This is a pretty cool 28 minute video documentary on the first four years of construction of Glen Canyon Bridge and Dam. Thank you Donna for posting this link on our Facebook page!
Enjoy!
Pink Sans
7th Avenue From The Air
Here’s an aerial shot of Page giving us a good look at 7th Avenue (now Lake Powell BLVD) and some of the early town construction. It’s undated, but 1960-61 is a good guess. I’ve had this photo for a long time and I don’t remember where I got it for sure (maybe Brian Keisling) and I’ve never known who took it or who marked up the different locations. But those are helpful, so let’s run through them.
LPB is Lake Powell BLVD (7th Ave). HAIR was the barber shop. I’m assuming the barber was Hank. Does anybody remember him? The barber shop eventually moved to the plaza near the theatre. That plaza isn’t built yet in this picture. K is the present location of the Circle K and NAV is North Navajo Drive. The unmarked building on the corner above North Navajo was a Gulf gas station. We used to ride our bikes there and fill up gas cans for my friend’s mini bike and our golf cart. The building marked BS isn’t a reference to a crappy building, but is referring to Redd’s Bottle Stop. It’s now the location of Stix Market. BAB is referring to Babbitt’s. First National Bank was also in that building. I’m putting a picture of that building below to give you a better look. LL was the Little League field. M is referring to the outdoor movie screen. K is a reference to Keisling’s gas station. You can see that Elm Street hasn’t been built yet on the right side of LPB. E is referring to the old Empire House. The last time I was in Page, that had become something else but I don’t remember now what it is. My first job as a teenager was as a busboy at the Empire House and my mom was one of the cashiers there for years. MCS is referring to the MCS apartments. PS is the Pink Sans. FB is the future site of the football field. It looks like it’s not there yet in this picture. The buildings just below FB must be the Manson Mesa pool. You’ll notice South Navajo isn’t there yet either, but you can see part of the park to the right if the pool. I think the dark line below the pool and the park is a fence. When I first saw this picture, I thought it was a road that is no longer there. But looking closer, I don’t see a break in the curb along LPB, so I’m pretty sure it was one of the many fences put up all over the place to stop blowing sand. They didn’t work too good. Looking along church row, you can see a few churches springing up, along with the teacher’s apartments on the opposite side of the road.
The picture below is a closer look at Babbitt’s and First National Bank, located in the building in the above picture behind The Bottle Stop (Stix Market).
-Mike
Where’s Waldo?
Courtesy of the Legate family.
This picture is a real prize. There is no caption on the back, so I don’t know what event was going on that prompted this. Before we talk about the faces in it, let me set the location for you. This is in the intersection of South Navajo and 7th Avenue (Lake Powell Blvd). The Pink Sans is behind the camera and this view is toward the football field. The opening in the chain link fence to the right of the tree was the entrance to the football field. Do you see the stop sign on the right side? That’s South Navajo Drive. We had no traffic signals. Most corners had yield signs and some, like this one, had a stop sign. Do you see the (not-so-grand) grandstands near the center of the picture? The goal posts are also visible, the north one more so. To the left of the grandstands is the old snack bar and further to the left, you can see the scoreboard. It’s that rectangular black thing about 15 feet off the ground. I’ll have more to say about that in a different post.
Behind all of the football field stuff, you can see the old teacher’s apartments. These were along church row. This is also a good shot of LeChee Rock in the distance. Hmmmm, no power plant…
Now for the good stuff. Were you in this picture? Do you see yourself in this shot? If so, and you want to ‘fess up, please do. I need some help here. I looked for myself in it, but I can’t find myself (that sounds like a U2 song!). What was happening here? I suspect it was the beginnings of a parade, but that’s just a guess. Page was big on parades back then. This picture was taken from an elevated platform and the woman taking the other picture is on a different platform. Maybe they were parade floats. I don’t know.
Let’s look at some names. I’ve been able to identify a handful of the people in this. A few were my classmates, but I’m not sure where I was. Here’s what I have so far:
- My half brother is the one in front between the two guys waving their hands.
- Don Diamond
- Larry Patterson
- Jim Garber
- Larry Sanderson
- Theresa Kocjan
- Marla Kocjan
- Nancy Mayes (?)
- Darryl Diamond
- Larry Sanderson’s sister. I don’t remember her name for sure. Maybe Gini?
- The woman with the camera may have been Mrs. Patterson.
- There are several other faces that I recognize, but the names escape me.
If you were in this picture and/or can tell us what was going on that day, please leave a comment below.
-Mike
A History of Glen Canyon Dam and Page Arizona 