EDITOR'S LETTER

I wasn't sure what my grandmother was thinking as we cruised through the billowing terrain of Southeastern Arizona. Her poker face had been stymying me since the fourth grade, when she taught me how to play five-card draw. I remember her humming along to the songs of Harvest Moon — “Somewhere on a desert highway...” — but she wasn't saying much.

Although she had the focus of all great poker players, my grandmother was one of those people who wouldn't notice a Nubian ibex sitting on her davenport. The rhyolite hoodoos, though... she didn't miss those. “Oh, boy!” she whispered when she caught her first glimpse. And then came the tears. She couldn't stop them. Water flows downhill. By that time, my grandmother was well into her 80s, and I'd already taken her to the Grand Canyon, Cathedral Rock and Saguaro National Park. But the Chiricahuas affected her on a higher level. It was more divine. As if for the first time in her life she had some sense of what the promised land might be like.

Chiricahua National Monument was established on April 18, 1924, exactly one year before this magazine premiered. In our sixth issue, in September 1925, we published a story about the newest National Park Service site. It was titled In the Valley of Graven Images. Ninety-six years later, a Senate bill is pending that would reclassify the monument as our nation's 64th national park. The bill, S. 1320, was introduced by Senator Mark Kelly and co-sponsored by Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

“Protecting Arizona's public lands and national parks strengthens our tourism and outdoor recreation industry,” Ms. Sinema says, “boosting opportunities for Arizonans and creating good-paying jobs.” There's precedent for that. Late last year, the New River Gorge in West Virgina was elevated from a national river to a national park, and visitation is expected to increase by at least 20 percent this year. The same thing would likely happen at Chiricahua, which is one of the least-visited parks in Arizona. But it's always been quiet there.

“Although this great pinnacle forest has been more or less known for years... only within the last eighteen months have they been receiving the attention they deserve,” A.H. Gardner wrote in 1925. Mr. Gardner described how a miner named John Hand had accompanied a Mr. and Mrs. Welch into “The Pinnacles” in 1911: “They left a paper, with their names and date. This paper was placed in a salmon tin, and a monument of rocks was erected as its home. The monument was erected at what is now called Inspiration Point. At that time the party felt sure that someday this would be a mecca for sightseers, and the tangible evidence was left so that in after years there would be proof of this visit.” Inspiration Point is a landmark at the end of a trail that begins at Massai Point, which is where I took my grandmother on that indelible autumn day. On our way out of the park, she asked if I'd buy her a poster of Chiricahua National Monument. It's still hanging in my mother's guest room. And if S. 1320 makes its way through Congress, it'll become a collectors item. I think my grandmother would be happy about that.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

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