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November 16, 2011 ROAD FROM PAGE 6 dent Roosevelt's Civil Works Admin- istration (CWA) required States to pay a minimum wage of 30-cents per hour for unskilled labor and 50-cents if skilled, giving preference to locals and recently discharged servicemen with dependents. To employ as many people as possible, highway workers were hired for a 30-hour week. In 1932 US 60 had been extended into Arizona from its Atlantic terminus in Virginia Beach, Virginia after crossing Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico then meeting up US 70, another east-west thoroughfare in Globe, Arizona where the combined highways became US 60&70 until reaching their Pacific terminus in Los Angeles. Quartzsite was on the map with one of the most important transconti- nental highways in the nation rolling through the middle of our little town. During World War II US 60&70 was an important route carrying raw ma- terials to the aircraft plants in Los An- geles. Even after the war the two-lane US 60&70 was busy with trucks often displaying colorful logos like Navajo Truck Lines' blue-eyed Indian, the red Quartzsite on the recently completed US Highway 60, one of five new east- west transcontinental thoroughfares planned by the 1925 U.S. Joint Board of Interstate Highways and later fund- ed with $80 million in emergency New Deal federal aid requiring matching funds from States over whose land the thoroughfares crossed. During the Great Depression Presi- revealing far-off purple hills and wavy lines of odd-shaped mesas uniting to create a rare picture of beautiful tones, colors, and atmospheric effects." During the winter of 1938 I made my first "snowbird" visit to Quartzsite, escaping the snowy peaks of Flagstaff's Mt. Elden to spend time at the family's "Jack of Dia- monds" mine during Charles' winter fur- lough as a fire guard. We traveled into www.DesertMessenger.com and blue of TransCon Freight, West- ern Gillette's green and orange trucks, the classic letters of P.I.E. outlined in red, the bright yellow cabs of ICX, and the maroon Hopper cattle haulers with their wooden side-boards. Gravel road through Quartzsite role and called upon Ted May, su- perintendent at the Arizona Highway Maintenance Yard, to paint an official crosswalk on US 60&70. Of the five east-west transcontinen- Our home, along with those of the Young's, Stetler's, Underwood's, and Dollar's was on the south side of US 60&70 requiring our children to cross the busy highway on their way to school. When I wasn't helping Charles with our honeybees, doing my deputy Yuma County Assessor duties, or fix- ing someone's hair in my little beauty shop, I would walk with the children down our lane to the highway so I could watch for trucks until the last child had crossed the busy highway. From a bench on the south side of the post office next to Salliday's sta- tion, Paul Schneider, Bert Hart, and John Stockmier and other early-day miners, would take turns greeting the children on the other side of the high- way. One day Paul Schneider stood up, positioned himself in the middle of the highway, raised his hands in the "halt" position, causing a truck to burn rubber as it came to a screeching stop. Unpleasantries were shouted at the diminutive, clean-shaven gentle- man with a neatly-trimmed mus- tache, dressed in his customary stiff- ly-pressed chambray shirt and Levi's. Mr. Schneider stood tall until the last child had crossed the highway then of- ficially waved his hand for the truck to move on. The Quartzsite school kids found a new friend in Mr. Schneider who, before that day, had been a quiet, shy man who seldom spoke to anyone without first being spoken to. Much to the delight of moms and kids, Paul Schneider had a new "very important" High Spirit Flutes Harry is back! NEW LOCATION! Tyson Wells Showgrounds Front Row all of December Row P-26 in January www.HighSpirits.com 970-319-5375 Nominated for 2008 & 2009 Indian Summer Music Awards tal thoroughfares, US 60 remains al- most unchanged with the notable exception of be- ing replaced by Interstate 10 at Quartzsite then, being revived at Exit 31 four miles west of Brenda, continuing on through Phoe- nix, Tempe and Mesa, back out to Globe and on across the USA past Williamsburg and the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse to its Atlantic terminus at Virginia Beach, Virginia. Page 7 As it has for eons, Quartzsite still sits atop a very important crossroad; east- west on Interstate 10 the Christopher Columbus Highway and north-south on US 95 the Pan American Highway that connects Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina—"And", according to Frost, "that (could make) all the dif- ference." 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