Arizona Stories: Frontier Characters and Communities – Surprise

From mammoth hunters and canal builders to Native Americans, Hispanics, Americans, Irish, Serbians, and just about every nationality under the sun, Arizona has always been a land of many cultures. And while the Earps and the Geronimo are world famous, Arizona can also be proud of its unsung men and women and cooperative communities. Here we will share Arizona’s experiences from the famous to the little known, from Native American ceremonies to mining booms, cattle drives, cotton harvests, and religious settlements, we will learn how Arizona evolved from a violent frontier to a just and civil society dedicated to its people’s welfare.

Before retiring from the Arizona Historical Society, Jim Turner worked with more than 70 museums in every corner of the state. He is co-author of the 4th-grade textbook The Arizona Story, and his pictorial history book, Arizona: Celebration of the Grand Canyon State, was a 2012 Southwest Books of the Year selection. Jim moved to Tucson in 1951, earned a M.A. in U.S. history from the University of Arizona, and has been researching and teaching Arizona history for more than 40 years. Jim is now an author/editor for Rio Nuevo Publishers, author of The Mighty Colorado from the Glaciers of the Gulf (2016) and Crater Lake and Beyond (2017).