After 100 Years, FOSSIL CREEK Will Flow WILD and FREE arizonahighways.com JUNE 2004 rarely seen Beauty Sculpted Sandstone Kayakers Go Overboard on Apache Lake Indian Arts Showplace Heard Museum Marking Its 75th Year A Survival Struggle Flight of the Condors {also inside} JUNE 2004 46 DESTINATION Walnut Canyon The Sinagua Indians had good reason to build their 22 COVER/PORTFOLIO 36 TRAVEL homes along the cliffs of Walnut Canyon. Nature’s Handiwork Chaos in a Tandem Kayak 42 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE in Sandstone Two wigglesome paddlers take a water-camping Drive through the stark beauty of Monument Valley class on Apache Lake and have a boatload of on the Navajo Indian Reservation. The odd shapes of multicolored petrified dunes called trouble getting the hang of capsize recovery. Coyote Buttes grace Arizona’s border with Utah. 48 HIKE OF THE MONTH The route up Strawberry Crater near Flagstaff ENVIRONMENT travels an area once violent Paria Canyon- 6 with volcanic activity. Vermilion Cliffs Fossil Creek Going Wild Again Wilderness By the end of December, this scenic stream in Coyote Monument 2 LETTERS & E-MAIL Buttes Valley central-Arizona will revert to a natural state as two Grand Canyon electric power plants are closed after nearly a 3 TAKING THE National Park OFF-RAMP Strawberry Crater hundred years of operation. Walnut Canyon National Monument 40 HUMOR Fossil MUSEUMS Creek 16 PHOENIX Heard Museum Marks 41 ALONG THE WAY Apache A nostalgic drive across Maricopa Lake Wells 75th Anniversary America is hard to beat— TUCSON Phoenix’s noted institution for Indian arts and culture except by arriving home continues to tie native creativity and traditions to in Arizona. modern culture. POINTS OF INTEREST FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE 30 BIRDS Biologists Strive {more stories online} to Help Condors Succeed at arizonahighways.com At the Grand Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs, an GENE PERRET’S WIT STOP effort continues to give the giant birds a chance It’s gut-check time at a class reunion, where you to breed and live as they did in ancient times. find out what “old” really means. 33 INDIANS ONLINE EXTRA Massacre on the Gila Raft the Colorado River Come along on a self-guided dory and raft trip Ushered in Peace down the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River. An old Maricopa Indian fable is retold to keep alive the dreams and memories of an aged warrior who WEEKEND GETAWAY died in a wild battle south of Phoenix. Lake Havasu For water lovers, there are few better places to enjoy Arizona’s sunshine than Lake Havasu. EXPERIENCE ARIZONA A Flagstaff festival highlights activities around the state in June. [THIS PAGE] The action of water and windblown sand has worked the geology of the Colorado Plateau and continues the evolution of fanciful formations like {arizona highways on television} Monument Valley’s Three Sisters in Arizona’s northeastern corner. Watch for this independently produced television show that [FRONT COVER] A hiker descends a slope of emulates Arizona Highways magazine. The weekly half-hour swirling sandstone, the accumulation of show will air in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff in both English ancient dunes in the Coyote Buttes area of and Spanish. the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Robin Sewell, a veteran television news anchor and Wilderness, about 40 miles west of Page near the Arizona-Utah border. For more reporter, will host the show. photographs of the region’s unique English show times: 6:30 P.M. Saturdays on Channel 12 landscape, see the portfolio beginning on in Phoenix and on Channel 2 in Flagstaff, and at 4:30 P.M. page 22. BOTH BY RALPH LEE HOPKINS Sundays on Channel 9 in Tucson. [BACK COVER] A giant cottonwood tree The show will air in Spanish on Channel 33 in Phoenix, clings precariously to the banks of Fossil Creek along the channel’s course. See Channel 52 in Tucson and Channel 13 in Flagstaff. Check the story, page 6. NICK BEREZENKO stations’ listings for times. {letters & e-mail} Arizona Oddities, Attractions and Pleasures {taking the off- ramp } JUNE 2004 VOL. 80, NO. 6 Publisher WIN HOLDEN Editor ROBERT J. EARLY Gene Perret Column magazine. However, issues in the past always Senior Editor BETH DEVENY Indian pottery to a telephone Speed Demons THIS MONTH IN Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN I’ve received my January 2004 issue, and it tells me contained “Legends of the Lost,” which were Research Editor MARY PRATT switchboard. he Arizona Republican Editorial Administrator CONNIE BOCH ARIZONA that “Gene Perret’s Wit Stop” is online now and no stories, most from before the turn of the 20th Administrative Assistant NIKKI KIMBEL Old dishes, quilts and toys supplied the trophy, the longer in the magazine. I have to say that I feel century, that