Despite all our fantasies, books and movies to the contrary, we humans are stuck in a one-way linear existence. If we want to visit the past, we have to do so through memories or old photos.

That's what makes photographs like this one so evocative and intriguing. Though undated, this photo was grouped with others from before 1950 and most likely dates back to the 1930s or even late 1920s. And with topography like that, you won't be surprised to hear that this is State Route 89A through Jerome. Well ... actually, at the time the road between Prescott and Jerome was called State Route 79 and was one of the first highways the still-new Arizona Highway Department gave an official number to after 1926.

The photo does list two interesting items. First, it notes that these are one-way streets, hence the "Keep Right" signs. Second, it says this was taken at at milepost 344.5. Today that milepost puts you near the intersection of SR 89A/Main Street and Holly Avenue. But for our money, this looks like it is a little further up that road at where Main Street and Hull Street diverge. The buildings and hill in the background look the same, and, just for some extra evidence, it's still a one-way road. Eight decades worth of road building and shifting alignments and/or measurements could easily explain the discrecpancy. 

Either way, this photo takes us back to another time when highways ran through the heart of small communities across the state with just the barest amount of paving. The road and Jerome are still there today, waiting for anyone eager enough to visit this historical spot. Just please do us a favor and make sure to always obey the "Keep Right" signs. 

Public hearings are an important part of the planning process for any major highway project.

That's as true today as it was when this shot was taken at a public hearing in the council chambers of Tucson's city hall (called the "new" city hall in a flyer) on September 26, 1968. 

It may be hard to see in this photo, but at the time the Arizona Highway Department was gathering comments for a short freeway near downtown Tucson called the "Butterfield Route." This multi-lane, divided highway would have run generally between 14th and 15th streets, south of downtown Tucson, and go as far as Cherry Avenue before linking up with another proposed highway, Interstate 710. Obviously, both of these proposed highways would not end up being built.

From other photos of the same meeting, it looked like several dozen people showed up to get more information and ask questions about the proposed highway. And that's what we always like to to see.

As we told you about in aThrowback Thursday blog from a couple years ago about another public meeting in Globe, our presentations look maybe a bit better today, but we still want to get as much public input as possible during the planning stages of our projects. In fact, we have learned during the current public health situation that virtual meetings can be a powerful tool to reach even more people for their thoughts or suggestions.

Whether it's at city hall or via your telephone, make sure to attend the next public hearing for a project near you. We'd love to hear from you.

It's not often that we have someone modeling the signs coming out of our shop, so this photo from the archive caugh our eye.

The only caption on it reads "Tila and Do Not Enter signal shop March 1972." 

It's a short and sweet description, but only does you so much good if you don't know who "Tila" is.

But we do know all about the sign shop. We've talked about it on this blog several times before. We've even brought you a blog several years ago with photos taken not too relatively long after this one. More recently we told you about how the sign shop is responsible for creating up to 400 signs a month using a couple different proceses. 

With so much work that goes into crafting those signs, it's no wonder that someone wanted to show them off.

Speaking of which, it took some digging but we eventually found Tila. While reviewing old issues of Hiway Drumbeats, the employee newsletter for the Arizona Highway Department, we found a January 1971 issue profiling Cleotilde Rendon, or Tila. She started working for the highway department in 1967 and became a clerk and stenographer for the Highway Commission in 1968. She was from Nogales and had represented Santa Cruz County in the Ms. Arizona pageant. According to the profile, her hobbies included "music, dancing, art, poetry, pride in her Spanish heritage and quoting all the characters in 'Peanuts.'"  

And, apparently, she also dug highway signs. But then again, who doesn't?

We're in the business of building and maintaining highways around here, so it's always interesting for us to get a glimpse of how crews used to do that back in the day. Plus, it's as good an excuse as any to dive into the history of any given highway.

And that's the case for this photo, taken in 1978 along State Route 188 near Punkin Center in Tonto Basin. The photo caption doesn't give any addition information about what type of work is being done besides "construction," but it's more than likely that this is when the highway was paved.

Admittedly there is a lot less written about SR 188 than the four state highways it touches – State Route 87, State Route 188, State Route 288 and US 60 – but there are few interesting facts we could suss out.

