History Adventuring

When Sands Chevrolet put Goodyear tires on my car last year, I was pleased. No, I'm no expert on tires, but I do have a fascination with Phoenix history, and Goodyear has been very important. And it all started with cotton for tires. If you're a Phoenix history fan, you know that there were two communities centered around growing cotton for the Goodyear company, one south of Chandler and one in the west valley. The one in the west valley is still called Goodyear. 1918 Although cotton is nowadays mostly used for T-shirts, etc., there was a time when it was critical for the making of tires. And not just any cotton, long staple cotton. And when cars were becoming popular, they burned through a LOT of tires all of the time. And tires were very expensive, not only for the rubber they required, but for the special cotton that was necessary, that had to imported from the Middle East (Egyptian Cotton). And so the Goodyear company wanted to see if it could grow its own cot...

As a man, I haven't a clue about women's clothing. As near as I can tell, it's the most complex activity that humans do, and it seems to be a lot of work, and not really very comfortable most of the time. And while that doesn't exactly qualify me as an expert in women's clothing, it does make me feel a bit of sympathy when I look at photos of women in Territorial Phoenix. The photo above, which is from the 1890s, shows two typically-dressed women in Phoenix. They're on the grounds of the Territorial Insane Asylum (whether inmates or doctors I have no idea) at 24th Street and Van Buren and they seem to be weighed down with a lot of clothing. I have no idea what material their dresses are made of, but I just hope it's not summertime. I wish that I had more to say, but I really can't. What women were supposed to wear in Territorial Phoenix is as much of a mystery to me as what they are supposed to wear nowadays. So I'll just show you some picture...

If you're a history buff, like I am, and you look at old photos of Phoenix, Arizona, you know that one of the major features of the landscape was the canals. There are still a few canals left, such as Grand Canal and the Arizona Canal. But there was a time, only a few decades ago, when many of the old historic canals could still be seen. And by historic, I don't mean Hohokam, I mean those built by the pioneers in the 1870s and 80s. The good news is that the historic canals are still there. The bad news is that they're all covered up. But if you have a little bit of the detective in you, a Google satellite view, and some patience, you can find them. And the reason they are still there has to do with the difference between bringing water into the valley and taking it away. Phoenix pioneers like Jack Swilling dug canals to bring water from The Salt River into the valley in order to experiment with growing crops. It was a successful experiment! They named their new settl...

Pueblo Grande is all that is left of the remnants of the civilization that existed before the arrival of the Phoenix pioneers in the 1860s. It's Spanish for Big Town, but really the Big Town was all over the Phoenix area. It was a civilization that built gigantic canals, and huge buildings. And it had been deserted for hundreds of years by the time people like Jack Swilling arrived in the valley. The modern city of Phoenix grew right on top of it, and the modern canals, although much smaller, follow similar routes to those built by the People Who Had Gone - the Hohokams. 1929 Omar Turney map of the ancient canals. It must have been astonishing to see. In my imagination I can walk around the valley and see the gigantic empty canals, the crumbling remnants of adobe buildings. By the 1920s people like Omar Turney were scrambling to map it all, to photograph as much as they could, and to preserve a tiny bit, which is what the Pueblo Grande at 44th Street and Washington is. ...

If you're like most people, you like to get to your destination as quickly as possible. As much as people love their cars, they hate to be sitting in them in traffic jams, or going slow. They want to get where they need to go as quickly and efficiently as possible, and with the minimum of delay. It just makes sense. So take a look at the design of Phoenix streets. The main ones are wide and perfectly straight. They have multiple lanes in each direction, and a turn lane in the middle. They are designed to move traffic quickly. Now take a look at the neighborhood streets, and you will see something very different, and done by design. Most neighborhood streets, like mine in Glendale, curve and twist all over the place. In fact, when I went to look at this house, many years ago, I had difficulty finding it! And aside from the fact that streets that gently curve are more attractive, they also discourage traffic. No one in their right mind would cut through my neighborhood, thinki...

