Volume 4 Issue 2
Special Cattle Issue
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Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community…
• Tovrea's Phoenix Stockyards • Preserving Scottsdale's DC Ranch • Bill Johnson's Rides into Sunset • Christy to Relight “Cheesy” Sign • Maryvale Links Go Collegiate • Kelton Contracting Legacy • Trafficade Celebrates 25 Years • Windmill Whiz Dale Balow
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Arizona Contractor & Community
Publisher William Horner Billy@arizcc.com
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Editor Douglas Towne Douglas@arizcc.com Contributing Writers Lee Addis Cassidy Campana Christia Gibbons John Jacquemart Katie Mayer Matthew B. Meaker Donna Reiner Luke Snell John Larsen Southard Doug Sydnor
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Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community… Then & Now Printed at Lithotech Arizona Contractor & Community (ACC) magazine is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, & winter). 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 © 2015 All rights reserved.
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Summer 2015
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Arizona Contractor & Community
Volume 4 Issue 2 Summer 2015
CONTENTS 8.
From The Editor: Wrangling a Vacation: Arizona’s Dude Ranches - Douglas Towne
10.
Construction Around Arizona: Projects • People • Practices
33.
A Different Kind of Blade Man: Windmill Whiz Dale Balow - Douglas Towne
38.
Multigenerational Glow: The Christy Sign Company Katie Mayer
42.
Have Hooves, Will Travel: Arizona Cattle Trails John Larsen Southard
45.
Tovrea: From Butcher Shop to Cattle Empire Donna Reiner & John Jacquemart
49.
Architect's Perspective: George H. Schoneberger, Jr: Capturing Scale - Doug Sydnor
53.
A “Long” Legacy: Maryvale Links Get Collegiate Makeover - Douglas Towne
57.
Digging Through the Archives: The Kelton Contracting Story - William Horner
61.
Bid Results - Bidjudge
Front Cover - Downtown Phoenix and cattle feedlot, 1959.
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Summer 2015
Douglas Towne
Christia Gibbons
Donna Reiner
John Larsen Southard
Douglas Towne - Editor Articles on page 8,33 & 53 Hometown - Denver. Hidden talent - Badminton, I've won one national and numerous state titles. Comfort food - #6 dinner order of cheese enchiladas at El Norteno in Phoenix. Favorite AZ town - Salome, once a 24-hour mecca of weddings, gambling, brothels, exotic birds, and hidden tunnels. Three people you'd invite to dinner - The late University of Denver Geography Professor Joe Beaton, my late partner-incrime, Cathy Weiler, and my wife because no meal is complete without her.
Donna Reiner - Writer Article on page 45 Hometown - Santa Maria, CA and moved to the Valley in the summer of 1982. Hidden Talent - Playing the harpsichord. Comfort Food - Chocolate and kimchi. Favorite AZ town - Bisbee, because I get plenty of exercise while exploring. Three people I'd invite to dinner My grandmother, Caroline Adams Babcock, her father, Havilah Babcock, and my great grandfather Charles Donald Reiner. They all died before I was born and I have tons of family history questions.
Christia Gibbons - Writer Articles on page 14 & 24 Hometown - Tucson. Hidden talent - Talking my husband Tom into rescuing just one more cat. We now have 10. Comfort food - Cupcakes. Favorite AZ town - Tucson. The majesty of it's surrounding mountains bring me peace and calm. Three people you'd invite to dinner - My journalist Dad; my hippie Vietnam vet brother Eddie; and, my gentle giant cop brother Jeff. I miss those three so much. They would have all agreed on steak for dinner.
John Larsen Southard - Writer Article on page 42 Hometown - Scottsdale. Hidden Talent - Planning tea parties, voicing characters from children's books, and answering a string of "Why?" questions (I have a three year old daughter). Comfort Food - Tacos. Favorite AZ town - Beautiful and historic Tempe. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Tempe Historic Preservation Officer. Three people I'd invite to dinner Walter Bimson, Eugene Pulliam, and Frank Snell. If unavailable, I'd love to sit down with Sir Winston Churchill, Bing Crosby, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
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W
ith the fading of the Frontier era, many Americans romantically yearned to experience a cowboy’s life “home on the range.” Sensing the nostalgia for the Old West, astute Arizona ranchers figured that entertaining wellheeled Eastern tourists might be as lucrative as herding cattle—and maybe a little easier work. These hospitality pioneers combined a Western experience with Arizona’s balmy winters, opening the state’s first guest or “dude” ranches in the 1920s.
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“Guests still visit for the sunshine and to learn horseback riding,” Andrew Fine, Director of Operations for Tanque Verde Guest Ranch near Tucson, says. “But there are tons of good reasons they arrive from all across the country, Canada, Europe, and Asia. We’re very experiential and feature guided mountain biking, hiking, birding, and fishing in our own 'catch and release’ lake. The activities and meals are all inclusive, like a cruise ship, but we’re not on the water and we have horses.”
The dude ranch concept in Arizona started for financial reasons, when cattle prices plummeted after World War I. Seeking a new revenue source, some cattle ranches built accommodations for guests and opened as dude ranches, especially near Phoenix, Tucson, and Wickenburg. Considered familyowned homes, visitors were personal guests who were often required to provide references and have advance reservations for a minimum stay, often two weeks. For the new two-legged clientele, the ranchers
Some Valley resorts adopted Western features, hoping to attract the dude ranch trade.
