SPECIAL SECTION 14 Legends of lost treasure arizonahighways.com NOVEMBER 2004 Walk Among the Navajo Ancients CCanyonanyon dede CChellyhelly Sip the hassayampa river’s Water (and Try Not to Lie) the magician Exposing His Power and Mystery {also inside} NOVEMBER 2004 48 DESTINATION Fort Verde State Historic Park In the late 1800s, the garrison was a focal point of U.S. Army activity during the Apache Wars. 50 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE INDIANS/COVER TRAVEL Travelers won’t forget the panoramic countryside 6 42 SPECIAL SECTION or the demanding bumps and inclines in the drive Hiking Through Major Gold Strike from Muleshoe Ranch to Jackson cabin. LOST LEGENDS Canyon de Chelly’s History Along the Hassayampa! 21 56 HIKE OF THE MONTH A guided journey on foot through the spellbinding Well, of course, that’s a big whopper of a lie, and Still Searching Reynolds Creek Trail in the Sierra Anchas offers scenery of Canyon de Chelly reveals petroglyphs, tradition says you’ll be telling lots more of them a remote break from the nearby for Elusive Treasures urban clamor. Grand Canyon Canyon de Chelly pictographs and ruins that tell of the Navajo if you drink the waters from this 60-mile-long partly National Park Indian past. underground river. In this issue, we present 14 stories about the state’s National Monument favorite folklore — the “missing” or “vanished” 2 LETTERS & E-MAIL mines and golden loot that have kept fortune seekers 3 TAKING Oak Creek Ridge Ruin ARCHAEOLOGY PORTFOLIO restless and searching for decades. Canyon 14 THE OFF-RAMP Fort Verde State 38 Hassayampa Historic Park Unresolved Mystery: Oak Creek Canyon River 54 HUMOR Sierra Ancha mountains ‘The Magician’ in Radiant Color PHOENIX In 1939 archaeologists uncovered near Flagstaff burial Late October through mid-November is Mother Nature’s 55 ALONG THE WAY Muleshoe Ranch artifacts and the historically significant 800-year-old time to pull out her brilliant reds and oranges and One writer goes in search TUCSON of another and finds him Chiricahua remains of a revered Indian in one of the Southwest’s yellows in a picturesque central-Arizona gorge. Mountains most important sites. in an unexpected place POINTS OF INTEREST near Paradise in the FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE Chiricahua Mountains. {more stories online} at arizonahighways.com GENE PERRET’S WIT STOP Our author’s dog hasn’t yet learned what it means to be “man’s best friend.” ONLINE EXTRA Saloons in the Old West The wild tavern life of Arizona’s bygone days generated stories that an Eastern tinhorn has to reckon with. WEEKEND GETAWAY Phoenix Zoo The popular animal attraction is one of the nation’s largest privately owned parks, and it’s among the city’s top sites to visit. EXPERIENCE ARIZONA A listing of major events in the state is available online. {arizona highways on television} Watch for this independently produced television show inspired by Arizona Highways magazine. The weekly half-hour [THIS PAGE] Resplendently ruby-hued, a bigtooth maple leaf show airs in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff in both English and takes its final curtain call among slick rocks in the West Fork Spanish. of Oak Creek in the Red Rock/Secret Mountain Wilderness north of Sedona. See portfolio, page 14. Robin Sewell, a veteran television news anchor and ROBERT G. MCDONALD reporter, hosts the show. [FRONT COVER] Massive sandstone cliffs tower over an abandoned English show times: 6:30 P.M. Saturdays on Channel 12 hogan and Fremont cottonwood trees alight with golden fall in Phoenix and on Channel 2 in Flagstaff, and at 4:30 P.M. foliage at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northeastern Sundays on Channel 9 in Tucson. Arizona. See story, page 6. [BACK COVER] Nearly translucent autumn leaves diffuse sunlight The show airs in Spanish on Channel 33 in Phoenix, Channel between the furrowed boughs of a Fremont cottonwood at 52 in Tucson and Channel 13 in Flagstaff. Check the stations’ Canyon de Chelly. BOTH BY LARRY LINDAHL listings for times. {letters & e-mail} Arizona Oddities, Attractions and Pleasures {taking the off- ramp } NOVEMBER 2004 VOL. 80, NO. 11 Publisher WIN HOLDEN THIS MONTH IN Stupid Answer contributors. We love his work. But putting the story Editor ROBERT J. EARLY Your answer (“Letters & E-mail,” June ‘04) to the on the Web is not demeaning his writing. The Web Senior Editor BETH DEVENY Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN Rancho Linda Vista ARIZONA two people who complained about moving “Gene stories are available to the whole world. And it will Research Editor MARY PRATT Perret’s Wit Stop” column online is nonsense. You stay on the Web site for at least a year. Editorial Administrator CONNIE BOCH Artists Colony Administrative Assistant NIKKI KIMBEL say he has a “huge” following, but a lot of people ome ranches raise cattle. This one This year’s neither