Even though TGACF technically was not actually ON I-17, it was close enough, visible enough and dramatic enough to merit a historical look back at the event. Every time we drive past Arcosanti (which is a lot of times each year) we look over at the scene of TGACF and shake our head. What an amazing and incredible sight it must have been.
After all these years details remain unclear about how exactly the fire started. But there is absolutely no doubt about the outcome of the fire. It destroyed 126 cars and damaged another 19! Of course, "the show must go on" so the Arcosanti Festival continued as scores of vehicles lay smoldering nearby.
Here is the link where you can read the entire story that appeared in The Prescott Daily Courier on October 8, 1978:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=886&dat=19781008&id=i7hjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=blQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7067,12453570
Here are 44 photos taken the day of the fire by Professional Photographer Mitchell Weinstock:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/schlepper/sets/72157625547890646/
At the time, Mitchell was a technical lighting consultant for the photographers in the back of house press box. He was attending ASU. He returned to Arcosanti in 2011 to do a retrospective.
()NOTE: Mitchell Weinstock's photos are Copyright 1978 and used here according to the Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