My fascination with elevators is kind of like my fascination with freeways. It puzzles people because they're taken for granted, and have been for a very long time. If most people think about them at all, it's with annoyance, that there's a delay. Since I worked in the tallest building in Phoenix for several years, I got to use elevators a lot. And they worked great. You pushed a button, stood there trying not to make eye contact with anyone, and in a few moments the doors opened and you were at your floor. But when I started to learn about the history of elevators, I was amazed. I found this article about men taking off their hats to women in 1909 and what caught my eye was that they were talking about elevators. Elevators in 1909? Yep, and taken for granted by then. Of course, back then they had to have someone inside of it all of the time, operating it. I often wondered about what kind of job that was? I'm sure that at the beginning it was an admired job, d...

Walk with me. Today we're at Steele Indian School Park, which is the former location of the Phoenix Indian School, between Central and 3rd Street on Indian School Road. I'm interested in Phoenix history, and to my amazement I have found very little written about this school. What I have found, for the most part, are racist comments and wild assumptions about it. And this makes me sad, as this place, and the people who attended this school, and taught there, deserve so much more. The school closed in 1990, almost 100 years after it was first established. The building in the photo above, Memorial Hall, was built in 1922 when this school was at its highest enrollment. The Steele Indian School Park now sits on an enormous piece of land not far from downtown Phoenix. The Memorial Hall in the 1940s. If you think that you already know everything about the Phoenix Indian School, this is a good place to start fresh. If your cup is already full with prejudice, there's n...

If you've ever sat in a gridlocked traffic jam in Phoenix, you may be wondering why Phoenix didn't build more freeways? For example, why isn't there an east-west freeway that would take you from the west side of Phoenix all the way to Scottsdale, say at about Camelback Road? And why isn't there a loop around Phoenix that would allow traffic from Los Angeles to Tucson to bypass the downtown area? I'm sure that you can think of more, especially if you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic, either on a freeway in Phoenix, or on one of the surface streets. If you're an old-timer, or a Phoenix history buff, you know that stopping freeway construction is something that the people of Phoenix have successfully been doing for over 50 years. I've been living in Phoenix for a long time now, and the most common thing I've heard about freeways is that it would make Phoenix like Los Angeles. That is, if freeways were built, it would make a lot more people move t...

If you're like me, you probably don't know much about the history of Indians in Arizona. You may have visited the Heard Museum, or gone to an Indian Casino, and maybe someone has tried to teach you the names that the tribes now prefer. And it all becomes a blur. And much of history gets lost that way, but really, in one way, it's better that way. But since I have been taking the time to learn about Phoenix history, I have discovered something that absolutely amazes me - the importance of the Pima Indians. And if you want to learn more, please journey along with me. But please step with caution. In the 1920 ad there, the Busy Drug Store, along with encouraging you to take your Kodak to them to have photos developed, has done a bit of editorializing. And to me, it's amazing to think that they are trying to remind people that what they may consider "savages" to have been an important ally of the pioneers of Phoenix (here using the offensive term "whit...

One thing that everyone seems to agree about is that the good old days of Phoenix were better. People were friendlier, there was less hate and violence, children were better behaved, that sort of thing. Depending on your age, it could be the '90s, the '80s, the '70s - heck, I know people who fondly remember the good old days of the 1940s. And if you're a history fan, like me, you may enjoy visiting the good old days of territorial Phoenix. I kinda like the 1890s myself. And what I have discovered that the good old days are anything you want them to be. I often think of future generations who will look back at today with fondness as the good old days. A simpler time, before, well, I don't know yet. Yeah, you can tell I love the good old days of Phoenix. And I really can't get enough of them - as I post them on the web. And yes, I love the good old days. But ultimately I am an optimist for the future - and I know that there will be more good old days to...

As a Graphic Design teacher, people often asked me where they could go to see great Graphic Design? When I suggested their local mall, many people were confused. Isn't that just where the stores are? And nowadays when I want to point out excellence of design, I tell people to look at the 303 freeway. As a frustrated architect (I couldn't do the math) I've always been fascinated with all types of buildings. And that includes the kind of structures that surround us, and we take for granted, airports, shopping malls, and even freeways. If this point of view is new to you, I suggest that you start by looking at great architecture from the past. No one seems to have any difficulty recognizing excellence of design if it's old enough. Maybe the Pyramids, or the Roman Coliseum. If I could time-travel, I'd go back and see great things being built. I'd go watch them build the Hoover Dam in 1933, I'd see the Grand Canal being dug through Phoenix in 1878. And s...

