Saving the Great American West:  The Story of George Bird Grinnell

Cochise College Benson Campus 1025 State Route 90, Benson, United States

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes.  Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.”  Grinnell […]

Set in Stone but Not in Meaning: Southwestern Indian Rock Art (Benson)

Cochise College Benson Campus 1025 State Route 90, Benson, United States

Ancient Indian pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (symbols carved or pecked on rocks) are claimed by some to be forms of writing for which meanings are known. However, are such claims supported by archaeology or by Native Americans themselves? Mr. Dart illustrates southwestern petroglyphs and pictographs, and discusses how even the same rock art symbol […]

Free

Empire to Las Cienegas NCA: Ranching and Historic Landscape Change (Sierra Vista)

Cochise College Benson Center 1025 S. Highway 90, Benson, AZ, United States

The Empire Ranch, built by Walter Vail and family, was one of the most financially successful and long-lived cattle enterprises in Arizona. For over 140 years, the owners of the Empire wisely managed its natural resources – soils, waters, and vegetation in the Cienega Valley. Today those grasslands are some of the richest and most […]

Free

Southwest Rock Calendars and Ancient Time Pieces with Allen Dart

Cochise College Benson Center 1025 S. Highway 90, Benson, AZ, United States

Native Americans in the U.S. Southwest developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons, centuries before non-Indian peoples entered the region. In this presentation archaeologist Allen Dart discusses the petroglyphs at Picture Rocks, the architecture of the “Great House” at Arizona’s Casa Grande Ruins, and other archaeological evidence of ancient southwestern astronomy and calendrical […]

FREE

Arizona Goes to the Movies: A Filmmaking History with Jim Turner

Cochise College Benson Center 1025 S. Highway 90, Benson, AZ, United States

From Douglas Fairbanks filming in Nogales in 1917 to “How the West Was Won” statewide in 1963, the state of Arizona has always been a photogenic favorite for movie producers. The program looks from “Real to Reel” to see how Hollywood has affected popular views of Western settlement and continues to impact social interactions. The […]

FREE

Fill out the info below to sign up for our E-Newsletter.