By Angela De Welles / ADOT Communications

As any road-tripper can tell you, not all pit stops are pleasant.

Fortunately for motorists driving to and from northern Arizona, there is Sunset Point Rest Area – a well-maintained facility that’s a true gift for travelers in need of a break.

Located off of Interstate 17, just south of Cordes Junction, Sunset Point has served millions since the Arizona Highway Department opened it to travelers back in 1970 (the photo show its construction in May of that year).

Only a year later, Sunset Point was selected from 70 entries representing 28 states to be named the nation’s “Outstanding Safety Rest Area with Sanitary and Other Facilities” in a competition sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration.

According to the February 1972 issue of Drumbeats, the department’s employee newsletter at the time, the national award earned Sunset Point widespread recognition, including an editorial page cartoon in the Arizona Republic. Drumbeats also reported that KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh showed its viewers “color pictures of the Sunset Point Rest Area in a campaign to upgrade Pennsylvania’s rest stops.”

Today, Sunset Point is one of the state’s most popular places to stop. Besides restrooms, vending machines, ramadas and a picnic area, the location offers a beautiful view of the Bradshaw Mountains. It’s also where ADOT’s memorial to fallen employees was built in 1997.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

For today's Throwback Thursday, we have a little "remember when?" treat for people who live south of Tucson. Recognize the interchange in this undated photo along Interstate 19? For the majority of the nearly 30,000 people who live alongside it now, the answer is probably a resounding no.

A similar shot today would find an active adult community on one corner and a shopping center on another. You could possibly see a slew of houses in the background. But given that the highway appears to be under construction, all of that was quite a ways in the future when this photo was snapped.

The image is labeled as being taken at I-19 at Helmet Peak Road. But today it isn't called Helmet Peak Road when it crosses the interstate; it's called Sahuarita Road after the bustling town that incorporated in 1994.

So if you live down south, this is just a fun reminder of the way things use to be.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

Do you recognize this humble four-lane divided highway with its wide center median and shoulder?

We'll give you a hint: Look closely at the background. If you squint a bit, you'll recognize a prominent camel-shaped Valley landmark. This rural-looking highway and interchange is actually what Interstate 10 at Elliot Road in Tempe looked like nearly 50 years ago. It's a far cry from today's bustling freeway with three lanes and an HOV lane in each direction.

This photo is dated Feb. 16, 1972, and it's around this time that I-10 was completed between Phoenix and Tucson.

Today, this section of road is being looked at again as ADOT is studying how to best improve Interstate 10 between the I-10/I-17 Split and Loop 202 Santan Freeway in Chandler. More than 40 percent of regional traffic now uses I-10 along that corridor, which as you can see, is a far cry from how things used to be.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

Today we are throwing back to the 1975 and a project that reconstructed and widened part of State Route 96.

If you are unsure where that highway is, no need to feel bad about it. Yavapai County built the 27-mile highway in the late 1930s to connect Bagdad with Hillside. In 1962, it was incorporated into the state highway system as State Route 96.

In the early 1970s, when there was a proposal to improve the 4-mile stretch between Bagdad and State Route 97, an Arizona State Highway Department Environmental Impact Study estimated the average daily traffic volume was 300 vehicles per day. It was estimated to increase to only 575 vehicles per day by 1990.

A few years later, work began to widen the highway and straighten its alignment between Bagdad and State Route 97. The pipes seen in the picture above were installed to deal with potential flash flooding from a creek, wash and private well.

Crews completed the improvements in 1977, and this section remains the only major road running in and out of the community of Bagdad.

By Angela DeWelles / ADOT Communications

Today we're throwing back to the late 1970s/early 1980s, when ADOT made some pretty major upgrades to our agency's phone systems.

