Newsletter of Arizona Pathfinders, Inc. A Volunteer Support Organization for the Southern Division of the Arizona Historical Society, founded 1976 December 2015 W.D. Kalt III, President [email protected] BROWN BAG AND SILENT AUctION ARIZONA PATHFINDERS’ JANUARY 21, 2016 DECEMBER 10TH POT LUCK HIGH IN THE DESERT SKIES: TUCSON’S RED- MASSACRE AT POINT OF ROCKS: LETTER DAY In 1849 a band of Jicarilla Apache kidnapped a woman Join Pathfinders January 21, 2016 at 6:00PM at the and her child after killing her husband and traveling Auditorium of the Arizona History Museum, 949 East companions. Kidnapping Mexican and Pueblo women Second Street. was commonplace, but Mrs. White was an Anglo and a lady, almost the only one in New Mexico. Pursuit Just six months after the world’s first grand came from all directions but only Kit Carson could aviation meet in Reims, France during 1909, find and follow a Arizona saw airplanes soaring in its skies. month-old trail. This is Although remote, the Territory hosted barn- the history behind the storming aerobats who proved flight possible historical novel Massacre even in the most in rickety of contraptions. at Point of Rocks, the real The country’s first two pilots to complete story. transcontinental flights choose Tucson as the only Join Pathfinders on location where both landed at the same time. December 10, 2015 at 6:00PM at the Auditorium of the Arizona History Museum, 949 East Second Street. Our speaker will be Doug Hocking. He is an independent scholar continued on page 2 It was seven years before aircraft again flew into Arizona. Then on a single day a veritable flood of TABLE OF CONTENTS airplanes descended upon the Santa Cruz Valley. Back of the House Tour . 2 Uncelebrated almost a century later, this stands Volunteer Opportunities . 3 as Tucson’s “Red-Letter Day.” (Plane rides not Membership Renewal for 2016 . 3 included.) Pathfinders’ Rustic Border Tour . 4 Our speaker is W. Kalt, author of Tucson Was a Pathfinders’ Fall Brown Bag . 5 Railroad Town: the Days of Steam in the Big Burg on New Pathfinders Board Member . 5 the Mainline. He is a native Tucsonan and former Name Recognition . 5 educator with a strong interest in Arizona history. Starting our Seventh Year . 5 continued on page 2 Newsletter design and layout – Kamper & Kamper LLC Brown Bag and Silent Auction , continued from page 1 December 10th Pot Luck , continued from page 1 W.Kalt is a former Sheriff of the Tucson Corral of who has completed advanced studies in American Westerners which published his monograph “Sky history, ethnology and historical archaeology. Sensations: Early Arizona Aviation Tales” in 2014. He is a retired Army officer who has lived among His book High in Desert Skies: Early Arizona Aviation the Jicarilla Apache and paisanos of the Rio Arriba Tales will be available in Spring 2016. (Northern New Mexico). His novels immerse the th This is a Brown Bag meeting so bring your own reader in the times, terrain and cultures of 19 meal. Pathfinders’ Board will provide dessert and century New Mexico. coffee. Doug lives near Tombstone with his wife, dogs and As usual the meeting is free and open to the a feral cat. He writes both fiction and history and is public, so bring your friends and introduce currently working on a biography of Tom Jeffords. He them to Arizona’s history. Donations are always has two historical novels in print: Massacre at Point of welcome. Rocks and Mystery of Chaco Canyon. His articles have appeared in True West, Wild West, Buckskin Bulletin and At this meeting an exciting Silent Auction will be Roundup. Recently AZ Humanities listed him as a held. For more information contact the Arizona Road Scholar. Pathfinders at [email protected]. We will have an exciting Raffle at the meeting. Bring a There is free parking available for attendees dish to share. Pathfinders provide dessert and coffee one block west of the museum in the Arizona for all attendees. This event is free and open to the Historical Society garage. public. Bring your friends and introduce them to The AHS garage is located at the northeast corner Arizona’s history. of East Second Street and North Euclid Avenue. Remember there is free parking at the AHS garage. Enter through the East Second Street entrance. Directions are given in the column to the left. ARIZONA PATHFINDERS’ BACK OF THE HOUSE TOUR 1:00PM – January 31, 2016 Free parking is one block west of the museum at the $25 Per Person northeast corner of East Second Street and North A fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of items not Euclid Avenue. Use the East Second Street entrance. currently on display at the Arizona History Museum. This is an 1½ hour tour, 30 minutes in each room. Visit selected items from three different rooms: Please fill out the form below. Make your