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

Swing into History: Popular Music of the Big Band Era

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

With the exception of the most ardent collectors and the older generations, the influence and legacy of the big bands is largely forgotten despite their overwhelming popularity and significant role in early radio.  Join Larson as he revisits the sounds that America listened and danced to for more than three decades.  Learn how iconic artists […]

Free

Eloy’s Gun and Cotton Stories: Romanticizing the Real

Casa Grande Public Library 449 N. Dry Lake St., Casa Grande, AZ, United States

This presentation focuses on the lively and lawless days of Eloy, Arizona. Eloy might have had a reputation that rivaled that of Tombstone, with its killings, graft, good time houses, and mysterious murders. Explore this turbulent time in Territorial Eloy, when the influx of seasonal cotton pickers "raised hell" on the weekends.   Geta LeSeur […]

Free

Arizona Kicks on Route 66

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

U.S. Route 66, known as the “Mother Road,” was built in 1926. It ran from Chicago to L. A. During the depression of the 1930s, it became the major path by which people migrated west, seeking work, warm weather and new opportunities. Shore shares the history of Route 66 in Arizona, including the impact it […]

Free

Arizona’s Historic Trading Posts

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

Early traders traveled through Arizona Territory, selling goods from their wagons, but they soon built stores that evolved into trading and social centers where wool, sheep, and Native arts were exchanged for sugar and salt, pots, pans, bridles, and saddles. Navajo trading posts are best known, but trading posts existed on every reservation in Arizona. […]

Free

Oh Heavens! Saviors and Saints on the Arizona Frontier

Casa Community Center 780 S. Park Centre Avenue, Green Valley, AZ, United States

Women of many faiths cared for the bodies and souls of Arizona’s early inhabitants. Meet five of these altruistic women who influenced the history of the territory. Theresa Ferrin’s holistic practices and comprehensive understanding of healing herbs earned her the title “Angel of Tucson.” Florence Yount is recognized as Prescott’s first woman physician. Teresita Urrea […]

Free

Arts and Culture of Ancient Southern Arizona Hohokam Indians

Sierra Vista Public Library 2600 E. Tacoma St., Sierra Vista, 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

Archaeology Café (Tucson): Recent Work at Southern Arizona’s Guevavi Mission

Casa Vicente Restaurant 375 South Stone Avenue, Tucson, AZ, United States

On April 7, 2015, Dr. Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman (University of Arizona) and J. Homer Thiel (Desert Archaeology, Inc.) will share the latest information from their excavations at Guevavi, an eighteenth-century Spanish mission. Archaeology Café is an informal forum where adults can learn more about the Southwest’s deep history and speak directly to experts. We have based […]

Free

Deceptions, Lies and Alibis

Esmond Station K-8 9400 S. Atterbury Wash Way, Vail, AZ, United States

A killer camel, a tornado-riding con man, a dead dragon, and a naked horse thief are some of the characters in the quirky stories from Southwest history that Peach loves to share in his original cowboy poetry.  Laugh at and learn from these very tall and mostly true tales, like how Arizona forfeited a seaport […]

Free

The Billingsley Hopi Dancers

Dragon's View Restaurant 400 N. Bonita Ave, Tucson, AZ, United States

In 1921 the Hopi were told that “church people” petitioned Congress to stop their “pagan” dancing. A platform was erected on the U.S. Capitol steps where both Houses of Congress assembled with their families to see the Hopi dancers. Following the performance, Congress passed a Resolution giving the Hopi permission to carry on their dancing […]

Free

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