Arizona Highways. March, 1958

              I
I HIGHUJAVS
MARCH 1958
FORTY CENTS
In this issue:
Parade of the Wild Flowers
~ .....- ..
-- -~-=~-'-' -~~)~);-.
A Sout-hlMest-e,.n Cent-ury
BY LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL
DRAWINGS BY Ross SANTEE
he welcome given my bibliography T called "Heart of the Southwest" led
to this companion list of non-fiction
about the same region. "You have
given us the best works of fiction,"
readers d~clared, "now give us the
best works of fact." This implies that
fact is better than fiction. What is best is truthfulness
to life, and sometimes an inspired novelist comes closer
to it than so-called factual writers. To achieve lasting
literature, fictional or factual, a writer needs perceptive
vision, absorptive capacity, and creative strength.
In choosing, I have sought the works which in my
taste and judgment best embody the special qualities and
characteristics of the lands lying west of the Pecos, north
of the Border, south of the Mesa Verde and the Grand
Canyon, and east of the mountains which wall off South­ern
California and make it a land in itself. For twenty-five
years I have been reading and writing about the books
of the Southwest, and for an even longer time I have been
living the life of a Southwesterner, based in Southern
California and making entradas into the lands of the
sun and little rain where, as Ross Calvin said, Sky
Determines. These are the lands I Ibve best, and these
are the books which seem to me best to represent the
things about them which make so many of us homesick
when we are exiled elsewhere on earth.
Of the making of bibliographies there is no end, and
mine is another link in the chain which binds writers and
readers together. I have profited from the work of other
compilers, but I have not let my choices be determined
by theirs. I believe this is the first Southwest bibliography
to be limited to a hundred books. It is harder to narrow
than t~ widen the field. T.o extract the essence is always
a labOrIOUS process, and in this instance also a joyous one.
In answer to the inevitable question as to why I in­~
Iuded this and omitted that, I will reply only that this
IS my choice,. conditioned by my own inescapable biases
of taste and judgment, and that there is nothing on earth
to prevent you from making your choice-and taking
the critical consequences, as I am prepared to do.
. If I were to classify the selections my headings would
Include History and Travel, Biography and Memoirs,
Natural History, the Range, Arts and Crafts, Archae­ology
and Ethnology. Emphasis is on primary source
works rather than on secondary versions. There . does
no.t ~ee~ to be a comprehensive work on Geology and
Ml1l~ng 11l the Southwest, including the rush for uranium,
nor IS there a book about the proliferation of the urban
centers-two powerful factors of determination. There is
also an understandable lack of popular literature about
atomic bomb development in New Mexico.
It is noteworthy that although only eighteen women
writers are among the hundred, of the five authors who
are represented by two works each, four are women.
The University of Oklahoma Press with eleven choices
leads a total of fifty-one publishers.
Henry R. Wagner, dead last spring in his ninety-fifth
year, was the dean of Southwestern bibliographers, and
his The Spanish Southwest and The Plains and the Rockies
are cornerstones in the field. Mary Tucker's Books of the
Southwest is the best single bibliography of the Indian,
Spanish, and Anglo periods, arranged by subjects, and
Lyle Saunders' Guide to Materials Bearing on Cultural
Relations in New Mexico is the best bibliography about
a single state; Francis Farquhar'S Books of the Colorado
River and the Grand Canyon the best about a single area.
A good work on a single subject is Ramon F. Adams'
Six Guns and Saddle Leather, a bibHography of bad-men
literature. ]. C. Dykes' Billy the Kid: the Bibliography of
a Legend is a model work on a single person. ]. Frank
Dobie's Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest,
though strong on Texas and the range, weakens as it
moves west; yet it has more color and flavor and pet:sonal
authority than any other work of its kind. Glen Dawson's
priced and indexed catalog, Southwest Books, is useful as'
a guide to values, although it also includes items from
the North\'vest to the South Pacific. Mildred Harrington's
The Southwest in Children's Literature is an excellent
bibliography of juveniles. Rader's South of Forty, Camp­bell's
Book Lover's Southwest, and Kurtz's Literature of
the American Southwest feature "shotgun bibliography,"
which means firing broadside without knowing precisely
what has been hit, and Campbell ludicrously rules Ari·
zona out of the Southwest.
The reports of the great nineteenth century govern­ment
surveys and expeditions are encyclopedias of the
Western expansion. Because of their bulk, their c<?stliness,
and their general availability in libraries, I have not
included the War Department's thirteen-volume Reports
of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Pmc­ticable
and Economical Route for a Railroad from the
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, 1855-60; Wheeler's
twelve-volume, plus four volumes Qf atlas and album of
fifty photographs, U. S. Geographical Surveys West of
the looth Meridian, 1873-84; Emory's Report on the
United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, 1857;
Ives' Report upon the Colorado River of the West,
186 I; Simpson's Report of the Route from Fort Smith,
Arkal1sas to Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1857; Sitgreave's
• ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958 Please turn to page ten .••
aRIZONfl HIGHUJA.VS
VOL. XXXIV NO. 3 MARCH 1958
RA YlVIOND CARLSON, Editor
GEORGE M. AVEY, Art EditOr
JAMES E. STEVENS, Business Manager
LEGEND
A SOUTHWEST CENTURY
ONE Ht:NDRED DEFI ITiVE BOOKS WHICH
BEST TELL THE s'rORY OF THE SOUTHWEST.
ARIZO:-.'A COTTO?\,-ANCIENT AND MODER?\'
WilEN BETTER COTTON IS GROWN, YOU
CAN BE CERTAIN ARIZONA WILL GROW IT.
DESERT ODYSSEY
Mr,:SQUITE
FOLLOWING THAT MADCAP SEASON, SPRING,
THROt:GH THE HEART OF THE ARm LAND.
CLOSEUP OF ONE OF THE WEST'S MOST
FAMOUS OR INFAMOUS DESERT DWELLERS.
ERNEST W. McFARLAND
Governor of Arizona
ARIZONA H IGHWAY COI\IMTSSIO
4
26
GrOl'er J. Duff, Chairman . . . . . . . . . .. Tucson
Will. P. Copple, Vice' Chairman . Yuma
L. F. Quinn, Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . l\liami
Frank L. Christensen, l\ lember . . . . . . . . . . Flagstaff
Alilton L Reay, Member . . . . . Safford
vVm. E. Willey, State Hwy. Engineer Phoenix
J lIstin Herman, Secretary . . . . . Phoenix
RIZONA HIGHWAYS is published monthly by the Arizona Highway
Department a few miles north of the confluence of the Gila and
Salt in Arizona. Address: ARIZONA H IGHWAYS, Phoenix, Arizona.
$3.50 per year in U .S. and possessions; '4.50 elsewhere; 40 cents
each. Entered as second-class matter TOL 5, '94' at Post Office in
Phoenix, under Act of March 3, 1879. Copyrighted, 1958, by the
Arizona Highway Department.
Allow five weeks for change of addresses. Be sure to scnd 111
the old as well as the new address.
FRONT COVE R
"WILl) FLOWER BOUQUET" BY WILLIS PETERSON. Up­per
Left- Yarrow, Acbillea lanZilosa; Upper Center-Aster, Aster
fo liacells; Upper Right-Zinnia, Zinnia grandifloT(f; Middle Left­Sand
Verbena, Abronia villosa; Desert Dandelion, Nemoseris neo­mexicana;
Middle Center-Bindweed, Convoh"ltllls arvensis; Mid­dle
Right-Vervain, Verbena bipinnatifida; Lower Left-Golden­rod,
Solidago sparsiflora; Lower Center-Red Gilia, Gilia aggre­gata;
Lower Right-Mariposa Lily, Calocbortus kel1nedyi.
Ho! HUIll! It's spring again' If it rains real hard (and
it seldom does out our way) there'll be flowers, millions
of flowers, raising their saucy heads out of the desert floor.
And if it doesn't rain (who can tell?) there'll only be a
patch or t\\·o here and there, but even that patch will be
worth investigating, because when did' a wild flower or
two be unworthy of one's effort or time to pause a min­ute
or so in the sun?
As you can see, we're wild-flower-happy this issue,
and, through the efforts of two dedicated Nature lovers
and two wonderfully qualified photographers, Willis
Peterson and Bill Bass, we bring you herein a \\-ild flower
bouquet which, we doubt, you can pluck any place else
in the world.
And then the eternal question arises: When is the best
time to see the desert in bloom? That depends on several
variable factors-rainfall and elevation. Generally, how­ever,
late March and April is wild flower time in the
desert regions of the state. Tn midsummer of last year the
mountain areas were at their dazzling beyt.
One of the "C's" for which Arizona is justly famous
is "Cotton." Rich Johnson, an expert on the subject, tells
us about cotton in Arizona beginning way back long ago.
From him we learn that the finest cott<>,11 ever grown was
developed in this state and that our 'cotton growers get
much more cotton per acre than co,tton growers elsewhere.
Soil, climate, irrigation and knO\v-how ~ pell the answer.
Without seeming to be crassly commercial, we
would like to call to your attention some of the items
prodllGed by this publication (opposite page). The Color
Album, 1957, turned out, we think, to be a handsome
volume. In it are. offered all of our color pages ·,for last
year, including covers without our cover signature.
There's a heap of color wra pped up in that book .. . R.C.
OPPOSITE PAGE
"BRITTLE BUSH 1 BLOOt\l" BY CHUCK ABBOTT. 5X7
Deardorff View camera; Lktachrome; f.p at y, sec.; Goerz Dagor
lens; early May, '957; bright morning about 10 A.I\!.; Weston
Meter Light value 400. Scene along road through Saguaro National
Monument. The yellow Rowers arc Brittle Blish (Encelia farinosa)
which are at their best in years after generous spring rains in desert
areas around Tucson.
COLOR CLASSICS FROM ARIZONA HIGHWAYS
THIS ISSUE
35 mm. slides in 2" mounts, 1 to 15 slides, 401/' each;
16 to 49 slides, 35¢ each; 50 or more, 3 for $1 .00.
Identification Code: UL-Upper left; UC- Upper center; UR-Upper
right; ML-Middle left; MC-Middle center; MR-Middle
right; LL-Lower left; LC-Lower center; LR-Lower right.
Cover 1: UL-WD-61 Yarrow; UC-WD·62 Aster; UR-WD-63 Zinnia;
ML-WD-64 Sand Verbena and Desert Dandelion; MC-WD-65 Bin9weed;
MR- WD·66 Vervain; LL-WD.67 Goldenrod; LC-WD·68 Red Gilia; LR­WD
·69 Moriposa Lily. WD.70 Brittlebush in Bloom, cover 2; WD-71 Owl
Clover, cover 3; TB.8 Palo Verde in Spring Dress, cover 4; FA·6 An
Arizona Cotton Field, p. 7; FA-7 Cotton-Ready for Picking, p. 8; FA-8
Cotton- The Blossoms are Big, p. 8; FA-9 Cotton- Miracle of Irrigation,
p. 8; PAGE 15 UL-WD·72 Brown-eyed Primrose; UC-WD-73 Wild
Geranium; UR- WD.74 Larkspur; ML- WD·75 Wild Buckwheat; MC­WD-
76 Spiderwort; MR-WD-77 Firecrackers; LL- WD-78 Yellowcups; LC­WD
·79 White Covena or Grassnuts; LR-WD·80 Chicory; PAGE 16 UL­WD-
81 Skeleton.weed; UR-WD-82 Star Rockets; ML-WD·83 Rattle·Weed;
MC- WD-84 Amoreuxia; MR- WD-85 Cream Cups; LL- WD.86 Pincushion I
Flower; LC-WD-87 Yellow Mariposa Lily; LR-WD-88 Columbine; PAGE
17 UL- WD-89 Groundsel; UR- WD-90 Butterfly Flower; ML- WD·91 Bee·
Balm; MR-WD-92 Manzanita; LL- WD-93 Filaree or Alfilaria or Heron-bill;
LC- WD.94 Wild Ranunculus; LR-WD-95 Fiddle-neck; PAGE 18 UL- WD-96
Creosotebush; UR-WD-97 Brittlebush and Globemallow; ML-WD-98 Fern­bush;
MC-WD-99 Bluebell; MR-WD-100 Kansas Sunflower; LL-WD·101
Lupine; LC-WD-102 Rubber Plant; LR- WD-103 Globemallow; PAGE 19
UL- WD-104 Yarrow, Locoweed, Actinea and Snakeweed; UR-WD-105
White Zinnia; ML-WD. 106 Evening Primrose; MC-WD-107 Harsemint;
MR- WD·108 Wheeler Thistle; LL- WD·109 Fairyduster; LC-WD·110 Scar·
let Penstemon; LR-WD·111 Paperflawer; UL- WD-112 Delphinium, p. 20;
UR-WD-113 Water Parsnip, p . 20; H-WD-114 Bauvardia, p. 20; LR­WD-
1l5 Desert Marigold, p . 20; UL- WD-1l6 Rabbitbrush, p. 21; UR­WD-
1l7 Locoweed, p. 21; LL-WD·1l8 Blue Gentian, p . 21; LR-WD· 1l9
False Morning.Glory, p. 21; PAGE 22 UL- WD-120 Indian Paintbrush;
UC- WD· 121 Fleabane Daisy; UR-WD·122 Spike Verbena; ML- WD-123
Goldfields; MC-WD·124 Goldpappy; MR- WD·125 Orange Agoseris;
LL- WD-126 Mountain Locust; LC- WD·127 Wallflower; LR-WD. 128 Bee·
plant; TB·9 The Lacy Mesquite, p. 29; TB·10 Mesquite in Bloom, p. 30.
Cotton ... Ancient and Modern
BY RICH JOHNSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLEN C. REED
hen Chris Columbus sailed into the New
World in 1492, the people of Arizona
were growing cotton and weaving it
into cloth. In fact they had been doing
so for at least three or four hundred
years before Chris and Queen Isabella
conspired to put the American conti-nents
on the map.
. When Sp~nish gold-sniffers sent Fray Marcos de Niza
1I1to the AmerIcan Southwest in 1539 he found the natives
wearing cotton garments. Of course, he didn't much care
and he couldn't have foreseen the present, when cotton
grown in Arizona would be worth $200,000,000 a vear.
Archaeologists, rooting into the affairs of the ancient
ones in Arizona, have found cotton cloth in burials datino­back
to the days of the cliff dwellers. And that's some~
time before there was a government support price on cot­ton,
in case you don't remember.
If you rummage through some of Arizona's museums
you'll find pieces of this prehistoric cotton cloth. Our
wOI~derful, dry climate helped preserve it and moths don't
eat It. The moral is, according to cotton growers, that if
you buy cotton clothing you can wear it for hundreds of
years-if you live in Arizona, of course. That may not
appeal to many women, but most cotton growers are men.
On~ of the peculiar t~ings about Arizona's prehistoric
cotton IS that much of It was o-rown in the hio-h cool
b b '
nOl~thern part of ~he State where nobody would dream of
tryll1g to grow It today because of the short growing
season.
. ~here's very excellent proof that the Indians who
~Ived I~ North~astern Arizona grew cotton. The proof
IS that It was stIll grown there until very recently by the
Hopis. The late Dr. Robert Peebles cotton breeder found
it in !solated garden patches, probably cultivated f~r cere­momal
uses.
"I~ is a good illustration of the adaptability of plants
to envIronment," Dr. Pe~bles said. "Instead of growing
tall on a strong stalk, HOpI cotton had a weak stem which
caused it to lie on the ground, where the warmth of the
earth made survival and production of lint possible." Be­cause
of its hardiness, cotton breeders are still interested
in it, and keep it alive in experimental plots.
Bumping over a few hundred generations of cotton­picking
native Arizonans, and landing in the nineteenth
century when Americans began discovering this won­drous
desert land of ours-and making snide remarks about
its frightfulness-we find many diarists mentioning cotton.
