VOLUME 13 ISSUE 1
$5.99 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2024 SERVING CONTRACTING FIRMS AND THE ARIZONA COMMUNITY. . . THEN & NOW
PRESCOTT FRONTIER DAYS: 135 YEARS OF CRAZED COWBOY COMPETITION THE UNMATCHED SCENERY OF HIGHWAY 89A THRU OAK CREEK CANYON THE KID CONTRACTOR COMES TO TOWN: LEO SCOTT’S PRESCOTT CAREER PRESCOTT CONTRACTOR BILL HENSON’S TRANSPORTATION LEGACY HENRY “FURMAN” BYARS: CONSTRUCTING A SMOOTH GOLF SWING
Arizona’s Timeless Magazine
MR. PRESCOTT: ARCHITECT WILLIAM OTWELL’S CIVIC CONTRIBUTIONS
SPECIAL EDITION FIRST CATERPILLAR NO. 16 FEATURE GRADERONE IN ARIZONA HEADLINE ARRIVES IN 1964 TO HELP BUILD INTERSTATE 40 NCS CREATES HOME IN CAMP VERDE
MCCARTHY BUILDS SKILLED TRADES CENTER
ADOT MOVES MOUNTAINS IMPROVING INTERSTATE 17
THE BEST STORIES OF BILL KELTON’S CAREER
BUILDING NATURE INTO AQUARIUMS AND ZOOS
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WHAT ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT IN 2024?
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A Trip to NYC Delayed Honeymoon in Maui! 50th Wedding Anniversary
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Arizona Contractor & Community (ACC) magazine is published bi-monthly (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec). ACC is a professional publication designed for the contracting industry, engineers, architects, equipment rentals, suppliers, and others interested in Arizona and its history. Content including text, photographs or illustrations may not be reproduced without the written permission from the publisher. The publisher does not assume responsibility for unsolicited submissions. ACC reserves the right to reject any editorial and advertising material and reserves the right to edit all submitted content material. Arizona Contractor & Community Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved.
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SPECIALTY COMPANIES GROUP
UTILITY ADJUSTMENTS
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BUILDING OUR FUTURES
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Contents
“TELL US WHAT YOU NEED AND WE WILL WORK WITH YOU TO MAKE IT HAPPEN”
39
YEARS IN BUSINESS SINCE 1984
480-641-3500
BELLY DUMP-SUPER 16-END DUMP-LOW BOY SIDE DUMP-EXCAVATOR-LOADER-GRADER
14
Contributors - Michael Bernstein & Tom Pickrell
18
From The Editor: The Road Less Traveled to Prescott: U.S Highway 89 - Douglas Towne
21
Construction Around Arizona: Projects • People • Practices
47
Back When: Joy’s Buffet - Where the Cat Got “On” Your Tongue - Billy Horner
48
Prescott Frontier Days: A Celebration of Cowboy Competition and Culture - Douglas Towne
54
Oak Creek Canyon’s State Route 89A: A History of Arizona’s Favorite Scenic Road - Tom Pickrell
58
What Leo Scott Did on His High School Summer Vacation - Build a House - Douglas Towne
62
The Kid Contractor Comes to Town: Leo Scott’s Prescott Career - Douglas Towne
66
Pipelines and Roads: Prescott Contractor Bill Henson’s Transportation Legacy - Billy Horner
70
Saluting Arizona’s Builders: Edward S. Kelton
74
Old School Equipment - First Caterpillar No. 16 Grader in Arizona - Billy Horner
78
Building on the Past - 1946: Prescott’s Semi-Cylindrical Public Housing - Douglas Towne
82
Architect’s Perspective - William T. Otwell, FAIA: Citizen Architect - Doug Sydnor, FAIA
86
Digging Through the Archives: Henry “Furman” Byars: Constructing a Smooth Golf Swing - Billy Horner
90
Bid Results
94
Advertising Index
Front Cover Dave Klein, Empire Machinery Sales Rep; Jack Ward, Isbell Construction; Jack Whiteman, Empire Machinery President; and Furman Byars, Director of Arizona Operations for Isbell Construction Co., June 1964. Article on page 74 Image Courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
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CONTRIBUTORS
P: 928 567-6585 E: btippett@networxcs.com. www.networxCS.com FOURTEEN
MICHAEL BERNSTEIN ARTICLE ON PAGE 39
TOM PICKRELL ARTICLE ON PAGE 54
M
T
ike Bernstein retired from environmental consulting in 2020. His most memorable assignments include work at the Air Force Flight Test Center (Edwards AFB) and the Civilian Flight Test Center (Mojave Airport) in California during the 1990s, one day at the South Tower of the World Trade Center in April 2001, and 12 days in Germany in 2006. In 2021, Mike donated his New Jersey fossil collection to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where it is now housed and cataloged. Much of the fossils’ value lies in the fact that he collected them in locations during the 1970s and 1980s that were later developed. In 1985, Mike donated to the New Jersey State Museum two bones from the carapace of a sea turtle, which he found at the site of the world’s first excavated dinosaur skeleton. These bones were the first recorded vertebrate fossils found at the site since the duck-bill dinosaur of 1858. For the present and future, Mike continues to write articles for publication in the Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter. He was granted German citizenship in 2021, a gesture that he appreciates as redress for the forced flight of his mother in 1939. Health permitting, he hopes to revisit Berlin in 2024.
