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Recent Articles from W. Lane Rogers
Will C. Barnes
Will Croft Barnes is best remembered for his concluding opus, “Arizona Place Names,” a book published in 1935, preceding his death a few months later. The book is still in print, which is a testament to its enduring value to both readers and scholars.
Rations Day at San Carlos
With little else to look forward to, rations day on the San Carlos Apache Reservation was an event. As evidenced by this photo, taken about 1895, men, women and children, on horseback, muleback, and accompanied by their dogs, converged on agency headquarters to receive their weekly allotment.
McKinley’s visit to Congress
At first glance, the portly gentleman with hands clasped behind his back might be taken for an aging schoolmaster scolding errant children at recess. But he was not an educator and the youngsters pictured here were on their best behavior. They were, after all, hobnobbing with a man named William McKinley who was president of the United States.
Old Main: No Running on the Balcony
During the first session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1864 — when not a single public school existed in the newly formed territory — lawmakers authorized a university and wrote a constitution to guide its affairs.
Tucson’s forgotten novelist
Harold Bell Wright is not a name that trips lightly from contemporary tongues. Yet, there was a time when this prolific novelist was among the nation’s best-selling and highest-paid authors.
Gilmore and Salisbury’s ‘custom’ smelter
Benson was established in June 1880 by the Southern Pacific and became an important maintenance center for the railroad and the shipping point for the Bisbee and Tombstone mines, neither of which was served by rail. The town was less than three months old when, according to the Tucson Citizen, “the first shipment of copper bullion from Bisbee (arrived) in Benson, where it (was) shipped to San Fr[...]
Dillinger Arrested In Tucson
The mug shots are of John Dillinger were taken by the Tucson Police Department on January 25, 1934.
The ‘Convento’
South of Congress Street on the west side of the Santa Cruz River near downtown Tucson was a Pima Indian village. This site, at the base of Sentinel Peak — today it is called ‘A’ Mountain — is known to have been inhabited since at least 1000 B.C. Located by a once-flowing spring that emptied into the Santa Cruz, American Indians called the village Stjukson (spelling of the word varies wide[...]
Arizona Governor’s Mansion
The Governor’s Mansion in Prescott was built for $6,000 and was the meeting place for the first Territorial Legislature in 1864. Today it serves as the Sharlot Hull Museum.
Alianza Hispano-Americana
During the mid to late 19th century, Mexicans and Anglos were living side-by-side in many cities and towns throughout the Southwest. In Tucson, the first Anglos settled during the 1850s. They enjoyed a close association with their Hispanic neighbors, both socially and in business, and intermarriage was more common than not. During the 1870s, as the Anglo population rapidly increased, racial tensio[...]
Paradise, Arizona
In 1940, the year this photograph was taken, an unidentified scribe noted "a score of weather-worn frame buildings scattered along the narrow, winding mountain road" that snakes through Paradise.
Never mind Mining
This 1956 photo of Tombstone shows a modern, but economically depressed town. It wasn't until Hollywood painted a fantastic picture of the Wild West did the town cash in its rough-and-tumble lore with tourists.
