Quantcast

Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s official historian (access required)

By dmc-admin

Published: January 26, 2007 at 1:00 am

[Print] [Email] [RSS Feed] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Tumblr] [Twitter] More »

“It was cold and overcast that day. I was there, standing on that battlefield with my younger brother and sister-in-law, with no one else around. While they were exploring the other side of the battlefield, I found myself standing completely alone. That’s when I felt their presence all around me…”
Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s official state historian, describes the moment in Montana in the late 1960s while visiting the site of George Armstrong Custer’s Last Stand in the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn that propelled him to a lifetime of teaching, singing and eventually writing about the American West.
“You almost have to be alone there to really feel it,” says Trimble. “I felt the presence of Native American warriors and Custer’s cavalry all around me.”
Afterward, Trimble found himself back in Arizona with an insatiable desire to immerse himself in the history and lore of the famous Battle at Little Big Horn, and Western Americana in general. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I came back and immediately engulfed myself in it,” he says.
A short time later, in the very early 1970s, Trimble walked into Coronado High School in Scottsdale dressed in “jeans and boots” and asked if they needed a history teacher. They told him that what they really needed was a football coach, and Trimble was happy to oblige, in addition to becoming the school’s new American history teacher.
After two years of teaching American history infused with a very healthy dose of Southwestern U.S. history, the administration told Trimble if he could get 35 students to sign up for his proposed “Southwest history” elective, that he would be allowed to teach a section of it.
As the dust settled, he ended up with slightly fewer than 400 students signed up for his elective and 10 sections to teach.
Today, Trimble, 68, is considered by many to be the foremost authority on Arizona history. The cowboy singer-storyteller is a highly sought-after speaker, folk singer and author, with 19 books to his credit. He talks about the state like he’s reading the information out of a book, except, of course, he isn’t.
A lifetime spent singing and strumming a guitar, riding on horseback and getting his boots dusty all over the Grand Canyon State give Marshall Trimble’s tales of all things Arizona a vibrant, convincing and often humorous voice.
Phenomenal growth
In general discussions of state history, Trimble talks in terms of the “pioneer” era — events that happened before 1950, versus the “modern” era — events that took place after 1950.
He makes the distinction largely based on the arrival of the high-tech manufacturing era in the Valley beginning with Motorola in 1949, and the arrival of amenities that made the desert more livable, like affordable air-conditioning.
The most significant change to the state is the “unbelievable growth” he has seen over the past few decades. People started coming here for the lifestyle that continues to attract throngs of visitors and new residents today, he says. The climate, the top entertainment and professional sports are a few of the things that people come for. “We have a great lifestyle here,” Trimble says.
“The population of Maricopa County today is greater than the population of the entire state according to the 1990 census,” he says. “In 1950, Phoenix was the 95th largest city, and just a little over 50 years later, we’re fifth.”
As if the conversation had inexplicably gone too long without a laugh, he quickly adds, “I use statistics like a drunk uses a lamppost, not for illumination but for support.”
Also adding to the Valley’s post-1950 population boom were the many soldiers, stationed in the state before World War II, who returned to make their permanent homes in Arizona after the war, bringing a variety of skilled workers to the Valley’s growing pool of labor, Trimble says.
The politicians
John J. Rhodes, Jr. is best known for having served 30 years in Congress, being a driving force behind the Central Arizona Project and more famously, being one of two Arizonans who informed President Nixon in August 1974 that it was time to step down. The other Arizonan in the room was Sen. Barry Goldwater.
Trimble speaks fondly of those who represent the state. “As an Arizonan, I’m very proud of the people we have sent to Washington,” says Trimble. “We elect people who do great things.”
He takes a defensive tone on behalf of the state while discussing the comments of “some political hack in Washington” around the time of statehood. The general tone on Capitol Hill, says Trimble, was that Arizona was a “real back-water place full of riff raff.” The dissident individual reportedly said: “It will be at least a century until Arizona sends anyone to Washington who will make a difference.”
Henry F. Ashurst, Carl T. Hayden, Ernest McFarland, Barry Goldwater and others would surely take issue with such a statement.
Shape of the state
While trying to nail down one item, idea or event that has affected the culture of the state on a large scale, Trimble recalls his childhood in Ash Fork, Arizona, about 40 miles west of Flagstaff.
“I grew up around Indians in the northwest part of the state. They were very remote and maintained their traditional culture for a long time,” says Trimble. “Now I have had elders tell me that they are worried about the influence of hip hop culture on their sons and daughters.”
