The Road to Mount Lemmon: A Father, a Family, and the Making of Summerhaven

Mary Ellen Barnes, Tony Zimmerman

University of Arizona Press, Jun 11, 2009 - History - 202 pages

As you wind your way up the Catalina Highway, it doesnÕt matter whether youÕre a first-time visitor or a native Tucsonan; you know youÕre on the way to someplace special.

The Santa Catalina Mountains first captivated Tony Zimmerman on a 1937 hunting trip. Regard for the alpine beauty must have been in his genesÑhe was the son of Swiss German immigrantsÑand by 1940 the Tucson schoolteacher had begun taking his family to Mount Lemmon to spend the summer. Back then, the road up the mountain was a rough two-track dirt road from Oracle, and Summerhaven was nothing but a sleepy cluster of summer cabins. But Tony Zimmerman was to help change all of that.

The Road to Mount Lemmon is a beguiling memoir of the Catalina Mountains told by the daughter of one of the pioneers in the life and development of Mount LemmonÕs communities. Mary Ellen Barnes tells how her father Tony resigned from teaching in 1943 to devote his career to the development of this mountain oasis. He not only sold real estate for long time landowner Randolph Jenks, he even bought the villageÕs tiny two-room store, installing a sawmill to build a larger store, and built the Mount Lemmon Inn. And as she spins TonyÕs personal saga, she also gives readers a glimpse of the Catalinas before Tucson became a boom town, recalling idyllic adventures in wild country and the cowboys, rangers, ranchers, and loggers who worked there.

Barnes tells TonyÕs story as if sharing it with family, evoking her fatherÕs personality on every page. The Road to Mount Lemmon is an intimate view of a mountain community over the course of nearly sixty yearsÑa view that few people have shared but one all can appreciate.

Contents

• The lower gate of the Control Road: 5
• Catalina Lodge: 8
• Tony and Sena Zimmermans Catalina Lodge: 12
• Randolph and Julia Jenks: 15
• Randolph and Julia Jenks: 19
• 4: 23
• The R B ONeill store: 25
• Curt Guthrie and Tony Zimmerman tunnel to reach the woodpile: 31
• 6: 34
• Sena second from left poses with the staff of the Pine Tree Lodge: 39
• With Broom and Mop: 43
• Tony works with beehives: 46
• Selling Real Estate: 53
• Mount Bigelow lookout tower and lookouts cabin below: 57
• Soldier Camp: 65
• Sawyer Al Turner: 72
• ILLUSTRATIONS: 76
• Logging Trucks: 77
• Growing Pains: 85
• Diwan Singh cabin in 2004: 89
• Summer Romances: 100
• Horse Hill: 107
• Cowboys and Mountain Men: 110
• Red poses for author: 111
• Firefighters: 119
• Farewell: 122
• The Mount Lemmon Inn: 124
• Catalina Dining Room at the Mount Lemmon Inn: 126
• Miners Waitresses and Sawyers: 131
• Feudal Years: 137
• Mount Lemmon Lodge formerly La Mariposa Hotel in 1949: 140
• Governor Dewey: 145
• A Ride to San Diego: 147
• Peppersauce Cave: 150
• Wrestling with Growth: 153
• The Fate of the Inn: 155
• Mountain Church Services: 159
• Mount Lemmon church bulletin: 160
• Two Christmases: 162
• Mother: 165
• Retirement Years: 169
• Tony Walt and Watermelon: 176
• Walt Haag at Summerhaven: 177
• Teacher: 179
• The Birthday Party: 184
• Mountain Legacy: 187
• Acknowledgments: 191
• Illustration Credits: 193
• Index: 197

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Road to Mount Lemmon: A Father, a Family, and the Making of Summerhaven
• Authors: Mary Ellen Barnes, Tony Zimmerman
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2009
• ISBN: 0816527814, 9780816527816
• Length: 202 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General; History / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)