I used to love driving. Back when I lived in California, I would take my sports cars out onto twisty roads and it was pure joy. But lately I have come realize that that type of driving isn't the type of driving that most people do. The type of driving that most people do is commuting and errands. And while I have fond memories of driving, I really haven't done much commuting, or errands. And so when the subject of self-driving cars comes up, I realize that I am at a disadvantage to see how most people view driving. I'm ready for a self-driving car. I have no interest in holding onto a steering wheel for six hours to get to Los Angeles. I have no interest in driving a crowded street in Phoenix so I can go from one building to another. I have no interest in commuting, or errands. No, I don't want to hire a driver, anymore than I want to hire someone to post this to my blog. I want a computer. I was an early adaptor to personal computers in the 1980s, and I remember...

If you've lived in the Phoenix area in the last forty years or so, you have heard of the Central Arizona Project (CAP). That's the aqueduct that brings water from the Colorado River to Arizona, including Phoenix, and Tucson. And if you're a history buff, you know that the water of the Colorado River is shared between Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and California because of the Hoover Dam, which was built in 1933. And so, a lot of people in Phoenix are under the impression that the city gets its water from there. In fact, I've even read books that claim that the water for Phoenix comes from "hundreds of miles away". And yes, some of it does come from CAP, which began in 1968 and was completed in 1994. But Phoenix has been around since 1870. And, speaking for myself, I lived in Phoenix before the completion of the Central Arizona Project, way back in the 1980s. And the water then, as now, mostly comes from the Salt River. The Salt River supplied water to th...

When I was going to ASU, I remember that most people made arrangements to travel away from Tempe during the breaks. When I told people that I lived in Tempe, and wasn't going away, most people just gave me a sad look. And I gave them a sad look, too. Because I was going to get a chance to enjoy one of the most incredible cities in the world, Phoenix, Arizona, and they were just going away. Don't get me wrong, I did go back home for Christmas once to Minneapolis. And the only thing that it reminded me of is the reason why I moved to Phoenix. And after that, I swore that whenever I had a chance, I would go exploring in my own backyard, which was Phoenix. I still feel this way. I know a lot of people who get up every morning, stare at the taillights of the cars in front of them, look at freeway exit signs, do a job, and then go home and watch TV. And when they get some time off, they spend time in airports, or driving on a freeway, maybe going to another state, or city. And...

Every once in a while, someone wonders if they can get some of the Indian Casino money they hear about. They may say "look at my cheekbones!", or "I have a photo of my great-grandparents, and they look they might be Indian!" But that's race, not tribe. In order to prove that you are a descendant of a particular Indian tribe, you need documentation. This is not race. Race is a nonsense concept. Trying to categorize people into various races based on skin color, or the shape of their heads, or whatever, has been attempted for hundreds of years, and it has failed. Of course, just because something doesn't exist, doesn't mean people don't believe it exists, especially if it fulfills some type of need in their life, especially financial. And that brings me to tribalism. And this is where people often confuse race with tribe. Unlike race, a tribe is not a nonsense concept. It's cultural, like being a citizen of a state, or a city, but it's a...

Although this photo of the football team at the Tempe Normal School (now Arizona State University) is obviously posed, especially showing the year on the football, the guys are wearing their full uniforms as they would wear during a game. The main difference during a game, of course, is that they would be covered with mud. The N on their jerseys stood for "Normal", and although it sounds kind of goofy now, was what a school that taught teaching "norms" was called back then. Yes, it was a teacher's college. Support Arizona history by becoming a patron on Patreon Click here to become a Patron! History Adventuring blog posts are shared there daily, also there's "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, and super high-resolution photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona As you can see, there wasn't much shoulder padding although there was a bit for your thighs. And the helmets, while they may look plastic in the photo, were leather. Plast...