om Pickrell is a third-generation Arizonan whose family settled in the Salt River Valley in 1896. He had a charmed childhood, partly because his family spent two weeks every summer swimming and fishing in Oak Creek Canyon. His first trout was a 6-inch rainbow that he insisted his mother cook for dinner -- it got lost in the pan. He’s hiked every trail in the canyon, including a few not on maps. A favorite is the 12-mile West Fork Trail, which passes through a few spots at the top that require swimming. Tom’s lifelong interest in Arizona’s history was kindled by family road trips to the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and mining towns like Bisbee and Morenci, with lots of old buildings and Western history. A raft trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon is still on his bucket list. He grew up in Scottsdale, studied at the University of Arizona and the University of Leeds, England, and received his law degree from Duke University. As general counsel for the Arizona School Boards Association and Mesa Public Schools, Tom was involved in law and policy matters affecting K-12 public education for 30 years. Today, he is a happily retired lawyer.
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FROM THE EDITOR: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED TO PRESCOTT: U.S HIGHWAY 89 DOUGLAS TOWNE
T
he magazine enters 2024 with a special issue about the Valley’s favorite Mile High Retreat, Prescott. I’ve spent enough time there to accurately pronounce the city’s name as “Pres-KITT,” which rhymes with “biscuit.” This helpful knowledge came from working one summer in the area, almost a quarter-century ago, researching water rights with a handful of idiosyncratic coworkers. We stumbled upon remarkable historical sites during our investigations, some of which have since vanished. There was the rustic railroad trestle over Granite Creek just north of Whiskey Row, the
slowly decaying Granite Dells Resort with its oversized swimming pool, the Chino Valley Irrigation Ditch snaking north from Watson Lake, the knee-high El Paso Natural Gas concrete pyramids marking the pipeline’s route through Lonesome Valley, and Sullivan Lake’s stone bathhouses at the headwaters of the Verde River. Prescott was not only a destination but a journey if one took the backway from Phoenix along U.S. Highway 89. Of course, before I-17 was completed, U.S. 89 was the main route between the two cities as part of its Mexico-to-Canada transit.
Pre-interstate, Prescott-bound travelers headed northwest from Downtown Phoenix on Grand Avenue, through Glendale and Peoria, and largely forgotten hamlets such as Alhambra, Marinette, Beardsley, and Castle Hot Springs Junction. The route would parallel the tracks of what initially was the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix Railway. At Cactus Gardens, the old road wound over the edge of the Wickenburg Mountains before dropping down to the lush floodplain of the Hassayampa River. Here, the usually dry stream came to life, due to a rock outcrop beneath the riverbed that forces groundwater to the surface. Wickenburg, a former gold mining town, played up its Wild West heritage and was the largest community along the route. The Saguaro Theater, the Pioneer Café, and its associated Rollin Hogan Trailer Park are just a few examples of the Western themes used to attract customers. Next came another former mining camp, Congress, Top left: Conoco roadmap, 1930. Top right: Highway 89 sign, Wickenburg, 2003. Left & below: Rollin Hogan Trailer Park, Wickenburg, 1989.
