The border vidette., 1927-05-21
APACHE TRAlL-SEE ARIZONA
FIRST
(Southern California Business)

NO S6CIlOQ Ol t10 WOrlU Is
richer in scenic wonder than the
Southwest. California for de.
cades has been a mecca for tour.
lists anxious to see its famed
attractions, and in recent years
Arizona has followed close be
bind as its variety of scenery
and climate, of romance and in.
dustry. has been advertised by
enthusiastic visitors. The Grand
Canyon and Painted Desert, the
old missions and colorful border,
are but a part of the majestic
beauty and rich associations it
holds-and among them the
Apache Trail looms large on the
strangers horizon.
Scenic highways literally
bound in the West, but for com
bination of all types of pictur
esqueness the Apache Trail is
unsurpassed. II the short dis
tance of 100 miles, in the short
space OF four or five hours if
one must drive that fast, it pre-
sents cross section of : almost
all the different kinds of natural
beauty that may be found in the
Southwest. Great copper mines,
plateaus rich in vegetation
where cattle Craze; purple noun
tains on whose sides the tall
saguaro and slender ocotilla
bourish; unexpected lakes of
limpid blue behind huge dams
of masonry as solid as the en-
circIing bills: towering cliffs
painted fantastically in all the
shades of red and brown and
green and grey; cliff dwellings
where a strange Civilization van
ished a thousand years ago; far
flung vistas of so called desert,
thicyly grown and alive with
flowers after every rain; and
last, a level valley of rich green
fields and fragrant groves. make
it succession of panorams that
Ioverwhelm with it's kaleidoscope
of splendor.
The Apache Trail is more than
Central Arizoua's greatest scenic
attraction-the word central
in this case applying to the
south-central portion of the
state as it appears on the map.
It is link in the book of "A
Thousand Miles of a Thousand
Wonders" that has been devised
to carry the motor tourist thru
the best known scenic regions OF
the state on excellent highways,
without passing through any
section twice. It connects with
the highways that tap every
other region. It is a widely ad
vertised optional route on the
Southern Pacific between the
East and the Pacific Coast. 1t
is more than scenic, for it illus
trates three major industries of
Arizona, mining, livestock and
agriculture. It appeals to the
Imagination as we'll as to the
eye, for it follows one of the ia
vorite routes of the Apaches in
their descents upon other tribes,
and later on the whites, and
traverses two of the centers of a
mysterious rice that antedated
even Indian legends.
Geographically, the Apache
Trail extends from Phoenix to
Roosevelt Dam, and from there
to Globe. Each season thous
ands of transcontinental rail
travellers pass over it in comfort
ia the modern motor coaches
that long since supplanted the
buck board and wagon train of
the early days. More thousands
take it in their own automobiles,
and it is not at all uncommon for
a party to drive from Phoenix
over the trail to Globe, and re
turn by way of the scenic Miami.
Superior highway, in a days
easy driving. Two hundred
miles, most of it in mountains,-
but how many stop to think that
it would have taken two weeks
a quarter of century ago?
Leaving Phoenix, the Trail
bound tourist takes the main
highway East and passes through
the heart of the Salt River Val
ley with it's fields of cotton and
alfalfa, lettuce and cantaloupes,
and its groves of oranges and
grapefruit. The college town of
Tempe and the city of Mesa with
it's magnificent Mormon Temple
are left behind. The vercant
valley gives way to desert"
that is not desert at all, but a
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