Tucson oddities
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Rooftop equine is unplanned guidepost
The fiberglass horse that sits atop the roof at OK Feed & Supply was never meant to serve as a directional marker for lost motorists trying to navigate the north side of Tucson.
Rather, owner Doug Jordon decided sometime in the 1980s to move the horse from its in-store display because he was running out of room, manager Kip Arnold said.
"He put it on the roof to get it out of the way," Arnold said.
More than 20 years later, OK Feed & Supply at 3701 E. Fort Lowell Road is as well known for its rooftop equine as it is for its ground-level products, so much so that nearby residents have had trouble coping with its absence at times when the horse was temporarily displaced from its perch.
"The last time it got stolen, our phones rang off the hook," said Arnold, who for 15 years has managed the store at the northeast corner of East Fort Lowell Road and North Dodge Boulevard. "People in the Foothills use that for giving directions. They kept asking, 'When are you going to put it back up?' "
The red- and-white-painted horse has been stolen at least twice, Arnold said. The most recent theft, in 2001, saw it gone for nearly three weeks before it was found in the middle of the street near East University Boulevard and North Cherry Avenue.
"Both times it was university treasure hunts, I think," he said. "I really thought it was gone the last time."
Now the horse — which weighs less than 100 pounds — has been bolted not only to the roof, but to the roof's support beams.
"Somebody may take it again, but they're going to have to work their butt off to do it," Arnold said.
It is unknown exactly how long the horse has been at OK Feed & Supply, Arnold said, though it was part of the inventory that Jordon acquired in 1973 when he bought the store from the original owner, O.K. "Bum" Post.
Post, whose given name was Orville Kelvin but was known by everyone as "Bum," opened OK Feed & Supply in 1937 in the heart of the area known then as Binghampton, a Mormon community of farms along the Rillito River.
"There was not much civilization out here then," Arnold said. "Bum told me there was nothing between this corner and Stone Avenue."
Nowadays, OK Feed & Supply finds itself in the middle of an area known more for home-furnishings stores than dog food and horse feed. Even so, Arnold said the rooftop horse continues to keep the store identifiable — and profitable.
"Our sales are actually a little ahead of last year," he said.
Originally published June 1, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Hot rod shop's lumberjack
A Paul Bunyan-like statue has a fittingly prominent place on the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff.
After all, the school's mascot is the Lumberjack.
But on the corner of Glenn Street and North Stone Avenue in Tucson? What's the significance of having a statue there of a burly, bearded man holding an ax?
Chalk it up to the quirkiness of the late Leo Toia, who in 1964 picked up the 20-foot-tall fiberglass conversation piece while attending a trade show in San Francisco, daughter-in-law Madonna Toia said.
"He brought it down on a flatbed truck, along with a cow, horse and a rooster," said Toia, who along with her husband, Don, owns Don's Hot Rod Shop, 2811 N. Stone Ave. Don's is in the building that also housed Leo's Auto Supply until 1994.
Leo Toia, who died in 1988 at the age of 77, first opened a gas station on the property in 1947. He then started carrying auto parts, then seat covers, and eventually moved on to operating a muffler shop and a sporting goods store heavy on hunting and fishing equipment.
"We've called it Leo's shopping complex," Madonna said.
Considering the property on the northwest corner of Stone and Glenn to this day continues to house a number of wide-ranging businesses — in addition to the hot rod shop there's a carwash, and soon a party-supply store will join the list — having them all protected by Paul Bunyan just seems to work.
The oversized mountain man also brings out the kooks, Madonna said.
The lumberjack statue has been the target of many vandalism and theft attempts. He's been shot, his ax has been stolen, and once when he was dressed up for Christmas, part of his Santa suit was set on fire.
Even before the big fella was planted into the ground, an attempt was made to pilfer him.
"When he was still on the trailer in the yard, some fraternity kids tried to steal it," Madonna said. "They had chains wrapped around his leg, and it must have been tied to their bumper, because the bumper was left in the parking lot."
Nowadays, attempts on his life aren't as prevalent as requests to adorn the statue with different accouterments, Madonna said.
Besides temporarily trading in his ax for either a candy cane or an American flag, the lumberjack has been dressed up like a member of ZZ Top for a local radio contest, and recently he was subjected to an unflattering costume for a children's birthday party, Madonna said.
"Some lady wanted to know if she could dress him up, so I've got a picture of him wearing a little pink tutu," she said.
Originally published June 8, 2009.
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Santa Cruz sand trout an artistic inspiration
As the clouds begin to bubble up over the mountains around Tucson, talk of the monsoon and its propensity for wash-filling downpours spreads through the region.
So, too, do discussions of the impending rain's impact on the Santa Cruz sand trout, Southern Arizona's most reclusive life-form.
For those of you not familiar with it, the sand trout is the local version of a unicorn, a mythical creature whose legend has been passed down through generations via stories of its remarkable survivalism and adaptive nature.
"Endemic to the dry washes of Southern Arizona, this fish is able to withstand extreme heat and the absence of water," claims a plaque affixed to a bridge on East Tanque Verde Road near North Pima Street, where a pair of metal sculptures rising from the Rose Hill Wash honor the sand trout.
The sculptures — which rotate when windy, a sort of aquatic weather vane — were designed by local architect Paul Edwards and local artist Chris Tanz for $25,000 in 1997 as part of a city-funded public-art piece.
The story of the sand trout goes back at least a hundred years, local folklore expert Jim Griffith told the Star in 1997.
As the story goes, the sand trout first lived in the Santa Cruz River and other Southern Arizona waterways back when the waterways still regularly had liquid in them. While the water isn't always there anymore, the sand trout is, having developed the ability to breathe air and live in the sand.
"As the last Ice Age ended and the climate of Southern Arizona warmed and dried out, the flows of the Santa Cruz River near Tucson became erratic and then vanished completely by the mid-1950s due to the construction of a series of cheap hotels on its banks," according to an entry on the trout on the Web site Bandersnatch.com, the online version of the satirical newspaper The Frumious Bandersnatch. "The native fish of that stretch of the river became extinct, with the exception of the Santa Cruz Sand Trout, which evolved a capability to live in an environment completely devoid of water."
Griffith's 1988 book titled "Southern Arizona Folk Arts" notes that sand trout is quite a delicacy. That is, if you can manage to bag one. "Once caught, they fought furiously," Griffith wrote. "However, if you were extremely hungry, you could use heavy line and haul your trout to shore, hand over hand. The friction of the sand would have it skinned and cooked by the time it landed."
(Read more about Big Jim's take on the sand trout here.)
Originally published June 22, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Message on wall is a spiritual remnant
The big blue letters stand out starkly against the weather-beaten white wall, just begging to be looked at: HAPPINESS IS SUBMISSION TO GOD.
The wording is sure to have caught your attention if you've ever driven through — or, more likely, been stopped during rush-hour traffic — at the intersection of North Euclid Avenue and East Sixth Street.
Painted on the east wall of what is now a four-plex rental property on the northwest corner, the statement is a reminder of the building's previous incarnation, a mosque that was home to Masjid Tucson.
It was also the site of one of Tucson's most high-profile homicides. Rashad Khalifa, 54, a Muslim spiritual leader who ran Masjid Tucson, was stabbed to death at the mosque on Jan. 31, 1990.
The crime went unsolved for nearly two decades before Tucson police announced in late April that 52-year-old Glen C. Francis had been arrested in Canada in connection with Khalifa's death.
Khalifa's son Sammy, a former Sahuaro High School baseball star, was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft in 1982.
"Happiness is submission to God" is a central theme of Masjid Tucson, also known as the International Community of Submitters, according to its Web site. It is now located near East Speedway and North Rosemont Boulevard.
The saying refers to a promise by God in the Quran that true happiness can come only if people submit themselves to the will of God, ICS director Abdullah Arik told the Star in 2003.
The wording was first painted on the building in the mid-1980s, Numerous touch-ups have been needed due to vandalism, often with different words painted over the "submission to God" portion.
Originally published July 6, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Those who can ID this might have been all wet
Sometimes the best-laid plans don't work out.
