Upcoming Events Events

In the late-19th century, Arizona was the center of one of the grandest land-fraud schemes in the U.S. The Peralta Grant was a fraudulent claim to over 12 million acres of land from central Arizona to western New Mexico. James Addison Reavis almost single-handedly stole most of central Arizona by declaring himself "The Baron of Arizona" and claiming to inherit an 18th-century Spanish land grant. His outrageous scheme is one of the greatest land fraud stories in the United States.
 

Almost everyone in the world knows the phrase “Hollywood Cowboys” means actors who took part in that unique American art form known as the Western movies. This presentation starts with The Last of the Mohicans and looks at the little books and traveling shows that created the legendary
Wild West: the Dime Novels and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Bronco Billy Anderson starred in The Great Train Robbery in 1903 and we’ll spend some time with silent movie stars like Tom Mix but most of the presentation focuses on the movie stars we all remember from the Saturday matinees and TV late show reruns. We’ll look at B movie serial stars like Hoot Gibson and Tim McCoy; singing cowboys Gene Autry and Roy Rogers; plus major box office stars like Gary Cooper, John Wayne,
and Clint Eastwood. It wouldn’t be a Hollywood Western without villains like Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Lee Van Cleef, and of course the loyal and comical sidekicks Gabby Hayes, Chill Wills, Slim Pickens, Andy Devine, and Walter Brennan. We can’t cover all the Hollywood cowboys
in an hour but we’re sure to bring back a lot of fond memories.

One of the most important concepts in Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings is the idea of “the beloved community,” the possibility of a society in which people from diverse backgrounds and economic circumstances learn to live together. Conflict in any society, he taught, is inevitable, but it can be resolved through non-violence and a commitment toward equal justice. This  presentation will explore Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas through the works of Charles Johnson, the National Book Award-winning novelist, who has written extensively about Martin Luther King Jr. and his philosophy. Together we will consider Johnson’s novel Dreamer (1998), which presents a fictionalized account of King’s summer in Chicago in 1966, and his short story “Dr. King’s Refrigerator” (2005), which imagines a midnight snack in 1954 for the man who was about to lead a Civil Rights revolution.

Louis Eytinge was a forger, swindler, liar and playboy, probably the most talented and cold-blooded con man early Arizona ever knew. His criminal resume included a murder that landed him in the chronic yard of the Yuma Territorial Prison in 1907. He suffered from tuberculosis, weighed 119 pounds, and doctors gave him two months to live.  If his life had followed the expected course, he would’ve died alone and unknown to history, another bankrupt soul in a rugged land struggling to emerge from its frontier past.

But Eytinge’s destiny didn’t include anonymity.

At his parole in 1922, he was celebrated around the country as an author and public speaker, a genius in direct mail advertising and an expert on prison reform.

Who was this strange man and how did he become Yuma’s most infamous inmate, besting luminaries like Tombstone shootist Buckskin Frank Leslie and the flamboyant stagecoach robber, Pearl Hart?
 

In the first half of the program, “Amelia” will arrive and share highlights of her amazing life story, including growing up in Kansas on the banks of the Missouri River, moving around a lot as a kid, finding her interest in flying, even living in St. Paul for a while! When Amelia leaves, her cousin Nancy
will step in to share “the rest of the story”, about what went wrong on her last flight, theories about what happened to her cousin Amelia, her marriage, the books she wrote, how she made money for future flights, and so on.

Place names are like fossil poetry: they afford a kind of folk history, a snapshot in time that enables us to read them and reconstruct how people have assigned names to the places to which they come. The U.S. has over 3.5 million place names, and there is no part of the world where nomenclature is so rich, poetic, humorous, and picturesque – a tradition to which Arizona has had more than its share of contributions. In this presentation, McNamee examines the history of Arizona place names, using lively anecdotes to discuss the little-known stories behind names on the land.
 

From the most humble of beginnings, Abraham Lincoln rose to the pinnacle of achievement; not only in politics but also in the hearts of Americans. Elected at a time when the country was literally ripping in two, it was the challenge of his administration to preserve the union.  Full of humility and conviction, this lecture explores the life of one of the greatest men to live.
 

The Merci Train story begins with understanding the bond that follows when one nation helps another to win its freedom.   France paid a dear price for her freedom after WWII - devastation and poverty. The Merci Train, also known as the French Gratitude Train, was sent to the United States following World War II as a ‘Thank You’ for that most generous gift of $40 million food and other supplies sent to France and Italy in 1947.  The train featured 49 cars filled with personal gifts. Forty-eight states received individual cars and the 49th car was shared between the District of Columbia and Hawaii

When the US Army ordered troops into Arizona Territory in the nineteenth century to protect and defend newly established settlements, military men often brought their wives and families, particularly officers who might be stationed in the west for years.  Come hear about the devotion, duty, creativity and grit of women who chose to share life on the frontier with their husbands. 

Entrepreneurs offering assorted “get rich quick” schemes and “cure-alls” have visited Arizona since the early days. Benefitting from tales of abundant resources in the territory, limited law enforcement and communication, a scoundrel could create enticing promises of wealth and health without much external oversight. Newspapers often fanned the hysteria only to later denounce and expose the same schemes. This program illustrates through newspaper articles, quotes, photographs and ephemera, some of the most famous, and some of the lesser-known, embarrassing scams and hoaxes that have found gullible Arizonans.
 

It is impossible to look at the how the boundaries of Arizona were determined without first understanding the formation of the United States. As thoughts of the American Revolution faded into the distance, the newly formed United States had to determine what would be done with the land west of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi that was now available for settlement. 

Overlapping state claims to this land and the political chaos that could ensue needed to be dealt with first to continue the country’s expansion westward. Visionaries saw the country stretching even to the Pacific Ocean. And through acquisitions and war the country came together. 

But questions arose! Who would lead this vision for hundreds of thousands of people to cross the wide-open spaces to seek their fortunes in gold or land and what were the factors that contributed to this westward migration?  How were state borders and shapes an outcome of manifest destiny?  What and who determined the shape of Arizona’s border?  These are just some of the questions that will be answered as an historical overview in this presentation.

Would you believe there are over 40 different wild animals in the vicinity of Apache Junction? This talk displays full screen award winning photos and videos of these exciting and sometimes wierd critters.  This program has been developed from the best of thousands of animal pics and videos.  Most of them were captured from several trial cameras.  You will see bobcats, grey foxes, and the strange courtship habits of round-tailed ground squirrels.  Plus rare footage of Arizona's State animal - the Ringtail.  Also, there will be blue ribbon woodcarvings of several of these local animals to enhance the experience.