Back in 1977, ADOT installed two brand new automatic-dial switchboards. According to the June 1977 issue of Newsbeat, ADOT’s employee newsletter of the day, the switchboards were used by Motor Vehicle Division employees to improve vehicle title and driver license services. Newsbeat also noted that the switchboards would reduce answering time, saving $2,500 a month compared to the old manual private branch exchange system. The photo at right was published in that issue of Newsbeat and shows ADOT employee Florence Daniels as she operates one of the new switchboards.

A few years later, ADOT took on an even bigger project – installing a new telephone communications system for all employees within the Phoenix Capitol complex.

According to an article in the February 1983 issue of Newsbeat, the agency was switching from the Bell Centrex Systems over to a new network, installed by the CENTEL Corp.

The upgrade included the installation of two types of phones for ADOT employees. A majority of the agency would receive “standard touch-tone equipment,” while executive offices would get an “electronic set capable of diverse functions.”

Those diverse functions included a call forwarding option, call waiting and a “speed call” button, which, according to Newsbeat, would “let the caller hold numbers frequently used in a memory bank … when the right button is pushed, calls will automatically go out to the number wanted.”

There was also a “ring again” feature that would allow the caller to simply hit a button when getting a busy signal (remember those?). The caller could then hang up and continue working. “Ring Again” would automatically process the call once the line cleared.

By David Woodfill / ADOT Communications

For this Throwback Thursday, we look back to a 1973, when safety standards were a little different than they are today.

Here is a picture I found in ADOT's archives that was dated Nov. 29, 1973, and simply labeled "safety project studies." While it's not clear exactly what the safety study was about, we can see this seating arrangement wouldn't pass safety standards in more modern times.

As crash studies and technology have advanced, so have conventions on transporting our tiniest passengers. Nowadays, it's strictly verboten to seat an infant in the front seat facing forward.

Thankfully, police and fire departments around the state offer free child seat installations for new parents who are unfamiliar with using them. If you're anything like me – all thumbs when it comes to figuring out the correct position, direction, seat belt settings and so forth on your child's seat as he or she grows – this service is a godsend.

You also can find information on protecting young passengers at the Arizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety website. Follow the Highway Safety Programs dropdown and click Occupant Protection.

By Angela De Welles / ADOT Communications

The state was continuing to suffer through the Great Depression, and there were barely more than 400,000 people living here … but there were cars on the road! And those cars – about 112,000 vehicles were registered in Arizona at the time – needed license plates.

So, members of the Arizona State Highway Commission came up with a plan designed not only to help the state rise up from the Depression, but also to produce some good-looking plates.

An article titled “Arizona sets example in copper plates,” published in the September 1931 issue of Arizona Highways magazine, gave all the details…

“Arizona has set all the states of the Union an example of patronizing home industry as a means of ending the depression. This state produces more copper than any other state. The red metal has suffered greater during the present depression than any of the industries, copper having reached a lower price level than at any time since it has become one of the great commercial metals. The result has been that all of the copper mines in the state have either gone on a greatly curtailed basis of production or have entirely closed down, thus throwing thousands of miners out of work, with the result that the entire state has been seriously affected.

“The Arizona Highway Commission decided it would do its part in helping the demand for copper by making its license plates for 1932 copper. Plans and specifications were adopted calling for copper plates. It was decided that a smaller plate than had heretofore used in Arizona could serve the purpose just as well, if not better, and in this manner the cost of plates in using copper instead of steel, would not be seriously affected. By substituting two letters for numbers, it was found that an attractive plate could be made with dimensions of five by ten inches.”

The article went on to state that 70,000 pounds of “Arizona copper” would be needed to produce the state’s 1932 plates. It’s also noted in the article that the contract for the copper plates was awarded to the lowest bidder at a price of, “fourteen and three-quarters cents per plate.” But before making the award, transportation officials wanted to make sure the lacquer used on the plates would protect from weather and tarnishing, so sample plates were subjected to testing that included exposure to high temperatures and a 24-hour water bath – according to the article, the plates stood up to the tests perfectly!

