June 1939
Boulder Dam and Lake Mead
In your April issue, we were particularly interested in the article Sailing on Lake Mead. It seems that a little piece on the Boulder Dam recreational area, featuring Lake Mead’s booming attraction for sailors, has a place in one of your summer issues. We must add that your magazine is one of the most unique publications we have seen in a long time. After reading several copies of it, one cannot help but become decidedly Arizona minded. There can be no doubt about its effectiveness in publicizing your state’s scenic and cultural attractions.
David V. Cleary,
The Buick Magazine,
Detroit, Michigan
July 1939
Buckey O’Neill
I received the package of Arizona Highways for May, containing the article about my late husband, Buckey O’Neill. It was so thoughtful of you to remember me, and I wish to thank you for your kindness. Your books are beautiful and so interesting, especially to us “old timers.” How far and how wonderful Arizona has gone since I first lived there. Here is a wish that the state may continue to prosper.
Pauline M. O’Neill,
Hollywood, California
December 1939
Gentleman of the Fourth Estate
I have noticed several copies of your excellent little magazine around our office here, and would like to have a regular copy for myself. Enroll me as a subscriber for a year and send along your bill. Hope you can start me off with the October issue; have seen the September copy.
Jerome Parker,
The New York Times,
New York, New York
March 1940
His Royal Highness Is Pleased
His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince of Norway, has ordered me to thank you most sincerely for your kindness in sending him Arizona Highways magazine, which His Royal Highness has been very interested to read. I am further desired to thank you for your kind greetings and to convey to you His Royal Highness’ best wishes for a Happy New Year.
N.R. Ostgaard,
Adjutant to His Royal Highness,
the Crown Prince of Norway,
Oslo, Norway
September 1940
Reception in Hollywood
Emily Barrye tells me that it is to you that I am indebted for the beautiful Indian number of your magazine, which reached me a day or two ago. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with it nor how much I appreciate your sending me a copy. Although we are fortunate enough to own the Curtis set on the North American Indian, we are constantly in need of more material.
Helen Gladys Percey,
Head of Research Department,
Paramount Pictures Inc.,
Hollywood, California
October 1940
When Mr. Cobb Writes an Article
I just want to congratulate you on that peach of an article by Irvin S. Cobb in the July issue about Rainbow Bridge National Monument. The story is both human and inspiring, and the most delightful presentation of the subject it has ever been my privilege to read. Pictures, too, are excellent, though we have learned always to expect that of Arizona Highways. We were always proud of Rainbow Bridge National Monument; now that we have seen your July issue, we are practically bursting with pride.
Hugh M. Miller, Superintendent,
National Park Service,
Coolidge, Arizona
January 1941
The December Issue
I just want to add my congratulations to the hundreds of others I know you will receive for your beautiful Christmas number. I think you have set a new high not only for the Southwest, but for the entire United States. It is a beautiful book, reflecting credit to you and your staff and the printers.
Randall Henderson, Editor,
The Desert Magazine,
El Centro, California
March 1941
An Odyssey of the Green and Colorado
I have received the twenty-five copies of the January issue of Arizona Highways, with mailing folders. It was very kind of you to send these and I thank you very much. They will be used to a good advantage, and those receiving them from me will be the type of persons most likely to follow through into Arizona. It amazes me how large a coverage or circulation you have. I have received letters from all over the United States commenting on the excellent story and pictures on the river trip. You have a mighty fine magazine and really worthwhile.
Norman D. Nevills,
Mexican Hat Lodge,
Bluff, Utah
June 1941
We’ll Try to Keep It Up
I just want to add my humble words of thanks and praise for your splendid Arizona Highways magazine. Each month for nearly a year, it has been a most welcome visitor. You brew a strong and overpowering medicine. Just one sip from the first issue and a new reader becomes permanently intoxicated by the beauty, the charm and the glamour of Arizona. Your standard is so high that it’s a mystery how you can keep it up month after month. I fully realize how much work it means. You can rest assured, though, that the friends Arizona Highways wins and holds more than compensate for all the effort expended in its preparation.