check Native baskets, Pots and Blankets payable to Arizona Pathfinders and mail it with the Saddles, Household Items, Furniture form to: Selected Fabric Materials and Cele Peterson’s Arizona Pathfinders Dresses c/o John and Mary Flynn Plan to arrive at the Arizona History Museum, 3544 West Sky Ridge Loop 949 East Second Street at 12:45PM. Tucson AZ 85742 Name(s): ________________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________ E-mail: _________________________________________________________________________ Telephone: ______________________________________________________________________ Check enclosed: __________________X $25 = $ _____________________ 2 — Pathfinders Press VOLUNTEER OppORTUNITIES FOR PATHFINDERS MEMBERS – WE NEED YOUR HELP Pathfinders is a support organization for the activities, at each evening program there will be a Southern Division of the Arizona Historical Society, notice of upcoming events needing your help. primarily for the library and archives. Our major fund If you are unable to attend the evening events raisers are our single- and multi-day tours and a raffle but wish to find out more about helping with at each evening event. any of these activities, contact our e-mail at This past year we have begun undertaking additional [email protected] . Participating in fund-raising activities such as the Back of the House some of these Pathfinder activities is a great way tours, which give a close-up view of the collections to get more out of and give back to this wonderful in the Museum’s basement, and a Silent Auction at organization. which items of a more substantial value than in our Volunteers are needed for: usual raffles are offered. • Back of the House tour on January 31, 2016, There are also ongoing needs such as procuring with a planning meeting on January 5. items for the raffles or Silent Auction, or serving on • Items for the raffles. These can be brought to the Board. the evening event or arrangements made for All these require a team of volunteers to make them pickup. successful. To date all the volunteers have come from • Items for the Silent Auction to be held at the your Board of Directors. January 21st Brown Bag event. In order to give the larger membership the To volunteer or find out more about how you can opportunity to contribute to the success of these help, please contact [email protected]. MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL FOR 2016 Form for you to provide us with your e-mail address, if you have one. Otherwise we will send a printed Please renew your membership to Arizona copy of the newsletter to you. Pathfinders. Your contribution to our non-profit organization helps support the Southern Chapter of Pathfinders dues are for a calendar year. Please fill the Arizona Historical Society. out the form and mail your check. Your dues are an important part of Pathfinders’ income. All our We want to keep you updated on coming meetings, income goes to support the Southern Division of the events and other news of interest during the coming Arizona Historical Society. year. To ensure that, there is space in the renewal Pathfinders Press — 3 PATHFINDERS’ TOUR OF THE RUSTIC BORDER OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO OCTOBER 26 – 30, 2015 On the coach on our way to Safford AZ we watched Day three found us at the Very Large Array of the an interesting movie about the “Power’s War” near National Radio Astronomy Observatory for a very Klondike, west of Safford. The movie was produced interesting tour. The Array consists of 27 antennas, by the Graham County Historical Society, who each 82’ in diameter in a Y-shaped configuration on hosted us while in the Safford area. You can visit here the plains of San Agustin NM. for more information on this fascinating piece of A step-on-guide gave us the history of the area Arizona history. surrounding Reserve, NM with its ranches, forests After a picnic lunch, a step-on guide from the and the lawman Elfego Baca. We had supper at the Historical Society took us to the site of the Wham historic Buckhorn Saloon and Restaurant in Pinos U.S. Army Payroll Robbery of the late 1800’s and Alto NM outside Silver City NM. described the Samaniego Freight Train Massacre in the same general area. After a tour of downtown Safford, we visited the Mills Pottery Collection at Eastern Arizona College. The airplane used to hunt Pancho Villa following his invasion of the US at Columbus NM in 1916. Day four included a guided tour of Ft. Bayard which has had Buffalo Soldiers, a TB hospital and a VA hospital in its history. We managed to avoid five Seymour Fogel’s New Deal mural bucks on the way to Silver City. Shopping in historic in the Safford Post Office. Silver City and an excellent dinner at the unique Bear Mountain Lodge completed the day.