Telling It Like It Was: Interviews with Arizona Pioneer Women

During the Depression the Federal Writers Project conducted interviews with over 144 women who arrived in the Territory between 1850 and 1890. The women spoke of their long and dangerous journeys, and with their words paint pictures of the hardships and life threatening situations of their frontier existence. Through hard work, dedication, tenacity and humor they conquered and helped make a state. Hear the story of the original Arizona pioneer families including the Udalls, Flakes, Kartchners, Luceros, Romeros, and Jennings.

Arizona history did not sneak up on Barbara Marriott but arrived with guns blazing and the air filled with hootin’ and hollorin’.  It captured her so completely that she wrote eight books about living in Arizona’s unpredictable small Territorial towns.  Most of her books are award winners.  Living in various states and two foreign countries has taught her to watch, listen and learn. Earning a Ph.D. gave Marriott the tools to capture the vivid, fascinating history of the southwest.  Among her other ventures Marriott started a popular newspaper in France, wrote a series of information booklets for American children living in foreign countries, and foreign port booklets for the US Navy.