Images Courtesy of Author
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Images Courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
memorable for a huge boulder painted to resemble an oversized frog, which served as the community’s mascot. The most challenging segment of the drive was Yarnell Hill, where the highway gained almost 1,000 feet of elevation in less than two miles. “It’s really steep, and you could see the wreckage of many cars and trucks down the cliff-side of the road,” says Bill Baker, who drove the incline frequently in the 1950s. “When a person would buy a car, a major test would be whether it could climb Yarnell Hill in third gear, as standard transmissions back then only had three gears.” Near the top of Yarnell Hill was the Desert View Trading Post and a highway overlook, which was built in the 1950s by the Arizona Highway Department under the supervision of famed stone mason Alessio Carraro. In 1930, Carraro constructed what is now known as Tovrea Castle on a hill east of Downtown Phoenix. He had hoped to create the Carraro Heights
subdivision, with his castle a resort hotel. Unfortunately, Carraro only lived at the castle for six months. Tovrea Stockyards opened next door, the stench of which, along with the Great Depression, ruined his development dream. The Italian immigrant sold his castle and moved north to the town of Yarnell along U.S. 89. Besides the highway overlook, he built “Carraro’s Grotto,” a tourist attraction with mini-castles created amidst the granite boulders in Yarnell. He died there in 1964. From Yarnell, the highway then continues through Peoples Valley, with its high-end horse properties, until arriving at Kirkland Junction, a wide spot in the road that featured Towne’s Trailer Park and the Tufa Tavern. Surprisingly, I have more of a claim on the latter due to some spirited billiards games back in the day. Then it’s uphill through the last segment, locally known as White Spar Road, lined with vintage motels like the Cascade, until the highway arrives at Whiskey Row across from the Yavapai
Top left: Tufa Tavern, Kirkland Junction, 1991. Above: Towne’s Trailer Park, Kirkland Junction, 1991. Center: Cascade Motel, Prescott 1991.
Courthouse in the heart of Prescott. U.S. 89, Prescott, and Whiskey Row inspire so many memories, most probably not for public dissemination. However, seeing the sign for the Bird Cage Saloon along Whiskey Row makes me want to conclude with a shout-out to an underrated Prescott band, Dumpster Raven. Long ago there, I heard them perform a live version of David Crosby’s song “Long Time Gone.” But instead of the slow, bluesy tune Crosby, Stills & Nash released on their debut album in 1969, Dumpster Raven ripped into an energetic reinterpretation as if Croz had recorded it when he was a member of the Byrds during their jangly psychedelic phase in 1966. It was a watershed moment; a night on Whiskey Row doesn’t get much better.
Right: Two rootin’ tootin’ gals in Wickenburg, 2019. Below: Frog Rock, Congress, 1991. ARIZCC.COM
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ADOT MOVES MOUNTAINS TO MAKE I-17 TRAFFIC FLOW EASIER DOUGLAS TOWNE
P
hoenicians seeking to cool off in the summer have been getting steamy about the congested drive to Flagstaff and points north, especially on weekends. But in 2022, construction started on the I-17 Improvement Project, a 23-mile section north of Phoenix between Anthem Way and Sunset Point. The project will result in quicker travel times when completed in 2025. Transportation upgrades include new bridges and added lanes, including flex lanes, the first for Arizona’s highway system. “2023 has been a year of major progress for the I-17 Improvement Project,” says Annette Riley, ADOT’s project manager for
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the design-build project. “Controlled rock blasting and earthwork are the biggest operations currently underway. This work began in 2022 and will continue into 2024.” Riley explains that the rock blasting is necessary to make way for the additional general-purpose lanes from Anthem Way north to Black Canyon City and the eight miles of flex lanes, which will be constructed next to the existing southbound lanes from Black Canyon City to Sunset Point. The flex lanes are designed to reduce congestion on I-17 during peak travel times. The project’s scale is impressive. “It’s an operation where 1.7 million cubic yards of material will be removed from the mountainsides, then hauled to another area where it’s prepared and crushed,” Riley says. “All the blasted and excavated material will go back into the project to construct the new lanes. We’re using
everything that we remove. Much of this rock material will be used in the paving operations, which are well underway.” Riley adds that the new lanes from Anthem Way to Black Canyon City are starting to take shape and are expected to open sometime in 2024. The two flex lanes from Black Canyon City north to Sunset Point will alternate to carry north- or southbound traffic. They will also keep traffic moving if a crash or other emergency occurs. The flex lanes will typically be open northbound Monday through Saturday and southbound on Sunday. Overhead signage and electronic gates will alert motorists to which direction is available for traffic. The technology will be monitored and controlled by ADOT’s Traffic Operations Center. These will be the first flex lanes in Arizona, though they are used in other locales, including Dallas,
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