Such was the case when the developer of a master-planned community in the Foothills sought to make the entrance to one neighborhood stand out by installing a large stone tower that would double as a fountain.
It was a great idea — until the wind started to blow.
"It just got the people too wet," Jane Hoffman, secretary of the Catalina Foothills Estates Neighborhood Association, said about the fountain, which still stands on the north side of the intersection of East River Road and North Via Entrada.
The tower was commissioned in 1966 by John W. Murphey and was designed by Mexican architect Juan Warner Baz. Baz was looking for something different for Neighborhood No. 7 — the first in Pima County to use a pod-style development layout.
Baz also designed Murphey's Foothills home, as well as the terra-cotta statues that adorn the roof at the Broadway Village shopping center, said Hoffman, who researched the fountain tower's history for a 2005 article that ran in the neighborhood association's newsletter.
The tower was constructed with boulders taken from the back side of the Santa Catalina Mountains, near Oracle, Hoffman wrote.
"The largest crane in Tucson was used to lift the boulders, and the crane snapped in half from the weight of one of the boulders," she wrote. "It took six months to repair the crane, and the company was not willing to work any further on the project."
The intention for the tower was to have water fill the hollow interior, flow off the top of each of the tiers of block and then cascade down the sides, Hoffman wrote.
"Water did flow for several years, but when the winds blew, it was a constant problem of cars getting soaked by the spray," she wrote. "It was finally decided to disconnect the water feature."
Hoffman said the tower is still a source of interest to many, which prompted her to research its history.
"It's always a question people ask," Hoffman said, "especially to people who are new to the neighborhood."
Originally published July 27, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Inspired by owners' son, T. rex greets McDonald's passers-by
It looms over one of Tucson's busiest intersections, waiting to prey on unsuspecting motorists who often are too preoccupied to notice its presence until it's too late.
Their kids sure notice it, though.
No, we're not talking about the red-light camera installed two years ago at East Grant and Tanque Verde roads, but the 18-foot-tall, 40-foot-long concrete dinosaur that has been perched in front of the McDonald's on the northwest corner of the intersection for 15 years.
One of the most recognizable landmarks in Tucson — especially by the city's younger generations — the two-story Tyrannosaurus rex was installed by Michelle and Michael Retzer, who have owned the restaurant at 6651 E. Tanque Verde Road since the mid-1990s.
A second statue, a 10-foot Maiasaura with a nest of baby dinosaurs, resides inside the restaurant's lobby.
"It was my son's idea," Michelle Retzer said of the statues, explaining that then-2-year-old Garrett was a "huge dinosaur fan."
Garrett's dinosaur desire came at a time when interest in the prehistoric beasts was at its peak, thanks to the 1993 movie "Jurassic Park."
Helping the Retzers' cause was their ability to get the concrete animals made locally. They contracted with Amado-based La Reata Studios — which Michelle said was one of the companies that helped make the dinosaurs used in "Jurassic Park" — to have the creatures built and shipped to their store, at a cost of around $55,000.
The dinosaurs are in relatively good condition after all these years, Michelle said, though the Maiasaura did suffer a debilitating injury in its first year after some kids climbed on it and poked out the gel-like eyes.
Both dinosaurs are now protected by wrought-iron barriers, Michelle said.
"It actually looks like she was a crying dinosaur," she said. "We couldn't replace them, because once the gel hardened it became part of the sculpture. We've just kind of left it, kind of as a reminder."
The T. rex outside gets regular washings to keep it clean and noticeable, which isn't hard for a dinosaur on a corner.
"We can't travel anywhere in the United States or even Mexico without running into people who say, 'Oh, the dinosaur McDonald's, I know that!,'" Michelle said.
Originally published Aug. 3, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Structure was once TEP substation
Some buildings just seem to stand out. Especially those that long ago stopped being used.
Such is the case with a brick-and-mortar shell of a building on the northwest corner of North Stone Avenue and West Prince Road. That building has been the subject of many e-mails and calls from readers wondering just what the heck it is — or was.
The structure, which at first glance looks like it could have been a jai alai court, is what is left of a Tucson Electric Power substation that used to help serve that part of TEP's coverage area, company spokesman Joe Salkowski said.
But TEP stopped using the substation more than 15 years ago, Salkowski said, when other substations were built as TEP's coverage expanded elsewhere.
"We no longer needed it," Salkowski said of the property, which was stripped of all essential transformer equipment prior to being sold.
TEP sold the land, and what's left of the building, to Arizona Plumbing Supply, which also owns the parcels to the north of it and on the northeast corner of Prince and Stone, according to Pima County Assessor's Office records.
"I've been looking after it for a number of years," said David Campbell, owner of Arizona Plumbing Supply.
Campbell didn't say what he uses the property for, though one of the company's service trucks sits inside the fenced-in corner.
Originally published Oct. 26, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Oddity update! Sadly some of the statues were vandalized and decapitated on March 2015 during Holy Week. Read about what it took to repair the garden here.
Shrine is wedded to past, present
One of Tucson's most popular places to get married is at the city courthouse downtown, where each year hundreds of couples exchange vows in quick, informal ceremonies meant more for speed than atmosphere.
For an unusual place to get hitched, however, Tucsonans are increasingly heading just west of downtown to a collection of sculptures built along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. It's known as the Garden of Gethsemane.
"I sign off on many weddings and quinceañeras there," said Peg Weber, northwest district administrator for the city of Tucson's Parks and Recreation Department. "We have at least 25 a year. It's fairly popular. I feel like Pastor Peg."
The display was never intended as a nuptial venue when it was built in 1938 by Felix Lucero, a sculptor who traveled the country for 19 years constructing statues as a pledge to God for sparing his life during World War I.
As the story goes, Lucero was critically wounded during a battle in France in 1919, and with what he assumed was one of his final breaths he made a vow to dedicate 20 years of his life to God if he survived.
Tucson was Lucero's last stop on his sculpting tour. The Garden of Gethsemane - a replica of a similar garden near Jerusalem, the scene of Christ's agony and betrayal the night before his crucifixion - ended up becoming his life's work, Weber said.
The original sculptures were built in the dry riverbed of the Santa Cruz. But shortly after their completion, a flash flood washed the display away.
Lucero eventually built a second set of statues, completing them in 1946 on the east bank of the Santa Cruz. That display was moved to its current location, on the northeast corner of West Congress Street and North Bonita Avenue, in 1982 after a series of flood-control projects made the move necessary, Weber said.
The Garden of Gethsemane is under the control of the city Parks and Recreation Department, though it's officially referred to as a "special place" by the department. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset and can be rented for $26 for a day, Weber said.
To keep it from falling too much into disrepair - the sculptures are made of plaster, concrete and chicken wire - Weber said her department does its best to restore pieces when funds are available.
One such restoration project, done in 2008, involved fixing a crucifix that had begun to sway and was at risk of falling over. But because of overhead power lines, the department couldn't use a crane to lift the crucifix over the walls, Weber said.
"Instead, we had 12 staff (members) lift it up and over the walls."
Originally published Dec. 21, 2009.
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- Andrea Rivera Arizona Daily Star
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It's been there for decades, its origin unknown
A fountainlike structure has sat in a south-side neighborhood for about 40 years. Maybe even longer.
But nobody seems to know when it arrived or what purpose the circular structure, which stands at 38 W. District St., serves.
Tucson Water acquired the lot - in the National City neighborhood near South Sixth Avenue and West Ajo Way, and the structure - in 1968 from Water Company No. 1, said Fernando Molina, spokesman for Tucson Water.
A water tank also sits on the fenced-in property.
Records on the property kept by Tucson Water say nothing about a fountain, Molina said.
The structure could have been installed by Water Company No. 1 or by whoever developed the neighborhood, Molina said.
"That's what we suspect, but we can't verify it," he said.
Resident Fred Valenzuela, 46, said he and other neighborhood children once used the structure, which is circular and has something jutting out of the middle of the concrete bottom, as a playground back in the late 1960s and '70s.
"Everybody used to hang on it and play on it," said Valenzuela, who still lives in his childhood home. "It wasn't fenced in."
If it is a fountain, he said, he can't recall a time when it flowed with water.
"I don't know why it's there, but it's an oddity."
