­ Wyoming. Then it became a habit. They year. Entertainment Weekly lists the band not jaded, that there’s still a joy in it’s only in his head. place for them, and my mother raised tion as he talks about the ranch. He started writing. They pulled their name among the “10 Artists Who Will Rule in what they do. We see ourselves equally “This will sound corny, but I come us in that spirit — to be stewards of apologizes. It’s unnecessary. from Dwight Yoakam’s song Fair to Mid- 2017,” and Rolling Stone dubbed the boys important as singers and songwriters as to this place a lot,” he says. “I come the land and to leave it better than you “A lot of emotion runs through what land. And they worked and worked and “Solid. Country. Gold.” we do as entertainers. We never mail it here when I meditate. I could walk this found it. That spirit’s in me. My parents’ I do, what we do,” he says. “I don’t want worked. Still, Wystrach retains the humility in, and we’ll work really hard to make entire valley, walk from here to Sonoita, spirit. My grandparents’ spirit.” to do this if it doesn’t make you feel It worked. and even keel he learned on the ranch, each show a little different.” from here to Mexico and back, in my He pauses as he feels the weight of something. I couldn’t do this if it They opened for Yoakam in 2016. Wil­ where he still helps with roundups, So much so that the band regularly mind. This place is always inside me. his words and runs a hand through doesn’t make you feel something.”

48 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 49

RUNEwith a VIEW In history books, a rune is a letter of an ancient Germanic alphabet. In Southern Arizona, it’s the name of a new winery — one that pairs award-winning viogniers and mourvèdres with spectacular views of the Mustang Mountains.

BY NOAH AUSTIN PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW

On a patch of high-desert grassland along State Route 82, James Callahan (pictured) has been crafting Rune Wines, one of the latest additions to Sonoita’s winemaking culture, since 2015. In 2016, he built a tasting room, Obut given the stunning scenery, it’s no surprise that visitors usually sample Rune’s offerings at an outdoor sitting area. This year, Callahan plans to add a vineyard and start growing grapes in the moisture-retaining Sonoita soil — a big part of why the region was named Arizona’s first American Viticultural Area in 1984. Callahan, who grew up in the Phoenix area and worked as a server before getting into winemaking, clearly has a knack for the craft: In the past two years, Rune wines have won awards for best mourvèdre, grenache, shiraz and viognier. If you’d like to try them for yourself, the tasting room is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Rune Wines is located at 3969 State Route 82, between mile markers 39 and 40, in Sonoita. For more information, call 520-338-8823 or visit www.runewines.com.

50 APRIL 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic DRIVE

PRESCOTT LAKES LOOP As the name suggests, this scenic drive is highlighted by a series of lakes, but the route also includes aspens, spruce and oaks; an old pink car; and a chance for a plate of potato pancakes. BY KATHY MONTGOMERY