James P. McClosky,
Editor, Enthusiast,
Harley-Davidson Motor Co.,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
July 1941
Ammunition for Monument Valley
The May issue of Arizona Highways with the Monument Valley story is proving to be a dead shot. Everyone so far I have sent a copy to has written back for reservations and has chosen the Arizona route in. It is certainly a choice piece of ammunition to fire at a prospect. Numerous parties arriving say the May issue of the magazine led them out here. Thanks to a real combination: our friends, Joyce Muench, for her rounding up the right bunch of words and putting them together so as to pack the real feeling you enjoy when you visit this magnificent valley, Josef Muench and Jack Breed, for drawing a bead on and hitting some mighty choice bull’s-eyes that are hidden about Monument Valley for those who like to shoot a camera.
Harry Goulding,
Monument Valley, Utah
October 1941
Note From GM
Our efforts to present Arizona to many of the executives of General Motors Corporation as an unexcelled location for a proving ground for continuous twelve-month automobile testing have been immeasurably helped by your splendid magazine. Through the medium of its splendid articles and illustrations, these men have a more thorough knowledge of the state and its advantages of fine highways, unexcelled climate and excellent facilities of transportation and accommodations than could have been obtained in any other way. It has also been the means of bringing many of these men and their families to Arizona to enjoy its advantages as a vacation wonderland. We congratulate the Executive of the State, the State Highway Commission, and you and your staff for making this very excellent magazine available. In no way could the natural and man-made wonders of Arizona be more effectively publicized.
H.H. Barnes, Manager,
General Motors Sales Corporation,
Phoenix, Arizona
December 1941
The Park Service
We in the National Park Service appreciate the space you devote time and again in your magazine in bringing the areas under our administration to the attention of the public. Arizona’s many and diversified attractions could not hope for better interpretation than through Arizona Highways.
Newton B. Drury, Director,
National Park Service,
Washington, D.C.
October 1942
Ten Dollars’ Worth
Today I received a notice that my subscription to Arizona Highways was about to expire, and so, I am enclosing a check for ten dollars for which please advance my subscription to August, 1952. Perhaps you, as editor, and perhaps the commissioners, as such, would like to know why I like Arizona Highways as it has been the last few years I have known it. Most of all, I like it because it has kept its grand pictures of the State. Also, I like it because it has used its pages to advertise the State and not the various business houses in the State, realizing fully, of course, that advertisements help cut the cost of publication considerably. I like it, too, because the editor’s own writings tend to be more poetic than “newspaperistic.” Also, while Arizona Highways is a “roads” paper, it is not a “concrete roads” paper and does not forget the byways in the rush of the highways. I like Arizona Highways because it doesn’t have a section for poets, although I dabble in the art myself. I like it, too, because it does not have a book review section. I like it, too, because it keeps the present war “copy” to a minimum, realizing, I hope, that great “Arizona” will be around here a long, long time after all this is over. If that isn’t your idea of ten dollars’ worth of reasons, I can think up some more. Thanks for a grand little magazine and a prayer for its long continuance.
Gaston Burridge,
Downey, California
November 1942
Viva Mexico
It seems to me you have done a remarkably fine job in your September issue on the beauties of Mexico. It is so good I am passing it on to a friend of mine in the Mexican Embassy.
H.A. Wallace,
Vice President of the United States,
Washington, D.C.
June 1946
Map Suggestion
Knowing my love of your desert, a friend has sent me a copy of your beautiful publication. I noted that you welcome suggestions, so would make this comment: The inclusion of a small map would be of great help and interest to readers. This may be as detailed as the compilers think fit, but main physical features and chief towns might be indicated; also, the location of places mentioned in the current text and pictures.
Miss M.L. Benson,
Gordon, New South Wales, Australia
October 1946
Letter From Shine
I have seen the August issue of the magazine and wish to thank you for your contribution to our cause. Of course I appreciate Toney’s article about me and your editorial, but most of all the whole issue is a great boost to our Navajos. If I had tried to put out something that would be a presentation of the Navajo to the best advantage I could not have imagined anything so good as your August publication for our movement. After reading it one has the feeling that nothing is too small to be of importance for these worthy people. So I am under great obligation to you and your staff. Very fine is your tribute to the Navajos who took part in the war, and I heartily concur with you in your opinions and congratulate you on your grasp of this important angle of a new Navajo destined to take a vital place in American life.
