The Phoenix Traveler

A new friend, Quinn McDonald, wrote in her blog yesterday about something in Phoenix that carries a unique past dating back to the Hohokam Indians–our irrigation system. They left their legacy, a canal system, for us to find when they abandoned the area around 1450 A.D. Quinn is new to the Valley, having moved here from Virginia, and I could sense her intrigue by what must have been an odd site to her at first. I had never thought how others might perceive the flooding of yards in Phoenix by this “water bubbling up from the ground” process that now occurs because of this historic 1,300-mile system of waterways.

Her intrigue made me want to find out what others who live and work here think about Phoenix. So I asked. Here are a few responses I received:

“One of the things I love about Phoenix is the airport,” wrote Beth Terry. It may not be the usual object a person falls in love with in the country’s 5th largest city, but she explained…”As a person who lives in airports, I have a lot of time to compare them. Terminal 4 especially is a *Gem*. First of all, all the terminals have those purple coated, very alert helpers. They notice when someone is struggling or lost, and are quick to help out.

Secondly, I love the airport, because someone in their ultimate wisdom,
proposed and got passed a pricing fairness law at the airport. If you go to Sky Harbor Airport, you will notice that a bottle of water costs, gasp,
$1.34, just like it does at a store outside the airport. Newspapers,
magazines, food items, and souvenirs cost the same on or off the airport.

What a concept!

Third, I love this airport because, even though it doesn’t have the huge
shopping malls of some other major airports, it has nice stores. And, you
know you’re in Arizona. Some places don’t have regional stores. I like that
this airport supports regional businesses.

Does it have downsides? Of course. All airports do. You can’t get from one
terminal to another without revisiting TSA. But I hear they are working on
that. And – if the temps get above 120, planes can’t take off… But it’s a
DRY heat!” (NOTE: The phrase “dry heat” is a typical moniker used by people who know Phoenix. I’ll cover that in an upcoming post.)

Vickie Mullins, who grew up in Phoenix, not far from the canal that runs along 48th Street, shared a childhood memory, bringing us back to that irrigation system: 

“I can remember in grade school we were having a class discussion on the native peoples who had thrived in the Valley, how long ago that had been and how ingenious they were in developing the irrigation system that sustained them. One of our classmates told us that we could easily find evidence of the people who had built the system, all we had to do was go over to the canal and look. There on the sides everyone could see the deep ridges from the crude tools that had been used to dig these giant canals,” wrote Vickie in an e-mail to me this afternoon.

“When I shared that story with my family that night over the dinner table,” she continued, “my dad just looked at me as if I was nuts and said, ‘We’re taking a walk after dinner.’ True to his word we did, and when we arrived, I was treated to a lesson on corrosion. No primitive tools had created the crude ridges my classmate had convinced all of us was evidence; they were just ruts from runoff going into the canal.

Bonnie Mattick’s favorite memory involves what she calls the Phoenix “high points” in and around Phoenix, in other words, its mountains and high hills.

“My husband and I used to hike various mountains, creeks, washes, ravines and any where else we could find – from the White Tank Mountains to The Superstitions. We have lots of “high views” and amazing landscape to enjoy in Phoenix. I have often wondered how many ‘first kisses’ took place on South Mountain (my own included),” she shared with me.

Great stories. I hope you enjoy them.

(Photos used with permission by Beth Terry and Vickie Mullins. Kelly Cappelli took Beth’s photo.)

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