John R. Bartlett, head of the U. S. Boundary Com­mission,
reported in 1854 that he saw cotton raised by the
Pima and Maricopa Indians equal to the best Sea Island
cotton:
]. Ross Brown observed in 1864 that "cotton flour­ishes
with remarkable luxuriance in the Pimo Villages."
In fact, when you buy Pima cotton shirts today, you
memorialize Arizona's Pima Indians for their ancient agri­cultural
skill. The Pimas have grown irrigated cotton
from time immemorial, and they were the spiritual found­ers
of the vast cottonseed meal industry, too. Only they
didn't feed the seed meal to cows. They pounded the cot­ton
seed " 'ith mesquite beans to make a flour for their
own food, or they parched the cotton seed and ate it
without grinding. It's rich in protein, and maybe someday
you'll pop out of bed in the morning to smack your lips
over a bowlful of Cottonseed Crunchies, or something like
that.
Anyhow, the Pimas grew cotton, ginned it by hand
and ate the seeds. The womenfolk spun the lint, and the
men wove it into cloth-of which they wore almost as
little as modern winter visitors who come to Arizona for
a sun tan. (Note: Modern Pimas take their cotton to a
gin, sell it to people in Massachusetts who make in into
cloth, which is made into civilized clothes in New York,
shipped back to Arizona where it is bought by Pima In­dians
who dress like anybody else, only more so than peo­ple
who come here to get a sun tan. So don't run out to
the Pima Reservation expecting to find naked savao-es,
ginning cotton by hand and chewing cotton seeds.) b
PAGE FOUR • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
But in the old days, when the cotton had been picked
and ginned by hand-and there's a job you might try
sometime to learn wI.lat Ely Whitney'S cotton gin did for
the industry-the spll1ner and weaver was an important
local cha racter.
Spinning of cotton into a string was done by means
of a slender stick that had a small slab on the end that was
held between the spinner's toes while the cotton was
t\\'isted on the stick,
The weaver's loom frame was made most often of
saguaro cactus ribs, tied together at the four corners and
set horizontally on short stakes in the ground. It took the
\\'eaver-a!\\'ays a man and usualh' an old one-several
days to wea\;e enough cloth for an abbreviated costume
of about the same extent as a Bikini bathing suit.
What we have said so far just adds up to the fact that
Arizona may be the oldest cotton producino- area in the
U. S. in spite of the "old" traditions of thebDeep South
cotton belt.
But cotton as a commercial Arizona crop didn't o-et
started until about 1912, when records show about :00
acres w~re planted in Maricopa County, That was the
year Anzona be~ame a state, but quite a few years be­fore
cotton growll1g became a frenzied state of mind that
pushed agriculture ahead of minino- as a source of annual
income for the Baby State. b
Oddly enough, the man who became Arizona's fi rst
real cotton king wasn't a farmer at all. He was Paul Litch­field,
chief of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., and it
,~as t~le young, booming aut?mobile ,industry that nudged
hIm mto the cotton growlI1g busmess, Mr. Litchfield
needed cotton cord for Goodyear tires, and Arizona was
one of the few places in the U. S. where tough extra-Iong­staple
cotton could be grown, So in 1916 he acquired a
fe\\' thousand desert acres a few miles west of Phoenix
and ?egan growing cotton on a really big scale. The town
~f Lltch~eld, Park became h,is headquarters for an opera­tI.
on that s stIli \'ery much ahve under the management of
kenneth McMicken.
Mr. Litchfield not only showed A rizonans what could
l~? done with cot,ton.' but in Mr. McMicken he has pro­\
Ided the State WIth Its elder statesman of ao-riculture and
a founder of Arizona Cotton Plantino- Seed Distribt;tors . . b ,
an orgamzatJOn of farmers who o-uard with a jealous love
the qu~lit~ of seed supplied to all the State's growers.
Stdl, If I \\'ere to have to choose the most colorful
cotton growing pioneer of Arizona, I think it would
be the l~te Diwan Singh. iVIr. Singh arrived in the New
\Vorld l!1 1906, one man of a boatload of 900 Hindus
frolll India. .
He had no apparent future except that of a common
laborer ~vhen he finally drifted to Casa Grande in Pinal
(Jl~nty 111 192.f. He had no money and no friends, but a
eehng for the good earth. Naturalh- he couldn't get hold
of any land that anybody else wanted, so he took what
he could get-hard, alkali-slick soil. With a horse and a
mule he b ro I,, e open. el. g h ty acres and planted cotton.
'II By 1932 Mr. SlI1gh was able to buy the first Cater­il
ar tractor in the area, and when it o-ot stuck in the mud
~e bought a second one to pull it out~ rather than pay the
I
OUnty, $150 to do the job. Pinal cotton o-rowers have
lIe en dOln. ob' tl ll.I 1gS 1I'1 ( e t h at ever S'l I1ce. Twenbt y years after
~ le pennrless Mr. Singh arrived in Arizona he was farm­Ing
9000 acres of land.
Both machine and hand picken ~<.Vork Ariz olla's cottOll fields
A batte1'J of cotton gins separating the lim from the seed
A great mountain of cotton seed looms above ro~u;s of bales
Plallt breeder Dr. E. H. Pressley with cotton test equipment
But fabulous cotton careers are commonplace in
Arizona, and the reason is less spectacul ar, though more
important to the industry. That reason is the yield and
qualitv of the cotton itse lf.
For the last eight years, Arizona has produced more
cotton per acre than any other cotton-growing state. In
1954, for instance, when the national average yield per
acre was 34 I pounds, Arizona's average was 1,039 pounds
-or well over two bales per acre.
That's the real miracle of the Arizona desert, hut it
has a natural explanation, and that brings us face to face
with the quiet men-men like Dr. E. H. Pressle:v and Dr.
Walker Bryan, plant breeders at the University of Ari­zona,
and the late Dr. Robert Peebles at the Sacaton Field
Station of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, and many more
who have detailed the development of better cotton va rie­ties
and better methods of cultivation.
In 1941 Dr. Pressley was handed the joh of producing
a better cotton for Arizona; ordinarily a chore that might
occupy a lifetime. But Dr. Pressley and Arizona were in a
hurry. ]n 1948 Arizona-44 cotton was unveiled for seed
increase and has since become the standard upland vari­ety
over most of the State, incredibly fast work as plant
breeding goes.
Small wonder it is that when a farmer once asked for
a cotton that would gin itself in the field, the president of
A rizona Cotton Growers Assn. warned that it might take
Dr. Pressley two or three years to produce such a cotton,
and it might not produce three bales to the acre without
some special care.
For several years that three-bales-an-acre was the
basis of an informal kind of cotton aristocracy in Arizona.
Growers who could prove with gin receipts that the:v had
produced three bales of lint per acre were the royalty of
the breed. Those who claimed, but couldn't prove they
had, were the unhappy middle class, and two-bale men
were just miserable characters who probably never would
amount to anything.
About that time, too, came a batch of canards based
on the prosperity of Arizona cotton farmers. There was
the one about the Pinal County grower \\·ho traded in his
Cadillac whenever the ash tray got full. And another
about a grower who bought a Aeet of Cadillacs to haul his
cotton trailers to the gin because his wife thought tractors
were too undignified.
The peak came in 1953 when Arizona planted 680,000
acres of cotton and harvested more than 1,000,000 bal es,
valued at $20o,ooo,ooo-well over half the value of all
crops produced in the State that year.
Then in 1954 came the cloud of world surpluses of
cotton, marketing quotas and acreage allotments that cut
a huge slice out of Arizona's cotton patch. Foreign mar­kets-\\'
estern Europe and Japan-upon which Arizona
growers had traditionally depended to buy a large part of
their crop, were curtailing purchases of American cotton.
Some of the State's cotton growers had half their
usual cotton acreage taken away in 1954. Most lost 30%
of their acreage at least, for Arizona's cotton planting his­tory
was not as old as that of gro\\"ers in the Old South.
The U. S. Dept. of Agriculture doesn't recognize the his­tory
of ancient Indian cotton growing, naturally.
Again in 1955 the acreage was reduced under the
U. S. government price support program, and from 680,-
000 acres in 1953, the State's cotton planting fell to a total
of only 353,000 in 1955.
It was a serious blow of course, but Arizona growers
were better off than others by a long stretch because the:T
were so far ahead of those in any other state in per-acre
yield. Had they been able to grow only as much lint per
acre as the average U. S. grower-34I pounds-they would
have produced only 120,473,000 pounds in 1955. But
with a looo-pound per-acre average, they produced nea r­ly
353,000,000 pounds.
Dr. Pressley's A-44 variety, fertilizer, insect control,
cultural research by the University of Arizona and by Dr.
Peebles at the U.S.D.A. station at Sacaton, made the dif­ference.
And that difference \\"as worth millions of dollars
to all Arizona people, as well as farmers in particular.
Several things happened in 1954 and 1955. Jokes
about cotton growers' Cadillacs became scarcer. Though
as many new ones may have appeared on the farm, they
weren't as gaudy, and their owners were busier with
growing the cotton: Growers were thinking and \\"onder­ing.
They planted cotton on their best land only. They
began worrying about the \\"isdom of selling their cotton
to the government instead of to the spinners and weavers.
In 1954, growers of extra-long-staple Pima cotton
actually sent Cecil Collerette and Clyde Wilson, board
chairman and president, respectively, of Arizona Cotton
Growers Assn. to Washington to ask Secy. of Agriculture
Benson to reduce the support price on their lint from 90 70
of parity to 75 %, so the mill buyers instead of the govern­ment
would buy it.
By this lowering of their own price voluntarily, and
by contributing $3.00 per bale to a promotion fund, they
actually sold all of their 1955 crop of the specialty lint to
manufacturers, whereas in previous years, all of it had
been bought by the government for storage at public
expense.
Arizona cotton growers were thinking-thinking in
terms of use markets-apparently way ahead of any other
cotton growers in the U. S.
And again their position was possible because of the
quiet men-the plant breeders.
Maybe I had better explain that while Arizona grows
only good cotton, it does produce two kinds: The A-H
short staple or upland cotton, and extra-long-staple cotton
which is the luxury lint of the cotton industry, and is
grown only in Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas.
During both World Wars this extra-long-staple cot­ton
was a strategic material because the Army specified it
for such things as parachutes and all threads. Until s\'n­thetic
nylon came along, extra-long-staple cotton was also
used for automobile and truck tire cord too.
While World War II lasted the government gUal'an­teed
growers a dollar a pound for all the extra-long-staple
cotton they would grow. The price had to be high be­cause
this cotton produced only 250 or so pounds of lint
per acre, and picking the crop cost twice as much as for
short-staple.
OPPOSITE PAGE
"ARIZO A COTTON FIELD" BY ALLE C. REED. 4X5
Crown Graphic camera; Ektachrome; £.20 at 1/ loth second; 135
mm Optar lens; June with bright sunshine; Weston 350 meter read­ing.
Photograph was taken near Marana, on Highway 85, 20 miles
northwest of Tucson. Not long before this photograph was taken
this was raw desert land. When the land was cleared, cultivated,
planted and watered from deep wells, this scene was the result.
P AGE SIX • A RI ZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
But at the University of Arizona, Dr. Walker Bryan
was working on that problem of low yields. By crossing
various varieties he eventually produced a new variety
which he called Pima-p. It increased yields by ten to fif­teen
per cent. Dr. Bryan was not satisfied, however, and
about 1952 he was ready to announce another plant won­der-
Pima S-I.
This variety-still imperfect-he handed to Dr. R. H.
Peebles at the U. S. Bureau of Plant Industry at the Saca­ton
Field Station on the Pima Indian Reservation in Pinal
County.
A geneticist with a genius for the painstaking work
of purifying and stabilizing plant inheritance factors,
Dr. Peebles chased the bugs out of the new variety and
showed farmers ho\\' to grow it.
Pima S- I added another 15 to 20 ro to per-acre yields
of extra-long-staple cotton, and its spinning qualities were
so wonderfu l that farmers licked their lips over it and
wanted to grow it in abundance. But unfortunately there
was no market for it at the government support price
which had been established on the basis of the old low­producing
varieties.
That \\'as the sad situation until the growers got to­gether
in 1954, formed the Supima Association of Amer­ica,
and persuaded Congress to lower the support price
from 90 <yo of parity to 75 'Ie . They also assessed them­selves
three dollars a bale to collect a promotion fund.
The result is one of the brightest stories of American
agriculture. Many mills jumped at the chance to use extra­long-
staple cotton for fine fabrics again at the new com­petitive
price.
Supima cotton became high-style in 1956, and farm­ers
sold their entire crop to the mills rather than to the
government for surplus storage. And they could look
forward to planting more and more acres of it as demand
inevitably increases. They were allo\\'ed to double their
planting under the acreage allotment program for 1957.
Thus Dr. Bryan and Dr. Peebles are the heroes of the
reviving long-staple cotton industry of three Southwest­ern
states.
And the success of Supima probably accounts for
another courageous and unusual trend of thinking on the
part of Arizona's cotton growers. They took a look at
short-staple production in the light of what had been
done with long-staple.
Early in 1956, the Arizona Cotton Growers Assn., to
~\"hich all the State's growers automatically belong, held
Its annual meeting at the swank Westward Ho hotel in
Phoenix.
Pres. Clvde Wilson had announced a thorough dis­cussion
of the price support program by Arizona growers.
~ven as farmers gathered for the meeting the Associa­tIOn's
board chairman, Cecil Collerette, was in Washing­ton
waiting for Arizona grO\\'ers to tell him what to say
to congressmen who were debating the farm bill.
\Vhat Arizona's cotton farmers decided, after two
hOll,rs of talk, to tell Mr. Collerette in Washington was
typIcal of the kind of men who had made this State great.
OPPOSITE PAGE
Cotton is an important agricultural crop in Arizona. Such favorable
f~ctors as climate, soil, controlled irrigation and the almost sensa­tional
work of scientists and technicians in developing better breeds
combinc to givc Arizona an acre yield far abovc the national
a\'cragc.
PAGE NINE • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 195 8
They told him they wanted the present cotton price sup­port
system junked forthwith, and a plan adopted which
would, with some minimum protection, permit cotton to
sell at prices competitive with other fibers. "We want to
sell our cotton to the mills, not to the U. S. Government,"
they said.
, Only thinking men, with a great deal of courage
could say that, and that's the kind of men who grow cot­ton
in Arizona. And their courage is backed up by their
faith in themselves and their kind of cotton kno\\'-how.
In 1955 the old three-bale aristocracy was shaken to
its roots by the four-bale group, of \\'hom 1:\\'0 or three
gro\\'ers were the kings with official five-bale-per-acre
records.
"\lVe haven't yet begun to realize the full productive
potential of our cotton or our soil," says Clyde Wilson.
And who will deny that it may be so when a few growers
have reached the five-bales per-acre mark?
Arizona's cotton industry has been centuries in the
making, but what has been done with it in just the last
decade is truly one of the scientific miracles of the desert
country-one of the most important factors in making
Arizona great and strong.
Pima and Supima Cotton
What's Pima cotton? Why, it' s a very special kind of
cotton that outwears a buffalo hide and is twice as pretty
as silk, because its fibers are so long and lustrous.
Well, then, what is this new Supima cotton that's being
advertised all over the country? Oh, that's ten times better
than that wonderful Pima cotton .
That's the way Arizona long-staple cotton growers and
some of America's most famous cotton mill men and fashion
designers would · answer those questions.
It's all true, of course, but Pima is the name given away
back in 1912 to a variety of extra-long-staple cotton de­veloped
by U.S. Department of Agriculture plant breeders
working at their experiment station at Sacaton, Arizona,
which is on the Pima Indian Reservation, north of Casa
Grande.