Shine Smith,
Among the Navajos
November 1946
The Works of Ansel Adams
As a former member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club of California, I have been extremely interested for many years in the work of Ansel Adams, who has recently contributed to your journal. It seemed to me that Mr. Adams has done such a remarkably fine piece of work in his photography of the desert country that I got into the habit of opening the magazine first to the middle in hopes of seeing another picture by Ansel Adams. I am writing this letter because of the fact that I missed this photograph in the last edition and in hopes that I may lend my voice to the many you must have heard requesting that you continue, if possible, to publish work by Ansel Adams, since I think he has made a very real contribution to the color photography of the Arizona country.
Dr. Harold E. Crowe,
Los Angeles, California
January 1949
Greetings, Namesake
Just after I sent you a note congratulating you on the Christmas number, Mrs. Isabelle Begay, your Navajo Madonna on the cover of the Christmas issue, gave birth to a bouncing boy at Sage Memorial Hospital. His name? Raymond Carlson Begay!
Dr. Clarence Salsbury,
Ganado Mission,
Ganado, Arizona
January 1949
Dam: Boulder or Hoover?
As one who has been a subscriber to your magazine for many years, I wish to make a strenuous objection to your labeling the cover on your November issue as “Boulder (Hoover) Dam.” The dam is named Hoover Dam by our Congress, and the name Boulder does not belong to it; and the sooner it is forgotten, the better. I believe in calling things by their right names.
Mrs. George Stephen,
La Jolla, California
* Boulder or Hoover? That is the question. Congress has decreed the name should be “Hoover,” but the Arizona State Legislature has not changed the name from “Boulder.” Changing place names in Arizona is a violation of the law, and until our Legislature sees fit to change the name, your humble editor must string along. For the time being we’ll use both names. We predict the next Congress will change the name again. It seems the Democrats or something like that will be back in the saddle again.
July 1949
Slides
Is it possible to purchase Kodachrome slide pictures of cactus flowers, birds, trees, scenery or other attractive things found in Arizona, similar to the pictures which appear in your magazine? I took some on a recent trip to your state, but wish now that I had taken many more, and would appreciate knowing if there might be any for sale, which could be used on a projector for 828 film.
Mrs. Walter C. Flower,
Maplewood, New Jersey
November 1949
Swiss Alps
Imagine, your magazine comes all the way to the Swiss Alps, and you should see the family almost fighting over it: Who’s going to read it first? The articles about your ranches, the Herefords, the Brahmans … are read with the greatest interest, and even if conditions here on our small farm are absolutely different, there is always something we can learn. Thank you for a colorful and wonderful magazine.
Marie Louise Luscher,
Zurich, Switzerland
May 1950
Letter From Africa
I thank you from my heart for the gift of Arizona Highways! It has charm for us to see a country so different from ours, which is only flowers and forests. I never tire of examining again its illustrations so admirably made and wondering about this country that I shall never see in reality but only in imagination!
Dr. Albert Schweitzer,
French Equatorial Africa
June 1951
Saga of Uncle Jim
J.T. (“Uncle Jim”) Owens was an animal hunter in the Yellowstone Park when the ravages of cougars required his services on the Kaibab or “Buckskin” plateau. En route he stopped at Ogden, Utah, where I was disbursing clerk for the Forest Service, and for years we were good friends. He had several good hunting dogs, among them “Old Pot,” wisest of them all, and the favorite of Uncle Jim. He gained his name from his slightly drooping stomach, induced by over-eating in his later years. But he bore the reputation of the most sagacious of all lion-hunting dogs, and he did not waste time on the trail of anything but a lion, for his keen scent immediately told him the difference; and he also knew which direction the lion had been traveling. Care was taken to kill a tree lion at first shot, lest, attacked by the valuable dogs, the dogs might be hurt in a fight. Theodore Roosevelt did well in choosing, for his lion hunting, both the Kaibab and “Uncle Jim” as guide, and a great interest was taken in his visit. He enjoyed a short dinner nap, and to afford him both shade and privacy, a small tent was pitched. But “Old Pot,” accustomed to being pampered, took possession and objected to being dislodged. “Leave him alone,” said the Ex-President, who loved a good dog, “there is room for us both.” And during the rest of the hunt, Teddy Roosevelt and “Old Pot,” who enjoyed the distinction, shared the cool shade in the tent.