Personally, I like Grand Avenue, but I recommend that people avoid it. It runs at a 45-degree angle starting at 7th Avenue and continuing up through Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, etc. If you're used to driving the square grid of Phoenix, as most people are, Grand Avenue can be very disorienting. When I recommended to my parents many years ago to avoid Grand Avenue, I was told not to treat them "like old fools". After they got all turned around on Grand Avenue, they later told me that it had been good advice. If you're a Phoenix old-timer, you remember the lights on Grand Avenue that took a loooooong time to change. I used to have cars that tended to overheat at idle, so I stayed away from those lights! Nowadays it's still a good idea to avoid crossing Grand Avenue, unless there is a bridge, as the lights can still be long, and you run the risk of having to wait for a train (the train tracks parallel Grand Avenue). Map of entrance and exit to Grand Avenue...

I love living in Phoenix, and I really enjoy seeing images of Phoenix Birds. They're the legendary birds of ancient mythology that rise up out of their own ashes, and are usually portrayed rising up out of fire. One of my favorite things to see is Phoenix Birds in stained glass in churches. The first time I saw one was when I got to see the Bethel Methodist Church, at 7th Street and Osborn, as it was being converted into Taco Guild. Most of the stained glass was preserved, including the Phoenix Bird pictured above. Yeah, it kind'a looks like a chicken, but it's a Phoenix Bird - look at the flames below it. I saw another Phoenix Bird at a local church here in Glendale last weekend, so I need to go back and take a photo. Phoenix Bird at Town and Country Shopping Center. The most famous images of Phoenix Birds were created by Paul Coze. There's one in Terminal 2 of Sky Harbor, and there's also one at the entrance to Town and Country Shopping Center on Camel...

When my family visited the Salt Lake City LDS visitors center, when I was 12 years old, I was absolutely blown away by the paintings that I saw there. When we came back to Minneapolis, one of my neighbors was kind enough to give me a Book of Mormon, but no one could explain to me who the people in the pictures were. When I would ask someone about The Book of Mormon, if they spoke to me at all, they talked about Joseph Smith. But I wanted to know who these heroic figures were. I've been working on this all of my life, and have made small progress. This is what I know - The old man in the picture is the King of the Nephites, Mormon. At his side is his son Moroni. What you see in the distance are vultures circling, indicating the terrible slaughter that their army, and the army of the Lamanites, suffered. This war destroyed both civilizations, and there were just a handful of survivors after it. Next to Mormon are The Golden Tablets, which were the written history of his people, ...

Contrary to popular belief, Phoenix, Arizona has a lot of water. Yes, the valley is a desert, but it's along the course of an enormous amount of water that has rushed down for the past ten thousand years along the course of the Salt River, whose source begins in one of the largest watersheds on planet earth, the uplifted area northeast of Phoenix. Of course if you walk around Phoenix, all you see a desert. If you were to walk around Phoenix 100 years ago, you would have seen a LOT of desert. Dirt, cactus, tumbleweeds. And all of the engineers in the world could have pointed to the technology of the series of dams along the Salt River, including Roosevelt Dam, without making much of an impression on people who were thinking of investing in the Salt River Valley. They wanted to see if things really could grow there. And just like Southern California, it started with trees, especially palm trees. Support Arizona history by becoming a patron on Patreon Click here to become a P...

I often hear people talk about how idyllic the Phoenix, Arizona area must have been before the arrival of people. Apparently rivers flowed, deer and antelope played, everything was lush, etc. But it's not true, sorry. Before the arrival of people (and yes, that includes native people) it was just a raw desert. If you want to see what Phoenix looked like hundreds of years ago, just drive out into the desert today. That's it. All rivers, including the Salt River, were typical riparian washes that ran hard after a rain or a snow melt up north, and then dried up. The area was brutally hot, as it is today. People didn't turn this area into a desert, it already was. People turned it into an oasis. The Hohokam people at Pueblo Grande. The view is looking southeast towards where Tempe is now, and South Mountain. When people came to the Salt River Valley (yes, including native people), they dug canals. When the water flowed, they directed it towards areas where they could ...

