Archaeology’s Deep Time Perspective on Environment and Social Sustainability

San Tan Historical Society Museum 20425 S. Old Ellsworth Road, Queen Creek, AZ, United States

The deep time perspective that archaeology, geology, and related disciplines provide about natural hazards, environmental change, and societal development often is ignored when today’s societies make decisions affecting social sustainability and human safety. Studies of ancient peoples and natural events can help modern society deal with problems of environmental and social change, overpopulation, and sustainability. […]

Free

Riding with the Duke: John Wayne in Arizona

Salazar-Ajo Library 15 W. Plaza St. #179, Ajo, AZ, United States

John Wayne was born in Iowa and lived for most of his adult life in California. Yet, he spent many years exploring, living, and investing in Arizona, where he produced his own films, raised cattle, operated a game ranch, and was seemingly everywhere at once. Wayne remains an iconic presence in American popular culture. In […]

Free

Arizona Tourism from Stagecoaches to Kayaks

Sun Valley Lodge 12415 N. 103rd Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

Ever since the Grand Canyon became grand, tourists have been flocking to Arizona to see the sights and experience the unique landscape and indigenous cultures. This presentation covers the whole state over more than a century. From 1880s Grand Canyon stagecoach and mule rides, the Fred Harvey railroad era (Harvey Girls and Indian Detours), auto […]

Free

Selling the Southwest: Fred Harvey and the Promotion of Native American Cultures

Lutheran Church of the Foothills 5102 North Craycroft Road, Tucson, AZ, United States

In partnership with the Santa Fe Railway, the Fred Harvey company vigorously promoted travel to the Southwest and was an early innovator of “cultural heritage tourism.” Travelers experienced an idealized version of the Southwest’s Native American cultures through the company’s grand hotels along the Santa Fe line, their Indian Department’s museum rooms and curio shops, […]

Free

Riding with the Duke: John Wayne in Arizona

Joyner-Green Valley Library 601 N. La Canada Drive, Green Valley, AZ, United States

John Wayne was born in Iowa and lived for most of his adult life in California. Yet, he spent many years exploring, living, and investing in Arizona, where he produced his own films, raised cattle, operated a game ranch, and was seemingly everywhere at once. Wayne remains an iconic presence in American popular culture. In […]

Free

Arts and Culture of Ancient Southern Arizona Hohokam Indians

Copper Queen Library 6 Main St., Bisbee, AZ, United States

The Hohokam archaeological culture flourished in southern Arizona as early as the sixth century. Hohokam artifacts, architecture, and other material culture provide clues allowing archaeologists to identify where the Hohokam lived, interpret how they adapted to the Sonoran Desert for centuries, and explain why their culture collapsed in the mid-1400s. This presentation illustrates Hohokam material […]

Free

For God, Gold, and Glory: The Coronado Expedition, 1540‒1542

ASU Colleges at Lake Havasu City, Santiago 109 100 University Way, Lake Havasu City, AZ, United States

In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado entered Arizona with the largest European expedition ever gathered in North America. Historians have puzzled over Coronado’s exact route through Arizona. This program will allow audiences to travel with the entourage through images by famous artists, maps, and scenic and historic photographs of the pueblos, crossbow dart points, and […]

Free

Cowboys and Cowgirls: Icons of the American West

Dorothy Powell Senior Adult Center 405 E. 6th St., Casa Grande, AZ, United States

Few symbols have been more durable than the American cowboy. This program will give an overview of this populist figure, whose image was first defined by painters Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Also important to the story are brave cowgirls and the Mexican vaqueros. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show showcased mythic cowboy culture, with […]

Free

Our Civil War: Reflections at the Sesquicentennial

Burton Barr Central Library 1221 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ, United States

Between 2011 and 2015 Americans will commemorate the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War. Different people have looked at this event in different ways at different times, reminding us that history is in part a conversation between past and present, and that in deciding how we approach this event we say something about ourselves. How […]

Free

Exploring the Depths: A 3D 1940 Hike into the Grand Canyon

Sun Valley Lodge 12415 N. 103rd Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

In 1940, photographer Clyde A. McCoy hiked down the South Kaibab trail at Grand Canyon National Park making color, stereo photographs as part of a nationwide project. Two years later he was murdered in a Detroit robbery. In 1996, Dr. Amundson purchased McCoy’s photograph collection and has been researching McCoy’s story ever since. This presentation […]

Free

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