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You may already know us; we are old friends with a New Mission. 

We are SAZHC, founded November 2021 as: SOUTHERN ARIZONA HISTORY CONNECTION, INC., a 501c3, and formally Friends of Arizona History. 

We are members of the Southern Arizona community, who were originally formed to support the Arizona Historical Society (AHS). 

Our New Mission: 

“a. to support the activities of historical organizations in southern Arizona.
 b. to raise, hold, invest, and make expenditures and otherwise provide monetary support to those historical organizations in southern Arizona, and.
 c. encourage, promote and help facilitate collaborations among historical organizations in southern Arizona.”
Our History:

begins in the Arizona Territory 1884 with the formation of the Society of Arizona Pioneers . By 1973 the society was changed and renamed: The Arizona Historical Society (AHS). The staff, regional archives, collections, main Museum: Arizona History Museum (AHM) were located in Pima County. 

In 2018 AHS rebranded the governance system, centralizing its networking to be near the state's capital.  At the same time AHS moved away from the regional model of local decision making and reduced its need for many regional support groups.   

As SAZHC, we were free to choose a new path of community engagement. We have recently completed our foundational tasks.

We have created a framework for exploring our region, its organizations, events, and research locations through the creation of our website: https://sazhc.org .

We are pleased to invite you to join us in discovering the many ways we can assist the multitude of history support organizations in Southern Arizona.

 . . share your passion for history with us! 

SAZHC Founding Members Are:

Craig McEwan, Bill Cavaliere, Yvonne Clay, Betty Cook, Linda Head, and Vicki Schwager.

Our Current Board of Directors Are:

 Craig McEwan, Bill Cavaliere, Yvonne Clay, Linda Head, Vicki Schwager, Ron White, Leslie Roe

About Us

Your Hub for Southern Arizona History Archives, Museums, and More

Our purpose is to connect our
nonprofit organizations

who preserve, explore, and inspire our passion for history

 

We live and work in a land of unsurpassed natural beauty, mountains, prairies, and deserts where our history is ever present.
In the 1500s Spanish explorers came to find wealth.
In the 1800s immigrants came to create wealth through mining and ranching
In the land where Indigenous cultures traded and farmed for more than 4000 years.

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GHOST TOWNS IN SOUTHERN Arizona from internet:

Arizona ghost towns tell the stories of the state’s past. An estimated 100,000 mines hide among the towering cactus and dusty roads of Arizona. These mines produced rich minerals, causing small town populations to increase quickly, then fade away as mining operations wrapped up

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Cochise County Ghost Town History
… by Bill Cavaliere

PARADISE:

Paradise is located in the southeast portion of the Chiricahua Mountains, along East Turkey Creek. A few individual prospectors began mining in the area as early as 1900. Since there was running water and shade trees along the creek, in the desert heat, the place seemed like Paradise, so that was the name given to an early mine. The town began springing up around 1902 and the decline started around 1908. A few persistent miners stayed around into the 1930s. Paradise had a jail, a deputy sheriff, a red-light district, a butcher, several general stores, many saloons, and a weekly newspaper called The Paradise Record. The peak population within the town limits was about three hundred. Lead and silver were the main minerals mined there, with some copper as well. A few families still live in Paradise today.

COURTLAND:

Courtland is located at the foot of the Dragoon Mountains. It was founded in 1909, when copper was discovered there. The town received its name from Courtland Young, one of the owners of the Great Western Mining Company. At its peak, Courtland had a population of about 2,000. The town had a jail and one deputy sheriff. The mines began playing out, and the post office closed in1942. Today, the Courtland Jail is the only structure that remains standing.

PEARCE:

Silver was discovered in this area in the late 1890s, and the Commonwealth Mine began mining it in 1894. The following year, gold was also discovered. The peak of Pearce's population was in 1920, when it hit 1,500. A total of eight million dollars' worth of silver, and 2.5 million dollars' worth of gold were taken from the Pearce mines. The mines began to decline in the 1940s.

GLEESON:

Gleeson's first mine was established in 1890. A town soon sprung up, called Turquoise. The name of the town was changed ten years later, to Gleeson. Copper was the main mineral mined, along with lead, silver, and zinc. In 1912, the majority of the town burned to the ground, but was soon rebuilt. The peak population was five hundred. The Gleeson post office closed in 1939. The Gleeson jail is still standing today, among a few other buildings.