related both the history and the share space with a chuck box, speedsters supplied the cars Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER T sorry for the people who enjoy him but do not have mystery of the Southwest. I was disappointed to Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK Navajo rugs, saddles and a parlor and the great race from Los 1853In the first access to a computer. Can you find room to put him see that this feature has apparently been Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY organ. Paintings by local artist Angeles to Phoenix began. Among steamboat disaster back in the magazine please? discontinued. Would you please consider reviving Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP Garnett Franklin explain the Cactus Derby entries leaving on the Art Assistant PAULY HELLER Colorado River, Joan Wactor, Oakland, CA “Legends of the Lost” — even as reprints from Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY Holbrook’s history, including Los Angeles at midnight on the Uncle Sam issues long in the past? gunfights, railroads, cattle November 7, 1908, were a Kissel sinks near Fort Arizona Highways Books Yuma. My secondary pleasure in reading involves my Bill Swaby, Unionville, IA WitWorks® Books companies and Navajo Indians. Kar, an Elmore, a Franklin and a Editor BOB ALBANO accommodations. The perfect chair, excellent Later this year, we plan to run a special section of lost- Associate Editor EVELYN HOWELL The jail is a special attraction. White Steamer. lighting and pillows arranged just right. treasure stories. We’ve finally found some new ones. Associate Editor PK PERKIN MCMAHON Costing $3,000, it was built in St. 1871Gen. George I was in my favorite chair when I eagerly opened Production Director CINDY MACKEY Louis when the courthouse was Crook takes command of the to January’s contents to find the page for “Wit Contented Visitor Production Coordinator KIM ENSENBERGER in the planning, shipped by rail, Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON Army’s Stop.” I’ve already forgiven you a long time ago for I saw my first Arizona Highways in a country school Webmaster VICKY SNOW then installed during courthouse Department of moving it to the back of the magazine. So you see, in rural Iowa in the early 1950s. I just love the Arizona. He says Circulation Director HOLLY CARNAHAN CITY OF HOLBROOK/GEORGE PINTER construction. Made of steel Indians should it really didn’t faze me when I couldn’t find a page history and beautiful scenery that Arizona affords. Finance Director ROBERT M. STEELE painted green, it features narrow be treated number listed for my favorite section. I just went I’m in my second year as a snowbird, and look bunks, gunports, catwalks and fairly, but kept Fulfillment Director VALERIE J. BECKETT From Courthouse under control. thumbing through the magazine. There was no forward to many more. Every week is a new road trip a drunk tank complete with Information Technology Manager article. It was “online.” You might as well have sent and breathtaking adventure. CINDY BORMANIS to Museum prisoner’s wall sketches. It’s it to Mars. Dennis Burrier, Cedar Rapids, IA uilt in 1898, the Navajo somber enough to deter a life FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES 1874Chiricahua What were you thinking? OR TO ORDER BY PHONE: County Historical of crime. Apache chief LINDA LONGMIRE Cochise dies Now, I have to sit on my husband’s miserable Great Gift Call toll-free: (800) 543-5432 Courthouse in Holbrook During the weekday evenings in In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., B the Dragoon desk chair surrounded by clutter only a low-yield We recently gave Arizona Highways to a co-worker Call (602) 712-2000 held court until 1976. Now it’s of June and July, Navajo dancers They fought off cattle and sand Mountains, nuclear device could clear, to say nothing of the who lives in St. Louis. Wanted to let you know it Or visit us online at: the home of the Old West perform outside the courthouse. pits, and the cars lost or broke his tribe’s arizonahighways.com stronghold. The lousy lighting, just to read a great story on a screen. was very well received. Museum with collections ranging Information: (928) 524-2459; various parts. As winner, the For Corporate or Trade Sales: location of his Put it back the way it was. Sandra Turner, Gilbert Sales Manager HELEN THOMPSON from petrified wood and ancient www.ci.holbrook.az.us. White Steamer took the trophy burial was never By the way, I do like the magazine’s new font About 100,000 persons give Arizona Highways Call (602) 712-2050 with a time of slightly more than disclosed to style. It is easier on the eyes when I read what’s subscriptions as well-received gifts. As a matter of fact, E-MAIL “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”: 30 hours. The driver, Col. F.C. non-Apaches.