Culture is the game in Phoenix

By Jan Shepherd, Globe Correspondent, 03/13/02

		A Native American sculpture in downtown Scottsdale.  If you go  Jerome, Az.  The West, Southwest  More getaways

PHOENIX - In baseball, there are the haves and the have-nots. At the end of the last baseball season, Arizona had the Diamondbacks, the World Series championship, and a state-of-the-art ballpark. Boston had the Red Sox.

Those thoughts crossed my mind during a pre-spring-training tour of the Bank One Ballpark, a.k.a. the BOB, home of the National League Arizona Diamondbacks. Phil Simonson, a retired farmer from Iowa, led the 75-minute tour, showing off the 4-year-old park's assets: Wide seats angled to face the action at homeplate. Unobstructed views of the action from 80 concession stands. A picnic-style seating area for families. Six hundred fifty TVs. One-dollar seats sold at 5 p.m. for home games. Then he tossed in the park's unusual triple: A retractable roof, 3.3 acres of real grass, and a swimming pool for fans. At a mere $5,000 per game, a fan can have a pool party for himself and 34 friends.

But enough about the BOB. After all, Phoenix has more diversions than baseball, particularly on a long weekend in the Valley of the Sun. Golf was not part of this weekend getaway, even though there are 180 courses in Maricopa County. Combining history, art, architecture, gallery hopping, and dining is a faster way to soak up the Southwest experience.

In terms of history, Greater Phoenix has certain parallels with Santa Fe and New Orleans. Each city's history is built by layers of distinct cultures, with reminders of those cultures captured in street names, building styles, food, and traditions. In the Valley of the Sun, the histories of Native Americans, Spanish explorers, Anglo settlers, and 19th-century immigrants from Mexico and China are the foundation of today's city.

An ancient civilization, the Hohokams, settled in the Salt River Valley and at its peak totaled 25,000 people who thrived in an agricultural community supported by 1,000 miles of hand-dug irrigation canals. The Hohokams disappeared mysteriously about AD 1450, though the contemporary Tohono O'Odham People, who live on a reservation south of the city, believe they are descendants. Some of those irrigation canals were redeveloped in the last century to bring water to Phoenix and surrounding communities.

The Hohokam story is told at the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Park, an original village site discovered in archeological digs on the southeast side of town. In the exhibit areas, dioramas and displays explain what they grew, what they wore, and how the community was structured. Outside, the Ruin Trail leads to what remains of the village and its ceremonial center, game area, and dwellings. Only the roar of planes at the nearby Sky Harbor International Airport breaks the spell of being in the past.

For an in-depth look at Native American cultures of the Southwest, the Heard Museum on the city's north side is a must stop. Founded in 1929 by Dwight B. and Maie Bartlett Heard, the museum's Native Peoples of the Southwest and Katsina Doll Gallery immerses visitors in the ways of life, the traditions, and the arts of Southwest tribes. ``Changing Woman,'' a continuously running video, takes a fascinating look at an Apache ceremony for a young girl coming of age.

For more particular insight into the frontier city, stop at the Phoenix Museum of History in Historic Heritage Square. The museum uses photos, artifacts, clothing, and room vignettes to document how Phoenix grew from a territorial outpost in the 1860s to the nation's seventh-largest city by the end of the 20th century. Among the interesting facts: Indians had to wear Anglo clothes inside the city limits, and the first city marshal was Henry Garfias, a Mexican elected in 1881. The building of the Arizona Canal in 1885 supported the growth of a citrus agriculture, and the dedication of the Roosevelt Dam in 1911 was another step in water control and aided a subsequent population explosion. In 1950, Phoenix had 105,000 residents; the 2000 Census counted 1 million, and 3 million in Maricopa County.

Physical traces of the early city exist in Historic Heritage Square in houses and buildings, among them the 1895 Rossom House, a Victorian mansion open to visitors, and the Bovier-Teeter House, a bungalow now operated as a Victorian tearoom. Farmers markets are held in the square February through May.

Vintage buildings are not that common since so much growth happened in the last 60 years. As for modern buildings, none is more striking and inviting than the 6-year-old Burton Barr Central Library. Phoenix architect Will Bruder's Monument Valley-inspired mesa of copper and glass is like no other library, inside or out. An attention grabber from the outside, inside it's bright colors, big signage, and helpful personnel. Glass elevators in the center of the space whisk visitors up and down through five stories. Natural light floods the 63,000-square-foot Great Reading Room on the fifth floor, the largest such room in the United States. The fourth-floor Arizona Room offers a rich collection of reference materials and periodicals dating to the state's early days.

The Phoenix Art Museum, on the other hand, is not particularly eye-catching streetside except for the green stone exterior. From the museum parking lot on the side street, one enters through a more pleasing environment: an inviting courtyard with trees and sculptures. Once inside, it's easy to become absorbed in the changing exhibits and permanent galleries.

For gallery hopping, nothing beats the Old Town section of Phoenix's neighboring city of Scottsdale. It's impossible to see all of them in a day or afternoon, and each has its own personality, from bold abstracts to ravishing landscapes to ceramics and wood that blur the lines of art and craft to contemporary Native American pottery and jewelry.

As for food, there's no shortage of restaurants, but for evening meals I chose two contrasting places in Scottsdale. L'Academie Cafe is a new casual restaurant operated by the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. Open since January, the changing menu is gourmet at cheap-eats prices. Beginning culinary students do all the work from cooking to serving and cleanup here and then graduate to L'Ecole, the institute's formal French restaurant.

The other delightful restaurant was D'Atri's at Scottsdale Airport. The setting at the tarmac was as wonderful as the Italian menu that was cleverly organized under such labels as Cleared for Take-Off (appetizers), Light Aircraft (salads), and First Class Fare (entrees). In between bites, it was fun watching the takeoffs and landings, wondering who was in those business jets and private planes.

Just another look at some of Arizona's ``haves.''