Salt River Canyon - US60 Crossing Photoset • rwstorm • 2020-07-21 • HikeArizona.COM

Salt River Canyon - US60 Crossing, AZ

	2020-07-21
	14 by rwstorm

Salt River Canyon - US60 Crossing

Globe, AZ

Salt River Canyon - US60 Crossing

Globe, AZ

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Whenever you find yourself driving along US Highway 60 between Globe and Show Low, one of the highlights is crossing the Salt River by way of a rather dramatic canyon.

This is just a little tribute to the place. It was quite an engineering project back when it was first constructed in the 1930's, and has undergone various changes and improvements over the years. The original bridge across the river was funded by the Public Works Administration and was engineered by Ralph Hoffman, who was the Arizona State Bridge Engineer for the highway department from 1927-1955. This bridge remained in use until 1997, when a newer one replaced it. It is nice to be able to walk across it.

My first time going through the canyon and crossing the bridge was as a kid of 10 in August 1958. This was when my Mom moved from Milwaukee to Phoenix, sight unseen, to begin a new life out West.

She was 31 at the time. I don't remember much about the canyon that day, but I do remember I was very upset that I was being removed from my friends and life in West Allis and Wauwatosa. The trip was made in Mom's 1953 red Buick black top convertible. She enlisted the help of some good neighbors of ours in West Allis for the drive. It was done over a four day period. Being only 10 years old and knowing how adaptable kids are, I am sure the sheer excitement of such a trip made me forget about being mad at her.

I do seem to recall that the adults in the car that day had some trepidation when they saw what they were getting into as we descended down toward the river. After all, these were Midwest folks who had not seen such a thing before! I'm sure I was loving it from the back seat, while they were white-knuckling it up front.

Interestingly, my Mom started dating a man she met in Phoenix in 1959, Bill Elkins, who worked for the state highway department and was stationed up at the office in Saint Johns. He had a home in Maryvale, but spent most of his time in Saint Johns. So, that meant that I got to go up there on occasion during the 1959-60 time frame, and of course more trips through Salt River Canyon. I remember one trip Mom made at night sometime in the winter when there was construction going on in the canyon and we were driving in intermittent snow showers. She talked about that one a lot afterward, so it must have made her nervous. Of course for me the kid, it was just another adventure!

Another distant memory from those days of long ago was stopping with Mom at what I think was a store/gas station at Seneca Arizona. This was on the east side of US 60, and predated the Seneca Lakes project of the San Carlos Apache Tribe which is located on the west side of the highway. I remember always begging her to buy me some Fire Stix cinnamon candies when we stopped.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me on a little journey down memory lane from long ago.

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