The variety has been improved many times since 1912,
but the Pima name has stuck, and has become a symbol of
topmost quality in cotton goods.
So, when growers of this wonderful cotton formed an
association in 1954 to promote its use, they kept the name
Pima, added " Superior" in front of it, and then shortened
it to Supima. The new name was registered as a trademark
to cover particularly the extra-long-staple cotton grown only
In Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas, with maybe a dab
in Southern California.
The Supima Association attempts to maintain top qual­ity
in all goods bearing the name Supima, in cooperation
with mills that are putting millions of dollars into advertising
and promotion of the fabric and articles made from it.
Half of the nation's production of this wonder cotton
comes from Arizona's fertile irrigated fields, and the stand­ard
variety for the entire production area is Pima S-I, which
was bred by Dr. Walker Bryan at the University of Arizona,
and standardized by the late Dr. Robert Peebles in Arizona.
If fancier, better cotton is ever grown, it will no doubt
be the great-great-great-great grandchild of the original
Pima, and it will be on the quality market under the Supima
trademark. Chances are more than half of the supply will
come from Arizona, too.
A Souf'hwesf'ern Cenf'ury
Continued from page one
Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado
Rivers, J 861; Powell's Exploration of the ColOTado RiveT
of the West and its Tributaries. Explored i17 / 869, /87°,
187 /, and /872. These expeditions are described b~ .. Wal­lace
in The G reat R econnaissance, cited later.
F. W . Hodge's Handbook of the American Indians
North of Mexico, 1907-10, published by the Bureau of
American Ethnology, is another of those monumenta I
reference works noW virtually procurable only in li­braries,
and which is listed here as an item /.Jors C017COllrs.
The shades of Hodge and Bolton hover over every South­west
work undertaken since their time, and this bibliog­raphv
is no exception.
Several modern series are of an importance to warrant
the collector obtaining them complete; they include the
Quivira Society Publications, the Coronado Cuarto Cen­tennial
volumes, and the several western series published
by the University of Oklahoma Press, a number of whose
items I have included.
Rarity has not been among my criteria; rather, read­ability,
fidelity to the region, and sincerity of presenta­tion
are the qualities I have placed above all others. \Vhen
there are several editions of a work, I have chosen the
modern one as being the most readily available to readers
through bookstores and libraries, and have also referred
to the original edition for those who wish to ascend the
bibliographical stream to the source. The arrangement is
alphabetical by author, or, in a few cases, by title. Strict
classification by subject is impractical for works of broad
coverage. Price is given when the book is still in print.
I have sought to make my choices representative of
the entire culture of a region which has had many masters
in a few hundred years, whose talismans are turquoise
and uranium, and whose destiny reaches from the Great
Drought of the thirteenth century to the Great Bomb
of the twentieth, and beyond to what no one can foresee .
Yet whatever the fate of man, and barring a cosmic
cataclysm, the land itself, the colored and configured
earth 'we call the Southwest, will surely be there to the
end, perhaps unpeopled, yet ever beautiful in itself.
Here then is one man's choice, a Southwestern Cen­tury,
offered to those who believe that the reading of
books will never end and who, in a respite from living,
like to savor the experiences and thoughts of those who
ventured widely, saw clearly, and wrote well.
JOHN ADATR
THE NAVAJO AND PUEBLO SILVERSMITHS. Norman,
Uni\'ersity of Oklahoma Press. [1945] 220 pp. $5.00.
Silver and turquoise are the twin elements of beauty and meaning
which enthrall students of Southwestern Indian culture. This
book is the fruit of the author's interest in the history, anthro­pology,
and aesthetics of this craft, with an introduction by Clyde
Kluckhohn, and many photographic illustrati9ns of jewelry and
its makers.
RAMON F. ADAMS (,889-
WESTERN WORDS; A DICTIONARY OF THE RANGE,
COW CAMP AND TRAIL. Norman, Uni\'ersity of Oklahoma
Press. [1944] 182 pp. $3·75·
Ernest Haycox, master writer of Western stories, said of this
book that it "has the pungency of an old campfire wet down by
rain. Unquestionably it will go on the shelves of those who are
professional students of the English language, and no doubt it
will enrich the working vocabulary of many a writer of vVestern
fiction." True.
CHARLES AVERY AMSDEN (1899-1941)
NAVAJO WEAVING, ITS TECHNIC AND HISTORY, fore­word
by Frederick Webb Hodge. Albuquerq ue, University of
New Mexico Press. [1949] 263 pp. $6.00.
First published in 1934 by the Fine Arts Press of Santa' Ana, this
is tbe book on Navajo textiles, scholarly, readable, significant, and
beautiful. This posthumous second edition is slightly revised in
the light of subsequent findin gs, and contains a foreword by the
director of the Southwest Museum, where Amsden was employed
at the time of his premature dcath.
MERLE ARMITAGE ( ,893 -
OPERATIONS SANTA FE; ATCHISON, T OPEKA, AND
SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM. Edited by Edwin Corle,
drawings by P. G. Napolitano. New York, Duell, Sloan and
Pearce. r 1948] 263 pp.
Designer-author-traveler Armitage here found his perfect subject
in the longest and most romantic of all American railroads, "The
Grand Canyon Line," whose transition from steam to diesel power
failed to diminish its glamor. In content and format the book is
memorably Southwestern.
OREN ARNOLD
HOT IRONS; HERALDRY OF T H E RANGE, by Oren
Arnold and John P. Hale. New York, Macmill an Company. r 1940]
2.p pp.
Tn this indispensable work about cattle brands the authors had
a twin goal: (I) to establish a reference work, an "author ity,"
(2) to be entertaining about it. They succeeded.
MARY AUSTIN ( 1868- 1934)
THE LAND OF JOURNEYS' ENDING. With illustrations by
John E dwin Jackson . New York, Century Co. r 19 24) 459 pp.
Her land is Arizona-New Mexico, about which she has written
a classic, in the same way that she achie\'ed her earlier masterpiece
abo lit Inyo County, California, in The Land of Little Rain. Desert
and mountain, myth and folklore, history and legend, are the stuff
of this Southwest book about the region lVlary Austin called
home, after she was dri ven from the O wens Ri \'er Valley by the
consuming thirst of the Angel City.
HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT (1832-19 18)
HISTORY OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO, 1530-1888.
San Francisco, History Company. [ 1889] 829 pp.
Based on original documentary sources in his own collection and
the Santa Fe archives, thiS' massi\'e work stands as one of the
first and one of the best of Southwest histories.
ADOLPH F. BANDELIER ( 18+°- /9'4)
FINAL REPORT OF INVESTIGATIONS A1\ IONG THE
INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES,
CARRIED ON MAINLY IN THE YEARS FROM 1880 TO
1885. Cambridge (Mass.), Printed by J. Wilson and Sons. [ ,89°-92]
2 vols.
Bandelier, the Swiss archaeologist, spent most of the 1880'S on
pioneer fi eld work in New Mexican and Arizonan aboriginal sites
and in corroborating research in the historical archives. "This,
of course, led him to o\'erthrow many generally accepted theo­ries,"
wrote A. V. Kidder in the Dictiollary of American Biogra­pby,
"and resulted in se\'ere contro\'ersies with less well-informed
or less conscientious writers. His work resulted in the discrcditing
of the romantic school of American Indian research, and pa\'ed
the way for scientific, critical research."
JOHN RUSSELL BARTLETT ( 18°5-,886)
PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATIONS A;\'D IN­CIDENTS
IN TEXAS, 'EW MEXICO, CALIFORNIA,
SO;\'ORA, AND CHIHUAHUA, CONNECTED WITH THE
UNITED STATES AND MEXICAN BOUNDARY CO'\IMIS­SION,
DURING THE YEARS 1850, '51, '52, AND '53 . New
York, D. Appleton and Company. l 1854] 2 vols.
"F or me very little rewritten history has the freshness and fas­cination-
of these strong, firsthand personal narratives, though I
recognize many of them as being the stuff of literature rather than
literature itself." j. Frank Dobie.
PAGE TEN • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
HERBERT EUGENE BOLTOK (187~- 1 '953)
A ' ZA'S CALIFORN IA EXPEDITTOKS. Bcrkeley, University
of Cali fornia Prcss. [ 1930) 5 yols.
By his prodigious capacity for rc~carch in the Mexican and
Spanish archi \'cs, field work by foot, horse, and car, creative
imagination, and ab ility to writc good narrative, Bolton achievcd
undisputcd stature as the greatcst modcrn wcstern historian, a
colossus to stand alongside Bancroft, of whose \'ast library,
:lcquirrd hy thc Uni\'ersity of California in '905, hc was thc
Dircctor for many ycars.
This nohle work on Juan lhutista de }\nza, who led expcditions
ovcrland from Sonora to California in the 1770'S and who is
propcrir rankcd b~ Bolton with. !~cwis and <::Iark, beautifully
comhincs scholarsh ,p and rcadabllltY. Of spec,al notc are thc
illustrations from ficld photographs by Bolton, and Fray font's
grcat diary of the second nza cxpcdition which forms thc fOllrth
volumc of thc sct.
JOHN G, ROURKE ( 1843-1896)
ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK. Columbus, Long's Collcgc
Book Co. r 19501 +91 pp. $7 ·So
First puhlished in ,891, thc year aftcr Gcncral Crook's dcath,
this work by one of his staff 'is a rcadablc primary sourcc for t hc
campaigns which subjugatcd the .A:paches. In Edwin Corle's words,
"Gcncral Gcorge Crook was thc only white man who C\'er madc
thc .'\ paches cry . .. he undcrstOod thcm and the best of them
Im'cd him. It is a great pity he couldn't ha\'c guided t hcir destinics
for anothcr twcnty years."
E. BOYD
SA I:'\TS AND S INT MAfCERS OF KEvV MEXICO. Santa
Fe, 1.:1honltory of Anthropology. r 19461 139 pp.
1\ liss Boyd of Santa Fe bascd this work on hcr examination of a
thoLls:lI1d examples of can'cd and paintcd santos, thosc indigcnous
works of art whosc collcction is no longcr possi blc, \'irtuall y all
cxamplcs ha ving bcen gathcred into muscums and pri vate col­Icctions.
The volumc has a glowing form at by ,\ ,Icric Armitagc.
J. RO S BROWl'E ( 1821-1875)
A TOUR THROUGH ARIZO:-iA, , 86+; OR, ADVENTURES
IN THE APACHE COUl\:TRY. Illustrated by the author.
Tucson, Arizona Silhoucttcs. r '950] 292 pp.
First puhlishcd in 1869 as Ad'venw'res in tbe Apacbe COlmt1'y,
this is onc of the admirablc scrics of reprinrs issued by Georgc
Chambcrs of Tucson, to makc availablc original source books on
the Southwcst. Brownc was a jou rnalist and a good one, with an
cyc to scc ' and a pcn to tell , as well as a li\'cly and humorous
illust rator.
ROSS CALVIN (dl89-
SKY DETER1\ 111\:ES. Illustrations by Pctcr Hurd. Alhuquel·q.HC,
Univcrsity of 1\:ew Mcxico Prcss. r 19+8) 333 pp. $3 . .10.
First puhlishcd in '914, this rC\'ised cdition consolidatcs thc book's
position as a Illodcr~ elassic of Ncw Mcxico, based on the thc'sis
that ahscncc of rainfall and prcscncc of sunlight are thc all power­ful
dctcrminants in the past, prcsent, and future of thc Land of
Ench,tntmcnt. Dr. Calvin, formcrly rcctor of St. James's Episcopal
Church in Clo\' is, now li\·cs in. rctircmcnt at Albuqucrque.
RAYMOND CARLSOl\' (1906-
GAI.LERY OF W .ESTERN PAJNTIKGS. Ncw York, McGraw­Hill
Book Co. / 195/ 1 85 pp.
Color platcs and text reproduced from A1'i;:,ona Higb~vay s, with
a succinct dcfinition by Editor Carlson of whcre thc vVcst begins.
Charlcs Russcll, Frcderic Remington, 1\ laynard Dixon, and five
lcsscr Southwcstcrn artists are includcd.
j . SMEATON CHASE ( ,86+-1923)
CAUFORNIA DESERT TRAILS .. . with illustrations from
~hotographs by the author, and an appcndix of plants, also hints
111 dcscrt tl'<n·clling. Boston, Houghton "'lifflin Company. r 19191
387 pp.
Ly ing cast of the San Bcrnardin,os which wall off Southern Cali­fornia
from the Southwest, the Colorado or 1\lohave Desert is
thc subicct of this dclightful book by a wandcring Englishman
who writcs with thc samc pcrsonal fla\'or as Robert Louis Steven­son,
and from inrimatc knowlcdgc of thc rcgion to which hc first
came in the 1880'S and whcrc hc lics buried, in the graveyard at
P alm Springs, in thc shcltcr of San Jacinro.
AGNES MORLEY CLEJ\VELA -D .
NO LTF£i: FOR A LADY; illustration; by Edward Borein. 'Bo; t6.ri.;
Houghton Mifflin Company. r194J] 356 pp. $4.00. ' "'''"
On thc west sidc of thc Rio Grande, betwecn Albuquerque and I
EI Paso, lics the ranch country around Dati l and Magdalen;I; 1
adjoining thc rcgion celebrated in the stories of Eugcne 1\lanIO\'e
Rhodcs, and the sctti ng of this olltsranding book by a southweste,rn 'j
wOlllan writer. Her. :'\cw 1\lexican girlhood comes to life in a ,'
SCrICS of colorful cplsodes of ranch scenes and characters. .
ROBERT GLASS CLELAl\'D ( 1885-
A HISTORY Of PHELPS DODGE, 18)-f-1950.
.Alfrcd A. Knopf. / '952 J 307 pp. $+.00.
·1
I New York, !
Thc history of corporatc dc\'clopment of the Southwest has yct
to bc writtcn. r ,css important in Ncw .\ lexico, it is the major I
factor in thc cconomic history of Arizona; and of all the cor- j'
porations which ha I'C madc fortunes from thc matcrial resourccs
of thc statc, nonc is morc impo.rtanr than Phelps Do?ge. Sincc I
,885 P. D. has mll1cd copper 111 Southcrn ArIzona, at B,sbee, A) o, '
and ,\ lorenci, and with thc acqu isition in 1935 of Clark's Unitcd
Vcrdc minc at Jcromc-Clarkda lc, it bccame the copper king of
thc Southwest.
Clcland's history is an official onc, based on thc company's l'ecords,
and tclls the story in t hc conscientious way characteristic of all
thc writings of this abJe historian.
WOODWORTH CLUM ( 1879-1946)
AP.-\ Cl-TF. AG I':~T; THE STORY OF JOHN P. CLUM. Boston,
Houghron l\li fHin Company. r ' 9361 296 pp.
Ci\'il i:lIl agcnt on tltc San Carlos RcselTation, founder-editor of
thc famous Tombstonc F./)itnph, ministcrial in mien and soft
spo kcn. John Clum ",ill li\'c in history as the greatest Apache
pacificr of thcm all. T his book is by his SOil.
EDvVI:\' CORLE ( '9°6-1 (56)
THC G1LA, RIVJ~R OF THE SOUTHvVEST; illustrated by .
Ross Santcc. 'cw York, Rinchart and Company. [ 195 I] 402 pp.
5+5°·
Rising in thc 1\ logollon ,\Ionntains of Ncw Mexico and flowing ,
wCSt through Safford to junction with thc San Pedro, Salado,
V cr,!c, and the Hassayampa, finally to yicld to the Colorado at
YUllla, thc Gila is wholly within the Southwest as is no othcr
major stream, bC:lI'ing ",ith it the burden of Indian, Spanish, and
Anglo history , all of which thc author skillfully highlights in this
work, pcrfectly cmbcllishcd by the illustrator.
