Volume 5 Issue 3
é J.R. Porter: Striving for Perfection é The Roar of South Mountain Speedway é Allan and Olsson: Modernist Architects é Smitty’s Legacy Feeds Yourland’s $4.99 Fall 2016 Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community…
Contractor and Sports Promoter
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é John Dickmann: Mid-Century Builder é AZUCA 2016 Membership directory
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Publisher William Horner Billy@arizcc.com Editor Douglas Towne Douglas@arizcc.com Contributing Writers Lee Addis Peter Cheng Christia Gibbons Derek Horn Ian Kraft Donna Reiner Jaimee Robinson Luke M. Snell Doug Sydnor Production Manager Laura Horner Laura@arizcc.com Magazine Consultant Chuck Runbeck Chuck@arizcc.com Publisher’s Representatives Shane Addington Shane@arizcc.com Tom Hogarty Tom@arizcc.com Rick LaFond Rick@arizcc.com Chuck Runbeck Chuck@arizcc.com Barry Warner Barry@arizcc.com Advertising 602-931-0069 arizcc.com/advertise.html Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community… Then & Now 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 © 2016 All rights reserved.
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Do you have information and/or images about a past or present Arizona construction project or an individual in the construction field? Or perhaps a story and photos about a historic Arizona business? Our magazine publishes articles on these topics and is always open to new story ideas. For submissions and editorial information, please contact: Douglas Towne, Editor Douglas@arizcc.com Visit us online at: ww.arizcc.com
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Peter Cheng - Writer Article on page 18. Favorite AZ Restaurant: Barrio Café - I love the Tacos De Cochinita Pibil and the olive tapenade. First Job: In the shipping department of a machine parts company. New Skill to Learn: Improving my Spanish. Favorite Holiday: Thanksgiving or any other food-based holiday. Goal to Accomplish: Graduate next May from the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Douglas Towne - Editor Articles on pages 10,33,34,38 and 42. Favorite AZ Restaurant: Verde Lea Market in Cottonwood, which features amazing tortas and tacos. After my third order the chef introduced himself! First Job: Mowing lawns in Denver with my high school pals; jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie once assisted us. New Skill to Learn: Have Billy Horner teach me to play the drums so I can sit in for Ringo with the M.B.E. Mutant Beat Experiment. Favorite Holiday: I concur with Mae West, “Every day’s a holiday.” Goal to Accomplish: Keep my wife happy; she’s the secret to my success.
Derek D. Horn - Writer Article on page 56. Favorite AZ Restaurant: Durant's for their tradition, martinis, and steaks! First Job: Delivering the Des Moines Register on cold winter mornings taught me about hard work, perseverance, and patience. New Skill to Learn: I want to learn to speak both Spanish and French fluently. Favorite Holiday: Thanksgiving! I enjoy the long weekend and good food with friends and family. Goal to Accomplish: To write and publish a novel set in the World War II Pacific campaign. Jaimee Robinson - Writer Articles on pages 24 and 30. Favorite AZ Restaurant: Grabbagreen or K. O’Donnell’s for their fresh, healthy foods. First Job: Taking care of horses in exchange for riding lessons. And I still have a horse! New Skill to Learn: Construction techniques and management involving dirt and bridges. I’m not a vertical gal. Favorite Holiday: April Fool’s Day. I like to laugh plus it’s my birthday. Goal to Accomplish: A permanent job with construction operations or estimating. Freelancing has its perks, but I miss being on a team working on long-term projects.
Fall 2016
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Arizona contractor & Community
Volume 5 Issue 3 Fall 2016
CONTENTS From the toughest Trencher on the market....
10. 14. 33. 34.
To Tillers.....Stump Grinders....Log Splitters....
IS THE ANSWER! Scott Schuller Rocky Mtn Regional Mgr (602) 930-8415 cell sschuller@directsalesllc.com
38. 42. 46. 48. 54. 56. 60. 64. 67. 91.
From The Editor: Arizona’s Loneliest Highway Douglas Towne Construction Around Arizona: Projects • People • Practices Back When: Putting the “Track” in Contractor Douglas Towne Phoenix’s Colorful Contractor: Ernie Mohamed Douglas Towne When the Mountain Roared: Phoenix’s South Mountain Speedway - Douglas Towne Phoenix’s Fastest: Indy 500 Winner Jimmy Bryan Douglas Towne Smitty’s Legacy Feeds Yourland’s Community-Driven Redevelopment - Christia Gibbons Striving for Perfection: J.R. Porter Construction Donna Reiner Bob and Larry Myers: Two Generations Of Blade Operators Who Made The Grade - Billy Horner Mid-Century Builder: Arkansas Traveler John Dickmann Derek D. Horn Architect’s Perspective: Allan and Olsson, Architects, A.I.A: Modernists - Doug Sydnor, FAIA Digging Through the Archives: Allis Chalmers Still Gets Good Grades - William Horner Special Advertising Section: AZUCA 2016 Membership Directory Bid Results - Bidjudge
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Front Cover Contractor and sports promoter Ernie Mohamed poses by a Cat No. 12 blade equipped with a new two-way radio communication system, 1958.
