WELCOME

It is nice to see so many people join on the first day. I look forward to learning more about Arizona. A community where people and books are shared.

Thanks for inviting me.

Hello, I'm mostly an Arizona admirer from afar. I've been there several times with my snow bird parents and grandparents. They all love the desert. The last time I was in Arizona, my husband and I drove there to pick up some books he had inherited from his uncle. We had one week, and we are from the far Northern end of California. It was the perfect time of year, all the cacti were blooming. We sort of drove in a big loop so there would be no backtracking. He made sure to take me to the Grand canyon. Wow. Nothing but actually being there does it justice, though it started to snow right after we arrived. We long to go back there. Also drove through Sedona, that was lovely as well.

I like to visit Arizona mostly in books and Arizona Hiways. Love to read about the native tribes there and the history of it's settlement. We are not much for trailers, etc., so I'm not sure when we will go back, but I would love to explore some more.

Thanks for the invitation. I have a brother and two cousins currently living in AZ, and I'll pass the info along to them as well! Do you know if there's a New Mexico forum, btw? That's where I was born, and visit often.

Thanks for the invite to join Arizona Trading Post. My first exposure to AZ was through the works of Edward Abbey. I've been to visit a couple of times and am particularly fond of the Tucson area.

A little something about me: I was born and raised in a small farm town in central Illinois then lived in Utah for three years. I fell in love with Phoenix when it was 110° in the shade and have lived here since 1976.

My husband (who's from the UK) and I love to take the Jeep out on trails to explore this wonderful state. It didn't take us long to learn that we can see much more beauty from the unpaved road than we can from the paved!

During the late fall, winter and early spring, I sometimes feel like I'm running a B&B because that's when friends and family from the US and UK love to come and visit.

Thanks for inviting me to join the Arizona Trading Post. I have lived here in Tucson since 2003 and have, as with you all, become fascinated with Arizona history. Don

Many thanks for the invitation - I'm an Upper Midwesterner by birth and nature, but I'm fascinated by the state of Arizona and Western history in general. I've only been there for about fifteen minutes (driving across the corner from Utah to Nevada) but hope to return someday soon.

Maybe we should start a New Mexico forum. I am a big supporter of all things New Mexico!

I am also a New Mexico supporter, we could even go one better and discuss everything Southwestern!! At this time there does not appear to be a lot of discussion. It might encourage more members. I guess a lot depends on Cappi, you are the one that started this group. Thoughts? Regards, Redking.

Turning this into a SW group sounds like a very good idea to me...focus on states of the four corners?

Just found this site, I live inPhoenix now, but lived at Shiprock, NM and Flagstaff. After I married, I lived in Chicago for twenty-six years and had to be satisfied with short vacations to my favorite place. We moved here five years ago and think we have found heaven on earth.

I was born and raised in Prescott and after being out of the state for several years moved back in 1969 and am still here. Our backdoor neighbor was Lucy Miller, the chieftess of the Yavapai tribe. My mother came from Nebraska in 1919 and my dad from Texas in 1920 so I've seen a lot of Arizona. It's a great state.

Arizona and the southwest are difficult to seperate. I would welcome sharing topics related to the southwest with this group. A Trading Post must be willing to trade.

We are Tucsonans but love New Mexico also. We try to go once a year to the Los Alamos area. In Los Alamos, there's a nice little bookstore - the Otowi Station Bookstore right on Central Avenue next to the Bradbury Science Museum. And the Los Alamos Public Library is one of the best I've ever seen - any librarians out there will especially appreciate the fabulous signage and the welcoming reference area. And we always stop in Albuquerque on the way, making sure to go to the Flying Star Cafe - great newstand, bookstore, and the food - especially desserts, no wait, the pancakes, no wait, the huevos rancheros - well, I could go on and on. But as former Midwesterners, we find it's the rock formations in the southwest that are so incomparable. And for southern Arizonans like us who regularly get knocked out by the Chiricahua Mountains, we just couldn't believe it when we saw the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks outside of Albuquerque. And Antelope Canyon up by Utah. And the White Sands in New Mexico. We feel lucky to be able to experience it all. We'd welcome hearing about any books other than the riveting Blood and Thunder - which we already read - that any of you feel capture some of the excitement and majesty of the area.

I've lived in Arizona for forty-three years . . . mainly on the outskirts of any town because once civilization sprung up around us my husband got the proverbial ants in the pants to get out further into the wilderness! We did things a little ass-backwards; we had a log cabin in Apache Junction (when there was hardly anyone there), and high up in the mountains? Why, a Victorian farmhouse, of course (where there's hardly anyone there). Absolutely loved our years in Prescott, though once the town began to see traffic gridlock we were headed further North . . . to Happy Jack. Where the heck is Happy Jack? Exactly. We have seen such an amazing variety of wildlife in our years here; we feel so lucky. I have personally seen wolves, a black panther, cougars up close and personal, of course hundreds of elk, antelope and deer, and the strangest creature I ever laid eyes on: a coatimundi. It looked like a cross between a raccoon and a kangaroo! Arizona is truly an awe-inspiring state!

I'm a city dweller who continues to enjoy the painted desert where sunsets give a renewed joy for living. Fortunately, I have not encountered any rattlesnakes, but have heard them shaking their tails along hiking trails. In the Foothills I've also encountered javelina in small bands. The youngsters are very cute. Naively I confused this animal with a hedgehog, much to the amusement of my family. (I've never seen a hedgehog before!) On occasion, coyotes venture into central areas probably after the rabbits that continue to gain a presence in parks and large estates as well as on golf courses. Once in awhile a squirrel shows up in a neighborhood tree. Birds are still the most plentiful wildlife in the central area: hawks, pidgeons, quail, desert wrens...

Don't forget cats. Coyotes are always after domestic cats. My friends and I call coatimundi 'ringtail tree foxes' which is utterly inaccurate but seems descriptive enough. I am always amazed by the number of large mammals in the Sonoran desert; deer, bobcats, mountain lions, skunks, javalina, coatimundi, bears (in the Catalinas) and the innumerable coyotes. I have seen bighorn sheep on Table Rock but no more. Maybe they can come back some day. I could live anywhere and this is where I choose; one of the most magical places on earth. Drop by anytime.

Arizona is Edward Abbey country. Read some of this late great environmental writer's (he hated that label) books - Desert Solitaire, Monkey Wrench Gang" - and you're in his land. Of course, the state is changing since Abbey scribbled out all those wonderful essays and books.

Edward Abbey has taken word craft to greater heights. He is a back country sage, the kind who has seen those who exploit the land willingly and others who preserve it relentlessly. I have not read Monkey Wrench Gang in awhile, which has the theme of radical ecology where people thwart the building of a dam to preserve wildlife. I'm not sure if people are sympathetic to such "projects," given the concern over domestic terrorism--especially in Arizona.

Everyone should read Abbey. He had a distinct voice and great descriptive powers.

I'd like to recommend J A Jance as an author who puts a lot of Arizona, Tucson, Tombstone, etc. in her novels and is personally a graduate of University of Arizona. She has good reads and nice Arizona references.