SR 188 has been part of the state highway system since the late 1950s and originally was routed over Roosevelt Dam. A state map from 1968 shows it was still a gravel road between Roosevelt Dam and State Route 87, except for a small section near Jake's Corner that had been paved. In 1990, the highway was routed onto a new steel-arch bridge over Roosevelt Lake, as the height of the dam was being raised to increase capacity in the reservoir. 

You may have noticed that SR 188 originally ended at Roosevelt. That would change in 2000 when it was extended down to US 60 at Claypool, taking over the highway that had once been numbered SR 88. This was done due to an ADOT policy that two state routes could not serve the same destinations. Since Apache Junction and Claypool were already connected via US 60, the SR 188 designation was extended so SR 88 wouldn't also run between those two points. 

As you can see, SR 188, like any highway, has its fair share of interesting history. We guess you can say that the work happening in this photo is building toward all of that.

When was the last time you had to climb up on top of a chair to change a light bulb?

Sure, that pesky hallway light is a pain to replace, but it's your place and someone has to keep the lights on.

We feel for you. That's why we chose this photo from nearly 50 years ago of crews doing something similar, checking and cleaning the fluorescent lights of a tunnel from on top of truck-mounted scaffolding. 

To be perfectly honest, we don't know which tunnel this is. We've looked at it every which way and still our best guess is it could be either the Queen Creek Tunnel, on US 60 between Superior and Miami, or the Mule Pass Tunnel on State Route 80 just before Bisbee. The only note on the photo simply says "Tunnel light cleaning October 1971."

If it is the Queen Creek Tunnel, then the whole lighting system you see here was replaced in 2016 when we put in a light-emitting diode, or LED, lighting system to improve visibility and save on energy.  

Tunnel cleaning is still a regular part of ADOT's highway maintenance. Most noticeably is that four times a year crews will spend a night cleaning each direction of Interstate 10 as it passes through the Deck Park Tunnel, including making sure the lights are working. As you can see from this video from several years ago, today we have the advantage of using pressure washers and bucket trucks to reach those high places. 

You're on a long drive and, despite the empty energy drink can in your cupholder, you are starting to feel just a wee bit tired. 

Or, because of that same energy drink, you find that you need to make a pit stop.

Luckily the sign up ahead says only a few more miles to a rest area. You eventually pull in, stretch your legs and take care of what you need to. But as you're doing a few stretches before jumping back into your car your wandering eyes find a display board. With a few minutes to spare, you peruse some information about local history, flora or fauna, maybe learning something you didn't know before. Then it's back on the road for you.

Display boards are part of what gives each of our 27 rest areas its own flavor, more than just a stop to use the facilities. That's why we find today's photo from the Canoa Ranch Rest Area off of Interstate 19 between Tucson and Nogales so interesting. As you can see, isn't about the rest area itself but what a vistor in 1978 (when this photo was taken) would see. 

There's information on San Xavier del Bac, Tumacacori and 17th-century missionary Eusebio Kino, as well as Arizona in general and the Sonoran Desert.

But what makes this photo so fun is that we can compare it to some recent pictures of the current displays at the rest area that one of our employees shared on social media back in February. The artwork on the new signs is little brighter than in this photo, but the purpose behind both is the same.

These boards are just one facelift Canoa Ranch has seen in recent years. The rest area was closed for six months between 2018 and 2019 for a series of upgrades, reopening last May. 

Next time you are coming up on a rest area, whether you have to stop due to that energy drink or not, why not pull in to learn something new?

Today's photo should look familiar to anyone who has driven north of Payson on State Route 87.

About 20 minutes past Payson, you reach the forest communities of Pine and Strawberry. And then, just on the far side of Strawberry, the road begins to make its way up the side of the Mogollon Rim.

As part of that climb, the highway takes a tight bend to follow the contour of the Rim. This photo shows the highway markings and rumble strips put on the road to warn vehicles to slow down as they approach this curve. The photo is undated (though the car in the background is pretty good context), but it gives us the chance to talk about this scenic stretch of State Route 87.

Much has been written about the building of Beeline Highway, which made a straighter, faster route between the Valley and Payson – our own history of state transportation devotes a whole section to it – but there is a good deal less information out there about the road going north from there.