JOH .1 H. CULLEY j
CATTLE, HORSES, AND MEN OF THE WESTERN
1
RA KG E. Illustrations by Katherine Field. Los Angeles, Ward ,
Ritch ie Prcss. r '9+° 1 33 7 pp.
Graduatc of Harrow and Oxford and pupil of Walter Pater, '
Jack Cullcy camc carly to ;-":cw Mexico, and c\'entually becamc
thc managcr of thc grcat Bcll Ranch, and in this volumc of I
rcminisccnccs wrote one of thc most ci\'ilizcd of all Southwestern
rangc books, a prime favorite of ]. Frank Dobie.
LCN'ORA S. M. CURTIN
BY THE PROPHET OF THE EARTH. Santa Fe, San Vicente
F onndation. / '9+91 '58 pp.
E thnobotany of thc Pima Indians in the Salt River Valley of
Arizona, bascd on field work by Mrs. Curtin, sponsored by thc
Pucblo Grande Laboratory of the city of Phoenix. The volume
is anothcr of thc stunning Southwest serics dcsigned by lvlcrlc I
Armitagc. "Prophct of the Earth" is the Pima appellation for God.
LENORA S. M. CURTIN
HEALING H ERBS OF THE UPPER RIO GRANDE. Draw­ings
by P. G. -apolitano. Santa Fe, Laboratory of Anthropology.
r 19471 281 pp.
Ethnohotany and mcdical folklore of thc Pueblo Indians and
Spanish settlers of northern Kcw Mexico, again in Merle Armi­tagc
format. That !\ I ["s. Curtin was a protegee of F. VV. Hodge
is all the pcdigree her work requires.
fRAKK HA!\lILTON CUSHT~G ( 1857-1900)
ZUNI BREADSTUFF. Ncw York, Muscum of the American
Indian, Heyc Foundation. r 1920] 673 pp.
Pionccr Southwcstcrn ethnologist and adopted member of the
Zuni tribe, Cushing was the mall who first brought Frederick
r Webb Hodge to the So'u~hwest, as secr~tary of the Hemen~ay
Expedition to excavate III the Salt RIver VaJley. Ostensibly
about the foodstuff corn) of the Zuiiis, this book is actually an
encyclopedia of Zuni culture, a work of profound meaning and
• beauty by one of the first and greatest Southwesterners.
EDWARD EVEREIT D LE (1-879- )
THE INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST; A CENTURY OF
·DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE U ' ITED STATES. Norman,
published in co-operation with the Huntington Library by the
University of Oklahoma Press. [ 1949] 283 pp. $+00.
Here in one scholarly, readable \'olume is the story, whether
• "development" or "deterioration" time will tell, of what hap­pened
when Indians were forcibly displaced by Whites. Per­sonalities
treated range from Carson, Crook, and Clum to CoJlier.
ROLAND F. DICKEY
NEW MEXICO VILLAGE ARTS; drawings by Lloyd L6zes
· Goff. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press. [ 1949] 266
pp. $5.00.
Adobe, wood, silver, and wool are some of the artists' materials,
whose products are lovingly described in this colorful book by
the present director of the University of New Mexico Press.
J. FRANK DOBIE (1888-
THE LONGHORNS, illustrated by Tom Lea. Boston, Little,
Brown & Co. [ 1941] 388 pp. $6.00.
One of the major works of American history, natural history,
· folklore, and the range, by a man who was born and bred in the
Longhorn country, deep il) the brush covered heart of Texas,
and powerfully illustrated by his friend from El Paso. •
J. FRA K DOBIE (1888-
THE MUSTANGS; illustrated by Charles Banks Wilson. Boston,
Little, Brown & Co. [ 1952 ) 376 pp. $6.00.
The fact that the horse is a nobler creature than the cow raises
this "sequel" to Tbe Longhorns to the highest pinnacle of Dohie's
art, in which he sees the wild horse as symbolic of all that is best
111 the free and individualistic American tradition.
SILVESTRE VELEZ DE ESCALANTE (fl. 1768-1779)
PAGEANT IN THE WILDERNESS; THE STORY OF THE
ESCALANTE EXPEDITION TO THE INTERIOR BASIN,
1776, INCLUDING THE DIARY AND ITINERARY OF
FATHER ESCALANTE, translated and annotated by Herbert
E. Bolton. Salt Lake City, Utah State Historical Society. (1950]
265 pp. $5.00.
Less significant historically than the Anza expeditions, the Esca­lante
trek from Santa Fe through Southern Utah and back through
orthern Arizona, short of the California Missions which were
its goal, is one of the great explorations of the Southwest, to the
treatment of which Bolton brought his prodigious archi"al and
field scholarship. Escalante came within a few miles of discovering
the cliff dwellings on the Mesa Verde.
ALPHEUS H. FAVOUR (1880-
OLD BILL WILLIAMS, MOUNTAIN MAN. Chapel Hill, Uni­versity
of North Carolina Press. [1936] 229 pp.
Born in North Carolina in (787 and killed by the Utes on the
upper Rio Grande in 1849, Bill Williams was the greatest of the
Mountain Men-trapper, fur trader, guide, toughest of the tough,
with the peculiar trail gait which did not see him "walk on a
straight line, but go staggering along, first on one side and then
the other"-whose name is preserved forever on the map by the
Bill Williams Fork of the Colorado and Bill Williams Mountain,
u.p in Coconino County, on whose aspened shoulders the Verde
[lses.
ERNA FERGUSSON (1888- )
DANCING GODS; INDIAN CEREMONIALS OF NEW
MEXICO AND ARIZONA. New York, Alfred A. Knopf. [193d
276 pp.
The quality of Miss Fergusson's achie\'ement in this beautiful
book is evident in her conclusion, "Suddenly I knew how alien
I was in that Indian world. It is a separate world. The white man
sees it, he touches it, some even have the temerity to try to break
into it, to change it. But they cannot. For this is a world apart,
a brown world of brown people. They come out of their world
sometimes to speak to us, for they understand our language; but
l ~vllen they: withdraw into their world, we cannot follow. They
live close to the earth. The mass for a pale god who died on a
cross did not reach these people. They do nOt understand. A
religion of an idea, of an ideal, is foreign to them. Their religion
is of earth and the things of earth. I thought of all these brown
people whom I had seen dancing their prayers, pounding them
with their feet into the earth, which is their mother. Her ways
are close to them, even when they are hurt. They understand the
earth, they dance their prayers into the earth, and they pray for
real things, for sun and rain and corn. For growth. For life."
ERNA FERGUSSON ( 1888-
OUR SOUTHWEST; photographs by Ruth Fr~nk and others.
New York, Alfred A. Knopf. [1940] 376 pp. $5.00.
Best of all introductions to every aspect of the Southwest, by
the First Lady of the region, native daughtcr of New Mexico,
learned, humane, and abundantly blessed with that quality m a
writer valued by Dobie above all others- perspectiv e.
HARVEY FERGUSSON (189°-
RIO GRAJ\' DE. Drawings by Colden Whitman. New York, \;Vil­liam
i\[orrow & Co. r J 95 51 296 pp. $5.00.
First published in 1933, this interpretative volume by a native
son of i'\ew Mexico remains the most penetrating and illuminating
of all books about the river valley which is the true heart of the
Southwest. His sister I ~rna says, "H is Rio Grande is the ri" er
he has swum in, hunted along, jumped when it was low, fought
whcn it was high. He grew out of it as trul)' as did the cattails
along its margin; he comes back to it as surely as a migrating
duck."
His book of reminiscences, H 01l1e in the TVest, although not
exclusi\'ely about the Southwest, contains mcmorable chaptcrs
about boyhood and youth in Albuquerque and its river em·irons.
FLOWERS OF THE SOUTHWEST
Southwestern Monuments Association Popular Series NO·4, 5,
and 7: FLOWERS OF THE SOUTHWEST DESERTS, by
Natt N. Dodge; drawings by Jeallne R. Janish. FLOWERS OF
THE SOUTHWEST MESAS, by Pauline Mead Patra\\, ; draw­ings
by Jeanne R. Janish. FLOWERS OF THE SOUTHWEST
i\IOUNTAINS, by Leslie P. Arnberger; drawings by Jeanne R.
Janish. Santa Fe, [1952-53) 3 vols., 112 pp. ea. vol., $1.00 per vol.
These three volumes are grouped as forming a single set, as well as
the best treatment of Southwestern flora. They are accurate, well
written and illustrated, and easy to use, and should form part
of every travcller's equipment, along with map and water bag.
FRANCISCO GARCES (1738-1781)
ON THE TRAIL OF A SPANISH PIONEER; THE DIARY
AND ITINERARY OF FRAJ TCIS GARCtS (i\lISSIOi'\ARY
PRIEST) IN HIS TRAVELS THROUGH SONORA, ARI­ZONA,
AND CALIFORNIA, 1775-1776; translated from an
official contemporalleous copy of the original Spanish manuscript,
and edited with copious critical notes, by Elliott Coues. New
York, Francis P. Harper. [1900] 2 vols.
One of the great source works on the Southwest. The entradas
of Garces, the Franciscan, from Sonora into the lands of the
desert tribes, clear to the San Joaquin Valley in California, are
among the most heroic of all Southwest travels, and his observa­tions
en route are precise, lucid, and mo"ing. Garces was martyred
by the Yumas in 1781. This translation was suggested by Hodge,
and the ethnological notes signed F. W. H. are his.
LEWIS H. GARRARD (1829-1887)
WAH-TO-YAH AND THE TAOS TRAIL; OR, PRAIRIE
TRA VEL AND SCALP DANCES, WITH A LOOK AT LOS
RANCHEROS FROM MULEBACK A 1D THE ROCKY
MOUNTAIN CAMPFIRE. With an introduction by A. B.
Guthrie, Jr. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press. [1955] 298
pp. $2.00.
First published in 1850 and reprinted several times, this narrati"e
of a young man's adventures has a springtime freshness that
places it among the very few indisputable Southwest classics.
Garrard made the trip at seventeen and wrote the book soon
after: thereafter he wrote nothing else of interest, making in­evitable
a comparison of him with R. H. Dana and his Two Yellrs
Before tbe Mllst.
FABlOLA CABEZA DE VACA GILBERT
THE GOOD LIFE; NEW MEXICAN FOOD; drawings by
Gerri Chandler. Santa Fe, San Vicente F 1949) 94 P •
PAGE TWELVE • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • l\IARCH 1958
l"!a\'orful essays and recipes about native cooking 10 a volume
colorfully designed by Merle Armitage.
FRANCE.S GILLMOR ( 1903-
TRADERS TO THE NAVAJOS; THE STORY OF THE
WETH FR ILLS OF KAYENTA, by Franccs Gillmor and Louisa
Wadc Wetherill. Albuquerque, Uni\'ersity of Ncw Mexico Press.
[ 19j2 ] 265 pp. $3.5°.
First published in 1934, this remains the best book about Indian
trading pOSts. Originally of "Iancos, Colorado, the Wetherills
were the disco" erers of the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings and later
of the Rainbow Bridge. If all traders were of the character of
this family, our rccord of Indian relations would be brighter.
LAURA GILPIN ( 1891-
THE RIO GRAJ\'DE, RIVER OF DESTINY; AN INTER PRE­!
T ATION DF THE RIVER, THE LAl'D, AL'D THE PEO­l
PLE. J\'ew' Y ~rk, Duell, Sloan & Pearce. [ 19+9] 244 pp. $6.00.
I T o this chronicle of the Great Ri\'cr, .\Jiss Gilpin of Santa ,Fe
hrings Iwr tllient as one of the Southwest's gn~at photographers,
as well as an ,able writcr. During tlu'ee rears she' mage as nuny
ficld trips thc Jengtl\ of the river, from its source in the San Jqans
ncar Sih erron ~o its debouchemcnt into the Gulf of i\llexico-at
Browns\'jlle, Texas, patiently seeking to be at the 'righ place"at
thc l'ight t.imc · for' the right, picturc. ;fhis book is a b~aurifu:l
record of her succ<;ss. . ~
, JOSIAH GREGG (1806-)850) ,J
COI\ 1'/\ lER'CE OF THE PRAIRIES; edited by Max L. Moor­head.
Norman, UlliversitY' oj pJclahQ)lla Press .. LI954J 469 pp. $7.50' ,
First published in 1844 C011l)1lr!1'ce of tbe Pl'llil'ies, in the ,yords of.
thc editor of this most reccnt reprint "has been recognized for
morc than a hundred years as the classic descriptiol'l of the early
southern plains and as the epic of the Santa Fe Trail. What has
set it above other personal narratives of early western travel
morc than alJ else is its genuinenc\;s. Josiah Gregg, though;',an
amateur as a writer and a naturalist, was a professional trader, ­an
experienccd frontiersman. and a kecn ohsen·cr. To this day
historians, botanists, ethnologists, and other scholars still find
his descriptions inspiring and rcli;lhlc. and their popular appeal
secllls only to have increased with the passage of time. J. Frallk
Dobic, the foremost ' exponcnt of Southwestern lore, names
Grcgg's narrative as his personal favorite."
J. EVETTS HALEY (1901-
JEFF MILTON, A GOOD MAN. WITH A GUN; with draw­ings
by Harold D. Bugbee. Norman, Uni"ersity of Olclahoma
Press. r1948 ] 430 pp. $5.00.
Rangcr, United Statcs Marshal, Customs Patrolman in Texas, New
l\Jexico, and Arizona, fearless Jeff i\ I ilton was anathema to bad
mcn to the end of his 85 years on earth. This single biography
has hccl! chosen in place of sheh'cs of bad-men books, of the
writing of which there scems to be no end.
GEORGE P. HAMMOND (dl96- ) ed. and tr.
DON JUAN DE ONATE, COLONIZER OF NEW MEXICO,
1596-1628 [by] George P. H~lllmond land J Agapito Rey. Al­buquerque,
Univcrsity of J\'ew ."I'\cxico Press. [1953] $20.00. 2 vols.
Although Coronado camc half :1 century earlier, it was Onate who
colonized the upper Rio Grande and left the first inscription on
EI ,\1orro- Pllso pOl' Ilf/lli ... Thesc two Illa~sive \'olumes, form­ing
part of the Coronado Cuarto Ccntcnnial scrics, translate the
original docul1lcnts of rhe colonization preseT\'cd in the Archh'cs
of the Indies at Se"ille, as suggcstcd to Hammond thirty-odd
years ago by BoltOn. Royal directi"es, repofts, im'entories of
goods, lists and lettcrs, notarizations and oaths-from these mi­nutiac
is made the mosaic of thc past and our history meaningful.
ALICE CORBIN HENf)ERSO~ (1881-
BROTHERS OF LIGHT; THE PENITENTES OF THE
SOUTHWEST; illustrations by \¥illiam Pcnhallow Henderson.
New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company. [ 1937) 126 pp.
Brought to J\'ew Mexico in thc sixteenth century by the Fran­ciscans
with Onate, the custom of penitential flagellation, though
no longer sanctioned by the church, has never died out. Deep
in the Sangre de Cristos above Santa Fe, at Truchas, Trampas, and
Mora, the Brotherhood survives, testified to by stacked crosses
in back of their 11I0rlldas and by such beautiful first-hand works
JS this book.
EDGAR LEE HEWETT ( 1865-1946) '"1
ANCll£NT UFI:': IN rr-IE A,\nJltICAS'OUTHWEST, with
an intr 'ay ' ti 11-on lle' ('enotal' ·9 iSt.ory f tflo, · tncri an ( r)-ce.
Indian.tpofis, Bobbs-NlerrilJ Company . I r930J . 92 pp. .