Originally published Jan. 18, 2010.
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- Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star
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Oddity update! The Gable House was recently put on the market and sold for $250,000.
House spotlights Gable's presence here
Rumor has it Clark Gable once lived in Tucson. Whether that's true, the iconic midcentury actor did spend a lot of time here, long enough to break hearts as well as Cadillac fenders.
There's a large house near East Grant Road and North Alvernon Way with a sign labeling it "The Gable House." Neighborhood legend has it Gable lived there for a year as he mourned the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, who died in the crash of TWA Flight 3 in January 1942.
The story is only that, said John Riley, 79, a retired real estate agent who lived in the five-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot home with a basement at 2324 N. Madelyn Circle in the mid-1950s.
"To my knowledge, he never lived there," Riley said, adding that Gable visited to spend time with Gilbert Duncan and his wife, whose name he didn't recall, and was a childhood friend of Lombard's. Riley said Gable continued to visit Duncan's wife after Duncan died of pneumonia in 1942.
Albert Cummings, an 82-year-old retired Realtor who used to deliver newspapers to the house and lived there from 1968 to 1997 is convinced that Gable lived there.
"He lived in that house for over a year," Cummings said. "He used to bring boys over there and let them swim in the pool. I'm certain he lived there."
Both men agree Gable never owned the home.
Real estate agent Lupita Arevalo, who currently owns the house, has it on the market for $579,000.
Gable might have bought a home if Lombard had not died, according to a Jan. 2, 1948, Star interview with Gable at the Arizona Inn, where he often retreated between films:
"Just before the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, stunned the nation, Gable and she were in Tucson shopping for a ranch. He said, however, that he has lost interest in living on a big ranch since that fatal plane crash," the article said.
It wasn't always the desert that called to Gable - once it was a court summons.
On Dec. 7, 1951, Gable totaled his 1950 Cadillac convertible in Marana while trying to pass a truck in the rain. He crashed into 44-year-old shop owner Mary Lemme, wrecking her 1947 DeSoto and injuring her back. She sued Gable for $20,000, then upped her claim to $40,000 in a suit that dragged on for several years.
Gable's many trips to Tucson for court appearances made headlines. The paper lauded him for his "common sense" demeanor on Dec. 20, 1951, in paying his $25 fine for illegal passing.
An eloping Army Master Sgt. Lyle D. Winney and his bride-to-be, Ginevera Jean Linsley, asked Gable to witness their wedding, and he complied, posing for a picture with the couple and kissing the bride.
The civil suit dragged on for years, and the Star would run stories coaching readers on when they might be able to see him, such as in a Jan. 6, 1954, story that said, in part: "Nobody knows whether or not he will show up or not, or if somebody knows that, somebody isn't telling."
The Star's final mention of Gable came two days later, when Gable testified, re-enacting the accident for the judge while admitting he had "one very small drink" just before lunch. Gable died of a heart attack at age 59 in 1960.
The resolution of the case could not be found in the Star's archives.
Originally published Jan. 25, 2010.
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- Jamar Younger Arizona Daily Star
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Old tower once used for storm alerts
When the monsoon arrives each summer, Tucson residents can monitor the weather by flipping on the television or logging onto the Internet.
Many years ago, however, farmers living in the area near East Prince and North Country Club roads had to rely on human eyes stationed in watchtowers to spot any potential weather hazards.
Five watchtowers were built along a bend in the nearby Rillito River to help area residents keep watch for powerful monsoon storms.
The last remaining tower is on Arizona Exterminating Co. property at 3149 E. Prince Road, next to the river.
"They would post watches to alert farmers to the floods," said Dennis Mizer, operations manager for Arizona Exterminating Co.
The grayish tower with a spiral staircase wrapping around the outside was built in the 1950s, Mizer said.
The structure had been unoccupied for about two decades when the exterminating company bought the property 10 years ago, he said.
"There was a homeless guy living in it. The guy had cardboard on the windows," he said. "We moved the guy out and got him an apartment."
The company replaced the cardboard with new windowpanes and decorative iron doors.
Now, the three-story tower includes space for pesticides and chemicals, employee records and a workshop, he said.
And it's air-conditioned.
"We're in and out of it five, six times a day," he said.
Originally published Feb. 15, 2010.
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- Carmen Duarte Arizona Daily Star
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Monolith art at busy intersection generates concrete sense of place
There are 17 monoliths with hues of purples, pinks and oranges that jut toward the sky at the northwest corner of West Ajo Way and South Mission Road.
At sunrise and sunset, the colors jump out.
The stone walls sit in two rows and represent "a mountain range, a canyon, a gateway to Tucson," and the public art is known as Many Color Mountain, or Na: nko Ma: s Du'ag Son in Tohono O'odham, a dedication plaque says.
"The mountains are seen as holy places to the Tohono O'odham," said Martín Rivera, a former manager of the Mission Branch Library, which is adjacent to the public art.
Rivera recalled periodically walking the path between the rows of stone walls and feeling "a sense of place."
Visitors to the library - tourists on their way to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, winter visitors routinely checking their e-mail or aficionados of the annual rodeo or gem and mineral shows - inquire about Many Color Mountain, Rivera said.
There also is the occasional scavenger-hunt participant who wants to know more about the stone towers, said Mary McKinney, the current library manager.
For McKinney, the strips of copper and carvings of javelinas in the walls of Many Color Mountain are best seen up close.
"The children whose little handprints are pressed into the backs of the towers have all grown up now, but they made a lasting impression here," McKinney said.
The public art was done by artists Chris Tanz, Susan Holman and the late Paul T. Edwards. It was dedicated in December 1994, and it cost the city's Transportation Department $55,950, Tucson Pima Arts Council records show.
In addition to the dedication plaque, a description of Many Color Mountain by the artists is at the library's information desk, McKinney said.
Originally published Feb. 22, 2010.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Take this I-19 exit, and basically you're nowhere
Alaska had the proposed "Bridge to Nowhere," which gained notoriety during former Gov. Sarah Palin's failed vice presidential campaign.
Much less known - but as curious - is Southern Arizona's "Exit to Nowhere," otherwise known as the Papago Road exit on Interstate 19 just south of Tucson.
Located in the middle of the Tohono O'odham Nation's San Xavier District, the freeway exit - essentially a glorified U-turn - was part of the original construction of I-19 when the freeway was built in the late 1960s, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation Web site.
The Papago Road exit was included so the San Xavier District could develop frontage along the freeway, district planner Mark Pugh said.
Arizona Daily Star archives indicate the area included the remnants of a Hohokam village, which had to be partially excavated and removed to allow for road construction.
The ruins became a focal point of the O'odham's 1997 decision on where to put its second casino. The original plan was to build it around the Papago exit, but an outcry from tribal members led to the casino getting built five miles to the south, at I-19's Pima Mine Road exit, Star archives show.
The Papago exit still can be developed, Pugh said, though he didn't know when - or if - the San Xavier District would get around to it.
Developing the exit would "come with a high cost," he said.
Arizona Department of Transportation spokeswoman Linda Ritter said her agency has no plans to either modify or shut down the exit, which consists of the standard on- and off-ramps, a short road underneath I-19 and barriers to what would be Papago Road if it ever was extended east or west from the freeway.
Originally published March 15, 2016.
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- Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star
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The Bone' has endured with certain flash
The flashing, stylized neon star with the strobe-like burst of white light on North Swan Road near Broadway certainly qualifies as odd in these days of code-enforced sign-sameness in Tucson.
Equally odd is the persistence of the business it advertises. Lucky Wishbone's deep-fried menu of chicken parts, steak "fingers" and fries has survived nearly 60 years of health fads and is still growing.
Plans are afoot to replace the "Bone" at 10 N. Swan Road with a new building. The sign, said owner Clyde Buzzard, will remain. "It's kind of an ugly thing that stayed around."
He has the same view of his business. "Fried foods are very unpopular," he said, "but we're terribly busy."
Fans of "the Bone" are rabid, judging from its Facebook page, where patrons pine for their steak fingers and fried gizzards from as far away as the Congo. "We're local yokels, but we're world-famous," Buzzard said.