e get lucky. The dining room And just like that, we have a picture- town. In truth, we traveled only 6 miles maples and Gambel oaks — comes into at Lynx Lake Café is small, perfect view of the 55-acre lake and its from Prescott’s Courthouse Square. And view. The 4.5-acre lake is beautiful, but W and we wait to get a table on paddle-boaters and kayakers. Just out the the food — a mix of the American fare it’s privately owned and fenced, so we this beautiful day. Our apologetic server window, hummingbirds fuel up for their you’d expect and house-made German enjoy it in passing. settles us at a back table just as the best journey south. Below us, a steady stream specialties you wouldn’t, such as potato Not long after turning right onto Sena­ table in the place opens up. “Can we sit of walkers amble along the lakeside trail. pancakes, schnitzel and spaetzle — is tor Highway, we startle an Abert’s squir­ there?” we ask. It’s easy to imagine we’re far from surprisingly good. rel, identifiable by its tasseled ears, and Our timing is also perfect for a drive spot the steel skeleton that marks the along the Prescott Lakes Loop. Lynx ruins of the Senator Mine on the left. The Lake is the first of the trio of lakes on oldest part of this former toll road was this half-day drive, and it’s also the one originally built to access the mine, which with the most amenities. Lynx Lake Rec­ operated from 1865 to the 1930s. reation Area includes two campgrounds, Fifteen-acre Goldwater Lake lies on hiking trails, non-motorized boating and the paved stretch of road about 7 miles fishing, and even a gold panning area. from the Walker turnoff. Named for Lynx Creek Ruin, a hilltop pueblo Barry Goldwater’s uncle, former Prescott occupied between A.D. 1150 and 1300, Mayor Morris Goldwater, the popular tors rent kayaks seasonally. SCENIC lies about a mile north, accessible from city park includes upper and lower sec­ A little past Goldwater Lake, Senator DRIVES of Arizona’s Best Back the trailhead a short distance from the tions, with picnic areas, ramadas, a Highway becomes Mount Vernon Avenue. 40 Roads ADDITIONAL READING: For more adventure, pick up turnoff to the marina, store and café. playground, a sand volleyball court and We pass through a historic neighborhood, a copy of our book Scenic Today, the pueblo isn’t much more than a horseshoe pits. Anglers cast for large­ filled with Queen Anne and Craftsman Drives, which features 40 of the state’s most beautiful back pile of rocks, but there’s an observation mouth bass, rainbow trout, sunfish and homes, then reach Gurley Street, which roads. To order, visit www.shop Edited by Robert Stieve deck with a view of the Mingus Moun­ catfish. Swimming is off-limits, but visi­ takes us downtown. and Kelly Vaughn Kramer arizonahighways.com/books. tains, the northern Bradshaws and Gran­ ite Mountain. After lunch, we continue down Walker Road. The pavement ends just past Pink TOUR GUIDE Car Hill Road. The colorful story behind Note: Mileages are approximate. the road’s name begins in 1939, when a LENGTH: 26-mile loop local doctor rolled his car and left it. The DIRECTIONS: From downtown Prescott, go east on Gurley Street, which merges with State Route 69, for U.S. Forest Service painted it the color of 4 miles to Walker Road. Turn right (south) onto Walker Pepto-Bismol, making it a reference point. Road and continue 11.4 miles to Senator Highway. Turn The subsequently cut road was named right onto Senator Highway, which becomes Mount Ver- non Avenue, and continue 10.4 miles to Gurley Street. for the car. In 2011, Prescott High School Turn left onto Gurley Street and continue 0.3 miles back students stole the car, repainting it with to downtown. school colors. Outraged residents were SPECIAL CONSIDERATION: Nominal day-use fees apply at Lynx and Goldwater lakes. grateful when it was recovered and its VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: A high-clearance vehicle is color restored. recommended. As we wind through a mixed-conifer WARNING: Back-road travel can be hazardous, so be forest, Hassayampa Lake — lined with aware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of water. Don’t travel alone, and let someone know where aspens and surrounded by spruce, you are going and when you plan to return. INFORMATION: Lynx Lake Recreation Area, 928- 443-8000 or www.fs.usda.gov/prescott; Goldwater LEFT: Lynx Lake is the first of three bodies of water on Lake, 928-777-1122 or www.cityofprescott.net the Prescott Lakes Loop. Jerry Sieve Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial OPPOSITE PAGE: Wildflowers grow near the calm 511 to get infor­ma­tion on road closures, construc­tion, water of Goldwater Lake. Paul Gill delays, weather and more.

52 APRIL 2017 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 53 HIKE of the month

WOODCHUTE TRAIL Of the many wilderness areas in Arizona, Woodchute is among the smallest. In all, it protects only 5,887 acres, but within that space is this great hike, where you might see black bears, bobcats and bald eagles. BY ROBERT STIEVE / PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL HAZELTON

Jerome — the trees were used for tunnels then begins a steep climb (about 400 feet your way back to Jerome, where you can in the underground mines. in elevation) to the mountaintop. It’s a reinstall the calories you burned off on Of the many wilderness areas in Ari­ slow ascent, without a lot of switchbacks. the trail. Somewhere in town, no doubt, zona, Woodchute is among the smallest. However, after about 10 or 15 minutes there’s a decent steak. You might not find In all, it protects only 5,887 acres, but of plodding, you’ll arrive on a mesa (of a Pine Ridge cab to go with it, but Cadu­ within that space, you might see black sorts) that’s marked by a grove of young ceus Cellars (Maynard James Keenan’s bears, elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, ponderosas. The trekking is easy as you winery) has a tasting room on Main mountain lions, bobcats, rock squir­ amble west to an unmarked intersection. Street. And, like the views along the trail, rels, gray foxes, golden eagles and bald If you have the time, and the stamina, it’s impressive. eagles. You’ll see meadows, too. The most the Woodchute Trail continues for a few impressive forms a lush boundary around more miles to a trailhead off of Forest Woodchute Tank, which can be accessed Road 318A. Backpackers tend to carry ADDITIONAL READING: along the Rick Tank Cutoff Trail — you’ll on; however, day hikers usually veer For more hikes, pick up a copy see an intersection with that trail just right where the trail splits and continue of Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, which features 52 of the minutes into the wilderness. another 200 yards to the north rim of state’s best trails — one for each From the junction, the Woodchute the mountain. The views from the edge weekend of the year, sorted by seasons. To order a copy, visit Trail continues through a beautiful forest are even better than the views along the www.shoparizonahighways — this is the best part of the hike — and way. Make a few photos, and then make .com/books.