have nor want a computer. Fossil Springs Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER nurtures artists. Rancho Linda 1872 Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK S growing season Yes, I have a computer, but I don’t use it for In “Return to the Wild” (June ’04), author Myndi Vista in Oracle once welcomed proves ripe for Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY farmers, reading. I think this time you just lost it. Brogdon was correct when she wrote of Fossil Springs, Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP greenhorns to its rustic cabins when it yielding Jim Record, Crandall, TX “Some will rejoice when Fossil Creek runs wild Art Assistant PAULY HELLER was one of the pioneering dude watermelons Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY weighing up to That’s not the first time the poor old editor has been again, but some will feel sadness and regret for ranches in Arizona. The rocky terrain 46 pounds and Arizona Highways Books accused of losing it. And the next two letters may the loss of what man was able to accomplish ® provided the scenery for a 1924 4-pound sweet WitWorks Books potatoes add to that dubious record. here.” I am one of those who is feeling the Editor BOB ALBANO movie, The Mine With the Iron Door, . Associate Editor EVELYN HOWELL sadness and regret. Associate Editor PK PERKIN MCMAHON by Tucson writer Harold Bell Wright. Missing ‘Experience Arizona’ As a mechanical engineer, I am in awe of the work The cattle Production Director CINDY MACKEY Public schools I’m missing the calendar section — you know, all that was done at Fossil Springs in the days when Production Coordinator KIM ENSENBERGER and the 1893 in Phoenix close the neat things that are happening in Arizona. What’s up? horsepower was measured in horses. The fact that Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON Hollywood their doors for Webmaster VICKY SNOW the day, as the Yvonne Atkins, Fallbrook, CA after 100 years it still profitably provides pollution- crews are Circulation Director HOLLY CARNAHAN circus comes The “Experience Arizona” calendar has been moved free energy sufficient for 1,000 homes is a real long gone, to town. Fulfillment Director VALERIE J. BECKETT to our Web site at arizonahighways.com where it has tribute to the ingenuity of early Arizona pioneers. replaced by Tucson’s mayor been greatly expanded to look forward three months. I will enjoy hiking to see the beauty of the Information Technology Manager earns $80 per CINDY BORMANIS sculptors, travertine pools that form after full flow is returned to painters, month from a FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES One-room Museum for the Dead $725 monthly Misguided Editing the creek, but I will miss the archaeological history OR TO ORDER BY PHONE: potters, fabric city budget. What in the world were you thinking? You put Gary that is being destroyed. Some of us find beauty in Call toll-free: (800) 543-5432 artists and keletons greet visitors to La the dead, an altar with family In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., The Tucson Ladd’s excellent article (“Grand Canyon Boaters Find the works of man as well as in works of nature. Call (602) 712-2000 writers seeking a companionable Galeria Dia de los Muertos mementos, tiny sugar skulls, toy City Council a New Sense of Identity”) on your Web site and not Ray Wells, Fountain Hills Or visit us online at: place to create their art. The artists’ in Patagonia. One drives skeletons representing characters authorizes its arizonahighways.com S clerk to buy in the magazine. Relegating the efforts of one of community was formed in 1968, and the Volkswagen bus outside, from ballerinas to Tiger Woods. bread, giving For Corporate or Trade Sales: your best contributors to the Web site makes no The scenes of restored beauty and ecological DOLORES FIELD residents now live in an officially two frame the front door. Inside, Admission is by appointment half a loaf to each “hobo” sense to me. I pay for my subscription to read diversity that your photos along Fossil Creek Call (602) 712-2045 designated historic place. miniature skeletons cavort only, but during the festivities held traveling east. articles printed in the magazine. previewed result from the years of hard work by E-MAIL “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”: Resident artists and invited across the tables. Welcome to on a weekend close to Dia de los [email protected] Dave Donahue, Belvidere, IL many Arizona citizens who are proud members of contributors from around the world Regular Mail: a celebration of the dead, as Muertos, the Day of the Dead, the No question Gary Ladd is among our very best the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity Editor display work at the Barn Gallery, practiced in Mexico on November 1 museum opens its doors to all, 1897A disagreement or similar organizations.