While he makes no health claims for his food, Buzzard said the chain went to "zero trans-fat long before McDonald's did" and is downright obsessive about keeping its vast vats of vegetable oils clean.
The sign, whose iconic image is incorporated into the company's logo for its six locations in Tucson, was designed and erected in 1953 by Arizona Neon, Buzzard said.
When he took it down to repair it a few years back, city sign inspectors warned him that if he changed anything about it, it would lose its "grandfathered" right to remain. They wouldn't let him replace the bulb on the south side of the sign, which is why it flashes only on the north face, Buzzard said.
He said he checked and rechecked those rights with the city of Tucson as he made plans to move his business - but not the sign pole - to a lot he owns adjacent to the restaurant at the corner of Swan and Broadway.
The Lucky Wishbone restaurants were started by Derald Fulton, but Buzzard was with him at the beginning and became one of three managing partners as the chain expanded. Buzzard also owns the Lucky Wishbone at 990 S. Harrison Road.
And the underlying reason for the restaurants' longevity, according to Buzzard: "We're lucky."
Originally published March 22, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
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Lofty travel ideas adorn auto-body shop
Carburetors, calligraphy and the cosmos. The three normally don't go together.
But that alliterative combination is the theme at a northwest-side auto-body shop called Olde English Creations.
For the past several years, owner Ray Guitard has transformed the parking lot of his shop into an homage to space travel and extraterrestrial life, so much so that it's hard not to notice it as you drive past the northeast corner of West Roger and North Romero roads.
"We do get a lot of people drawn to those things," said Guitard, who has owned the shop since 1979.
The name Olde English Creations doesn't fit in with the alien motif, Guitard admits, but it stuck after he was inspired by the calligraphy work his brother Richard was experimenting with.
The out-of-this-world theme didn't come about until 2002, when Guitard was commissioned to work on a drag-racing car. He and the car's driver got to talking about space aliens - a topic Guitard said he's well-versed in - and "the next thing we know, we've got aliens on his car trailer."
Then Guitard started transforming the parking lot.
One steel wall resembles what he said a repair facility would look like in space, while a rocket launcher parked in the lot has aliens painted on the side.
Aliens will soon be landing on Olde English Creations' roof, Guitard said.
"We just acquired a piece of foam that we're going to use to cut out a huge alien to put on the roof," he said.
And if that foam reproduction somehow manages to draw actual otherworldly beings to visit the shop? They're welcome to stick their head in the door, Guitard says.
"We can't be the only ones out here," he said. "They'll show up at some point, say 'nanu, nanu,' and be on their way."
Originally published April 26, 2010
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- Jamar Younger Arizona Daily Star
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Old gas station pumped its last 'fill 'er up' in '30s
The Ralph's Service Station building in the historic Armory Park neighborhood serves as an example of longevity.
The building has stood at the corner of South Fourth Avenue and East 19th Street for more than 80 years. However, if your car breaks down or runs out of gas, you're out of luck.
The station hasn't serviced a vehicle since the late 1930s. The service station was built between 1929 and 1930 after the lot was bought by Ralph Montijo, said his son, Ralph Montijo Jr.
Montijo Jr. said the green-and-white metal building was the first prefabricated gas station in Tucson.
"He brought it in and set it up on that corner," he said.
Later on, the elder Montijo built a large shed behind the station, which he used as an auto shop, his son said. "It could hold eight cars. It was a pretty big garage."
Montijo also built two apartments next to the station, one of which housed his family, his son said.
His entrepreneurial spirit wasn't rewarded with many customers, though. The property went into foreclosure about eight years after it opened, his son said. The location, along with the Great Depression, brought on the station's demise.
Both streets at the intersection were unpaved, and the majority of traffic traveled down Sixth Avenue, he said.
"There wasn't any real traffic on South Fourth Avenue," he said. "My dad probably picked the worst intersection to build a gas station."
The station has had many occupants over the years, including a cabinetmaker, said Patricia Tarsha, an investor in the property.
Originally published May 10, 2010
Find the oddity:
- Andrea Rivera Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Deteriorating adobe barn adorns golf course
Adobe buildings aren't your typical golf hazards.
An adobe structure sits near the fifth tee box at Silverbell Golf Course and isn't so much of an obstacle as it is a curiosity that golfers muse over.
Golfer Frank Salbego and his golf buddies were at their wits' end trying to figure out why the building is part of the golf course's landscape.
"It's quite unique," Salbego said of the building.
The structure is an adobe barn with four crumbling walls and no roof. It's what's left of an old cotton farm, said Mike Hayes, deputy parks director for the city of Tucson.
The course, on Silverbell Road, north of Ironwood Hill Drive, is operated by the city and was dedicated in 1979 and renovated in 2005 because part of it was built on a city landfill and the greens were sinking, Hayes said.
Hayes, who is director of Tucson City Golf, never thought to demolish the barn during renovations because he found its presence interesting.
"It's just an old barn. It's deteriorated," he said. "It's still something different out there in the middle of a golf course."
Hayes checked to see if the structure could be designated a historical landmark, but it didn't meet requirements, he said.
Still, the adobe barn is there to stay.
Originally published May 24, 2010
Find the oddity:
- Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Wet, slippery memories
Drive into town from Phoenix and you're greeted near the Ina Road exit with a barren brick tower that juts out at the top, draped with a "SPORTSPARK" sign.
Those who grew up in the area look upon the tower with fond memories, remembering the years when it served as an indoor staircase to three enclosed water slides called hydrotubes. Everyone else drives by and sees the ugliest, least economically designed billboard ever.
Those who long for the tubes still can find them at Marana's Breakers Water Park, 8555 W. Tangerine Road, where they've been since April 1996, when Sportspark - losing money on the hydrotubes operation - sold the 1,110 feet of tubing to its former rival.
The tower stands in limbo. Mike Bregante, assistant general manager of Championship Sports, which operates the athletic facilities at what is now called Mike Jacob Sports Park, said Pima County did not cede control of the tower to the company, although it's open to ideas on how to use the space.
George Kuck, operations manager for Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation, said there are no immediate plans to do anything with the tower, and no one has called the county about the tower in years.
When interviewed about the tower, Kuck asked what this story was about, and was told it's for a column about strange, inexplicable things around town.
"Yeah, I guess that would fit the bill," Kuck said of the tower. He suggested that it probably will be demolished at some point.
Originally published May 31, 2010
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
What about the big, tall sign that says absolutely nothing?
Vacant commercial property is quite plentiful in the Tucson area. Point in any direction and you're likely to find a parcel . . . or six.
But how about one placed firmly along the freeway, which comes complete with its own 100-foot-tall circular sign that can be seen for blocks, and dates back to a long-gone tenant? Those are a little harder to come by.
For more than 20 years, the northwest corner of East Benson Highway and South Park Avenue has sat vacant, save for the sign that used to represent the Union 76 gas station that first landed there in the mid-1950s.
The land's only occupant in the last few years has been a memorial to Gloria Ann Gomez, a 24-year-old woman who was killed in a car wreck at the intersection in September 2006.
Look closely at the sign and you still can see the outline of the "76" on both sides of the circle, which has been painted white to cover the logo's orange-and-blue color scheme.
The gas station had a variety of names during its roughly 25 years of existence, known first as Koehler's Union Service Station and later Joe's and Bob's, according to old city business directories.
By 1989, all that was left was the sign. The corner got even more empty about five years ago when the neighboring lot, which housed a Waffle House restaurant, was razed.
Why is the sign still there? Chalk it up to Tucson's sign ordinances, which allow signs of that size to exist only if they predate the establishment of the code in 1985, said Janet Snyder, who represents the corner lot for 4-D Properties.
"If we take it down, we'll never be able to put up another big sign," she said. "We don't maintain it, though."
The presence of that sign - which still has light bulbs in the fixtures that hang over where gas prices were displayed - could serve as a strong lure to a business looking to attract customers who are driving on Interstate 10. The corner is just feet from an I-10 off-ramp.
"We've had a couple of inquiries but nothing solid," Snyder said.
Originally published June 7, 2010.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Rooftop equine is unplanned guidepost
The fiberglass horse that sits atop the roof at OK Feed & Supply was never meant to serve as a directional marker for lost motorists trying to navigate the north side of Tucson.