Fall 2016
Editor’s Column Arizona’s Loneliest Highway Douglas Towne
O
ne of Arizona’s busiest rural highways is also one of the state’s loneliest roads. The 107-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 93 from Wickenburg north to Interstate 40 in western Arizona boasts but a handful of restaurants, a few gas stations, and perhaps a dozen motel rooms. Still, the roadway is alive with vehicles day and night, as this is the main drag between Phoenix and the bright lights of Las Vegas. The undulating, narrow two-lane highway earned a hazardous reputation soon after it opened in the early 1950s after the H.L. Royden Company
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Top right: Nothing, AZ. Top right corner: H.L. Royden Company building bridge over Big Sandy River, 1949. Right: 1970s map of U.S. Highway 93 between Wickenburg and I-40. Middle right: Las Vegas-bound hydrologists Maureen Towne, Douglas Towne, and Elizabeth Boettcher in Wikieup, AZ. Below right: Snoopy, Spike, and Woodstock aboard a rocket in Wikieup, AZ. Far right: Las Vegas, Tonopah and Reno Stage Line brochure. Below: Wickenburg billboard along Grand Avenue, early 1950s.
constructed bridges over Burro Creek, the Santa Maria River, and the Big Sandy River. Much of its peril came from motorists’ excitement to arrive at their vacation destination. Impatient drivers often tested their luck behind the wheel way before getting to a casino. As a result, much of the roadway has been expanded into a divided, four-lane highway for safety reasons. Plans call for its incorporation into the proposed Interstate 11, which would eventually link Nogales, Arizona to Reno, Nevada. For hungry or tired motorists traveling this stretch of U.S. Highway 93, however, the route’s two service centers have dwindled to one. Nothing, Arizona – a wide spot in the road – once featured a forlorn service station that peddled fuel, food, and souvenirs. Opened in 1977, it managed to attract customers solely by its counterintuitive name. This business ran out of gas, so to speak, and closed more than a decade ago. Nothing is now in tune with its name. Wikieup, located 20 miles north of Nothing, chugs along as the lone pit stop on this stretch of lonely highway. The
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community makes an impression out of proportion to its population, which doesn’t exceed the seating capacity of a typical nightclub. En route to Las Vegas, your excitement, aspirations - and cash - are still intact upon arrival in Wikieup. Heading home after too many late nights in Sin City, Wikieup is a much needed 24-hour coffee stop. The community once displayed one of Arizona's most unusual signs. Along the highway was a derelict “GARAGE” sign partially obscured by a Saguaro cactus. Lower on its pole, a smaller sign cryptically read, “L•T•R BUS TICKET OFFICE,” which stood for the Las Vegas, Tonopah and Reno Stage Company. But why had there once been a ticket office in Wikieup, more than 150 miles from Las Vegas?
Launched in 1921 by Sebastian Mikulich, the LTR ferried people and freight from Las Vegas more than 200 miles north to Tonopah, Nevada in a sevenpassenger Packard. He upgraded to a 10door Chevy Apache, and eventually acquired a fleet of white-and-blue buses that operated for more than six decades according to a 2012 Vegas Seven article.
The LTR expanded to Reno, and the nearby California towns of Death Valley, Bishop, and Lake Tahoe. The company later acquired the Phoenix-Kingman & Boulder City Stage in 1948 and began operating buses through Wikieup. The LTR also performed contract work, using up to 70 coaches daily to ferry Arizona contractor & Community
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Nevada Test Site employees between Mercury and Las Vegas. The bus company eventually folded after the Mikulich family sold it to an unscrupulous operator in the 1980s. While the LTR will motor on in memories, there’s not much left of this once-popular intercity regional bus company. One former LTR bus, a 1964 General Motors PD 4106, is on display at the Pacific Bus Museum in Fremont, California. But tangible remnants of the LTR bus company are as sparse as services along the Arizona roadway it once plied, U.S. Highway 93. Even the highway’s ghost coaches, sadly, belong to other bus companies. The “Ghost Bus of Highway 93,” Bus #777, was on a Phoenix-to-Laughlin turnaround trip when it disappeared without a trace in the desert. According to internet legend, the bus reappears late at night, literally passing through cars on the desolate roadway. But its disappearance allegedly occurred in the early 1990s, long after the LTR bus lines had ceased operations. Top: Bridge across Big Sandy River, 1949. Right: L•T•R Bus Ticket Office sign at Wikieup, AZ.
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