Best of all introductions to thc ethnology and archaeology of '
Ncw "Iexico and Arizona and adjacent cultures, this book weds
learning and exprcssion in a fruitful way.
RIG-lARD J. HI~TON ( 183°-19°1 )
THE HA DBOOf( TO ARIZO TA: ITS RESOURCES, HIS- ;
TORY, TOWl'S, MI]\:ES, RUINS, .AND .SCE~ERY. Tucson, '
Arizona Silhoucttes. r 1954] 431 pp. .'
This first attempt at an encyclopcdic guide to Arizona, published '
originally in 1878, remains a basic work on the youngest state. i
It is the fifth in a series of facsimile reprints by Gcorge W.
Chambers of Tucson.
FREDERICK WEBB HODGE ( 1864-1956) ed.
and
HERBERT EUGENE BOLTON ( 187°-1953 ) ed.
ORIGIi'\AL J\'ARRATIVES OF ;EARLY MIERICAN HIS­TORY:
( J) Spanish explorers in the southern United States,
15 28- 1.543: The narrative of Alv{lr luii.ez Cabc.;:a de Vaca, ed. by
Fredcrick W. Hod.ge. The narrative of the cxpcdition of Her­nando
de SOtO by the gentleman of Elvas, ed. by Theodore H.
Lewis; ·the narrati"e of the expedition ' of Coronado, by Pedro de
Castaneda, ed. by Frederick W. Hodge; with maps and a fac­simile
reproduction. (2 Spanish explora'fion in the Southwest,
1542- 17°6, ed. by Herbert EU1l'ene Bolton, with three maps. New
York, Cbarle~ ,.Scribner's Sons. r 19q8-1916) 41 I and +87 pp. The
latter title reprinted: New York, Banles & i'\oble. r 1952] $4.50'
These two "olumes, treated here as a set, are thc best source in
English translation of ·,Southwestern beginnings. To read these
original narqti"es, edited by the two old masters, Hodge and
Bolton, is to lea"e the muddy present and ascend the stream of
history to its crystalline headwaters.
GENE MEANY 'HODGE
THE KACHINAS ARE COwlING; PUEBLO INDIAN KA­CHI1':
A DOLLS WITH RELATED FOLKTALES; foreword
by Dr. Frederick Webb Hodge, with eighteen color plates of
Kachina c!olls fro.m original drawings by 'the alij:h(>r. L.o~ Angeles,
Steller-i\ 1 iller. 11936] 129 pp.
The folktales of the Zuni and Hopi are from Cushing ;nd others,
the drawings arc by /\'Irs. Hodgc from Kachinas in the Southwest
Museulll, the whole forming one 'of the loveliest books of the
Centul·Y·
PAUL HORGAN (1903-
GREAT RIVER: THE RIO GRANDE IN NORTH AMER­ICAN
HISTORY. New York, Rinehart & Co. [1954] $10.00. 2 vols.
Fourteen years of study, in field and library, by Roswell's novelist,
painter, and finally historian, wCnt into the making of this labor
of 10"e and learning which, though attacked for its occasional
errors, carried off the Pulitzcr and Bancroft prizes for historical
writing. Packed with detail and written in sensuous, e"ocative
language, the book succeeds in recreating the ebb and flow of
human destiny up and down the Great Ri\'er, from the time of"
the Basket Makers to that of the Bomb Builders.
W. H. HUTCHI SON (1910- .
A BAR CROSS MAN; THE LIFE AND PERSONAL WRIT­INGS
OF EUGENE l\IANLOVE ' RHODES. ~orll1an, Uni­versity
of Oklahoma Press. [1956] 432 pp. $5.00. ,
This is one of the finest of Southwest biographies, written with ,
skill, gusto, and sympathy about the best cowboy-no"elist of them '
all, whose range was the Rio Grande country around Alamogordo
and San Andreas, and of whom Dobie wrote, "He was not a
world compeller. He was more big-hearted than great. He was
not many-sided or 'infinitely various.' He had but one string to his
fiddle, but he played it with infinite "ariations and got tunes out
of it honest and old and plain like the ballads and they 'danced
like a bit 0' the sun.' This is something ra.re in American litera­ture.
It is very precious."
EUSEBIO KINO (1644-1711)
KINO'S HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF PIMERiA ALTA; A :
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE BEGINNINGS!
OF CALIFORNIA, SONORA, AND ARIZONA, 1683-17/1,:
FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN THE ARCHIVESl
OF MEXICO, translated into E~gtish!... edi~ed, _and _ annotated bit
Please turn to page tbirty-two ..•
DON DE .MUTH
Desert yssey
BY WILLIS PETERSON
pring on the desert is a startling tableau,
a paradoxical phenomenon. Its presence
is first felt when the creosote bushes
begin to unfold their aromatic leaves,
long creased and shrivelled from
months of heat and dehydration.
Beneath these scraggly shrubs, an-nuals
sprout, singly, then in clusters. As growing con­ditions
become optimum, these patches of brilliant green
begin to creep, then enlarge, and finally with an almost
maddening cadence, sweep the entire desert floor in a
matter of days.
As the delicate green veneer spreads into washes, then
up sheltered canyons, this very incongruous aspect can
clearly be ascertained and marveled at.
Here, perhaps, at-your feet, a delicate hyacinth raises
supplicating lavender headdresses amid offending, thorny
hooks of the cat's-claw.
On the opposite hillside, a vivid orange-red Mari­posa
lily, aptly called butterfly lily by early Spaniards,
hugs a hoary, ageless barrel cactus.
Along a nearby wash, sparkling blue lupine lie like
sheep about a giant saguaro, their grotesque, and uncom­promising
herdsman.
Yellow poppies scramble and hide among the boul­ders,
while jagged, volcanic rocks attempt to subdue
their frolic.
Owl clover stand patiently, nodding their maroon
heads, waiting beside a mute, inhospitable prickly pear.
Tiny, brilliant Goldfields weave a saffron yellow
carpet unseen by their haughty lord and master, the
spiney cholla towering above.
In a land where nine months out of the year only
cactus, hardy shrubs and small trees prevail, spring is,
indeed, a paradoxical time of the year.
Behind these scenes, though, producing this fairy­like
stage setting, there are natural forces which operate
in an extremely orderly fashion.
The general idea of a desert, thought by most peo­ple,
especially in other sections of the country, consists
of sand, shifting dunes, and perhaps an occasional oasis.
Our Southwest deserts, on the contrary, are endowed
with abundant and diversified plant life. The Sonoran
WILD FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY
By WILLIS PETERSON
Wildflower photography is a fascinating form of photographic
art, though extremely time consuming. A great deal of attention
must be spent on minute detail. One of the biggest problems in
flower photography concerns the wind-especially with long­stemmed
and fragile subject matter. The slightest breeze will
vibrate stem and petals to such an extent that only a blur will
result on the film when using slow shutter speeds. To minimize
PAGE FOURTEEN • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
Brittlebush (En celia farinosa) (yellow) r\
Globemallow ($phae.ralcea ambigua) (coral) Y'
Creosotebush (Larrea divaricata)
PHOTOGRAPH' WILLIS PETERSON
I't Yarrow (Achillea lanu/osa) (white)
\J locoweed (Astragalus artipes) (loavender)
Actinea (Actinea argentea) (yellow)
Snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae)
(yellow clumps)
White Zinnia (Zinnia Crassina pumila)
desert, which includes portions of South Central Arizona
is noted for its multitude of succulents and arboreal
growths. Often of fantastic design, all form striking pic­ture
images, enough for the mind to conjure a host of
fantasies. Giant saguaros and a complex array of other
plants, create a landscape of enchantment with spectacular
proportions.
Aside from its fanciful creations, it is a bountiful
land in which to study desert botany, and the secrets
which plants have evolved to sustain life. All these species
have adapted themselves to a remarkable extent for their
stringent role in this severe climate of extremes.
For instance, there are the drought-escaping plants.
These consist of the annuals which germinate, mature
and reseed within a fe v weeks time during the spring
and also during the "second spring." Hence, they do
actually escape the drought because only their seeds are
left during the hot months . .
There are two classifications, each taking advantage
of the two seasons of rainfall. The winter annuals thrive
during the cool and moist spring weather. Generallv, it
is these winter plants which create the spectacular floral
displays.
The summer annuals appear only after July and
August rains, often called the "second spring" because
of the new growth. Most are hot weather species and
need abundant rainfall to create large masses of color.
Just a few of the winter specimens can be found in bloom
at this time.
The drought-evading plants are the deciduous herbs
and shrubs which become dormant when heat and drought
take over. Most species drop all their leaves, only concen­trating
on retaining life in roots and larger bran·ches.
As leaves drop, a number of things occur. At the base
of the leaf stem, a waterproof. layer of cells cuts off mois­ture
and food circulation from the stem into the leaf. At
the same time, it forms a protective layer on the stem to
which the leaf is attached, so that disease-producing bac­teria
cannot enter.
Many of the plants in this group have leaves with a
thick epidermis, to eliminate needless evaporation. Some
species have leaves covered with fine hair, another method
to prevent escape of moisture. A few herbs and shrubs
turn their leaves edgeways to\\:ard the sun so that dehy­dration
will not be such a shock before the plant rests in
a state of dormancy.
A good example of this nature of evolvement is the
brittlebush. It makes use of all these methods to escape
the months of desiccation. All the herbs and shrubs in this
Wild Flower Photography ... continued
this hazard, large cardboard sheets may ha\"e to be erected to
deflect the wind.
Color harmony is another important factor. The photographer,
when taking a certain colored flower, should visualize how the
subject will look with its given background. If background and
subject are not compatible colorwise, it is better to look for another
specimen. When and when not to make use of the "depth of field"
of the camera lens is another problem which is closely linked to
the previously mentioned factors.
classification come to renewed actlnty in a surprisingly
short time \"hen conditions are again favorable.
The drought-resisting plants are those \\'hich most of
us are familiar, and associate with the Southwest desert
regions. Cactus are probably the largest of this group. All
are leafless. Their green trunks indicate that photosyn­thesis
takes place in stems and branches, furnishing food
in the absence of leaves. Spongy tissues in their jointed
branches and trunks store moisture for future use. Root
systems are shallow, hardly extending more than three or
four feet from the base.
Mesquites, palo verde, ironwood, and acacia also fall
in the drought-resisting group in their effort to sidestep
the vicissitudes of the parched months. When dry weather
appears, they secrete almost invisible wax-like substances
\\"ith which "they coat their minute leaves and small food­producing
bran~hes. This keeps hot air from evaporating
their precious water supply. All leaves drop except for
the very minimum needed to maintain life.
Root systems of these small trees are not unlike the
iceberg, the bulk of which lies four-fifths unseen beneath
the surface. Exploring all adjacent soil depths, their tre­mendously
long roots extract every drop of water from
the ground in their search for the substance of life. Wash­es
and waterways are predominantly their habitates.
Coupled with this general three-way. fight for sur­vival
are the timing of the rains. Generally, Arizona has
two types of rainfall patterns, the winter rains which orig­inate
off the Pacific Coast and slowly travel inland across
Central Arizona, and the summer rains, a monsoon type
weather stemming from the Gulf of Mexico. In years of
abundant rainfall, these two general storm systems supply
our desert with the needed all-sustaining tide of life.
Moisture conditions in arid regions are probably more
important than temperature. It depends not only on inches
of rainfall, in which altitude is a controlling element, but
on the all important time of arrival, which dictates how
well these plants will grow. Slow or hard precipitation,
evaporation, drainage, and storage follow in importance.
In Central Arizona during the winter, when most of
the wet weather occurs, rains exert a powerful influence
on all flora. Vegetative cover, exposure, soil, and drainage,
or combinations of these, are lesser factors which only
modify the moisture condition.
Variance of temperature and moisture, linked with
physical characteristics of the terrain, are chief causes
which isolate areas where each particular plant species
thrive. Thus produced, are the vast displays of color,
which when once witnessed are not soon forgotten .
The first of February unveils the bright yellow,
though small blossom of the Creosote bush (Larrea divari­cata).
First blooming in the western part of Arizona, its
pageant of color travels eastward with the increasing alti­tude,
then finally disappears along foothills near the New
Mexican border.
Observing this march of color from the lower to
higher altitudes is an extremely fascinating process. Occa­sionally
"leap-frogging" hills and valleys, the chromatic
tide finally spends itself, lingering on the highest plateaus
of the State until frost.
Everyone hundred feet of elevation is comparable to
traveling sixty miles toward the North Pole, hence high
altitudes always produce flowers of the same species later
in the season, and also flora of colder regions.
PAGE TWENTY-THREE • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
WILLIS PETERSOS
For this reason, it is possible for visitors and those
interested in photographing and studying our wildRowers
to make quite a research project out of it by following
the season "vertically."
A short trip from Phoenix over the Apache Trail
takes in both Lower and Upper Sonoran life Zones, re­vealing
species of each clime. During a month's span,
flower specimens will range in this area from those ready
to seed on the desert Roor, to those of the same species
ready to bud situated in the higher canyons.
'Skirting the Superstition Mountains, the Trail leads
a circuitous and winding route, enabling anyone to get an
excellent view of wayside Rora.
From a distance; great balls of yellow seem to have
been suddenly frozen still against the rocky hillsides. A
close examination reveals they are the round shaped brit­t1ebushes
(E11celia farinosa). 'Their very resolute hold on
life make them flambouyant splotches of color. Indians
once used their resinous gum for incense.
Adding a complimentary lemon yellow color, sprin­kled
along the road, are the desert marigolds (Baileya
17ntltiradiata). A composite, these specimens prefer well­drained
soils, often growing in gravel. Their blooms prob­ably
last longer than any other desert Rower. With the
slightest encouragement they will continue to produce
bits of color into early summer.
Sprawling along wash bottoms, trailing in all direc­tions,
are the sand verbenas (Abronia villosa). Actuallv
related more closely to the four-o-clocks, they literally
fashion solid carpets of purple, sometimes acres in circum­ference.
Displays of this plant are quite common sights on
the sandy bottom of the Salt River almost in the heart of
Phoenix.
Probably the most spectacular Arizona \\'ildRower is
the Mariposa lily (Calochortus kennedyi). Three red­orange
petals form a delicately shaped chalice, creating
such an exquisite form that it stands apart from all other
flowers. Its nucellus of life springs from a bulb buried
eight to ten inches deep.
Between Superior and Winkleman, fields of violet
o'ilia (Gilia filit'olia) seem to cover the landscape with a
hluish haze. Flo\l'ers hardly more than a quarter of inch
across constitute the " 'hole' effect.
Pentstemons, (Pe1lfste1l7on pseztdospectabilis) those
hardy dwellers of crags and rocky prominences, can be
found throughout the desert and into the pines of the
high plateaus. Their long spikes of ruby colored tubular
Rowers are favorites of hUlllmingbirds.
Growing from three to four inches to five or more
feet in height, the globe mallo\\' (SphaeTalcea) is a com­mon
Rower found in deserts and in lllountains. Its orang-e
blossoms solid Iv cover acres of ground. Related to the
common o'ardeil holh-hock, the Rowers clothe long grace- ;;,. .
ful stalks in lllllch the sallle manner. Areas of Parad,se
Valley, northeast of Phoenix, are at times completely cov­ered
with this Rower,
Pinnacle Peak, northwest of the McDowell Moun­tains,
favors gro",th of the minute goldfields (BaeTia
chrysosto111a). As the name implies, they literally carpet
the ground \\ith solid sheets of brilliant yello\\', Again,
the Rower itself is scarcely more than a quarter of an inch
in d;ameter. Their numbers make' up for their tiny size.
