Dear Kent, You have a great site, much enjoyed. The recent events at White Mountain reminded me of a strange occurance in my family's trip by automobile from east to west coast in 1956. Below find brief excerpts from the travel log my mother kept of the trip. Some rather unusual events led us to take the route to Springerville, where the odd event occurred near White Mountain. I have underlined the specific sentences, the rest is atmosphere, kept to a minimum, with a few current comments of mine italicized in brackets. It's not a defined enough event to show much on it's own, but lends to the strangeness of the area. This event has puzzled me for over forty years. Thank you for the recent links. Legend: writer firsthand - Virginia (my Mother) Husband - Bill Jerry - 4 year old self Amarillo, Texas - Feb. 8th. {1956} We left Shamrock this A.M. and rode steadily till 11:30 A.M. when we reached the outskirts of the city. Here we stopped at one of the nicest restaurants and enjoyed a good hot meal. According to Texas hospitality - second helpings were free of charge. Jerry and I settled for one - but Bill being the driver and pushing hard enjoyed a second round. We asked different people which highway was the better - Highway 66 or Highway 60. We decided to take 66 but as we left the waitress came out and told us the police had just closed 66. This left us one choice 60. We had been on the highway barely one hour when the heavy blizzard struck. It was terrible - mid-afternoon and all we could see was white on all sides. Snow in Texas is worse than elsewhere because of the vast expanse of the plains - the lack of trees and buildings leave nothing to break the sweep of the snow for miles. How we ever remained on the road was a miracle. The only small patch of vision we had was on the drivers's side. My entire side of the car was completely covered with white. This made me panicky as I was used to helping the driver look for unexpected dangers. So I moved as far left as possible without hindering his hand or brake in order to see out. We reached Vaughn, New Mexico, a border town about 6:00 P.M. The girl at the one restaurant was amazed when she learned where we had come from - Amarillo. She said the police had also closed Highway 60 - but of course they could not catch up with those cars already on the highway. This was the worst hazard of the entire trip. Bill said the heavy load of trunks we carried on the roof, against my wishes, was the very thing that saved us. A girl I met later in California told me that her sister was stranded in that same blizzard for 10 hours and the three month old baby died of exposure. Vaughn, New Mexico - Stopped here at 6PM in most modern of all Motels. It was called the Belair. We sure enjoyed its comfort. Feb. 9th - left at 9:00 A.M. and for about three hours rode through the silliest contradiction of nature. The highway was a sheet of ice and snow from the storm which had taken place the day before - but the New Mexican fields on either side were completely green where the hot New Mexican Sun had melted the snow. We met an occasional snow plow. Travel was a slow because of the icy highway. About 11:30 A.M. we reached Sirocco, a small town which had a tiny park in the Town Square and there on display was a fragment of the First Atom bomb set off. It was exploded July 16, 1945 and the fragment we saw was about six inches thick. {Yikes!} We drove all afternoon through desolate mountain country and saw adobe huts of Indian settlements, here and there. Springerville, Arizona We drove all day through New Mexico which Bill said was the worst of all our trip. Well the blizzard the day before had tired him and then he pushed so hard - but he said it was worth it all because of the steak we bought in the super market there. It was cheap by Eastern prices and melted in our mouths - we have yet to find one as tender. This town was small and had some Indian population and was surrounded by mountains. We noticed the lights going on and off at various times in the town - the entire town. When we commented on it the citizens all clammed up - we could only conclude there was some government project nearby and being good Americans we asked no more either. This hotel is pretty seedy. Jerry fell right off to sleep after eating a good bit of steak. I washed a few light items and cleaned up the kitchen. It is about 10:00 P.M. and we are going to bed. Feb 10th - Left Springville at 8:30 A.M. The mountains are getting higher and higher - the weather is getting nicer and we are so glad to finally be away from snow and ice. We keep passing Indian reservations, but time will not permit us to stop. {Why were the mountains clear and nice and the snowstorm on the lowlands} End