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SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S ISSUE MARCH 2017 ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE E X P L O R E SAGUARO NATIONAL PARK 16 THE BIG PICTURES: 38 WITH A 10-FOOT POLE 50 GRAVE SITUATION For centuries, the Tohono O’odham people With hindsight, the decision to cut down, Grand Canyon SAGUARO NATIONAL PARK National Park have been harvesting saguaro fruit in what chop up and bury thousands of saguaros A Portfolio Edited by Jeff Kida 2017 is now Saguaro National Park. Although seems like an overreaction, but in 1941, it March Williams it’s not as common as it used to be, Stella was considered the best way to protect 28 THE WILDERNESS OF UNREALITY Tucker and her daughter Tanisha are car- the species from a “bacterial infection.” An Eastern tourist-photographer visits rying on the tradition with age-old tech- By Noah Austin PHOENIX 2 EDITOR’S LETTER Arizona’s famous Saguaro National Monu- niques and picking poles (10 feet or so) Saguaro Lake Mesa ment in search of inspiration and camera made of saguaro ribs. 3 CONTRIBUTORS 52 SCENIC DRIVE Saguaro fodder. A story originally published in By Kathy Montgomery Pronghorn Drive: Although you might not Picacho Peak National Park January 1942. Photographs by Bill Hatcher 4 LETTERS see any pronghorns on this 10-mile loop Tucson By Natt N. Dodge in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Ref- Bisbee 5 THE JOURNAL Buenos Aires 44 BORN SURVIVOR uge, you will see a gorgeous grassland National Wildlife Refuge People, places and things from around the 34 THE BONES OF A SAGUARO For any species, survival is a carnival of that’s a haven for hundreds of animal state, including the return of spring training An Essay by Kelly Vaughn calculated gambles, treachery, unintended species. POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE and the Chicago Cubs; the artistry of wind consequences and circumstances beyond By Noah Austin power in Northern Arizona; and Gourmet control. Perhaps no plant in the Sonoran Photographs by Jack Dykinga Girls, a place in Tucson where the gluten- Desert illustrates that notion better than free food is so good, you won’t know the giant saguaro. it’s gluten free. 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH GET MORE ONLINE An Essay by Lawrence W. Cheek Hunter Trail: There are five trails at www.arizonahighways.com Picacho Peak State Park. None are very long, but the Hunter Trail will test /azhighways your mettle with its series of vertical @azhighways ◗ Morning dew covers a milkweed ascents and narrow rock ledges. @arizonahighways seed and other vegetation in Flor- By Robert Stieve ence, southeast of Phoenix. Eirini Pajak 56 WHERE IS THIS? CANON EOS 5D MARK II, 1/250 SEC, F/5, ISO 500, 100 MM LENS, 37 IMAGES STACKED FRONT COVER: Saguaro National Park illustration by Chris Gall BACK COVER: A clearing monsoon storm leaves vibrant light on Saguaro National Park’s Tucson Mountain District, as viewed from Hohokam petroglyphs atop Signal Hill. George Stocking CANON EOS-1DS MARK II, 1/2 SEC, F/16, ISO 100, 33 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 LAWRENCE W. CHEEK massed on a hillside, and far stranger. But the Writer Lawrence W. Cheek rejoins MARCH 2017 VOL. 93 NO. 3 tough stance is misleading. The saguaro is always Arizona Highways this month for Born in danger.” 800-543-5432 Survivor (page 44), a story about Larry is a longtime contributor. He’s smart, www.arizonahighways.com the science of saguaro cactuses. and he’s a wonderful writer, too. That’s why It’s Cheek’s first contribution to the we called him when we needed a non-scientific magazine in five years, but before that, PUBLISHER Win Holden essay on the science and nature of saguaros. he authored about 60 stories and five EDITOR Robert Stieve Through the power of his pen, you’ll learn about books for Arizona Highways, starting the plant’s unlikely existence. In fact, that it ever ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, with an April 1984 cover story on Arizona WE KNOW IT’S COMING. DIRECTOR OF The barrage of letters about the “cactuses” in takes root is a miracle of nature. “The life cycle of SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero architecture. “I still relish any chances to this issue. Not the photographs of cactuses. the species begins with an appropriately implau- MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn write about Arizona,” he says. “I return And not the stories. But the word itself. Cactuses. sible event,” Larry writes. “A white flower pops ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin every year or two on assignment or for It seems like such a benign word — a handful out of an adult saguaro during the driest, bleak- EDITORIAL a visit.” Cheek’s current surroundings of vowels and consonants neatly tied together. est slice of the year, mid-May to mid-June. To ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel couldn’t be more different from the Nevertheless, there’s a determined fellowship of readers out there intent on produce fruit, the next step in reproduction, the PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida landscape of the Sonoran Desert: He eradicating it from the pages of this magazine. flowers have to be pollinated, and this job falls CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney lives on Washington’s Whidbey Island, “The plural of cactus is cacti,” they insist. to a visiting medley of bats, birds and bees.” ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney about 30 miles northwest of Seattle, And they’re right, cacti is correct. It’s just not correct at Arizona Highways. When the fruit eventually and improbably MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey and spends much of his time building It’s not our style. Our style is to use “cactuses.” All magazines, by the way, appears, it attracts white-winged doves, Gila PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi boats. He’s completed five of them so far, and his current project is a 21-foot cruising sailboat. “Being surrounded by water and so much stunning natural beauty, it’s hard to have an official style. Most of ours is derived from the Associated Press, which woodpeckers and other wildlife. It attracts WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow specifies that “cactuses” is the preferred plural. If the AP didn’t have a ruling human beings, too. argue that I have too many boats,” he says. Cheek’s recent writing credits include The New CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman on this, we’d defer to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, For centuries, the Tohono O’odham people of York Times, The Seattle Times and, naturally, WoodenBoat magazine. FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen which lists “cactuses” as its first preference for the plural form, with “cacti” Southern Arizona have been harvesting saguaro OPERATIONS/ as the second preference. Even the Oxford English Dictionary is on our side. fruit in what is now Saguaro National Park. IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis “The Latin-style plural is appropriate to formal, scientific or technical writ- Although it’s not as common as it used to be, a ing,” the OED states, “while the English plural is better suited to everyday handful of descendants are carrying on the tra- CORPORATE OR language. Choosing to use the Latin plural form when an English one is also dition. Last summer, writer Kathy Montgomery TRADE SALES 602-712-2018 BILL HATCHER available can smack of pretentiousness or pomposity.” In other words, Eric and photographer Bill Hatcher were invited to SPONSORSHIP SALES Bill Hatcher has spent the past few REPRESENTATION On Media Publications years photographing the biggest Clapton uses plectrums, not plectra. Neon tetras swim in aquariums, not tag along. Todd Bresnahan aquaria. And at Arizona Highways, we publish stories and photographs about “Using a picking pole, made of saguaro ribs 602-445-7169 and most unusual saguaros in saguaro cactuses, not cacti. Well, most of the time, anyway. In this issue, and a crosspiece of greasewood, Tanisha pushes Saguaro National Park — in a way, you will find a few scattered “cacti.” They’re in a story we originally pub- and pulls the fruit to the ground,” Kathy writes. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] he says, it’s part of his interest in lished in January 1942. The subject was Saguaro National Monument. “Then she demonstrates how to use the hard, 2039 W. Lewis Avenue exploring giant trees around the Phoenix, AZ 85009 “On his very first visit,” Natt Dodge wrote in The Wilderness of Unreality, sharp base of the spent blossom to cut through world. So, he was a natural fit “Pop’s interest had been aroused in the anatomy and physiology of the great the fruit’s thick skin before scooping out the for With a 10-Foot Pole (see page GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey cacti. He went to the national monument headquarters and deluged Custo- seedy red pulp with her thumb.” 38), Kathy Montgomery’s story DIRECTOR, dian Don Egermayer with questions. How old were the plants? How much Tanisha and her mother, Stella Tucker, conduct DEPARTMENT about the Tohono O’odham did they weigh? How tall did they get? Did they have blossoms, and at what the harvest in the same place every year. It’s the OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski tradition of harvesting saguaro time of year? Were they good for anything besides camera fodder?” same grove Ms. Tucker’s grandmother, Juanita fruit. “I understood that the fruit, “Pop,” the protagonist of the story, was an amateur photographer named Ahil, visited long before the landscape was pro- Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published month- like that of other cactuses, is a tra- Marvin Frost.