LOOKING BACK

[billrquimby]

I came across a column I wrote for the Tucson Citizen nearly 14 years ago that some of you may enjoy. If this piece were to be used again I'd have to add Home Depot and Lowes to the list of chain stores and increase prices for land and the number of elk that can be seen.

 

Bill Quimby

 

 

 

 

GREER (July 17,1998) – The White Mountains have changed a lot over the 50 consecutive summers I’ve been coming up here.

 

It may be hard for newcomers to imagine that it used to be a long, bumpy ride between the towns of Show Low, Lakeside and Pinetop, or that everything (except one gas station) shut down promptly at 5 p.m. on weekdays and was closed on Sundays and after noon on Saturdays. If you were hungry, you had only two choices – Charley Clark’s in Pinetop or Molly Butler’s in Greer. There was little else in between. There were only six lakes on the whole mountain, and they were called Big, Crescent, Greer, Tunnel, Bunch and Becker.

 

Sunrise Lake – to say nothing about the Sunrise Ski Area – wasn’t even a dream in some planner’s mind when I first fished the Little Colorado River as a boy. For skiers, there was a small run on a hill where a microwave tower now stands, not far from what now is A-1 Lake, and a short run on the hill behind what now is the Amberian Point Resort in Greer.

 

There were no designated campgrounds or recreational areas. We could pitch a tent or park a camper anywhere in the forest we wanted – even on the reservation – and our favorite sites were alongside streams. When the U.S. Forest Service started forcing everyone to use the new campgrounds it was building far from water, lots of campers rebelled and passed petitions, which were ignored.

 

It didn’t matter where on the mountain we fished or hunted. Fish and wildlife on the White Mountain Apache Reservation still were under the jurisdiction of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and we needed only state licenses.

 

Mule deer could be seen standing along the roadways just about everywhere at any time of day, but it was a red-letter day when an elk was sighted. Residents and cabin owners had few problems with bears. When a bear wandered into a campground or a back yard, people talked about the incident for months.

 

McNary was a booming sawmill town with a railroad that brought logs down from the high country. It had its own hotel and a general store that sold everything from ax handles to china dishes to ladies fashions to groceries to lantern wicks and nails. Stopping at that store was a highlight of every visitor’s trip. Maverick was a real town, too, with its own post office, and it would be a long time before it became just a name on a map. The fork in the road between McNary and Pinetop wasn’t called Hondah yet.

 

Nobody would have believed that a huge, domed stadium would be built someday at Eager, or that they would ever move the statue commemorating the pioneer woman and child away from the post office to two different sites in Springerville.

 

People still talked about a trout hatchery that used to be at the end of the road at Greer, and the quarter-acre pond on Badger Creek that was stocked with trout for children and blind anglers, but both were gone long before my first trip here. So were all the small 200- to 500-acre ”wildlife refuges” that once occupied prime habitat all over the mountain.

 

The road to the White Mountains from Tucson has undergone the greatest change in the past half century, though. It could take up to 10 hours to drive here by way of Tiger (a town that was swallowed up by what became the San Manuel Mine) or more if we were delayed by road construction. The road through the Gila River gorge was much higher up the canyon past Winkleman than it is now and much narrower and rougher. (The present road was built on an old railroad bed.) When there was a summer storm, a short tunnel sometimes filled with rocks and gravel, forcing us to turn around and take the alternate route through Ray (another victim of an open-pit mine).

 

Kearny and San Manuel didn’t exist. The road through Salt River Canyon was always being worked on, and delays of two hours were common when highway crews were blasting and bulldozing.

 

Today, it takes only a bit less than five hours to drive from my home in Tucson to my cabin in Greer. The towns of Show Low, Lakeside and Pinetop have grown together, and there are Wal-Marts, Kmarts, Circle Ks, golf courses and just about every fast-food outlet that was ever franchised. Property that once could be bought for $300 to $750 an acre now costs $75,000 to $100,000 or even more.

 

The casino at Hondah is undergoing non-stop expansion, but nobody slows up going through McNary. There are more than 30 trout lakes now, and lots of campgrounds and snowmobile and cross-country ski trails. It is not unusual to see 75 or more elk during a sunrise drive over back roads. Sunrise Ski Area is one of the West’s largest.

 

Although the White Mountains remain Arizona’s premiere summer vacation area, I yearn for the time when there were far fewer people.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

Bill,

I don't go back quite that far. My mom says that I got sunburned at 4 months old in 1960 when we were camping down at Diamond Rock.

 

She claims she was positive she kept moving me into the shade but well, we all know how that AZ sun can catch you.

 

I do recall many more deer than elk and the only time we ever really got to see elk was on the fishing trip to Reservation lake.

 

That is a good read, thanks.........

[JLW]

yeah, that is a good read!

thanks for posting that.

reminds me of storys my dad used to tell me about when he grew up in ketucky and how 1 leg was shorter that the other from having to side hill it for five miles to the general store and he had to take the adjacent hill on the way bay so he wouldn't fall down the hill cause his leg was shorter. of course he was pulling my leg.

I love to hear how things used to be. I was fortunate growing up as my dad loved the outdoors so I experienced a lot of things that can no longer be experienced! like when we would go to the salt river after school on week days and drive anywhere on the river and slay the bass on a gold w/ black back rapala. ahhh good times!

 

James

[Mocha1545]

Thanks Bill. That is a great read and brings back wonderful memories. Mine don't go as far back but I remember long drives and wide open spaces between Show Low and Pinetop.

[CouesWhitetail]

good article, thanks Bill!!

[audsley]

I still remember that column from when I read it in the Citizen. Thanks for bringing it back.

[trophyhnter]

Thanks for the post! I great to hear about how things were.

[Snapshot]

Nice. I always looked forward to reading your columns in the paper.

[BRYCE CANYON]

I was just in Pinetop and Whiteriver this morning so i had to shake my head after reading your article...

[Pine Donkey]

Bill,

 

Your article brings up some bitter sweet memories. This state has grown so much. I now drive on paved roads through subdivisions where I once hunted. I remember fishing oak creek when you could drive in on a Friday evening and have your choice of open camp spots. I also see malls on land that used to be owned by the State; land that we thought would never be developed.

 

Growth comes at a great cost to our open spaces. This is one reason I strongly support organizations, such as RMEF, that work to protect and preserve critical habitat.

 

I am as guilty as everybody else in promoting growth. Tomorrow I am headed to Nutrioso to spend a week at our cabin that sits on the edge of a once untouched meadow adjacent to Forest Service land.

 

Thanks for posting the article.

[standman]

My family was one of the first settlers of Lakeside and my dad tells me stories of those days when life was simpler up here.

 

As a kid he would hitch hike between Lakeside and Show Low with most times not a car would come by. The road was dirt by the way. So was the road from Pinetop to Eagar and Show Low to Heber.

 

Rainbow Lake was a favorite duck hunting spot. Now you can't hardly get to the waters edge without trespassing on someone's property.

 

The theater and hospital was in McNary.

 

Amazing how things have changed, even in my lifetime. Were no longer small communities.

 

Brian

 

 

[Non-Typical Solutions]

Sucks when some a-hole picks your post apart based on your grammar, huh?

 

???? Got something you need to get off your chest?????

[bonecollector]

Great write up, I dont care what "123456" has to say about it.

[Rag Horn]

Great write up, I dont care what "123456" has to say about it.

 

+1

Thanks for the write up. All that stuff pre dates me. It's a great look into the past for sure.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

It's off.

Good deal.

 

I enjoyed the read.............................