Rather, owner Doug Jordon decided sometime in the 1980s to move the horse from its in-store display because he was running out of room, manager Kip Arnold said.
"He put it on the roof to get it out of the way," Arnold said.
More than 20 years later, OK Feed & Supply at 3701 E. Fort Lowell Road is as well known for its rooftop equine as it is for its ground-level products, so much so that nearby residents have had trouble coping with its absence at times when the horse was temporarily displaced from its perch.
"The last time it got stolen, our phones rang off the hook," said Arnold, who for 15 years has managed the store at the northeast corner of East Fort Lowell Road and North Dodge Boulevard. "People in the Foothills use that for giving directions. They kept asking, 'When are you going to put it back up?' "
The red- and-white-painted horse has been stolen at least twice, Arnold said. The most recent theft, in 2001, saw it gone for nearly three weeks before it was found in the middle of the street near East University Boulevard and North Cherry Avenue.
"Both times it was university treasure hunts, I think," he said. "I really thought it was gone the last time."
Now the horse — which weighs less than 100 pounds — has been bolted not only to the roof, but to the roof's support beams.
"Somebody may take it again, but they're going to have to work their butt off to do it," Arnold said.
It is unknown exactly how long the horse has been at OK Feed & Supply, Arnold said, though it was part of the inventory that Jordon acquired in 1973 when he bought the store from the original owner, O.K. "Bum" Post.
Post, whose given name was Orville Kelvin but was known by everyone as "Bum," opened OK Feed & Supply in 1937 in the heart of the area known then as Binghampton, a Mormon community of farms along the Rillito River.
"There was not much civilization out here then," Arnold said. "Bum told me there was nothing between this corner and Stone Avenue."
Nowadays, OK Feed & Supply finds itself in the middle of an area known more for home-furnishings stores than dog food and horse feed. Even so, Arnold said the rooftop horse continues to keep the store identifiable — and profitable.
"Our sales are actually a little ahead of last year," he said.
Originally published June 1, 2009.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Hot rod shop's lumberjack
A Paul Bunyan-like statue has a fittingly prominent place on the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff.
After all, the school's mascot is the Lumberjack.
But on the corner of Glenn Street and North Stone Avenue in Tucson? What's the significance of having a statue there of a burly, bearded man holding an ax?
Chalk it up to the quirkiness of the late Leo Toia, who in 1964 picked up the 20-foot-tall fiberglass conversation piece while attending a trade show in San Francisco, daughter-in-law Madonna Toia said.
"He brought it down on a flatbed truck, along with a cow, horse and a rooster," said Toia, who along with her husband, Don, owns Don's Hot Rod Shop, 2811 N. Stone Ave. Don's is in the building that also housed Leo's Auto Supply until 1994.
Leo Toia, who died in 1988 at the age of 77, first opened a gas station on the property in 1947. He then started carrying auto parts, then seat covers, and eventually moved on to operating a muffler shop and a sporting goods store heavy on hunting and fishing equipment.
"We've called it Leo's shopping complex," Madonna said.
Considering the property on the northwest corner of Stone and Glenn to this day continues to house a number of wide-ranging businesses — in addition to the hot rod shop there's a carwash, and soon a party-supply store will join the list — having them all protected by Paul Bunyan just seems to work.
The oversized mountain man also brings out the kooks, Madonna said.
The lumberjack statue has been the target of many vandalism and theft attempts. He's been shot, his ax has been stolen, and once when he was dressed up for Christmas, part of his Santa suit was set on fire.
Even before the big fella was planted into the ground, an attempt was made to pilfer him.
"When he was still on the trailer in the yard, some fraternity kids tried to steal it," Madonna said. "They had chains wrapped around his leg, and it must have been tied to their bumper, because the bumper was left in the parking lot."
Nowadays, attempts on his life aren't as prevalent as requests to adorn the statue with different accouterments, Madonna said.
Besides temporarily trading in his ax for either a candy cane or an American flag, the lumberjack has been dressed up like a member of ZZ Top for a local radio contest, and recently he was subjected to an unflattering costume for a children's birthday party, Madonna said.
"Some lady wanted to know if she could dress him up, so I've got a picture of him wearing a little pink tutu," she said.
Originally published June 8, 2009.
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Santa Cruz sand trout an artistic inspiration
As the clouds begin to bubble up over the mountains around Tucson, talk of the monsoon and its propensity for wash-filling downpours spreads through the region.
So, too, do discussions of the impending rain's impact on the Santa Cruz sand trout, Southern Arizona's most reclusive life-form.
For those of you not familiar with it, the sand trout is the local version of a unicorn, a mythical creature whose legend has been passed down through generations via stories of its remarkable survivalism and adaptive nature.
"Endemic to the dry washes of Southern Arizona, this fish is able to withstand extreme heat and the absence of water," claims a plaque affixed to a bridge on East Tanque Verde Road near North Pima Street, where a pair of metal sculptures rising from the Rose Hill Wash honor the sand trout.
The sculptures — which rotate when windy, a sort of aquatic weather vane — were designed by local architect Paul Edwards and local artist Chris Tanz for $25,000 in 1997 as part of a city-funded public-art piece.
The story of the sand trout goes back at least a hundred years, local folklore expert Jim Griffith told the Star in 1997.
As the story goes, the sand trout first lived in the Santa Cruz River and other Southern Arizona waterways back when the waterways still regularly had liquid in them. While the water isn't always there anymore, the sand trout is, having developed the ability to breathe air and live in the sand.
"As the last Ice Age ended and the climate of Southern Arizona warmed and dried out, the flows of the Santa Cruz River near Tucson became erratic and then vanished completely by the mid-1950s due to the construction of a series of cheap hotels on its banks," according to an entry on the trout on the Web site Bandersnatch.com, the online version of the satirical newspaper The Frumious Bandersnatch. "The native fish of that stretch of the river became extinct, with the exception of the Santa Cruz Sand Trout, which evolved a capability to live in an environment completely devoid of water."
Griffith's 1988 book titled "Southern Arizona Folk Arts" notes that sand trout is quite a delicacy. That is, if you can manage to bag one. "Once caught, they fought furiously," Griffith wrote. "However, if you were extremely hungry, you could use heavy line and haul your trout to shore, hand over hand. The friction of the sand would have it skinned and cooked by the time it landed."
(Read more about Big Jim's take on the sand trout here.)
Originally published June 22, 2009.
Oddity watch:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Message on wall is a spiritual remnant
The big blue letters stand out starkly against the weather-beaten white wall, just begging to be looked at: HAPPINESS IS SUBMISSION TO GOD.
The wording is sure to have caught your attention if you've ever driven through — or, more likely, been stopped during rush-hour traffic — at the intersection of North Euclid Avenue and East Sixth Street.
Painted on the east wall of what is now a four-plex rental property on the northwest corner, the statement is a reminder of the building's previous incarnation, a mosque that was home to Masjid Tucson.
It was also the site of one of Tucson's most high-profile homicides. Rashad Khalifa, 54, a Muslim spiritual leader who ran Masjid Tucson, was stabbed to death at the mosque on Jan. 31, 1990.
The crime went unsolved for nearly two decades before Tucson police announced in late April that 52-year-old Glen C. Francis had been arrested in Canada in connection with Khalifa's death.
Khalifa's son Sammy, a former Sahuaro High School baseball star, was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft in 1982.
"Happiness is submission to God" is a central theme of Masjid Tucson, also known as the International Community of Submitters, according to its Web site. It is now located near East Speedway and North Rosemont Boulevard.
The saying refers to a promise by God in the Quran that true happiness can come only if people submit themselves to the will of God, ICS director Abdullah Arik told the Star in 2003.
The wording was first painted on the building in the mid-1980s, Numerous touch-ups have been needed due to vandalism, often with different words painted over the "submission to God" portion.
Originally published July 6, 2009.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Those who can ID this might have been all wet
Sometimes the best-laid plans don't work out.
Such was the case when the developer of a master-planned community in the Foothills sought to make the entrance to one neighborhood stand out by installing a large stone tower that would double as a fountain.
