Elizabeth A. Burke, MMC
City of Flagstaff

How many years have you served as a clerk?  32 years

Where are you originally from?  Born in Illinois, raised in Phoenix

What is the strangest/most unique task you have had to perform as part of your duties? Prepared for a game of “show low” in Show Low years ago when we had a tie election and it was settled by the two candidates playing “show low.”

What is your favorite memory as a city/town clerk?  Developing the Kids ROCK (Reach Out for Community Knowledge) in Show Low, where we taught third graders about city government. We had various city staff members speak to the class monthly where they talked about what they did and had activities related to such a job. Started with a tour of city hall and ended the year with a swimming party at the aquatic center.

An evening glimpse at Downtown Williams. Photo from the City of Williams

Route 66 conjures thoughts of rich history, neon lights, classic cars and fun for the whole family.  Williams was the last town in America on Historic Route 66 to be bypassed by the I-40 freeway in October 1984.  Only in Williams will you enjoy the beauty of a mountainside town, the best-preserved stretch of Route 66, outdoor adventure to suit every need, a railway to get you to the Grand Canyon in style, an outdoor drive-thru wildlife park, a true western setting with cowboys swaggering through town, and a friendly atmosphere greeting you the moment you arrive and bidding you farewell when you depart.

Williams was the last town in America on Historic Route 66 to be bypassed by the I-40 freeway. Photo from City of Williams

Some of those same motor hotels from back in the day have been revitalized with all the comforts modern travelers expect and the storefronts of Main Street are preserved as a designated National Historic District. With its preservation of an authentic small town atmosphere and history, Williams is the perfect place to “Get your kicks on Route 66” before you visit the Grand Canyon and after!

Williams has the best-preserved stretch of the Historic Route 66. Photo from the City of Williams

Shops along Flagstaff’s Aspen Avenue. Photo from City of Flagstaff <./em>

Downtown – the geographical, cultural and historic centerpiece of Flagstaff. Along historic 1890s streets, buildings and hotels, you will find numerous clothing boutiques, outdoor outfitters, art galleries, and retailers selling authentic Native American arts and jewelry.

A crowd gathers in Flagstaff downtown for the Downtown Art Walk event. Photo from the City of Flagstaff

Live entertainment can be found almost every evening at Heritage Square or within the great restaurants and nightlife venues. The downtown district is one of the most walkable downtowns in Arizona featuring regular events like the Firt Friday Art Walk or the Flagstaff/Grand Canyon Ale Trail to enjoy many of the unique local breweries.

Downtown Flagstaff boasts historic 1890s streets, buildings and a hotel. Photo from the City of Flagstaff

Venture south of the railroad tracks to the evolving Southside District with amazing dining and cafes lining the streets.

Photo courtesy of meteorcrater.com

With rumors going around about the possibility of traveling to Mars, people are now more than ever excited about taking a vacation from earth. The meteor crater in Winslow, AZ offers just that.

Winslow’s Meteor Crater is the world’s best-preserved meteorite impact site. This crater is the result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid travelling at 26,000 miles per hour and Earth approximately 50,00 years ago.

The crater is nearly one mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference and more than 550 feet deep.

The crater came to the attention of scientists following its discovery by European settlers in the 19^th century. It’s been dubbed the Canyon Diablo Crater.

There are outdoor observation trails, air-conditioned indoor viewing, a wide screen movie theater and an interactive discovery center at the modern Visitor Center located on the crater rim.

It is said that, in the ‘60s, astronauts used this crater to prepare for the moon landing. So, those wishing to venture to Mars might follow in our famed astronauts’ footsteps (from afar, at least. Leave the true traversing of the crater to your dreams).

Learn more about Winslow’s Meteor Crater by visiting their fun website here.

Courtesy of grand-canyon.com

The Grand Canyon Railway offers visitors a unique way to experience the Grand Canyon.

The train runs from Williams, AZ to the South Rim (a 65 mile trip). There will be a layover at the Grand Canyon, visitors are encouraged to tour the depot, which was constructed in 1910, as well as the nearby area for entertaining lunch spots.

The Old West is revitalized through this railway as actors dressed as bandits stage a mock train robbery during the return trip from the Grand Canyon to Williams.

During the winter season, the line runs The Polar Express from Williams to the “North Pole,” which is a station that is about 17 miles north of town.

Courtesy Photo Flickr

“I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona; such a fine sight to see.”

The Eagles may have been singing about a pretty girl in a “flat bed Ford,” but we know that Winslow IS a fine sight to see, one that has more than just a famous street corner.

