Originally conceived to celebrate Arizona’s Centennial in 2012, “The Ballad of Arizona” has been updated to provide a more complete survey of important, but often little-known, chapters of Arizona’s unique history. A blend of music, video, and lecture, “The Ballad of Arizona” is similar to “A Prairie Home Companion” but with an Arizona twist. The […]
Six hundred miles long from its source in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico to its confluence with the Colorado River above Yuma, the Gila has been an important avenue for the movement of birds, animals, plants, and peoples across the desert for millennia. Many cultures have sprung up on its banks, and millions of […]
In 1937, a team of CalTech geology professors and rough-and-tumble boatmen set out in three small wooden boats on a six-week journey through the Grand Canyon to study the ancient rocks of the canyon’s Inner Gorge. At the time, fewer than a dozen river parties had successfully run the canyon–often with a loss of boats […]
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 […]
In 1880, Alan Day’s grandfather homesteaded the Lazy B ranch. This dusty dry tract of land produced a Supreme Court Justice, a lauded Arizona state senator, and a career rancher, cowboy, and land conservationist. Alan explores the ranching and cowboying life from the chuck wagon years of his childhood, through his adult years of increasing […]
The promise of unimagined riches is what brought many of the earliest colonizers to the Arizona Territory. Following the trail to the discovery of the mother lode, they built, then dismantled and finally abandoned communities when mines played out – leaving behind tantalizing clues of difficult hardships. Some towns survived like Bisbee, Jerome, Tombstone and […]
The best-known and perhaps most visited grave site in northern Arizona belongs to little Johnny Elden, Jr. His 1887 murder remains one of the most infamous in Territorial history. Today, Johnny rests alone in a rock-covered grave at the base of the mountain named for his father. A beautiful U.S. Forest Service interpretive panel nearby […]
Arizona’s rivers were first, lush green ribbons of life through a desert landscape. They became sustaining paths, first for the indigenous, later for immigrants leaving wagon tracks. On the Salt River, Hohokam built vast canals to direct water for irrigation. The first European citizens of Phoenix used these same trenches. The history, stories and songs […]
Arizona’s wine industry is booming. Starting from almost nothing in the 1970s, there are now over 50 wineries across the state and more starting every year. Despite the youth of the current industry, there is a long history of wine-making in Arizona dating back some 200 years. Using numerous illustrations, this presentation traces the fascinating […]
Prostitution was a main stay business of frontier communities and Tucson was no exception. From 1870 to 1910, Tucson prostitutes worked openly without local government interference. However, as Tucson shed its frontier label for respectable city, Tucson began slowly to condemn its ‘soiled doves.” The talk will examine the lives of Tucson’s prostitutes, their struggles, […]
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