It was a great idea — until the wind started to blow.
"It just got the people too wet," Jane Hoffman, secretary of the Catalina Foothills Estates Neighborhood Association, said about the fountain, which still stands on the north side of the intersection of East River Road and North Via Entrada.
The tower was commissioned in 1966 by John W. Murphey and was designed by Mexican architect Juan Warner Baz. Baz was looking for something different for Neighborhood No. 7 — the first in Pima County to use a pod-style development layout.
Baz also designed Murphey's Foothills home, as well as the terra-cotta statues that adorn the roof at the Broadway Village shopping center, said Hoffman, who researched the fountain tower's history for a 2005 article that ran in the neighborhood association's newsletter.
The tower was constructed with boulders taken from the back side of the Santa Catalina Mountains, near Oracle, Hoffman wrote.
"The largest crane in Tucson was used to lift the boulders, and the crane snapped in half from the weight of one of the boulders," she wrote. "It took six months to repair the crane, and the company was not willing to work any further on the project."
The intention for the tower was to have water fill the hollow interior, flow off the top of each of the tiers of block and then cascade down the sides, Hoffman wrote.
"Water did flow for several years, but when the winds blew, it was a constant problem of cars getting soaked by the spray," she wrote. "It was finally decided to disconnect the water feature."
Hoffman said the tower is still a source of interest to many, which prompted her to research its history.
"It's always a question people ask," Hoffman said, "especially to people who are new to the neighborhood."
Originally published July 27, 2009.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Inspired by owners' son, T. rex greets McDonald's passers-by
It looms over one of Tucson's busiest intersections, waiting to prey on unsuspecting motorists who often are too preoccupied to notice its presence until it's too late.
Their kids sure notice it, though.
No, we're not talking about the red-light camera installed two years ago at East Grant and Tanque Verde roads, but the 18-foot-tall, 40-foot-long concrete dinosaur that has been perched in front of the McDonald's on the northwest corner of the intersection for 15 years.
One of the most recognizable landmarks in Tucson — especially by the city's younger generations — the two-story Tyrannosaurus rex was installed by Michelle and Michael Retzer, who have owned the restaurant at 6651 E. Tanque Verde Road since the mid-1990s.
A second statue, a 10-foot Maiasaura with a nest of baby dinosaurs, resides inside the restaurant's lobby.
"It was my son's idea," Michelle Retzer said of the statues, explaining that then-2-year-old Garrett was a "huge dinosaur fan."
Garrett's dinosaur desire came at a time when interest in the prehistoric beasts was at its peak, thanks to the 1993 movie "Jurassic Park."
Helping the Retzers' cause was their ability to get the concrete animals made locally. They contracted with Amado-based La Reata Studios — which Michelle said was one of the companies that helped make the dinosaurs used in "Jurassic Park" — to have the creatures built and shipped to their store, at a cost of around $55,000.
The dinosaurs are in relatively good condition after all these years, Michelle said, though the Maiasaura did suffer a debilitating injury in its first year after some kids climbed on it and poked out the gel-like eyes.
Both dinosaurs are now protected by wrought-iron barriers, Michelle said.
"It actually looks like she was a crying dinosaur," she said. "We couldn't replace them, because once the gel hardened it became part of the sculpture. We've just kind of left it, kind of as a reminder."
The T. rex outside gets regular washings to keep it clean and noticeable, which isn't hard for a dinosaur on a corner.
"We can't travel anywhere in the United States or even Mexico without running into people who say, 'Oh, the dinosaur McDonald's, I know that!,'" Michelle said.
Originally published Aug. 3, 2009.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Structure was once TEP substation
Some buildings just seem to stand out. Especially those that long ago stopped being used.
Such is the case with a brick-and-mortar shell of a building on the northwest corner of North Stone Avenue and West Prince Road. That building has been the subject of many e-mails and calls from readers wondering just what the heck it is — or was.
The structure, which at first glance looks like it could have been a jai alai court, is what is left of a Tucson Electric Power substation that used to help serve that part of TEP's coverage area, company spokesman Joe Salkowski said.
But TEP stopped using the substation more than 15 years ago, Salkowski said, when other substations were built as TEP's coverage expanded elsewhere.
"We no longer needed it," Salkowski said of the property, which was stripped of all essential transformer equipment prior to being sold.
TEP sold the land, and what's left of the building, to Arizona Plumbing Supply, which also owns the parcels to the north of it and on the northeast corner of Prince and Stone, according to Pima County Assessor's Office records.
"I've been looking after it for a number of years," said David Campbell, owner of Arizona Plumbing Supply.
Campbell didn't say what he uses the property for, though one of the company's service trucks sits inside the fenced-in corner.
Originally published Oct. 26, 2009.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Oddity update! Sadly some of the statues were vandalized and decapitated on March 2015 during Holy Week. Read about what it took to repair the garden here.
Shrine is wedded to past, present
One of Tucson's most popular places to get married is at the city courthouse downtown, where each year hundreds of couples exchange vows in quick, informal ceremonies meant more for speed than atmosphere.
For an unusual place to get hitched, however, Tucsonans are increasingly heading just west of downtown to a collection of sculptures built along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. It's known as the Garden of Gethsemane.
"I sign off on many weddings and quinceañeras there," said Peg Weber, northwest district administrator for the city of Tucson's Parks and Recreation Department. "We have at least 25 a year. It's fairly popular. I feel like Pastor Peg."
The display was never intended as a nuptial venue when it was built in 1938 by Felix Lucero, a sculptor who traveled the country for 19 years constructing statues as a pledge to God for sparing his life during World War I.
As the story goes, Lucero was critically wounded during a battle in France in 1919, and with what he assumed was one of his final breaths he made a vow to dedicate 20 years of his life to God if he survived.
Tucson was Lucero's last stop on his sculpting tour. The Garden of Gethsemane - a replica of a similar garden near Jerusalem, the scene of Christ's agony and betrayal the night before his crucifixion - ended up becoming his life's work, Weber said.
The original sculptures were built in the dry riverbed of the Santa Cruz. But shortly after their completion, a flash flood washed the display away.
Lucero eventually built a second set of statues, completing them in 1946 on the east bank of the Santa Cruz. That display was moved to its current location, on the northeast corner of West Congress Street and North Bonita Avenue, in 1982 after a series of flood-control projects made the move necessary, Weber said.
The Garden of Gethsemane is under the control of the city Parks and Recreation Department, though it's officially referred to as a "special place" by the department. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset and can be rented for $26 for a day, Weber said.
To keep it from falling too much into disrepair - the sculptures are made of plaster, concrete and chicken wire - Weber said her department does its best to restore pieces when funds are available.
One such restoration project, done in 2008, involved fixing a crucifix that had begun to sway and was at risk of falling over. But because of overhead power lines, the department couldn't use a crane to lift the crucifix over the walls, Weber said.
"Instead, we had 12 staff (members) lift it up and over the walls."
Originally published Dec. 21, 2009.
Find the oddity:
Oddity watch:
- Andrea Rivera Arizona Daily Star
It's been there for decades, its origin unknown
A fountainlike structure has sat in a south-side neighborhood for about 40 years. Maybe even longer.
But nobody seems to know when it arrived or what purpose the circular structure, which stands at 38 W. District St., serves.
Tucson Water acquired the lot - in the National City neighborhood near South Sixth Avenue and West Ajo Way, and the structure - in 1968 from Water Company No. 1, said Fernando Molina, spokesman for Tucson Water.
A water tank also sits on the fenced-in property.
Records on the property kept by Tucson Water say nothing about a fountain, Molina said.
The structure could have been installed by Water Company No. 1 or by whoever developed the neighborhood, Molina said.
"That's what we suspect, but we can't verify it," he said.
Resident Fred Valenzuela, 46, said he and other neighborhood children once used the structure, which is circular and has something jutting out of the middle of the concrete bottom, as a playground back in the late 1960s and '70s.
"Everybody used to hang on it and play on it," said Valenzuela, who still lives in his childhood home. "It wasn't fenced in."
If it is a fountain, he said, he can't recall a time when it flowed with water.