If you happen to be strolling in from Route 66 or stopping on your way out of Flagstaff, you’ll most likely see that famous statue headlining the Standin’ On the Corner in Winslow, Arizona Park. The park was constructed in 1997 when a group of volunteers decided to create a park in Downtown Winslow, instilling a new sense of tourism-based business. Prior to the 1960s, Winslow was the largest town in all of northern Arizona, due to its prime location on Route 66. When I-40, a transcontinental highway was built, the community saw a downturn in tourism dollars.

Today, the park draws many to its famous corner. It features the statue of the man aimed at being the feature of the song. The statue is surrounded by inscribed donor bricks from community members and visitors, who have told their individual stories about Winslow and its famous corner.

Courtesy Photo National Park Service

For those who wish to experience the Grand Canyon in a unique and rewarding way, hiking the canyon via the South Kaibab Trail is a fun experience.

The trail offers panoramic views and it holds very true to a ridgeline descent. An exhilarating sense of exposure is offered, but there is little shade and no water for the length of the trail.

This trail is the quickest way to the Canyon’s bottom of all the trails offered by the Grand Canyon. It’s a hard way back up to the top though, so you can always switch trails if you want an easier uphill battle.

Courtesy Photo National Park Service

Located near the city of Page, Glen Canyon Dam is the impressive site of a plant that generates more than 1.3 million kilowatts of electricity with each of the 40-ton steel shafts turning at 150 rpm, generating nearly 200,000 horsepower. Since 1956 when the first blast was set off to begin building the impressive 3,700-foot dam, with all eight generators operating at full output, more than 15 million gallons of water will pass through the power plant’s penstocks each minute. The electricity is upgraded on a transformer deck from 13,800 volts to 230,000 and 345,000 volts for transmission to distant markets.

Visitors may tour the historic project free of charge beginning at the Carl B. Hayden Visitor Center perched above the lake and power plant. Kids will enjoy the guided tour featuring video, photography and Native American artifacts.  This is an excellent family activity and one that should not be missed where you can plan to spend anywhere from 1 to 2 hours taking in the views, and exploring the history.

The tour begins at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center where an elevator will take you 528 feet deep into the interior of the dam. One stop along the tour is the gallery where a digital counter registers the money collected from the sale of power.

While visiting the dam, you may also be interested in the recreational facilities in the surrounding area:

http://www.canyon-country.com/lakepowell/.

Courtesy Photo VisitArizona.com

The breathtaking view of rocky formations jutting out of the desert floor, also known as Monument Valley, sits on the Navajo Indian Reservation in northern Arizona, attracting thousands of visitors every year. The scenery invites all to wander among the sandstone pinnacles with such names as The Mittens, Three Sisters, Totem Pole and Yeibichai. This is the land moviemaker John Ford made famous decades ago – the same land that helped make actor John Wayne a star. Travelers can see this homeland of the Navajos by journeying up US Route 163, the Kayenta-Monument Valley Scenic Road near the Arizona-Utah border, near the city of Page.

Beginning in 1939, the Westerns that Ford filmed featured the glory of red mesas , and while sparsely settled by Navajo sheepherders and a few others, became a mecca for sightseers and Old West buffs. Few places offer such a distinct link to the past. People first arrived in the region nearly 12,000 years ago when, archaeologists believe, nomadic tribes followed large game, like woolly mammoths, into the area. Over time, the game became smaller, the people more sophisticated.

Around A.D. 700, significant advances in weaponry and agriculture allowed people to settle permanently. The Anasazi, or ancestral Puebloans, with their superior hunting and farming techniques, developed the first stationary community in the region. Around A.D. 1250, the Puebloans moved from the area leaving their dwellings, now ruins throughout the Navajo Nation. Navajos entered the region later, sometime around A.D. 1500, though there are conflicting theories. Fighting over the land continued almost constantly – whether between different tribes, Spaniards, Mexicans or European-Americans – the region remained awash with turmoil for several centuries. It wasn’t until after the forced “Long Walk of the Navajos” into captivity in New Mexico in the 1860s that the Navajos returned home and witnessed the recognition of their land as sovereign.

The beauty of Monument Valley did not remain secret for very long. An archaeological expedition, funded by the American Museum of Natural History and headed by Charles L. Bernheimer, moved into the valley in 1927. With the help of John Wetherill, Bernheimer sought out sites such as Rainbow Bridge, an enormous natural, rocky arch that stretches 275 feet across at a height of 270 feet. Old Mike, a Ute Indian, then led the group to another natural bridge formation on June 8, 1927. Dubbed Clara Bernheimer Natural Bridge, after Bernheimer’s wife, the obscurely located arch hidden in the remote northern pocket of Arizona appeals to those with a taste for the extreme.