Archive All Issues June 2021

THE SUMMER OF '71

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Five decades ago, the editors of this magazine did the same thing we''re doing this month: They dedicated an issue to the White Mountains. Although many things remain the same, the photographs from 50 years ago evoke a simpler time. A time when being off the grid wasn''t a conscious endeavor. It was just something you did.

Featured in the June 2021 Issue of Arizona Highways

Amid ponderosa pines and other evergreens, anglers try their luck in the North Fork of the White River. This fork begins near the Mogollon Rim and meets the river's East Fork near the community of Fort Apache.
Amid ponderosa pines and other evergreens, anglers try their luck in the North Fork of the White River. This fork begins near the Mogollon Rim and meets the river's East Fork near the community of Fort Apache.

"With summer coming on," Editor Raymond Carlson wrote in our May 1971 issue, "the mountains offer the most tantalizing invitation. The noted places and the hidden byways we've dreamed about all winter begin to stir the gypsy urge to get away from tensions, pressures and the unending challenges of everyday realities. Our road to peace, serenity and good fishing leads us to the cool White Mountains.

"The White Mountains of Arizona are gentle mountains. They rise through gentle morning mists, and pull the sun down behind them in the rich rosy red glow of the day's last light. The gentle slopes and flat cienegas are resplendent with grass, ferns,flowers and beautiful weeds. Soft winds blow through the forests, intoxicating the senses with the scents of pine, juniper and earth-born spores breaking the sylvan carpet of last year's fallen leaves.

Clockwise from right: A boy casts his line in the Black River, a key White Mountains waterway. JOSEF MUENCH "All this and heaven itself is not enough to draw most men into the mountains, especially those who need a challenge, a purpose, a reason. And so God, our Federal and State agencies and the Apache Tribal Enterprises have provided fish, game and campsites beside quiet lakes and lively streams where men who have to have a reason to go to the mountains can enjoy the good life. The beautiful word everywhere is 'Hon Dah.' It means, 'Walk in, you are welcome.'"