Navajoland Mystery Tour Explore the Landscape of Tony Hillerman's Detective Stories
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NervousNervous NellieNellie onon thethe EEdge:dge: AA MotherMother TTeeterseeters onon thethe NorthNorth RimRim JUNE 2006 Navajoland Mystery Tour Explore the Landscape of Tony Hillerman's Detective Stories Plus: A Biologist Braves Bear Dens Cacti Burst Into Bloom A Hiker Seeks a Peak Moment Departments Navajoland 16 Peak Moment BY BILL BROYLES The Tucson Mountains inspire an odd compulsion in a front-porch sitter. june 2006 2 DEAR EDITOR Mystery Tour PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACK DYKINGA pages 8-15 3 ALL WHO WANDER 22 Portfolio: Flowers Monument Valley awaits and Thorns the return of the gods. 8 A Man of Mysteries Cacti show their softer side as 4 VIEWFINDER Revealed BY RACHEL DICKINSON seasons change in the desert. Navajo photographer A war, a healing and a string of best-selling detective WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN P. SCHAEFER LeRoy DeJolie shares his legacy. novels connect author Tony Hillerman to Navajoland. 5 TAKING THE PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEROY DEJOLIE 30 Hell of a State BY GREGORY MCNAMEE OFF-RAMP Names with a whiff of brimstone get Explore Arizona oddities, stuck on some heavenly scenery. attractions and pleasures. contents 10 Guide to Hillerman Country BY PAULY HELLER 43 ALONG THE WAY Track fictional Navajo Policeman Jim Chee from one 32 Nervous Nellie Wild things drive a wildlife great place to visit on the reservation to the next. on the Edge BY ROBIN N. CLAYTON photographer wild. A single mother discovers courage and 44 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE coolness perched on the North Rim. A 27-mile ramble to Camp PHOTOGRAPHS BY GARY LADD Wood skirts history and plunges into solitude. 40 Bearly Brave BY STAN CUNNINGHAM A biologist sneaks into dens, armed with courage 46 HIKE OF THE MONTH and a can of pepper spray for confidence. Fish-loving, camera-snapping, sheep-watching hikers face tough choices along the East Fork of the Black River. online arizonahighways.com Online this month, discover the • Thrilling Hillerman country trips WEEKEND GETAWAY Walk on the mystery and majesty of Arizona. • North Rim recreation wild side at Out of Africa Wildlife Park. From the monoliths of Monument • The buzz on botanical gardens HISTORY Meet Jessie Valley, to the peaceful pine Frémont, Territorial Arizona’s HUMOR Our author imagines country of the North Rim, to the enchanting First Lady. cavalry life at Fort Huachuca. beauty of botanical gardens, go EXPERIENCE ARIZONA Plan to arizonahighways.com and click ONLINE EXTRA Find the a trip using our statewide ICONIC IMAGE Carved from the red sandstone of on the “June Trip Planner” for: silver lining along Arizona’s calendar of events. the Colorado Plateau through the action of countless “Million Dollar Highway.” centuries of wind and water, the striking buttes and pinnacles of Monument Valley remain the final FRONT COVER Sunlight streams through the swirling sandstone forms of Lower Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Indian testament to the ancient seas and sand dunes that Reservation near Page. No wider than 18 inches at its start, the depths of the canyon reveal a phantasmagorical world of color once covered the area. See story page 8. LEROY DEJOLIE and form throughout its quarter-mile length. PAUL GILL n To order a print, call (866) 962-1191 or visit arizonahighways.com. n To order a print, call (866) 962-1191 or visit arizonahighways.com. BACK COVER Showy flowers cover a diminutive fishhook pincushion cactus. Generally less than 6 inches tall, the tiny Mammillaria grahamii bursts into bloom after the first rains of the summer monsoon season. See portfolio, page 22. JOHN P. SCHAEFER Puckered Lips or Just Poppies? After my first glance at the March cover, I thought I was looking at the facial profile of a Native American all who wander all woman smelling some of our state’s wonderful Mexican JUNE 2006 VOL. 82, NO. 6 HANDS OF THE GODS The Navajos say that the goldpoppies. Then I realized they were all flowers Publisher WIN HOLDEN Mittens, ‘Ná Tosh, are formed and not a face at all. In reading the caption, I was Editor PETER ALESHIRE from the giant hands of the dumbfounded to find out that the picture was taken Senior Editor BETH DEVENY gods left behind as a promise Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN that they will one day return. along the Apache Trail. The “connections” did not stop Web/Research Editor SALLY BENFORD PETER ALESHIRE there, however. The issue also mentioned the story of Books Editor BOB ALBANO Editorial Assistant PAULY HELLER Mexican native Juan Diego, the Aztec earth goddess Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER dear editor Tonantzin, and the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose legend Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK deals with the image of a woman produced by flowers. Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY distance to drive this loop and marvel. I have Sam Mendivil, Tucson Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP learned the stories of my own clan, tales going Art Assistant DIANA BENZEL-RICE I went back and looked. Unnerving. Of course, poppies often have that effect on me. And if there’s one Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY back 250 million years to the end of the thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that everything is connected. — Peter Aleshire, Editor Production Director KIM ENSENBERGER Permian period when massive sand dunes Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON covered this great region and the whole dry Webmaster VICKY SNOW Howling Females With Pitchforks adjustment of the film plane the way a view camera Seeking a Fit Between surface of the Earth was gathered together into I’m a linguistic anthropologist, and I does, so there’s a tradeoff. But we’re trying to mix Director of Sales & Marketing KELLY MERO a single supercontinent dubbed Pangaea. really do understand. About the myopic more people and action photography with our Circulation Director HOLLY CARNAHAN the Blood and the Awe Then the Earth shifted and nearly all living landscapes these days. — Ed. Finance Director BOB ALLEN arizonahighways.com patriarchal roots of our language and things died mysteriously in one of the most by Peter Aleshire, editor @ our culture, about how nobody really Information Technology CINDY BORMANIS terrible mass extinctions ever recorded — just intended to exclude women from virtually Don’t Feed the Danged Wildlife Inquiries or orders Toll-free: (800) 543-5432 SADLY, I COME DRIVING. as the Navajos say that the exasperated Creator wiped out the editor everything for all those years, about I must question the judgment in Phoenix area or outside the U.S. (602) 712-2000 Full of care, I come driving. Third World, which came just before this one. Or visit how unreasonable the feminists were. publishing the article “Playful Prairie arizonahighways.com Wondering, I come driving. Pangaea broke up and its pieces went wandering, rootless as Everyone’s tired of the argument, right? Dogs Put on an Entertaining Spring Show” For Corporate or Trade Sales Dolores Field (602) 712-2045 For I drive a loop in the heart of Monument Valley, bemused a band of white guys. Those great sand dunes were soon But I’m looking at the cover headline (March ’06, “Along the Way”). I also live Letters to the Editor [email protected] and misplaced in this place of blood and awe. buried, heated, pressurized and turned to the thick layers of “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” in Tucson, and problems with feeding 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009 Looking upon these 1,000-foot-tall prayers of sandstone, I swirled rock we have dubbed DeChelly Sandstone. (February ’06), and it’s underneath a wildlife have been in the news, including Governor can see the myths, tragedies, ironies and truths in layers, from Then the Earth shifted again, thrusting these newly made JANET NAPOLITANO picture of a woman on a horse, and the controversy over Arizona Game and Director, Department of Transportation the sacred springs at their feet to the windswept, fossilized rocks back up into the light, where the rain, thunder, ice and it’s just so . absurd. My heroes have Fish Department’s having to kill mountain VICTOR M. MENDEZ sand dunes on their brows. wind conspired to render them into the form of gods. always been cowgirls. I bet you knew lions in Sabino Canyon and earlier ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION BOARD I am out of place. So I come now with empty hands, seeking a place to stand something like this was coming and problems with feeding bears on Mount Chairman James W. Martin I know too much history. here among the stone gods and the mass extinctions and the Vice Chairman Joe Lane are barricaded in your office at this very Lemmon. There have been many requests Members S.L. Schorr, Delbert Householder, I feel too much blame. misnamed buttes. I have read my geology and my history and moment, awaiting the crowds of howling to citizens of the area to not feed wildlife, Robert M. Montoya, Felipe Andres Zubia, I look upon the formations the map arrogantly labels also the Blessingway, hoping that these things may fit me to William J. Feldmeier females, armed with pitchforks, who and small animals can lead to larger Mitchell and Merrick buttes. These formations, sacred to the this place. For I have lived my life in many places, thinking are working their way up the mountain, predators frequenting the area. International Regional Magazine Association Navajos, now bear the names of James Merrick and Ernest always of other times, but in my heart I am jealous of the 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000 Magazine of the Year torches flickering in the moonlight. James E. Carnahan, Tucson Mitchell, soldiers-turned-prospectors who ignored warnings to medicine men who know where they belong.