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The Arizona Biltmore’s stables were later closed, influenced by urban development that also transformed some dude ranches into resorts. Casa Hermosa Ranch, originally located 10 miles northeast of Phoenix, was started by cowboy artist Alonzo “Lon” Megargee in the 1930s. The dude ranch featured horseback riding, but a pool, tennis courts, and additional accommodations were added later. Now called The Hermosa Inn, the boutique hotel hosts corporate retreats and features five-star dining at Lon's at the Hermosa. Horseback riding is now outsourced offsite. A rare dude ranch that continues to thrive near an urban setting is Tanque Verde Guest Ranch, which opened for visitors in 1928 near Tucson. Started as a working cattle ranch in 1868, it’s located
adjacent to the Coronado National Forest and Saguaro East National Monument. The ranch offers an unmatched setting and excellent service, which explains why some guests have visited every year for over half a century. “We have a legacy walk in front of the dining room,” Fine says. “Guests that have come annually for 10 years get their own brick with their name and date of their first visit. Our ranch experience is what they want to keep sharing as a family.” Across page: Guests at Casa Hermosa Guest House, 1949. Across page inset: Casa Hermosa ad, 1937. Top left: Wrangler's Roost Guest House, 1957. Top right: Trail horses, 1953. Bottom: Flying E Ranch, Wickenburg.
Images courtesy of author
had to expand their knowledge beyond horses and cattle to become adept at managing food, entertainment, and other services for their enthusiastic free labor. These new Arizona lodgings were popular winter destinations and attracted older patrons. While dude ranches in colder climates tended to focus on active pursuits such as fishing and hunting, Arizona operations emphasized rest and relaxation, notes Lawrence Borne in Dude Ranching: A Complete History. Horseback riding was popular, but some ranches had tennis courts, a swimming pool, and promoted nearby urban amenities. In the Valley, dude ranches perpetuated Phoenix’s image as a Wild West town. Want-to-be wranglers typically arrived via an “iron horse” at Union Station starting in 1923. At Butler’s Guest Ranch, located near citrus orchards eight miles north of downtown, guests could ride horses in the desert and play golf at nearby courses. El Rancho Grande, located 28 miles east of Phoenix, hyped itself as “just far enough away to enjoy the air, sunshine, and ranch life, yet conveniently located near modern cities.” Some Valley resorts adopted Western features, hoping to attract the dude ranch trade. “My family would visit the Arizona Biltmore every Christmas in the late 1960s,” Denver native Scott Perlman says. “We would ride horses from the resort’s stables through the surrounding desert. Our trail boss was a salty old cowboy named ‘Doc’ Pardee, who was bronco rider, rodeo announcer, and actor in many Westerns with his friend, movie star Tom Mix.”
Arizona Contractor & Community
Construction Around Arizona
Image courtesy of DMB
Construction Around Arizona
Projects ∙ Practices ∙ People
Homes on the Range: DC Ranch Cassidy Campana
F
rom their earliest days, the histories of Scottsdale and DC Ranch were intertwined. E.O. Brown, a businessman from Wisconsin, settled in at DC Ranch and started one of the Valley’s largest cattle ranches in the early 1900s. Brown and his family built their homestead near the only perennial spring flowing off the McDowell Mountains, understanding the importance of water in the desert. The family’s general store became a community hub that served other ranchers and early residents. Over the next two generations, the Brown ranch grew into a 43,000-acre cattle operation. Brown built pipelines from the spring to supply tanks across the ranch for his cattle. E.E. “Brownie” Brown succeeded his father in the operations of DC Ranch and shepherded the ranch into a new era. Standing more than six feet tall, riding a 17-hand sorrel horse named Star, Brownie was the kind of cattleman featured in movies. His lore only grew as he won “Big Man” races at the local rodeos, hunted on his property, and wore an unforgettable fancy silver belt buckle. When he wasn’t riding his range, Brownie could be found ten
in town with the men who gathered at the Pink Pony in Scottsdale and at the cattlemen’s bar in the Adams Hotel in Phoenix. Following the Depression, DC Ranch’s operations grew and brought in big money. Brownie recognized that he needed more business expertise and tapped an old
Image courtesy of the Scottsdale Historical Society
childhood friend, Kemper Marley. Already a successful business man, Marley accepted Brownie’s partnership offer. The two shared a love of ranching and they planned to expand the DC Ranch Company. Much of their livestock grazed
on public lands north and west of the DC Ranch homestead. So the two developed an ingenious plan to purchase lands in California that the government needed, and then trade them for the grazing lands in Scottsdale they wanted for the ranch. Following World War II, the company extended the water pipeline from the spring at DC Ranch to fill more tanks across the ranch. Four thousand head of cattle relied on that water supply in the 1940s. Fast Forward 40 Years In the late 1980s, Drew Brown and his partners, Bennett Dorrance and Mark Sklar, were putting together their DMB partnership to create a new kind of land development company. They shared an interest in creating master-planned communities using a different approach to land planning and lifestyle. In one of the company’s first letters of interest, the DMB team reached out to Kemper Marley, now the owner of the DC Ranch, and asked for a meeting to discuss the potential for developing the property. Marley agreed to meet with the partners but ended up politely refusing their offer. After Marley’s passing in 1990, his family heirs reached out to the DMB team about developing DC Ranch and forged a unique partnership to develop the property into something special. The family contributed the land, and DMB agreed to develop the property including planning it, overseeing the zoning, and building the community. Preserving the McDowell Mountains By the 1990s, Scottsdale’s citizens were exploring measures that would create a dedicated tax revenue stream that would give the city the means to buy sensitive lands in the McDowell Mountains for conservation. Mayor Herb Drinkwater asked Brown if he would hold off on developing some mountainous parts within DC Ranch and give the city the opportunity to purchase them for a preserve. Summer 2015
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