Here's what we do know. A 1927 state map shows a road, though definitely not a state highway, heading between Roosevelt and Payson, with an even less developed road heading north of Pine to Winslow. State Route 87 had made it to Payson and Strawberry by 1959, and a 1961 map of the state shows an "improved road" – graded and maintained with a top layer of gravel, but not yet paved – heading north from Strawberry. This road did become paved between Clints Well and Winslow (closer to the latter) and was dubbed State Route 65. By 1968, State Route 87 had replaced State Route 65 and ran the entire length of its current route between Picacho in the south and Second Mesa on the Hopi Reservation in the north. 

And that's the route you can take today if you want to see some impressive views of both the Rim and the Coconino and Tonto national forests. Just please remember to slow down at the curve.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," the old saying goes.

Today, ADOT can reach out to motorists in numerous ways that were not possible just a decade ago. If you're driving down Interstate 10 from Tucson to Phoenix, we can let you know if there are long delays and how to get around them. Anyone can tweet us or post a question to one of our other social media platforms (never from behind the wheel, please) and get a response faster than Alexa can order you a pizza.

Despite all those technological advances made possible by computerization, fiber-optic lines and automation, one thing that will remain the same is we'll always need good ol' tinkerers and women and men handy with tools – you know, those who fix the vehicles,  pound the nails and generally provide the know-how that helps us efficiently run a modern highway system. 

That's why we picked this undated photo from ADOT's archives to use for Throwback Thursday.

It's not clear when it was taken, but based on the Buddy Holly glasses, analog watch in place of a Fitbit and hairdo that makes you smell the Pomade, it's clear this picture from one of maintenance yards was captured sometime in the 1960s or 1970s.

In December Governor Doug Ducey unveiled six new "Welcome to Arizona" signs to highlight the state's impressive sights. The brightly colored themed signs made quite a splash and have already gone up across the state.

That's why we thought it was a good time to throwback almost 50 years to see how Arizona greeted travelers back then.

This particular sign once stood on State Route 95 at the edge of Parker, with the photo saying it was taken in 1971. I think we can all agree that the messaging was on point, even if the presentation left something to be desired. If anything it looks like the much larger big brother to the "End construction project" sign just behind it.

We can't give you a good count for how many years this particular model of sign was up. A couple decades later, the state decided to be a bit splashier when welcoming folks. In the 1990s we installed large blue signs with the state flag along the interstate entrances to Arizona. You can read about how massive an undertaking it really was to produce and set up those signs in a blog post from several years ago.

While the newest signs unveiled by Governor Ducey certainly are more visually appealing than this one from Parker nearly five decades ago, you will notice the message on both is still the same: Welcome to Arizona.

You may be familiar with the various bridges across the state highway system. Maybe you drive over some every day as you commute to and from work. But how often have you been afforded a glimpse of that start of a bridge from the bottom of whatever depression, river bottom, ditch, hole or canyon it's trying to cross? 

That's what we wanted to show you here. This photo was taken in July 1964 at Burro Creek. And, looking up, you can see the very beginning of the bridge that would carry US 93 over the creek between Nothing and Wikieup.

Arizona had decided to bring what was then State Route 93 south from the Nevada state line to Wickenburg to better accommodate travel between Phoenix and Las Vegas. This particular steel arch bridge was designed by veteran state highway department engineer Ralph Hoffman. Early in his career, Hoffman had also helped design Navajo Bridge, which spans the Colorado River at Marble Canyon. 

We can't speak for you, but just looking at that staircase desending from the top all the way down to where the bottom foundations are is giving us a slight sense of vertigo. 

The bridge would finally be complete and dedicated in 1966, marking it as one of the few projects during that time not directly related to the construction of an interstate. 

But times changed, and by the late 1990s ADOT saw the need to widen US 93 to accommodate even more traffic between Phoenix and Las Vegas. One of the first areas to be improved included Burro Creek. A twin bridge, finished in 2008, was constructed next to the original to help handle the increased traffic.

While driving across a bridge helps give you a sense of how much work went into constructing it, sometimes you can only appreciate the sheer magnitude of a thing by looking at it from the bottom up.