One of the gayest color parades found are the fields
of California poppies (I':;schscholtzill 1I1exicana). The te­nacity
for life " 'hich these Rowers exhibit is amazing. In
a dr~7 spring, onl~ ' one RO\\'er may develop on each ptll1t,
and it may be only a fraction of an inch in diameter. But
\I'hen the rains fall at the right times, there will be dozens
of blooms on each specimen. Thei r kst show maybe seen
on the slopes of Picacho Peak, halfway between Tucson
and Phoenix in l\larch.
The hardv blue bonnets or lupine (Lupi1lltS spa'n'i­/
lOTUS), long famed in story and song, grace many of the
roadsides near Phoenix. Areas around Cave Creek and
Seven Springs, as \\TII as the Apache Trail, offer many
opportunities to examine stands of blooms. The word "lu­pine"
is derived from Latin meaning \volf. It was once
thought that these plants robbed the soil of its fertility.
Actually, they improve conditions by depositing nitro­gen,
as many plants of the pea family do.
PAGE TWE TY-FOUR • ARIZONA HIGH\VAYS • ~[ARCH 1958
A notable flower species to look for in the desert as
well as in the higher altitudes is the brilliant Indian Paint­brush
(Scrophulariaceae Castilleja). Actually, their flowers
are inconspicuous in themselves, yellow-green in color
and only Ys of an inch in diameter. But every flower is
surrounded by petal-like vermillion leaf bracts, with the
result that each plant creates a beautiful spray of crimson
wands. For centuries, the paintbrush has been used by
the Hopis for medicinal purposes. Zuni Indians crushed
the root for dyes in their leather work.
Though hardly in a wildflower classification, the palo
verde tree (Cercidium. microphyllum) as well as other
hizarre growths of the desert deserve comment because of
their unique blooms.
In all cases, their striking show of color is the culmi­nation
of the plant's careful conservation of moisture
throughout the whole year.
Following along banks of washes, the blossoming palo
verde. trees present a chain of meandering color. When
each wavering, golden line along the watercourse meets
its fellows, a veinous system of vivid yellow is portrayed
against a background of tawny colored rocks.
Meaning "green stick" in Spanish, palo verde trees
are more or less leafless depending upon the season. Dur­ing
the blooming period, in April and early May, a myriad
of insects are attracted by its nectar. Large black bum­blebees
are particularly conspicuous when working the
bright flowers. Palo verdes rarely exceed 25 feet in height.
The Methuselah of the desert, which in February
creates one of the most fragrant blooms, is the awkward
and ancient Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia). Found usually
in the Mohave Desert and in the Sonoran Desert between
Kingman and Congress Junction, Arizona, it is the oldest
living thing found in the Southwest deserts. Whitish blos­soms
grow in clusters, each mass being about the shape of
a large pineapple. Flowers resemble the yucca to which
the Joshua tree is related.
Their fragrance is outstanding, The heavy scent
floats close to the ground to greet the traveler a mile or
more away from the forest. Unlike other yuccas, Joshua
trees develop a definite trunk and branch system, forming
a crown much like the shape of any other small deciduous
tree.
The ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) is a common
plant, though probably one of the queerest of all desert
Rora. Restricted to arid regions below 5,000 feet, it super­ficially
resembles a cactus. It is, however, more closely
related to the tamarix. Ruby flowers are found at the ends
of long, slim basal stems, sometimes ten or more feet in
height. These dense flower clusters create an illusion of
flame leaping from supple torches.
The slender stems are usually leafless and covered
with a multitude of stout spines. The plant's interesting
feature is the rapidity in which new leaves sprout after
a shower has occurred. As many as four or five sets of
new, bright green leaves may appear within a year. Each
rejuvenation is followed by defoliation.
No less astounding than the ornately formed and
vividly hued flowers are their methods of reproduction.
With .the evolutionary advent of encasing the seed in a
pod or fruit, whole and new vistas were opened for the
spreading of flower species.
For instance, flower producing berries conspire with
birds to spread their kind.
Rodents carry away nuts containing embryonic bits
of life which later spring forth from forgotten hoards.
Other mammals devour pods. Later freed, the seed
may be miles from its source.
Some plants provide private sail planes for each seed
so that they may be carried by the wind to a distant arbor.
Others equip the seed case with barbs in order to
hook into anything that might brush against the plant.
A few ingenious plants manipulate tiny catapults to
scatter their seed when the pods are touched.
Indeed, our flowering world, and especially those
hardy specimens which have decided to live upon the
desert, are fascinating subjects to study. With 3,200 plant
species found in Arizona, and at least one-half of this
number producing some sort of flower, there is ample
opportunity to get acquainted.
f:: o
CO
CO «:
~ u
~ u
Mesquite tTee in sandy wash
BY DONALD CUbl{OSS PEA TTIE
AUTHOR OF "A NATURAL HISTORY OF vVESTERN TREES"
f all the gold-seekers who were mis­guided
into Death Vallev in 1849, the
most pathetic was the Bennett-Manly
party. For it was accompanied by the
wives and children of this group of
Middle Westerners. And the frailty of
these hostages to fortune caused their
menfolk to tarry beside the springs, hoping that strength
would return to the emaciated bodies. Yet the lonaer they • ::> •
waned, the hotter grew the season, and the lower ran
their food supplies. Eventually they escaped, after terrible
hardships. But, all along, their sufferings could have been
greatly lightened had they known enough to eat the
sweet, nutritious pods which were swinging on the
Mesquite trees right over their heads. The trees thev
knew were perhaps the very ones that still stand around
the water hole that is known now, after this unhappy
party, as Bennett Wells. But these courageous greenhorns
-these corn-and-beef-fed farmers, these small-townsmen
whose food came out of barrels, sacks, and boxes-how
could they guess that the Lord had appointed any manna
in the valley and shadow of death?
Their ignorance was more pathetic than that of the
Eastern tourist who, looking from the train window at
the miles of Mesquite bosque between San Antonio and
Uvalde, Texas, exclaimed that never had he seen such
extensive Peach orchards. Texans slapped their thighs in
glee as they told him what this growth really is, and
taught him, no doubt, to pronounce it "mez-keet" I-for
Texans decide these things for us. But indeed there is a
remarkable resemblance in a t\ Ics<]uite to a Peach, with
its very short trunk, the deep V -sha ped forks of its
branches, its many twigs and low stature. Or when a
Mesquite grows old it may come to look more like some
ancient Apple tree, bent with years of bearing till its twigs
grow knotty and its overborne boughs sweep downward
at the ends. But on a second look the traveler sees there
is something wrong with these "orchards." Those touah
stems perversely twisted, those crooked twigs, th;se
thorns set upon black and warty bases-they belona to
no sweet Peach, no friendly Apple. b
But do not compare this tree to such as arow by
man's husbanding hand .. Judge it rather by its peers, by
all the thorn-set, hard-bItten desert flora. Then Mesquite
IFrom 1Ili~quitl, the Nahuatl Indian word for this tree, by way of
Spanish lIIesquite.
PAGE TW ENTY-S I X • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
appears as an astonishingly tall, umbrageous, and thrifty
orowth. For, where you would not think that any sort
~f tree could exi~t, in such arid soil, such flaming heat,
the Mesquite, when it comes to leaf, is a blessing on the
earth that bears it.
Spring comes to the Mesquite first as a sudden rush
of green to the twigs whose arthritic fingers seem to lim­ber
now; at this time the twigs are palatable bro\\'se to
deer and cattle. Then the leaf buds burst and the foliage, at
first an ethereal green, spreads over the thorny crown like
a halo; swiftly each bosque catches the green fire, as the
twice-compound leaves expand their ferny, frondose
grace.
In spring, too, flowers appear for the first time-for
there are two blooming seasons: April, after the winter
rains, and again in June and July , continuing intermit­tently
till fall. The flowers, really in the Mimosa family
but looking like yellow catkins, do not make the mag­nificent
display of such desert trees as the Palo Verde
and the Ironwood, but they are delightfully fragrant,
gently perfuming all the stern desert's airs. Bees come to
them by the millions, especially in the honey-raising dis­tricts
of west Texas. Mesquite honey is clear amber in
color, and of good if not the highest quality.
In the lives of manv Southwest Indian tribes, Mes­quite
was the most important of all trees. The Papago
house was commonly built of it. Four to nine forked
Mesquite posts made the pillars, and through the forks
were laid light poles or horizontal stringers of l\lesquite.
Next, light slender rods of Saguaro were laid from pole
to pole as a roofing. Then around the central core slender
Mesquite poles were set in a circle, as siding, but standing
about four feet from the posts. The tips were then bent
over and tied to the horizontals with strips of soapweed
(Yucca glauca) fiber. Thus was formed the skeleton of
the dome-shaped hogan. Then the ribs or siding of Mes­quite
were bound to each other with withes of the ocotil­lo
bush, to make a sort of lath.
"Kickball" was a Papago game, played with spheres
of Mesquite wood, though how even an Indian toe could
stand up to it is a matter for amazement. Paddles of
Mesquite-one for the bottom, like a butter paddle, one
for the sides, like a cleaver-were used to shape pottery.
Cradle boards of Mesquite roots in the form of an elon­gated
arch, shaped papooses. A snag of sharpened iVles­quite
was used as a plow, from the coming of the Spanish
to the coming of steel shares.
But it is the fruits-locust-like pods-that make this
tree a blessing. Every Southwestern Indian tribe within
its range made ample use of the pods, which could be
eaten out of hand, or boiled, or stored in the ground, or
even fermented to make a mild alcoholic drink. The hand­some
mottled seeds have always been of the highest
importance as an Indian food from our deserts all the
way to South America, serving for flour for cakes and
mush. As feed for horses, Mesquite pods were considered
so valuable in the days when the United States Cavalry
was out after Apaches, that the Army paid 3 cents a
pound in New Mexico for Mesquite beans.
From the first introduction. of livestock into the
Southwest, the algaroba, as the Spanish-speaking pioneers
called it, was of recognized importance as browse. Not
that the foliage is often touched, but the pods which con­tain
25 to 30 ro grape sugar, are more than palatable to
stock-they are devoured. Cattle reach as high for them
as they can, or horn them down rather than risk tender
muzzles among the thorns. Bulls sometimes batter off
whole branches for their dehorned cows. Goats climb
lightly into the Mesquite boughs, venturing far out to
devour pods, leaves, and twigs. Perhaps they even digest
the thorns! At any rate it takes a goat but a short time
to browse the toughest, driest, wiriest lVlesquite to death.
Over much of its range, Mesquite is but a shrub, the
underground stems sending up many small shoots and
these frequently branched right at the point where they
leave the ground. But this is a species which readily passes
the ill-defined border bet\\'een tree and shrub, and
throughout its vast range Mesquite is also arboreous,
Mesquite beans
/
commonly 15 to 20 feet in height, often much more.
"Old Geronimo" is a gigantic M.esquite on the grounds of
the Santa Cruz Valley School, near Tumacacori, Arizona,
with a trunk 14 feet and I I Yz inches in circumference,
that seems-to judge from its pollarded condition-to have
furnished firewood and fence posts for over 200 years.
On the same grounds stands another Mesquite 40 feet
in height. The biological survey of Death Valley, made
by the Department of Agriculture in 1891, found between
Bennett Wells and Mesquite a specimen about 30 feet
high, with a spread of branches 75 by 90 feet-quite a
pool of shade for the hottest and most ill-reputed spot
in all the annals of the desert!
The "Jail Tree," at the corner of Tegner and Center
Streets, in Wickenburg, Arizona, is an historic Mesquite
to which badmen and suspects were chained, in lieu of
any calaboose in the early days. To serve a sentence
under its shade was perhaps more merciful than being
locked in any jail the hell-razing frontiers would have
provided.
Like the swallows in the Southwest, the Mesquite
has a way of associating itself with ruins, such as the
Tumacacori Mission near Nogales, Arizona, and Fort
Richardson near Jacksboro, Texas. One of the most mov­ing
spots in Arizona is Fort Lowell, built of adobe in
1873 and then far outside the pueblo of Tucson with its
temptations. Fine streets divided the company buildings,
set with Mesquite and Mulberry trees; there were green
lawns, and the deep verandahs, vine-clad and olla-hung,
formed outdoor living rooms. Then there were balls and
dress parades; visitors were lavishly entertained, and
splendid cavalry mounts waited in the stables. Today all
but a little is a crumbling ruin. For with the end of the
Apache wars in 1886 the fort was abandoned and with
every succeeding year fierce sun and rain and wind have
done their. work. Gone are the lawns, the flowers, the
Mulberries, and the adobe arches are fallen. But every­where
the triumphant Mesquite invades, like the jungle
tree it is, thrusting up through the very floors, rooting in
crannies of the walls, aiding the teeth of the elements in
the process of dissolution. .
The good points of Mesquite are almost endless. It
exudes a gum that was well known to the Indians, who
chewed it, used it for wounds and sores as gum Arabic
is employed in the Old World, mended pottery with it,
and obtained from it a black dye. As early as 1871, more
than 12,000 pounds of the gum were gathered in one
Texas county alone and sent East for use in the prepara­tion
of gumdrops and mucilage. Several hundred pounds
are exported annually to Australia, for what purpose is
not known. The bark is useful in tanning and dyeing.
The wood, almost as hard and beautifully colored as
lVlahogany and taking a high polish, would be precious
cabinet wood if only the trees grew larger, the trunks
taller and straighter. Even so it ha's served for years as a
highly valuable fence post and corral stockade material,
cheap to cut, and lasting in contact with the soil for years.
The Navajo bow was made of the tough wood, and Mes­quite
beams were placed in that aboriginal apartment
building, the Casa Grande, near Coolidge, Arizona. The
Texas pioneers used Mesquite almost exclusively for the
hubs and spokes of wagon wheels.
Though trunks and branches are used for fuel, the
favorite pan is the underground stems, erroneously called
roots. These are still excavated for fuel wood vV'here labor
is cheap enough, and in the old days of exploration, sur­vey
parties were dependent on Mesquite "root" for
warmth and cooking. It burns with an intense heat, but
very slowly and down to a long-lasting bed of coals, so
that blacksmiths always preferred it to any other wood.
Listen to the laconic praise that comes blowing out of
the diaries of desert travelers: "Gram a-grass good and
abundant. There is here a sufficient quantity of mezquite
to answer our purposes for cooking." "Mezquite root dry
and good." "The mezquite wood is plenty and can be
obtained without much labor." "The mezquite is green
and gro\\'s in the utmost profusion; indeed one is cheated
into the belief that he is passing through an orchard. This
is the only growing timber we have seen since we left
the pinery." "The Clear Fork traverses a very zigzag
course, a beautiful and fertile valley, about three miles
in width ... covered by forests of mezquite."
Water and grass and Mesquite, Mesquite, grass and
water-over and over, they are theme of the early South­west
travelers' prayers and thanks, till we feel as though
we could still see the campfires of these comageous pio­neer
parties, and smell again the sweet incense of the
burning lVlesquite "root"-an odor as haunting as that
of Pinyon.
Finally, the Mesquite is valuable because its great
root system holds the banks of the dry stream-courses
and the washes of the Southwestern streams down which,
after summer thunderstorms, rush flash floods of water.