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left to the ghosts-
tucson.com › news › local

Ruby, Arizona ghost town will soon be closed to tourists

tucson.com › news › local
Jun 21, 2024 · After more than 30 years of welcoming tourists to the ghost town southwest of Tucson, the private owners will permanently close it to the public on June

Southern Arizona History Connection

Historic Gardens

Southern Arizona does not have the type of gardens you might expect in other parts of the country. Our deserts have fertile soil but water is essential to grow any crops.

Early inhabitants used canals to bring in and control water. At San Xavier del Bac along the Santa Cruz River (near Mission Gardens), irrigation agriculture was in use to cultivation of drought tolerant plants: maize, beans, squash and sunflower seeds.

Wild foods like the fruit and seeds of the Saguaro cactus were collected and eaten both fresh and dried, the flower buds of the Cholla cactus were collected and roasted in clay lined pits.

Our gardens represent the spectrum of desert living, not only showcasing some ancient crops, but including 20th century area gardens from our culturally diverse populations.

please discover & enjoy!

1.Mission Garden, Tucson: A living agricultural museum recreating the Spanish Colonial walled garden that was part of Tucson's origins and and Examples of heirloom crops, Cultural gardens, and heirloom trees…

“Mission Garden is a living agricultural museum of Sonoran Desert-adapted heritage fruit-trees, traditional local heirloom crops and edible native plants. It's a non-profit, volunteer-based educational organization whose primary mission is to preserve, transmit and revive the region’s rich agricultural heritage by growing garden plots representative of more than 4000 years of continuous cultivation in the Tucson Basin.”

https://www.missiongarden.org

2.Tucson Botanical Gardens: Founded in the 1960s, this 5.5-acre urban oasis with 20 themed gardens including the home and Historic Porter Gardens from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, the Native American Crops area, and The Plants of the Tohono O’odham

https://tucsonbotanical.org/

3.Tombstone Rose Tree Museum: Home to the world's largest rose bush, planted in 1885.

Who knew? The world‘s largest living rosebush would be found in Tombstone, Arizona. Where else could you attach it to museum with some of the area’s Wild West history?

https://tombstonerosetree.com

4.Tumacacori National Historical Park: In 2004, Tumacácori National Historical Park acquired significant adjacent property which was the original 5-acre and used it replant the Spanish Mission Era orchard and garden. The fruit tree stocks can be traced to those introduced in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by Jesuit missionaries such as Father Kino.

https://www.nps.gov/tuma/index.htm

other places to explore:

  • Native Seed Search (seed preservation)- not a museum

“A Small Act with a Big Reward

When you commit to conserving seeds, you’ll not only ensure their presence in the Seed Bank, you’ll make them available for a farmer who can supply food to their community. . The need to grow and conserve drought-tolerant, heirloom seeds has never been greater.”

https://www.nativeseeds.org

  • Arizona Sonora Desert Museum - includes are 2 miles of trails connecting the exhibits . . . with 1,200 different types of desert plants

https://www.desertmuseum.org/

  • Tohono Chul Park (a desert park & gardens) including a Riparian Habitat re-creation of the once abundant perennial streams of Southern Arizona, a Sin Agua garden (without water in Spanish) desert landscaping using mostly harvested rainwater, a Spanish Colonial courtyard, …. and more

https://tohonochul.org/gardens-2/gardens/

  • Agua Caliente Park, Tucson: Features historic gardens around a natural spring, with structures dating back to the late 19th century.

https://friendsofaguacaliente.org/

Southern Arizona History Connection

Our Southern Arizona Counties: PIMA, PINAL, COCHISE, SANTA CRUZ,

and their historic waterways

We are the‘ Borderlands’ and the legendary ‘Wild West’. Our history is tied to Spain, Mexico, Indigenous people and numerous Mesoamerican civilizations. We were part of Mexico until the Gadsen purchase in 1853, when we became the Arizona Territory. In 1912 our territory became the 48th State.

Our past and present merge to offer:

Foods and tastes you cannot easily find elsewhere, pottery and metalwork unique to this region building materials made from earthen bricks, modern conservation techniques based on ancient methods, and a respect for history and traditions amplified through our many non-profit organizations.

Click to Explore
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