"I don't know why it's there, but it's an oddity."
Originally published Jan. 18, 2010.
Find the oddity:
- Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star
Oddity update! The Gable House was recently put on the market and sold for $250,000.
House spotlights Gable's presence here
Rumor has it Clark Gable once lived in Tucson. Whether that's true, the iconic midcentury actor did spend a lot of time here, long enough to break hearts as well as Cadillac fenders.
There's a large house near East Grant Road and North Alvernon Way with a sign labeling it "The Gable House." Neighborhood legend has it Gable lived there for a year as he mourned the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, who died in the crash of TWA Flight 3 in January 1942.
The story is only that, said John Riley, 79, a retired real estate agent who lived in the five-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot home with a basement at 2324 N. Madelyn Circle in the mid-1950s.
"To my knowledge, he never lived there," Riley said, adding that Gable visited to spend time with Gilbert Duncan and his wife, whose name he didn't recall, and was a childhood friend of Lombard's. Riley said Gable continued to visit Duncan's wife after Duncan died of pneumonia in 1942.
Albert Cummings, an 82-year-old retired Realtor who used to deliver newspapers to the house and lived there from 1968 to 1997 is convinced that Gable lived there.
"He lived in that house for over a year," Cummings said. "He used to bring boys over there and let them swim in the pool. I'm certain he lived there."
Both men agree Gable never owned the home.
Real estate agent Lupita Arevalo, who currently owns the house, has it on the market for $579,000.
Gable might have bought a home if Lombard had not died, according to a Jan. 2, 1948, Star interview with Gable at the Arizona Inn, where he often retreated between films:
"Just before the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, stunned the nation, Gable and she were in Tucson shopping for a ranch. He said, however, that he has lost interest in living on a big ranch since that fatal plane crash," the article said.
It wasn't always the desert that called to Gable - once it was a court summons.
On Dec. 7, 1951, Gable totaled his 1950 Cadillac convertible in Marana while trying to pass a truck in the rain. He crashed into 44-year-old shop owner Mary Lemme, wrecking her 1947 DeSoto and injuring her back. She sued Gable for $20,000, then upped her claim to $40,000 in a suit that dragged on for several years.
Gable's many trips to Tucson for court appearances made headlines. The paper lauded him for his "common sense" demeanor on Dec. 20, 1951, in paying his $25 fine for illegal passing.
An eloping Army Master Sgt. Lyle D. Winney and his bride-to-be, Ginevera Jean Linsley, asked Gable to witness their wedding, and he complied, posing for a picture with the couple and kissing the bride.
The civil suit dragged on for years, and the Star would run stories coaching readers on when they might be able to see him, such as in a Jan. 6, 1954, story that said, in part: "Nobody knows whether or not he will show up or not, or if somebody knows that, somebody isn't telling."
The Star's final mention of Gable came two days later, when Gable testified, re-enacting the accident for the judge while admitting he had "one very small drink" just before lunch. Gable died of a heart attack at age 59 in 1960.
The resolution of the case could not be found in the Star's archives.
Originally published Jan. 25, 2010.
Find the oddity:
- Jamar Younger Arizona Daily Star
Old tower once used for storm alerts
When the monsoon arrives each summer, Tucson residents can monitor the weather by flipping on the television or logging onto the Internet.
Many years ago, however, farmers living in the area near East Prince and North Country Club roads had to rely on human eyes stationed in watchtowers to spot any potential weather hazards.
Five watchtowers were built along a bend in the nearby Rillito River to help area residents keep watch for powerful monsoon storms.
The last remaining tower is on Arizona Exterminating Co. property at 3149 E. Prince Road, next to the river.
"They would post watches to alert farmers to the floods," said Dennis Mizer, operations manager for Arizona Exterminating Co.
The grayish tower with a spiral staircase wrapping around the outside was built in the 1950s, Mizer said.
The structure had been unoccupied for about two decades when the exterminating company bought the property 10 years ago, he said.
"There was a homeless guy living in it. The guy had cardboard on the windows," he said. "We moved the guy out and got him an apartment."
The company replaced the cardboard with new windowpanes and decorative iron doors.
Now, the three-story tower includes space for pesticides and chemicals, employee records and a workshop, he said.
And it's air-conditioned.
"We're in and out of it five, six times a day," he said.
Originally published Feb. 15, 2010.
Find the oddity:
- Carmen Duarte Arizona Daily Star
Monolith art at busy intersection generates concrete sense of place
There are 17 monoliths with hues of purples, pinks and oranges that jut toward the sky at the northwest corner of West Ajo Way and South Mission Road.
At sunrise and sunset, the colors jump out.
The stone walls sit in two rows and represent "a mountain range, a canyon, a gateway to Tucson," and the public art is known as Many Color Mountain, or Na: nko Ma: s Du'ag Son in Tohono O'odham, a dedication plaque says.
"The mountains are seen as holy places to the Tohono O'odham," said Martín Rivera, a former manager of the Mission Branch Library, which is adjacent to the public art.
Rivera recalled periodically walking the path between the rows of stone walls and feeling "a sense of place."
Visitors to the library - tourists on their way to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, winter visitors routinely checking their e-mail or aficionados of the annual rodeo or gem and mineral shows - inquire about Many Color Mountain, Rivera said.
There also is the occasional scavenger-hunt participant who wants to know more about the stone towers, said Mary McKinney, the current library manager.
For McKinney, the strips of copper and carvings of javelinas in the walls of Many Color Mountain are best seen up close.
"The children whose little handprints are pressed into the backs of the towers have all grown up now, but they made a lasting impression here," McKinney said.
The public art was done by artists Chris Tanz, Susan Holman and the late Paul T. Edwards. It was dedicated in December 1994, and it cost the city's Transportation Department $55,950, Tucson Pima Arts Council records show.
In addition to the dedication plaque, a description of Many Color Mountain by the artists is at the library's information desk, McKinney said.
Originally published Feb. 22, 2010.
Find the oddity:
- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Take this I-19 exit, and basically you're nowhere
Alaska had the proposed "Bridge to Nowhere," which gained notoriety during former Gov. Sarah Palin's failed vice presidential campaign.
Much less known - but as curious - is Southern Arizona's "Exit to Nowhere," otherwise known as the Papago Road exit on Interstate 19 just south of Tucson.
Located in the middle of the Tohono O'odham Nation's San Xavier District, the freeway exit - essentially a glorified U-turn - was part of the original construction of I-19 when the freeway was built in the late 1960s, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation Web site.
The Papago Road exit was included so the San Xavier District could develop frontage along the freeway, district planner Mark Pugh said.
Arizona Daily Star archives indicate the area included the remnants of a Hohokam village, which had to be partially excavated and removed to allow for road construction.
The ruins became a focal point of the O'odham's 1997 decision on where to put its second casino. The original plan was to build it around the Papago exit, but an outcry from tribal members led to the casino getting built five miles to the south, at I-19's Pima Mine Road exit, Star archives show.
The Papago exit still can be developed, Pugh said, though he didn't know when - or if - the San Xavier District would get around to it.
Developing the exit would "come with a high cost," he said.
Arizona Department of Transportation spokeswoman Linda Ritter said her agency has no plans to either modify or shut down the exit, which consists of the standard on- and off-ramps, a short road underneath I-19 and barriers to what would be Papago Road if it ever was extended east or west from the freeway.
Originally published March 15, 2016.
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- Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star
The Bone' has endured with certain flash
The flashing, stylized neon star with the strobe-like burst of white light on North Swan Road near Broadway certainly qualifies as odd in these days of code-enforced sign-sameness in Tucson.
Equally odd is the persistence of the business it advertises. Lucky Wishbone's deep-fried menu of chicken parts, steak "fingers" and fries has survived nearly 60 years of health fads and is still growing.
Plans are afoot to replace the "Bone" at 10 N. Swan Road with a new building. The sign, said owner Clyde Buzzard, will remain. "It's kind of an ugly thing that stayed around."
He has the same view of his business. "Fried foods are very unpopular," he said, "but we're terribly busy."
Fans of "the Bone" are rabid, judging from its Facebook page, where patrons pine for their steak fingers and fried gizzards from as far away as the Congo. "We're local yokels, but we're world-famous," Buzzard said.