And the root system of the Mesquite is a wondrous and
a fearsome thing. Its branches may penetrate 50 or 60
feet to tap the deep veins of ground water that under­lie
much of our deserts. But they also come right up
under the soil surface, to catch every possible drop of
the light winter rains, and they spread laterally in a
great circle. So the Mesquite is prepared to adapt itself
to the benefits of the most passing shower, and yet survive
the most prolonged periods of drought.
vVith all these wonderful qualities, Mesquite is yet
the most feared and hated tree that grows, a menace that
is every year extending its ravages, spreading desolation
where once was wealth. In fifty years it has crossed Texas
from the west and south, where it was ahv-ays native, to
southeastern Colorado and right over Oklahoma to south­western
Kansas-one of the most spectacular ,biological
phenomena of this country. It is now beginning to be­come
naturalized in Louisiana and Missouri and will prob­ably
not be stopped by anything except the isotherm of
prolonged freezing. Carried to the Philippines in the days
of the Manila treasure galleons, Mesquite is now firmly
established there and, more recently, in the Hawaiian
archipelago where it flourishes up to 60 feet in height,
It has invaded the Bahamas from the West Indies, and is
on the loose in South Africa, Australia, India, and Persia,
where it was doubtless at first introduced only as a prom-
OPPOSITE PAGE
"THE LACY MESQUITE" BY JOSEF MUENCH. 4X5 Linhof
camera, daylight Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/ loth second; Schneider
lens; early April with sky slightly overcast. Everywhere, it seems,
in the desert is some variety of the hardy mesquite. Known for its
nourishing bean, it is in spring dress of little yellow catkins that
wins it a place among the flowering plants.
PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT • ARIZONA H1GH'VAYS • MARCH 1958
ising cultivated tree, but soon found itself able to elbow
its way into the native plant cover and displace it.
How could all this come about, when the tree had
for ages been a well-behaved species sticking closely to
streams, washes, bottom-lands, arroyos and desert wells
and springs? It seems that the cattle, devouring the fruits,
void the seeds, often undigested and quite viable, on the
upland range grasses. However, the Mesquite seedlings
could not compete in the closed community of the range
grasses but for the factor-reluctantly admitted or hotly
denied by most stockmen-of over-grazing. In short, the
nll1gelands were already broken down, ecologically, be­fore
the Mesquite began its jungle march. True, once
established on grass land, Mesquite becomes co-villain in
the plot by shading out the grass, and competing for the
soil moisture. So the vicious circle is closed. As a result,
in the last few decades, Texas has lost 37,000,000 acres
to noxious brush of which Mesquite is the chief factor.
Along U.S. Highway 281, between Mineral Wells and
Wichita Falls, the Texans-many of Norwegian, Polish,
German, and Austrian descent-wage a constant warfare
against the greedy trees that are always encroaching on
their farms and ranches. Where the highway passes Gap
l'l'lountain, it is constantly being menaced by the thorny
trees.
In Arizona in 1906 scientists could state that they
saw no indications of danger from the increase in J\les-
OPPOSITE PAGE
"J\IESQUITE IN BLOO,\I" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Graph View
camera; Ektachrome; f.32 at 1/2 second; 8 liz " Goertz-Dagor;
sunny day in April. YeHow blossoms and the lacy leaves of this
variety of the common mesquite add to the beauty of a desert
spring. Prosopis julifiora var. velutina is the most common variety
of the mesquite found in the Southwest.
quite; by 1936 the stockmen, so scornful of government
interference, were begging their government for aid.
The 1\ lesquite jungles, stockmen found, were so extensive
that cattle had to be hunted through them for days. The
thorns are an agony to the cowboy and his horse.
Many methods of control were attempted. The first
and most obvious one was to cut the l\1esquites down.
But since most of the stems are underground, this amount­ed
to nothing hetter than lopping off the branches above
ground. And, because Mesquite crown-sprouts, where one
stem had been befor-e, there were now twenty in its place.
If you didn't cut it down, then the Mesquit~ increased
by seeds. Gasoline blow-torches were used, but though
the flame did wound the tree, a wounded Mesquite is
something like a wounded tiger-if not so quick in its
reactions. Next, poison injected through the wounds was
tried. But even that didn't suffice.
In the end it was found best in Arizona to cut the
tree down to the stump, then poison the stump with
sodium arsenate applied from an engineer's oil can fitted
with a small pump operated by the thumb. The cost of
the poison and that kind of labor is low; more, the felled
trunks sold for enough as fence posts or fuel to payoff
the cost of cutting and poisoning. And land cleared of
l\lesquite yields still further profit'. For instance, it has
been found that native uncleared Mesquite brush near
Kingsville, Texas, will carry only one cow to every 25
to 30 acres, while cleared brushland will carry two.
Stockmen generally believe, however, that it will
always be ,veil to allow Mesquite to occupy some of their
bottom-lands. The value of the tree for fence posts and
fuel, the bro"'se and shade it affords to livestock, are
worth more than the same type of land would be if it
were all range grass. So Mesquite is something more than
a tree; it is almost an elemental force, comparable to fire­too
valuable to extinguish completely and .too dangerous
to trust unwatched.
PAGE TH rRTY-O~ E • ARIZONA HIGH\VJ\YS • MARCH 1958
A Sou-thwes-tern Cen'tury
Continued from page tbirteen
Herbert Eugene Bolton. Berkeley, Uni\'ersity of California Press.
[1948] $7 ·5°·
First published in 1919, this is a photo-offset reprint in one volume
of another of Bolton's great pioneer works on the history of the
farthest Southwest, the Jesuit endea\'or to Illissionize southern
Arizona and Sonora, that Y<lst area known as Pimeria Alta. It was
Bolton who discoyered Father Kino's manuscript in the Mexican
archi\'es and who did the immense research in field and library
to make its translation fully meaningful. One should read also his
biography of the great Jesuit founder of JVlission San Xavier del
Bac called Padre on Horseback.
ERNEST KNEE
SANTA Ft, NEW MEXICO. New York, H astings House. [1942]
101 pp. $2.50'
Photographs only, simply captioned, of the City of the Holy
Faith, ancient spiritual center of the Southwest, ineluding the
nearby villages of Cordova, Truchas, Trampas, Tesuque, and
Galisteo. Brown earth, green cottonwoods, garlands of red peppers
and vari-colored corn, under an immense cloudcapped blueness
called sky, perfumed with pinon smoke and peopled with simple
folk-this is the ambiance of northern Tew Mexico evoked by
these pictures.
JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH (1893-
THE DESERT YEAR. Decorations by Rudolf Freund. New
York, William Sloane Associates. [1952 ] 270 pp. $3·75·
It was a happy day for readers about the Sollthwest when Pro­fessor
Krutch left Broadway for Pima County, Arizona. His
philosophical mind and sharp eye brought to bear on the natural
histOry of the Lower Sonoran zone produced this book of essays
and a subsequent one called Tbe Voice of tbe Desert, proving
anew the adage that there's no Southwesterner as ardent as a
con verted one.
DAVID LAVENDER (1910-
BENT'S FORT. Garden City, Doubleday and Company. [1954]
450 pp. $5.00.
At the junction of Purgatory Creek and the Arkansas River in
southeastern Colorado, on the route to RatOn Pass through the
Sangre de Cristos to Taos and Santa Fe, the Bents founded their
trading fort in 1833, center of the fur trade and vortex of the
tides which were swirling toward the conquest of New Mexico.
The rich drama of the epoch has been fully realized by the
author in this readable history.
D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-193°)
MORNINGS IN MEXICO. London, :William Heinemann Ltd.
[1950] 157 pp. 7 shillings, 6 pence.
Three of the essays in . this \'olume, first published in 1927, arc
about Indian ceremonial dances in New Mexico and Arizona, and
are good examples of the author's sharp observation, mystical
philosophy, and powerful style. Lawrence firSt came to New
Mexico in 1921, upon the invitation of I\label Dodge Luhan,
acquired from her a small ranch on i;he shoulder of Lobo Moun­tain,
north of ' Taos, where his ashes are now enshrined, tOgether
. with those of Frieda, Ius wife, who outlived him twenty-six years.
j. GREGG L~YNE (1885-1952)
WESTERN WA YFARll'-'G; ROUTES OF EXPLORATION
AND TRADE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST, with an
introduction by Phil Townsend Hanna and maps by Lowell Butler.
Los Angeles, Automobile Club of Southern California. [195+]
63 pp. $4.50 .
First pub~hed in West·ways magazine, these nventy-eight maps
and accompanying histOrical texts cover the principal routes of
exploration and trade in the Southwest, beginning with Pike's
1806 expeditiQn and .cQncluding with the completion of the fust
transcontinental r ailroad in 1869. Bl'ought together in book form,
designed by Ward Ritchie, they constitute an authoritati ve
reference source. There is an index which adds to the book's use­fulness.
TOM LEA ( 1907-
TOi\'1 LEA: A PORTFOLIO OF SIX PAl TINGS, with an
inrroduction by J . Frank Dobie. Austin, University of Texas
Press. [ 1953] $15.00.
First a painter, then a nO\'elist, and always a powerful portrayer
of tl1e Southwest, Tom Lea of EI Paso del Norte is here given
memora ble treatment by his mentor Dobie of Austin and Cherry
Springs, whose introduction is a masterpiece in miniature.
HANIEL LONG ( 1888-1956)
PINON COUNTRY. New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce. [1941]
327 pp.
The second volume to appear in the American Folkways series
(the first was Edwin Corle's Desert C01lntry) , this work by a wise
and gentle man is marked by affection and subtle understanding.
Pinon country is the Upper Sonoran life zone of northern New
Mexico and Arizona, which was home to Haniel Long duting
the last thirty years of his life. H e chronicles its history, its
people, and special characteristics with luminous insight.
MABEL DODGE LUHAN ( 1879-
TAOS AND ITS ARTISTS. New York, Duell, Sloan and
Pearce. [ 1947] 168 pp. $3·75·
Presents biographical and critical material and photographic
portraits of members of the Taos art colony through half a
'century, together with reproductions of their paintings, skillfully j
edited by the town's most forceful personality. Mrs. Luhan's '
rVinrer lin ,Taos is a characteristic book of sketches 'about the ;
pueblo and' its pe'ople. ~ . ~
CARL LUMHOL TZ (1851-1922) ;
-KFW TRAILS IN rvmxlco; AN ACCOUNT OF ONE i
YEAR'S EXPLORATION IN NORTH-WESTERN SONORA, i
MEXICO, AND SOUTH-WESTERl' ARlZONA 1909-10 ... !
\-Vith numerou~ illustrations including two color plates and two I
maps. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons . .f 19 12 ] 411 pp. i
!
The Norwegian geographer and anthropologist writes here an !
engaging pers nal narrative of the Papagueria whose sacred peale !
·i~ Baboquivari. It is a work to rank with Smeaton Chase's Cali- 'I'
fO'mia Desert Trails and Dobie's Tongues of tbe Monte.
I CHARLES F. LUMMIS (1859-1928) !
MESA, CANON AND PUEBLO; OUR WONDERLAND OF :
THE SOU1.l-lWEST, ITS MARVELS OF ATURE, ITS j
PAGEANT OF THE EARTH BUILDING, ITS STRANGE I
PEOPLES, ITS·CENTURlED ROMANCE, New York, Century 1
Company. ll925l 517 pp. . j
Of all the ;uthor's prolific' writings about the region he was the :
first to christen "The Southwest," this is the best in scope, balance, I
and vigor. New England-born, Harvard-schooled, newspaper- I
trained, Lununis was one of, the most egocentric and strident !
boosters the Southwest has ever known, founder of the Southwest I
Museum, collector of regional history, champion of the oppressed, I
half egomaniac, half philanthropist- superlati\;es fall short when !
applied to this bantam rooster of a man. His works will be read I
when his personality has been forgotten, .such are the enduring I
ways of good books. 1
!
JOSEPH G. MCCOY ( 1837-1915) I
HISTORIC SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE OF THE 1
'WEST AND SOUTHWEST; edited by Ralph P. Bieber. Glen- i
dale, Arthur :rr. Clark Company. [1940] 435 pp. . 1
In 1867 McCoy established a market for cattle at Abilene, Kansas' I'
terminus of the Chisholm Trail, over which millions of head
were Q"riven up from Texas. Outspoken and salty, this is the ,
first of. tile range histories, and the only one eyer written by a I
partlClpant. Published originally in 1867, it has been reprinted I
se\'eral times, most recently by Long's in 195 1 ($8·5°), but .this I edition, with an excellent introduction and notes by Bieber,
is the best of all. .:
I
SUSAN SHELBY MAGOFFIN (1827-1855) 1
DOWN THE SANTA FE TRAIL AND INTO MEXICO, !
THE DIARY OF SUSAN SHELBY MAGOFFI , 1846-1847, :
edited by Stella M. Drumm. New Haven, Yale University Press. ,
[ 192/Sl. P)4 pp. _ -----"-_ .... . :~j
PAGE THIRTY-TWO • ARLZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
Basic source on "the year of decision," tenderly and shrewdly
written by a girl on her honeymoon. It was her brother-in-law,
Colonel James Magoffin, who induced Armijo to surrender
Santa Fe bloodlessly to the Americans.
MABEL MAJOR ( 1894- )
SOUTHWEST HERITAGE, A LITERARY HISTORY WITH
. BIBLIOGRAPHY [by] Mabel Major, Rebecca W . . Smith and
T. M.Pearce. Rev. ed. Albuquerque, University of N'ew Mexico
Press. [ 1948] 199 pp. $2.00.
An exceJlent survey of the many kinds of writing that have
come out of man's relationship with his em'ironment in the
Southwest, from Spanish times to date of publication.
WILLIAM LEWIS MANLY (b.1820)
DEATH VALLEY IN '49; with an introduction by Carl I.
. W heat. Centennial ed. Los Angeles, Borden Publishing Company.
[1949] 523 pp.
First published in 1894, I'll anl y's narratiye, written in his old age
a generation after the stirring events occurred, miraeulously
recaptured the drama of this first tragic misadventure \,·ith one
of the most celebrated of all Southwestern desert valleys. This is
an offset reprint, illustrated from modern photographs, intro­duced
by the authority on overland tOpography.
ALICE MARRIOTT ( 1910- )
MARIA, THE POTTER OF SAN ILDEFONSO; with draw­ings
by lVlargaret Lefrane. orman, University of Oklahoma
Press. [ 1948) 294 pp. $3-75·
T his book is about a creative woman of strong character who
has become world-famous as a ceramicist. It is by an ethnologist
who writes like a novelist, without sacrifice of truthfulness, in
the same memorable vein as her earlier Tbe Ten Grandlllotbers,
a book about the Kiowa Indians of Oklahoma.
ALICE MARRIOTT (1910- )
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE; SOME NOTES ON THE
SOUTHWESTERN INDIANS. Santa Fe, LaboratOry of An­thropology.
[1949] 67 pp. $3.00.
There is no better introduction and guide to the subject than this
glowing little volume, beautifully conceived and written, and
designed by Merle Armitage.
JOSEPH MILLER, ed.
THE ARIZONA STORY, compiled and edited from original
newspaper sources. With drawings by Ross Santee. New York,
Hastings House. [1952) 345 pp. $5.50.
From the files of Arizona newspapers housed in the State Library
at Phoenix, where he works, the compiler mined these rousing
stories of the rough old times, following the volume with Arizona,
tbe Last Frontier in 1956. No source pans richer, as many a
modern historical novelist well knows.
BALDWIN MOLLHAUSEN (1825-19°5)
DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE
COASTS OF THE PACIFIC WITH A UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT EXPEDITION. With an introduction by
Alexander von Humboldt. Translated by 1Vlrs. Percy Sinnett.
London, Longman. [1858] 2 vols.
Mollhausen was the artist-naturalist with the Whipple and later
with the Ives expeditions, both in the 1850'S, and could both
write and draw. This work is illustrated with chromolithographs
and woodcuts, and presents vivid views of the Southwest. Moll­hauscn
went on to write some forty-five works about the Far
West, which earned him the title of the German Fenimore
Cooper.
GUSTAV ERIK ADOLF NORDENSKIOLD (1868-1895)
THE CLIFF DWELLERS OF THE MESA VERDE, SOUTH­WESTERN
COLORADO; THEIR POTTERY AND IMPLE­MENTS;
translated by D. Lloyd Morgan. StOckholm, P. A.