Quincy R. Craft,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
In your March number you publish a letter from Mr. Nicholas Roosevelt about T.R.’s visit to Kaibab Forest and about the buffalo there. With one exception, I believe it to be a correct statement of the facts of the case. Some of these facts I know of my own knowledge and the rest from long association with Owens and his cougar hunting helpers. The exception is the statement that Zane Grey’s book, The Last of the Plainsmen, is not fiction. It is largely fiction as to its so-called facts and is wholly fiction in its conclusions about the importance of the performances of “Buffalo Jones.” The latter was considered a wind-bag in the Kaibab. Grey dressed him up for revenue only. I can tell you a lot about Jones.
Thomas H. McKee,
Alhambra, California
September 1951
Pics in Kitchen
Last spring we enlarged our kitchen and made it into a kitchen and dining room. We think that you might be interested in the use that we have made of the beautiful single and double colored pictures from the magazine, so we are enclosing two snapshots to show you. The pictures are placed in the soffits which hide the roller shades and are simply fastened to glass with scotch tape and are spaced by strips of black formica. The grooves which hold the glass are so made that the glass may be raised enough to be taken out so that we can make changes as more beautiful pictures arrive.
Mr. and Mrs. T.C. Lloyd-Jones,
Modesto, California
February 1952
Batman
In your most excellent coverage of Sedona and the Oak Creek country appearing in your November issue, the Peplows have made an error in referring to me as the creator of the comic strip feature Batman. An error, that is, if the interpretation of “creator” is taken to signify that I originated the strip. Bob Kane did that, and all credit for the invention of Batman and Robin belongs to him. His signature still appears on all Batman releases. However, for the past twelve years I have produced the major portion of the strip’s artwork and am still doing so for the strip’s publishers, National Comics Publications, Inc., of New York. Only in respect to its present-day production could I be called the strip’s creator.
Dick Sprang,
Sedona, Arizona
April 1959
Reception in England
I have received, with the complements
of Victor G. Reuther, a copy of your magazine, Arizona Highways, and I think I must write you this note of admiration of your splendid publication. Here, at the Institute of Directors, we tend to fancy our knowledge of publishing and printing, but there is nothing produced in this country to compare with your publication. Do you think we might be allowed to become regular subscribers? If so, your magazine would be displayed here in the public rooms of the Institute of Directors and would be seen by at least 150 top-level British executives who come in here every day.
Sir Richard Powell,
Director-General,
Institute of Directors,
London, England
August 1959
Sedona Art Center
The articles in your May issue were wonderfully written and the entire magazine was as beautiful as could be. The only sour note was that someone inadvertently mis-wrote the author’s name for the article A Bell for Sedona. The name should have been Ray Glade or R.J. Glade, but the magazine has it printed as R.J. Slade. I wish that you would print a correction so that my friend, Ray, could get public recognition. This has already been done over radio station KCLS in Flagstaff by transcription. You have a most beautiful magazine, but errors are possible.
Ellsworth Schnebly,
Sedona, Arizona
November 1965
Ross Santee
I was shocked and saddened to read of the death of Ross Santee. I have long been an admirer of his work, although I was not aware that he was a writer as well as an artist. All I have ever seen were his sketches, which “spoke” so much of the people and the country.
Mrs. M. Jean Strong,
Santa Cruz, California
November 1966
Letter From the Chief
I have been traveling a good deal lately and am just now catching up on some back reading. One of the most impressive things I have picked up is your April 1966 coverage of the Mogollon Rim. Because we have not commented recently on the many beautiful photographs of forest scenery, I hope you do not think that we may be taking your wonderful magazine too much for granted. In any case, this issue has stimulated me to send my heartiest congratulations for a most impressive and accurate feature article. I know I speak for many Forest Service people in saying that we appreciate and enjoy the excellent articles and superb photography that have long distinguished Arizona Highways. Although most of your “fan mail” may relate to your use of photography, I want you to know that the factual, informative substance of the magazine is also much appreciated and a pleasure to read. Best wishes for continued success!
Edward P. Cliff, Chief,
U.S. Forest Service,
Washington, D.C.