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

Today we are throwing back to this 1979 photo of construction work under Interstate 10 at the Salt River Bridge.

The photo didn't come with information on what is being done, but it's worth noting that seven floods swept through the Phoenix area between October 1977 and February 1980, including one in January 1979 that washed out many other Salt River crossings.

A flood in 1980, the year after this photo, closed every Salt River crossing except at Mill and Central avenues in Tempe and Phoenix, leading to a Maricopa County project deepening the Salt River channel and projects reinforcing all bridges.

The I-10 bridge pictured here was replaced in the mid-1980s with the bridge you will drive across today on the way to or from downtown Phoenix.

Recently, crews building the future Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway completed the decks of two half-mile bridges spanning the Salt River between Broadway Road and Southern Avenue.

In an area of the southwest Valley with few other all-weather crossings of the Salt River, the South Mountain Freeway will greatly improve mobility when water is flowing. And as this photo shows, that's always a possibility.

By David Rookhuyzen / ADOT Communications

The car in the background might have given this away, but this week we are throwing back to January 1979 with a photo of a road test reviewer hard at work at the former Encanto MVD office.

That's something that all drivers across the decades – no matter the changes in vehicles and local streets – can relate to. Though we have moved the testing for learners permits online with our successful Permit Test @ Home program, everyone who wants a drivers license still needs to come down and do the traditional road test with a reviewer in the passenger seat.

For those who are ready to take this rite of passage, or are maybe a bit worried about what to expect, information about the testing procedure and how to schedule an appointment can be found on the MVD's website.

By Lori Baker / ADOT Communications

Like the children's classic, “Little Engine That Could,” ADOT has its very own “Little Truck” story to share. This article and photos appeared in the December 1988 issue of Newsbeat, ADOT’s employee newsletter at the time:

It was ''the little truck that could,'' but didn’t look good doing it.

The little truck, a 1959 Chevrolet Apache pickup assigned to the Grand Canyon Airport, was doing its job transporting maintenance personnel around the airport to do their work.

Its little heart, a straight six engine, was strong and had only 76,000 miles on it. The airport personnel like the truck. Deputy Director Jim Creedon liked the truck, but was skeptical about its appearance.

The truck wasn’t pretty on the outside. It had many bumps and bruises. The color had faded. A door needs to be replaced. The bed was rotted out. The seat had all but collapsed.

ADOT’s Aeronautics Division could not afford a new truck so Jim Creedon suggested painting the little vehicle so it would look more presentable and so the ADOT seal could be placed on its doors.

But, the men in Equipment Services in Phoenix wanted to go a step further. They liked the little truck, too.

They replaced the windshield; put on a different door and fender; installed a metal bed; filled in the cracks and bumps; painted the truck; rebuilt and reupholstered the seat; cleaned out the interior, and put down a new floor mat.

The little truck looked like new. Gary Adams, director of ADOT’s Aeronautics Division, said the little truck not only will continue to be used for maintenance work, but also will be parked in front of the terminal as the best looking vehicle at the airport and will be equipped with fire suppressing equipment.

The little truck is very proud.

So is Jerry West, administrator of Equipment Services.

His men spent only $700 for materials for the truck. They fit in the repairs when they had free time, so the labor cost wasn’t much. It would have cost the Aeronautics Division $4,000 to $5,000 to replace the truck.

Not only that, but West’s men put tender loving care into repairing the truck. Some volunteered to work on weekends. Some volunteered to donate parts. All did the very best job they could.

After reading this old newsletter story, we reached out to Equipment Services to see what happened to the pickup. We were happy to hear that the 60-year-old truck still has a special place at ADOT, with just 87,866 miles on its odometer.

“We still have the truck, and I have it stored in one of our shops with it covered. We make sure to take very good care of it as it represents our history. At times, we take it out to run and exercise it so it stays nice. We use it for different events, and it has been in many parades,” said Equipment Services Administrator Devin Darlek.