Guest Author - Debra Conrad

Have you ever found a book that you couldn't stop telling people about? I found so much information in this one little Arizona Guidebook that I find myself sharing it with all my friends...and we live in Arizona!

Arizona is a very interesting place, lots of beautiful scenic views and interesting history. This guidebook to the natural and human history of Arizona's highways is just what you need to find this information.

As you drive on these well traveled byways, you will learn about plant life and animal life along the way. You will also get some history into the people who added to the history of this great state.

This Arizona guidebook is intended for a two person trip. One reads the guide and narrates the trip for the driver. This guide features eight driving tours, and they all start in Phoenix, Arizona. Each tour description contains a series of geological aerial photos with numbered mileposts referenced. Points of interest are marked on the maps with a code that indicates the page of the description in the guide.

Some of the interesting information I found:

• #38 Since 1859, the rapid progress in transportation has changed the function of this place. When the name of this location was Antelope Hills, it was a stagecoach stop. After the arrival of the railroad, it became Tacna, the site of a railroad siding. After the name Tacna was given to another location, this highway stop became Noah, after Max Noah. Highway travelers of the 1920s might have stopped here to visit with Max under a shady tree while he pumped gas from a barrel.

• #28 Notice the floodplain of the heavily cultivated Gila River in the aerial photo. Contrast the dark rectangles of farmland to the natural terrain. Crops of the Wellton-Mohawk District include alfalfa for dairy animals, cotton, Bermuda grass seed, melons and lettuce.

• #25.5 The Muggins Mountains are seen three miles to the right. A prospector named them after his companion and confidant, a burro named Muggins. Most of the mountains are made of hardened lava, sand and gravel. The Muggins Mountains are currently shared by a wilderness area to the south and military proving grounds to the north.

I keep this Arizona guide book in the car... whenever we drive anywhere in Arizona, I have narrated some of the sights to the driver as we go. It is a really fun way to pass the time and the kids also have learned a little along the way...That is always a plus!

A Guidebook to the Natural and Human History of Arizona's Roadways



Arizona Roadside Discoveries: A Guidebook to the National and Human History of Arizona's Roadways.

Click here to get a copy.