While he makes no health claims for his food, Buzzard said the chain went to "zero trans-fat long before McDonald's did" and is downright obsessive about keeping its vast vats of vegetable oils clean.
The sign, whose iconic image is incorporated into the company's logo for its six locations in Tucson, was designed and erected in 1953 by Arizona Neon, Buzzard said.
When he took it down to repair it a few years back, city sign inspectors warned him that if he changed anything about it, it would lose its "grandfathered" right to remain. They wouldn't let him replace the bulb on the south side of the sign, which is why it flashes only on the north face, Buzzard said.
He said he checked and rechecked those rights with the city of Tucson as he made plans to move his business - but not the sign pole - to a lot he owns adjacent to the restaurant at the corner of Swan and Broadway.
The Lucky Wishbone restaurants were started by Derald Fulton, but Buzzard was with him at the beginning and became one of three managing partners as the chain expanded. Buzzard also owns the Lucky Wishbone at 990 S. Harrison Road.
And the underlying reason for the restaurants' longevity, according to Buzzard: "We're lucky."
Originally published March 22, 2009.
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
Lofty travel ideas adorn auto-body shop
Carburetors, calligraphy and the cosmos. The three normally don't go together.
But that alliterative combination is the theme at a northwest-side auto-body shop called Olde English Creations.
For the past several years, owner Ray Guitard has transformed the parking lot of his shop into an homage to space travel and extraterrestrial life, so much so that it's hard not to notice it as you drive past the northeast corner of West Roger and North Romero roads.
"We do get a lot of people drawn to those things," said Guitard, who has owned the shop since 1979.
The name Olde English Creations doesn't fit in with the alien motif, Guitard admits, but it stuck after he was inspired by the calligraphy work his brother Richard was experimenting with.
The out-of-this-world theme didn't come about until 2002, when Guitard was commissioned to work on a drag-racing car. He and the car's driver got to talking about space aliens - a topic Guitard said he's well-versed in - and "the next thing we know, we've got aliens on his car trailer."
Then Guitard started transforming the parking lot.
One steel wall resembles what he said a repair facility would look like in space, while a rocket launcher parked in the lot has aliens painted on the side.
Aliens will soon be landing on Olde English Creations' roof, Guitard said.
"We just acquired a piece of foam that we're going to use to cut out a huge alien to put on the roof," he said.
And if that foam reproduction somehow manages to draw actual otherworldly beings to visit the shop? They're welcome to stick their head in the door, Guitard says.
"We can't be the only ones out here," he said. "They'll show up at some point, say 'nanu, nanu,' and be on their way."
Originally published April 26, 2010
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- Jamar Younger Arizona Daily Star
Old gas station pumped its last 'fill 'er up' in '30s
The Ralph's Service Station building in the historic Armory Park neighborhood serves as an example of longevity.
The building has stood at the corner of South Fourth Avenue and East 19th Street for more than 80 years. However, if your car breaks down or runs out of gas, you're out of luck.
The station hasn't serviced a vehicle since the late 1930s. The service station was built between 1929 and 1930 after the lot was bought by Ralph Montijo, said his son, Ralph Montijo Jr.
Montijo Jr. said the green-and-white metal building was the first prefabricated gas station in Tucson.
"He brought it in and set it up on that corner," he said.
Later on, the elder Montijo built a large shed behind the station, which he used as an auto shop, his son said. "It could hold eight cars. It was a pretty big garage."
Montijo also built two apartments next to the station, one of which housed his family, his son said.
His entrepreneurial spirit wasn't rewarded with many customers, though. The property went into foreclosure about eight years after it opened, his son said. The location, along with the Great Depression, brought on the station's demise.
Both streets at the intersection were unpaved, and the majority of traffic traveled down Sixth Avenue, he said.
"There wasn't any real traffic on South Fourth Avenue," he said. "My dad probably picked the worst intersection to build a gas station."
The station has had many occupants over the years, including a cabinetmaker, said Patricia Tarsha, an investor in the property.
Originally published May 10, 2010
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- Andrea Rivera Arizona Daily Star
Deteriorating adobe barn adorns golf course
Adobe buildings aren't your typical golf hazards.
An adobe structure sits near the fifth tee box at Silverbell Golf Course and isn't so much of an obstacle as it is a curiosity that golfers muse over.
Golfer Frank Salbego and his golf buddies were at their wits' end trying to figure out why the building is part of the golf course's landscape.
"It's quite unique," Salbego said of the building.
The structure is an adobe barn with four crumbling walls and no roof. It's what's left of an old cotton farm, said Mike Hayes, deputy parks director for the city of Tucson.
The course, on Silverbell Road, north of Ironwood Hill Drive, is operated by the city and was dedicated in 1979 and renovated in 2005 because part of it was built on a city landfill and the greens were sinking, Hayes said.
Hayes, who is director of Tucson City Golf, never thought to demolish the barn during renovations because he found its presence interesting.
"It's just an old barn. It's deteriorated," he said. "It's still something different out there in the middle of a golf course."
Hayes checked to see if the structure could be designated a historical landmark, but it didn't meet requirements, he said.
Still, the adobe barn is there to stay.
Originally published May 24, 2010
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- Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star
Wet, slippery memories
Drive into town from Phoenix and you're greeted near the Ina Road exit with a barren brick tower that juts out at the top, draped with a "SPORTSPARK" sign.
Those who grew up in the area look upon the tower with fond memories, remembering the years when it served as an indoor staircase to three enclosed water slides called hydrotubes. Everyone else drives by and sees the ugliest, least economically designed billboard ever.
Those who long for the tubes still can find them at Marana's Breakers Water Park, 8555 W. Tangerine Road, where they've been since April 1996, when Sportspark - losing money on the hydrotubes operation - sold the 1,110 feet of tubing to its former rival.
The tower stands in limbo. Mike Bregante, assistant general manager of Championship Sports, which operates the athletic facilities at what is now called Mike Jacob Sports Park, said Pima County did not cede control of the tower to the company, although it's open to ideas on how to use the space.
George Kuck, operations manager for Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation, said there are no immediate plans to do anything with the tower, and no one has called the county about the tower in years.
When interviewed about the tower, Kuck asked what this story was about, and was told it's for a column about strange, inexplicable things around town.
"Yeah, I guess that would fit the bill," Kuck said of the tower. He suggested that it probably will be demolished at some point.
Originally published May 31, 2010
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- Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star
What about the big, tall sign that says absolutely nothing?
Vacant commercial property is quite plentiful in the Tucson area. Point in any direction and you're likely to find a parcel . . . or six.
But how about one placed firmly along the freeway, which comes complete with its own 100-foot-tall circular sign that can be seen for blocks, and dates back to a long-gone tenant? Those are a little harder to come by.
For more than 20 years, the northwest corner of East Benson Highway and South Park Avenue has sat vacant, save for the sign that used to represent the Union 76 gas station that first landed there in the mid-1950s.
The land's only occupant in the last few years has been a memorial to Gloria Ann Gomez, a 24-year-old woman who was killed in a car wreck at the intersection in September 2006.
Look closely at the sign and you still can see the outline of the "76" on both sides of the circle, which has been painted white to cover the logo's orange-and-blue color scheme.
The gas station had a variety of names during its roughly 25 years of existence, known first as Koehler's Union Service Station and later Joe's and Bob's, according to old city business directories.
By 1989, all that was left was the sign. The corner got even more empty about five years ago when the neighboring lot, which housed a Waffle House restaurant, was razed.
Why is the sign still there? Chalk it up to Tucson's sign ordinances, which allow signs of that size to exist only if they predate the establishment of the code in 1985, said Janet Snyder, who represents the corner lot for 4-D Properties.
"If we take it down, we'll never be able to put up another big sign," she said. "We don't maintain it, though."
The presence of that sign - which still has light bulbs in the fixtures that hang over where gas prices were displayed - could serve as a strong lure to a business looking to attract customers who are driving on Interstate 10. The corner is just feet from an I-10 off-ramp.
"We've had a couple of inquiries but nothing solid," Snyder said.
Originally published June 7, 2010.
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