n the same way that a 2005 Pine Ridge so, the route follows an old jeep road sur­ winds back into the woods. After a brief TRAIL GUIDE cabernet sauvignon pairs nicely with rounded by alligator junipers, piñon and respite of level terrain, the route drops LENGTH: 7.2 miles round-trip DIFFICULTY: Moderate filet mignon, this scenic hike in Cen­ ponderosa pines, Gambel oaks and a forest downhill to another small saddle. In I ELEVATION: 7,145 to 7,488 feet tral Arizona complements a day trip to floor covered with pine cones. It’s pleas­ addition to the other landmarks to the TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚42.938', W 112˚09.610' Jerome. Or vice versa. The pairing isn’t ant, and the trail is easy to follow. north, you’ll also see Kendrick Peak. DIRECTIONS: From the fire department in Jerome, go south necessary, of course, but the trailhead After a few minutes, the trees open Enjoy the views, but don’t forget to on State Route 89A for 7.6 miles to Forest Road 106 (un- marked), which is located across from the Summit Picnic is just up the road, and the hike itself up and offer a glimpse of what you’ll be look down, too. Most of this stretch has Area at Mingus Pass. Turn right onto FR 106 and continue is quick and easy. So, even if you like to seeing on and off throughout the hike: a northern exposure, so there might 0.3 miles Forest Road 106D. Turn left onto FR 106D and mosey along and make a lot of photo­ spectacular views of the Verde Valley, be some lingering snow and ice in the continue 0.7 miles to the trailhead. (Note: You will pass a parking area after 0.1 miles on FR 106D. This is not the graphs, you could still hit the trail mid- Sedona, Sycamore Canyon, the Mogol­ spring. Watch your step. trailhead parking area. The trailhead is 0.6 miles farther morning and be back in Jerome in time lon Rim and the San Francisco Peaks. A Continuing downhill, you’ll see a faint down the road.) for lunch. few minutes later, you’ll look down on trail that comes in from the right. Around VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None DOGS ALLOWED: Yes No matter how you end the day, the State Route 89A, which is the winding the same time, you’ll start climbing HORSES ALLOWED: Yes trail begins just west of the Summit Picnic road you followed uphill from Jerome. again. Then, after 45 minutes of overall USGS MAPS: Hickey Mountain, Munds Draw Area at Mingus Pass. For the first mile or The views are impressive, and they get hiking, you’ll arrive at the boundary of INFORMATION: Verde Ranger District, 928-567-4121 or even better when you arrive at a narrow, the Woodchute Wilderness. The wilder­ www.fs.usda.gov/prescott treeless saddle that lets you see in several ness area gets its name from the moun­ LEAVE-NO-TRACE PRINCIPLES: • Plan ahead and be out all of your trash. ABOVE: The northern slopes of Woodchute Mountain directions — to the southwest are Chino tain, which got its name from a large prepared. • Leave what you find. offer an evening view of the Verde Valley. Valley and the Juniper Mountains. wooden chute that was built to shuttle • Travel and camp on • Respect wildlife. OPPOSITE PAGE: Northeast of the mountain, durable surfaces. • Minimize campfire impact. a monsoon storm moves toward the red rocks of the As you cross the saddle, the trail ponderosa logs down the north slope to • Dispose of waste • Be considerate of Sedona area. climbs slightly, and then steeply, as it a narrow-gauge railroad that once served properly and pack others.

54 JANUARY 2017 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 55 WHERE IS THIS?

DON’T JUST SEE THE CANYON ... EXPERIENCE IT! From hands-on archaeology surveys and backcountry adventures to rim-based day tours and photography workshops, the Grand Canyon Association Field Institute offers expert insight into the natural and cultural history of the world’s most famous natural wonder.

For a complete list of programs or more information, visit www.grandcanyon.org/ fieldinstitute or call 866-471-4435.

Ring a Bell? This Arizona structure has been around for a long time — nearly 200 years, in fact. According to the agency that man- ages it, its name is the English version of the Spanish version of an O’odham word. And it’s located in a com- munity that shares its name — minus an acute accent mark.

February 2017 Win a collection of our can also be sent to 2039 W. fied entries. Entries must Answer & Winner most popular books! Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, AZ be postmarked by April 15, To enter, correctly identify 85009 (write “Where Is 2017. Only the winner will Sonoita. Congratula- the location pictured above This?” on the envelope). be notified. The correct tions to our winner, and email your answer to Please include your name, answer will be posted in Vanda Jenner of editor@arizonahighways address and phone number. our June issue and online at Stettler, Alberta, .com — type “Where Is This?” One winner will be chosen in www.­ arizonahighways.com­ Canada. in the subject line. Entries a random drawing of quali- beginning May 15.

56 APRIL 2017 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP GEORGE H.H. HUEY ABOVE, LEFT JESSICA MORGAN PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MIKE BUCHHEIT