Norstedt and Soner. [1893] 174 pp,
One of the classics of Southwestern archaeology this noble folio,
issued in both English and Swedish editions, was the work of the
young Swedish baron who was drawn to the Mesa Verde by
news of the Wetherills' discovery of the cliff dwellings. The
collection of artifacts which he excavated and herein described
Was intended for the Royal Museum in Stockholm, but according
to one source, it remained in storage until recently, when it
found its way to a museum in Helsinki. Today the Mesa Verde .'
is one of the finest of the national parks and museums.
JACK O'CONNOR (1902-
HU?\TTING IN THE SOUTHWEST; with illustrations by T.
] . H arter. New York, Alfred A. Knopf. [ 1945 ] 279 pp.
"Tn this book I ha\'e tried to communicate some of the feeling
I haye about the creatures of the Southwest, as well as some of
the information I have gathered. It is frankly a book for the
sportsman, for the man who likes to go afield in the fall to
han'est with gun and rifle his little share of the annual crop of
game, but those interests are not confined wholly to the hunting
season. It is a book by a hunter for the man who likes to know
more about the game he hunts, or would like to hunt- what it
looks like, what it eats, what sort of country it lives in, what its
habits are. how it is standing the impact of civilization, and how
it best may be hunted."
W ALTER C. O'KANE (1877-
THE HOPIS: PORTRAIT OF A DESERT PEOPLE; with
photos in color by the author. Norman, University of Oklahoma
Press. r 1953 ] 267 pp. $6.00.
Inhabitants of the three arid mesas in northern Arizona, the
Hopis are probably the least changed of all Indians, for the reason
that the wh.ite men did not covet their barreo lands. This sym­pathetic
study of the oldest generation of living Hopis, those then
in their 80'S and 90'S, is further made memorable by the twenty­four
portrait photographs which prove the truth of the poet
Jeffers' lines
The heads of strong old age are beautiful
Beyond all grace of youth. They have strange quiet,
Integrity, health, soundness, to the full
They've dealt with life and been attempered by it.
Promise of Peace
MORRIS EDWARD OPLER (1907-
AN APACHE LIFE-WAY; THE ECO JOMIC, SOCIAL, AND
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHIRICAHUA IN­DIANS.
Chicago, University of Chicago Press. [1941] 500 pp.
$7·5°'
A sympathetic and moving ethnological study of the what and why
of being an Apache Indian of the three bands which once domi­nated
the four corners of Arizona-New Mexico-Sonora-Chihuahua
and were led by Mangus Colorado, Victorio, Cochise, and Ge­ronimo,
and are now reduced to a few hundred inhabitants of the
lVlescalero Reservation.
WATERMAN L. ORMSRY (1834-1908)
THE BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND MAIL, by Waterman L.
Ormsby, only through passenger on the first westbound stage,
edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum. San Marino,
The Huntington Library. [1942] 179 pp. $4.00.
In 1858 Ormsby became the first fare-paying transcontinental
passenger, and this book consists of vivid dispatches from en
route to the New York Herald, of which he was a special cor­respondent.
The route from St. Louis to San Francisco was via
Red River, EI Paso, Tucson, Fort Yuma, and Los Angeles. The
Overland Mail ended with the advent of the Civil War.
MIGUEL ANTONIO OTERO (1859-1944)
MY LIFE ON THE FRONTIER ... By Miguel Antonio Otero,
former governor of New Mexico. New York, Press of the
Pioneers. [1935-39] 2 vols.
And a rough and violent life it was, of knifings, shootings, and
survival of the most influential, told by Otero in plain language
which emphasizes the tough character of the times.
JAMES O. PATTIE (b. 1804?)
THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF JAMES O. PATTIE OF
KENTUCKY, edited by Timothy Flint, historical introduction
and footnotes by Milo Milton Quaife. Chicago, R. R. Donnelley
and Sons Co. [1930] 428 pp.
Pattie was fur trading in New Mexico and California in the
1820' S, and thus his lively narrative, first published at Cincinnati
in 1831 (today of great rarity and value), is one of the earliest
sources in English on the Southwest. The reprint in Thwaites'
Early Western Travels series is a little fuller than this one in the
attractive Lakeside Classics series, but is harder to come by as .a
separate volume.
DONALD CULROSS PEATTIE (1898-
A NATURAL HISTORY OF WESTERN TREES; illustrated
by Paul Landacre. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. [ 1953]
751 pp. $6.00.
Best book on the subject by an authority whose prose style and
scientific knowledge are happily wedded, and embellished by
the best of all western wood-engra,-ers.
ROGER TORY PET ERSON ( 1908-
A FIELD GUIDE TO weSTERN BIRDS. Boston, Houghton
Mifflin Company_ [ 1941] 240 pp. $3-75·
The author's W est ninges from T exas to British Columbia.
H. 1'11. T. POWELL
THE SANTA FE TRAIL TO CALIFORN IA, 1849-18)2 ; THE
JOURN AL AND DRAWINGS OF H_ M. T. POWe LL, edited
by Douglas S_ Watson. San Francisco, Book Club of California.
[ 193 J] 272 pp.
Detailed and readable, in noble format by the Grabhorn Press,
this is one of the most beautiful books of our times.
FREDERIC R EMINGTO~ ( 1861-19°9)
CROOKED TRAILS; wr itten and illustrated by Frederic Rem­ington.
New York, Harper & Brothers. [1898] 150 pp.
That Remington could write as well as draw is evident from
this book of Southwest sketches, incluaing several on the Apaches
and the Army's cfforts to subdue them.
BeRT ROBINSON (1889-
THE BASKET WI '~ AVERS OF ARIZONA. PhotOgraphs by
Robert H . Peebles. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico
Press. [19541 164 pp. $7.5°.
From the abundant literature on aboriginal basketry this mono­graph
on the eight basket-weaving tribes of Arizona has been
selected for several reasons: it is authentic, the author hal"ing
lived with the Indians for thirty years, part of the time as Super­intendent
of the Pima Resen-ation, and being of obvious deep
sympathy with them; and it is. historical rather than technical,
and is beautifully illustrated from color and black and white
photographs. Except for the Pomos of Northern California, the
basket makers of Arizona, from the desert tribes in the south to
the canyon and mesa tribes of the north, represent the apogee of
this most ancient of the textile arts.
PHILIP ASHTON ROLLINS (1869-
THE COWBOY, AN UNCONVENTIONAL HISTORY OF
CIVILIZATION ON THE OLD-TIME CATTLE RANGE.
New York, Charles Scribner's Sons. [ 1936] 402 pp. $5.00.
More than the classic history of the cowboy, his work and his
ways, Rollins' book is a philosophical interpretation of the
frontier that ensures it a central place among Western Americana.
First published in 1922, this third revised edition adds data on
many points and contains new illustratiol1s.
MARIAN SLOAN RUSSELL (1845-1937)
LAND OF ENCHANTMENT; MEMOIRS OF rvlARIAN
RUSSELL ALONG THE SANTA FE TRAIL, as dictated to
Mrs. Hal Russell. Edited by Garnet M. Brayer. Decorations by
David T. Vernon. Evanston, Branding Iron Press. [1954] 155 pp.
$7·5°'
Near the end of her long life the author dictated memories of
it to her daughter-in-law, going clear back to her life at Santa Fe
in the 1850'S, with reminiscences of Archbishop Lamy and Kit
Carson, and on past the murder of her husband by Maxwell
deputies in the struggle for that famous land grant, to her final
sixty-three years on a ranch near Trinidad, Colorado. The result
is one of the most poetic and tender of all Southwestern books.
TRENT ELWOOD SANFORD (1897- )
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUTHWEST; INDIAN,
SPANISH, AMERICAN. New York, W. W. Norton and Co.
[1950] 312 pp. $7.50.
One of the best interpretations of the Southwest, in terms of the
dwellings and churches man has built, Indian, Spanish, and
American, "from Texas to Monterey, containing much on the
history and landscape, beautifully illustrated from photographs.
The Prologue, "Why is the Southwest" is an excellent definition
of the region.
ROSS-SANTEE (1889-
APACHE LA1"D. 1':ew York, Charles Scribner's Sons. [1947]
216 pp. $3.50'
The best of all modern writers about Southern Arizona, Santee
gathers here rich lore of Apache warriors and their bloody land,
and illustrates the book with hjs characteristic black and white
drawings which perfectly complement the text.
CHARLES A. SIRINGO ( 1855-1 928)
A T EXAS COWBOY; OR, FIFTEEN YEARS ON THE HUR­RICANE
DECK OF A SPANISH POT'-TY, TAKEN FROM '
REAL LIFE. With bibliographical study and introduction by J.
Frank Dobie and drawings by Tom Lea. New York, William
Sloane Associates. [ 1950] 198 pp.
First and best of all cowboy autobiographies, the original 1885
edition of which is now of great r arity, Siringo's rough and
ready yarn , written solely, the author admits, to make money,
is here royally introduced by "Pancho" Dobie, who ranks with
it only one other cowboy book, E. C. "Teddy" Blue's 1 fl e
Pointed Tbe7l1 N onb. T y pography by Carl Hertzog of El Paso.
JEDEDlAH Si\IlTH ( 1798-183l )
THE TRAVeLS OF J EDEDIAH SMITH; A DOCUMEN­TARY
OUTLIi'E INCLUDI1':G THE JOURNAL OF THE
GREAT AMERICAN PATHFINDER, by Maurice S. Sullivan.
Santa Ana, Californ ia, Fine Arts Press_ r 1934] 195 pp.
Fur Trader Smith was the first American to make a recorded
journey overland from Missouri to outhern California, arrh-ing
at i\lission San Gabriel in 1826 and being coldly received. This
long lost fragmentary transcript of the original journal, though
without literary merit, has value as a first-hand record of
pioneering. Smith was killed by the Comanches JI1 what is now
Southwestern Kansas.
WALLACE STEGNER (1909-
BEYO~D THE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN; JOHN WES­LEY
POWELL AND THE SE.COND OPENING OF THE
W EST. With an introduction by Bernard DeVoto. Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company. [ 195-+] 438 pp. $6.00.
An indignant biography of Major Powell, the man who first
explored the Colorado Ri,-er, founded the United States Geo­logical
Survey and Bureau of Ethnology, fathered reclamation
of the arid western lands, and was one of the Homeric figures
of the Southwest.
MARTHA SUi\ji\IERHAYES (1846-1911)
VANISHED ARIZONA; RECOLLECTIONS OF MY ARMY
LIFE; edited by Milo l\Jilton Quaife. Chicago, Lakeside Press.
[1939] 337 pp.
As a New England bride i\lrs. Summerhayes came to Arizona in
the 1870'S with her lieutenant husband, and years later when she
published the first edition of her memoirs in 1908 the wide
response it e,-oked astonjshed her. A revised edition followed in
191 I. This posthumous edition in the Lakeside Classics is the
most readily available on the second-hand market, although it
too is now becoming scarce. Still another edition is called for,
preferably edited by an Arizonian. The book is a classic of army
life on the frontier seen through a woman's eyes.
DON C. TALAYESVA (1890-
SUN CHIEF; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI IN­DIAN,
edited by Leo W. Simmons. New Ha,-en, for the Institute
of Human Rclations by Yale University Press. [1942] 460 pp.
In spite of the editor's sociological apparatus and jargon this is a
mol"ing account of the first half century of a Hopi chieftain's
life, frank in every aspect, and unlike any white man's story.
The method was for Don to keep a diary which the editor then
read back to him and added the subject's comments, and finally
ga,-e continuity and smoothness to the narrative. The result is
admittedly artificial and yet unique in the insight it affords into
the Indian mind.
CHARLES WAYLAND TOWNE (1875-
SHEPHERD'S EMPIRE, by Charles Wayland Towne and
Edward Norris Wentworth, with drawings by Harold D. Bugbee.
Norman, University of Oklahoma Press. [1945] 364 pp. $3.50.
In spite of overstriving for cuteness and odd words, the authors
have written the best general work on sheep in the Southwest,
from their introduction by the conquistadors to the present,
historically accurate and packed with anecdote. Bugbee's black
and white drawings add much to the book's interest.
PAGE THIRTY-FOUR • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • MARCH 1958
RALPH EMERSON TWITCHELL ( 1859-1925)
THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF NEW MEXICO; compiled
and chronologically arranged with historical, genealogical, geo­graphical,
and other annotations, by authority of the State of New
Mexico. Cedar Rapids, Torch Press. [1914] 2 vols.
These massi,-e volumes are a synopsis of the records which
during territorial days were transferred for reasons of safety'
to the Library of Congress._ Although the earliest records were
nearly all desn:oyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the re-accumu­lation
began twelve years later with the reconquest of northern
New Mexico by Vargas. They are a mine of information, worked
by historians, lav,ryers, politicians, and novelists.
RUTH MURRAY UNDERHILL ( 1884-
THE NAVAJOS. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.
[1956] 299 pp. $4·50.
The long and complex history of the \'icissitudes of The People,
beautifully told by a long time Indian Service ethnologist in
whose style jargon plays no part. Largest of all the Indian tribes,
the Navajos have had a history of abrupt transitions, from nomads
to farmers and pastoralists, raiders and wards-in-exile, to their
present status as owners of some of the country's richest uranium
deposits.
RUTH MURRAY UNDERHILL (1884-
SINGING FOR POWER; THE SONG MAGIC OF THE
PAPAGO INDIANS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. Berkeley,
University of California Press. [1938] 158 pp.
The Papagos are a gentle, poetic branch of the Aztec race,
known to themselves as the Bean People. They have ne\-er
warred with the whites, are given to soft speech and laughter,
and to expressing these emotions in songs. Miss Underhill has
gathered and translated these ceremonials in a little book of great
beauty, illustrated from drawings by Indian boys.
GASPAR PEREZ DE VILLAGRA (d. 1620)
HISTORY OF 'EW MEXICO; translated by Gilberto Espinosa;
introduction and notes by F. W. Hodge. Los Angeles, Quivira
Society. 119331 308 pp.
The first translation into English of the epic poem by a member
of Onate's expedition which destroyed the rocky pueblo of
Acoma. The high-flown rhetoric of the Spanish, first published
at Madrid in 1600, is rendered in prose translation, there are
intensive nores by Hodge, and the volume is illustrated from
modern photographs of Acoma. Time has smoothed the edges
of what was probably the most cruel and unjustified episode in
all the Spanish annals of cruelty and destruction.
EDWARD S. WALLACE ( 1897-
THE GREAT RECONNAISSA TCE; SOLDIERS, ARTISTS,
AND SCIENTISTS 0 THE FRONTIER, 1848-1861. Boston,
Little, Brown & Co. [1955] 288 pp. $5.00.
"This is the informal story of the men who explored, surveyed,
and mapped our new boundary with Mexico after 184.8,. and th~n
the huge area within it, before the outbreak of the Clvil War III
1861' and of those who blazed the trails for wagon roads and
railr~ads through this land to the Pacific Coast. Also, it tells
of the accompanying artists who sketched, painted, and photo­graphed
the Indians, the landmarks, and the scenery; and the
scientists who collected, classified, and meticulously illustrated
the flora and fauna in those vast regions." Author's preface.
FRANK WATERS (19°2-
THE COLORADO; illustrated by Nikolai Fechin, maps by
George Annand. New York, Rinehart and Company_ [1946]
400 pp. $4.00.
The "practical realists" of Western Americana, those cold­blooded,
narrow-eyed men who deal in points and pages and
would flatten literature onto the gridiron of longitude and lati­rude,
these bibliographical barbarians have objected to Novelist
Waters turning geographer-historian, in this book in the Rivers
of America series about the grtatest Southwestern river of them
all, the Rio Colorado, named by Garces who first descended to
its bed at Havasupai Falls.
What Waters sought was the myst