Dynamite Sunset Crater

BOOM! Major Hollywood movie moguls were going to blast Sunset Crater into splattered cinder oblivion in 1928.  That's when Flagstaff newcomer Harold S. Colton rode to the rescue and saved Sunset Crater. Colton's heroic efforts preserved one of US 89's most visually memorable roadside icons.

Purple prose writer Zane Grey was all the rage in the silent movie heyday.  Eventually over 100 films would be made based on Grey's lurid fictional accounts of "life on the range" back in the day.  The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and Paramount Pictures had the rights to turn Grey's novels into silent films.  By 1928, two years after US 89's official birth, they had already enjoyed immense box office success with such pot-boilers as "The Call Of The Canyon" (1925); "The Light of Western Stars" (1925); "Code Of The West" (1925);  "Desert Drums" (1927) and others.  Filming another movie based on Grey's book "Avalanche" was a lock.  By then Hollywood film crews knew the local ropes.  Move into Flagstaff, set up shop, grease the skids, shoot and go back to The Golden Coast.

So, the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation figured it would be a no-brainer to blow up Sunset Crater to create a spectacular avalanche that would be the visual centerpiece of their film-to-be.  Except for the fly-in-the-ointment...Harold S. Colton.

Harold S. Colton and his wife, Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton,
founders of the Museum of Northern Arizona,
sit in the living room of their home in Sedona. Circa 1950.
(Courtesy of Museum of Northern Arizona)

Colton became a scion and, yes, even a Living Legend in his own time for the incredible Northern Arizona legacies he created in partnership with his amazing and awesome wife, the unbelievably talented Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton.  The Coltons were very well politically connected.  They had a lot of Friends in high places.  They knew how to play the game.  The snuffed the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation's plans to blow up Sunset Crater.  It was a remarkable show-of-force for the new kids in town and helped establish the Power Couple's place and position forever in Flagstaff and throughout Northern Arizona.

We found a great account of this defining US 89 episode in an undated KNAU Public radio report produced by Rose Hauk:

"...it was an explosion of another kind that led to Sunset's protection as a national monument. The designation was due largely to the quick actions of Harold Colton, cofounder of the Museum of Northern Arizona.

"In 1929 he got wind of a plan to dynamite a portion of Sunset Crater as part of a movie called Avalanche, which was based on a story by Zane Grey," said Robert Breunig, the current director of the museum, as he crunched over the cinders that blanket the ground around Sunset Crater.

"Raised together in the wild country of the Tonto basin, Jake and Verde grew up closer than brothers. But when they both fell in love with the same fickle woman, their friendship turned to raging hate. The only force that could mend that shattered trust was the raging fury of nature itself. "

"Of course Colton was just absolutely horrified at the thought that this beautiful pristine cinder cone would be blasted apart for a movie they convinced President Herbert Hoover to declare Sunset Crater a national monument... So in May of 1930, May 26, 1930 to be exact, Sunset Crater was permanently protected."

But the movie company didn't go away. Thwarted at Sunset Crater, they moved on to Cameron, Arizona. There they tried dynamiting for the film "Avalanche"

But Brenuig says the consequences were disastrous. "The guy in charge of doing the dynamiting was used to hard-rock mining and not soft earth up in Cameron, and so he over prepared for the blast and set off the charge and apparently boulders just flew everywhere, raining down on all the movie people that were there waiting to see this avalanche, and in fact one of the people was killed and some people were seriously injured."

And so there you have it.  As you drive north from Flagstaff on US 89, you can look to your right (east) after you crest the gentle pass lying above and south of The Painted Desert.  There you can see Sunset Crater resting peacefully in all its glory, unmolested by Hollywood's destructive minions.

Sources:

http://knau.org/post/americas-best-idea-sunset-crater-nearly-destroyed-hollwyood

https://www.zgws.org/zgmovies.php

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018662/

http://azdailysun.com/harold-s-colton-and-mary-russell-ferrell-colton/image_d2a3ff3d-53e4-590d-b2cf-edf3e4e855ac.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Players-Lasky

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Crater

National Geographic - "Tucson Comment" - US 89

The April 1964 issue of "National Geographic" (NG) used 48 pages to chronicle one Family's trip from Guaymas, Mexico, to Mt. Robson, British Columbia.  The effusive account includes 53 photos and a handful of strip maps to illustrate a classic mid-60's NG piece.

Author Ralph Gray was Chief of the National Geographic School Service at the time and he writes a combination of droll commentary mixed with occasional trite humor and Chamber of Commerce stereotypes.  The NG article is a valuable glimpse of US 89 at its pre-interstate zenith.  What could be more "Happy Days" that two parents, three kids and a dog traveling in "Roadrunner," a Dodge motorhome with a push-button transmission?

Here's a quote from the article sure to elicit a reaction from our Dear Tucson Friends:

"Spanish-founded Tucson counts a population of 233,000. Like Phoenix, it grows so fast that these two were the only major cities in the United States whose populations quadrupled between the 1950 and the 1960 census. Northerners seeking year round sun keep migrating to southern Arizona, and although Tucson clings to is Castilian heritage in street names and certain buildings, it fights a losing battle, eventually it may become an Indianapolis with cactus."

Hunt's Tomb

George W.P. Hunt was a Big Man physically and politically but he started out small in stature and penniless. Hunt arrived in Globe, Arizona, in 1881 with little more than the clothes on his back to call his own.  He lived in a cave and and worked odd jobs around the rowdy mining town before becoming a delivery boy. Pretty soon, Hunt owned the company he worked for and rocketed to the top of Gila County's social heap. In a wink of history's eye, Hunt quickly became the most powerful politician in all of Arizona. No one has or probably ever will equal or exceed Hunt's illustrious life and career.

So it was only fitting that Hunt would be forever entombed in his very own pyramid atop a visibly prominent knoll in Far East Phoenix over looking The Salt River's Mill Avenue Bridge and Tempe beyond. The bright, shining white tiled pyramid could be seen for miles in both direction on old US 89. Westbound travelers from the East Valley knew they were in Phoenix when they passed by Hunt's Tomb.  Eastbound drivers could easily gauge their distance to the city limits by eyeing that glistening white marker.

Hunt's Tomb began to fade from view as vegetation grew in the adjacent Phoenix Zoo.  Today there are only a few short stretches where the Tomb is visible from either Van Buren Street or Mill Avenue.
Luckily, keen-eyed drivers who know where and when to look can still see the iconic structure perched proudly atop a 30-million-year-old butte.

http://arizonaoddities.com/2012/10/the-story-of-george-wiley-p-hunt-arizonas-first-governor/
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._P._Hunt

 

Hunt's Tomb can easily be visited in Papago Park. 

The striking skyline of Phoenix is visible from the Tomb.

(Photos of Hunt's Tomb by John Parsons 22FEB18.)