To Trimble, the influence of technology has changed the culture of the state, certainly for the better, possibly for the worse, depending on your point of view. He says he understands how the current generation usually draws ire from the culture of the next.
“From ragtime music to hip-hop, across all people and ethnicities, the music of the youth always seems to outrage the elders,” says Trimble. “In 1912, the president of what is today ASU tried to ban ragtime music from being heard, sang or danced to on campus. I suppose it is each generation’s way of pay back.”
The single most important accomplishment, technological and otherwise, says Trimble, was the construction of Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River. Construction began on the dam in 1904, two years before the Arizona News Service was born. The vital project was completed in 1911 at a cost of $10.3 million. The Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, a coalition of ranchers and farmers in Phoenix who put up 200,000 acres of their own land as collateral for the loan, had it completely repaid by 1955.
“The construction of Roosevelt Dam changed the course of our history. It carries us through to this day,” says Trimble. “I don’t see any way we could sustain life out here without the natural forces and the foresight and vision of the farmers who built it.”
Aiding the desert’s water management system is 13,000 square-mile watershed, says Trimble.
Solo statehood
As statehood was considered for the Arizona and New Mexico territories, a plan was gaining popularity to admit the two territories as one state, possibly called “Montezuma.” A later compromise had the whole state called Arizona, but with the capital residing in Santa Fe, says Trimble. Arizonans were opposed to the idea of joint statehood, while New Mexicans were quietly in favor. Republicans in Washington, D.C. were also in favor of combining the territories into one state.
“The Republicans feared losing political power, that’s why they wanted it that way,” says Trimble. “They would rather have had only two Democratic senators from one state rather than four from two states.”
Trimble credits Arizona Territorial Representative Mark Smith with keeping Arizona as its own state. Sen. Joseph B. Foraker, an Ohio Republican, was prepared to submit an amendment to the Arizona-New Mexico joint statehood bill. Smith, knowing the popular resentment toward joint statehood by many Arizonans, convinced Foraker to include a provision in his amendment that both territories had to approve joint statehood, or else it wouldn’t happen.
The ballots were cast in November 1906. Of 19,406 Arizona votes, 3,141 were for joint statehood, and 16,265 were against. In New Mexico, 40,930 votes were cast, with 26,195 voting for joint statehood, and 14,735 against.
Valley life now: ‘Tremendous energy’
Remembering pioneer-era Arizona, a state run by a lot of “good ol’ boys,” Trimble welcomed the influx of new, well-educated residents to the state after World War II. “I think it is healthy; new blood brings a lot of new ideas,” he says.
While the influx of new residents to the Valley comes with both positives and negatives, he knows that there is no magical gate to shut and stop people from moving here. “You can’t blame people for wanting to live here,” he says. “The Valley has tremendous energy.”
He believes that the modernization of the Valley has attracted many to come and stay. Early on, he says, sentiments were against building an extensive system of freeways around the Valley to avoid “becoming another L.A.”
He does approve of the job that has been done since major freeway construction began, and says that the pace of construction should increase, especially on the loops, to keep pace with population growth.
Despite remembering what things were like during the pioneer era, he doesn’t sit and wish for things to be “the way they used to be.” Well, at least when it comes to household comforts.
“As an old historian, I’m supposed to always wish for the ‘good ol’ days.’ But having lived in the ‘good ol’ days,’ in northern Arizona in a trailer house with no plumbing, heating or running water, I know that they weren’t always so good,” he acquiesces. “I’ll take the amenities we have today any old time.”
Arizona through time
A hundred years ago, Arizona was defined primarily as a mining and agricultural state, because that produced the most tax, says Trimble. Fifty years ago, during the post-war period, the state was defined by the growth of the manufacturing industry, driven largely by people from the Midwest migrating to fill the new jobs.
“We have a great lifestyle,” he says. “I think people outside the state define us by that today. The biggest auditorium 50 years ago was at Phoenix Union High School, where maybe a country band would occasionally come through.”
Today, top entertainment, including professional sports, recreation, parks, preserves, concerts, theater, opera and drama all act as part of the beacon that draws people here.
As this particular session of story telling draws to a close, in true cowboy fashion, he ends with a simple “so long.” Trimble, however, seems ready to tell countless other tales, as only he can, inspired by the spirits of the people who lived them.

[Print] [Email] [RSS Feed] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Tumblr] [Twitter] More »

POST A COMMENT

#
#
#
ARIZONA LEGISLATIVE REPORT