I'm interested in the history of Phoenix, and I collect old photos, and I always wonder "why do people live there?" I'm writing this in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, in the summer, and it will be another day that will be hot enough to fry and egg on the sidewalk. I mean, really, who would live in a place like that? And since over 4 million people call the Phoenix metro area home, and Phoenix itself has been around since 1870, I get a lot of answers. Don't get me wrong. I love Phoenix. I hope that I can live here until they carry my old bones away. And since I've made arrangements to donate my carcass when I'm done with it to the University of Arizona Medical School, which is in downtown Phoenix, I'm hoping to be able to stay in my favorite city for as long as I can! My category, which is fairly large, is someone who escaped the snow and cold of Minnesota. I also fit into another category, as I lived in Southern California for many years, and I ...

If you're a Phoenix old-timer, you know what the suicide lanes are. They are lanes in the middle of major streets that allow travel in any direction in order to make a left turn from the street that you are traveling on. Used correctly, they are very good for traffic flow, as traffic doesn't need to stop if someone is making a left turn. Unfortunately, they get their name for a reason. If you've driven much around Phoenix, you may be under the impression that these lanes are designed to allow drivers to drive in them, usually with their right turn signal on, waiting to merge into traffic. They aren't. And so a lane that was designed to be used safely becomes extremely dangerous when a driver is going in a particular direction, looking over their shoulder backwards, in a lane that allows traffic in either direction. So don't do that. By the way, just driving along in a lane like this with your right turn signal on, waiting to merge, can get you a nasty ticket. ...

It's July 14th as I write this, in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, and there's only one word for the awful heat here right now - unbearable. And yet people do bear it. I've been doing it for over twenty years now. Of course, I've had it easy. I've had air conditioning. My interest in Phoenix history always makes me wonder how it was for the pioneers. And in spite of the people who insist that "it wasn't so hot back in the day", it was. Long before freeways, and asphalt, and swimming pools, it was the Sonoran Desert, which has been a very hot desert since the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. So, whenever I think about the people who lived there before the invention of air conditioning, from Indians to pioneers, I cringe a little. My favorite description of it in the 1870s is from Phoenix pioneer George Loring, who wrote this in a letter back home: “If a man can get up at three o'clock and sits perfectly still in some open spot ...

If you like old books and maps, printed before World War II, you have seen the swastika. It goes by many names, but, well, it's a swastika. And although I consider myself a pretty good time-traveler, and I know that it didn't have its evil meaning before it was used by the Nazis, it's still pretty shocking to see. It's an ancient good luck symbol that has been used for centuries by many cultures, but once it became associated with the Nazis, it was forever tainted. If you know your history of World War II, and the Nazis, and the horror they created, you understand. If you don't, then it's time that you learned. And just to clarify, no, it's not not a conspiracy if you see a swastika on something that was created before World War II. Before the Nazis, it had no evil connotations, but after the Nazis, it did. So I will not post images of swastikas, nor will I defend its use. No amount of time-traveling can remove its stain, and horror. Image above: ...

When Arizona Senator and resident of Paradise Valley, Barry Goldwater, lost the Presidential election to Lyndon Johnson in 1964, he found himself with more time on his hands than he had expected. So he got together a group of his friends and neighbors and created a group to petition to make further development on Camelback Mountain, above a certain line, illegal. And they did it, in 1965. By the 1960s, houses were being built up higher and higher on the mountain, with no end in sight. The image above, from a 1956 postcard, is the Camelback Mountain that Barry and his friends wanted to see. And while the city has grown all around the mountain, it didn't grow on top of it. Thanks, Barry! History Adventuring on Patreon Click here to become a Patron!

If you're puzzled if Arizona has gone from being a Republican state to a Democratic state, you just have to step back and look at a concept called "Progressivism". Arizona has always been progressive, and it still is. Nothing has changed except the two parties. And the best place to follow that change is with two presidents named Roosevelt. In 1901, when Theodore Roosevelt became President, he was very progressive. To many, excessively so. To him, the Federal Government had a responsibility to wield the type of great power that had been established by another former Republican President, Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt signed into law sweeping changes to land reclamation, he created National Parks. In fact, he was so power-mad that he upset a lot of Democrats, who pushed back hard against his Federal Policies. But he didn't care, he had a vision for the country that went beyond the conservative attitude of those who didn't agree with him. He wanted change. In Ariz...