History All Around Us

2025-2026 Season Recap

     September 2025 ~ "Adobe Structures in Arizona" by Alex LaPierre

• Join us for an engaging look at Arizona’s adobe architecture and the unique Sonoran Row House. This presentation by Borderlandia director Alex La Pierre introduces adobe's fascinating history and its role in shaping Arizona's unique look and feel. We'll explore how these earthen brick houses were built to thrive in the arid desert, connecting today's rare examples of existing row architecture with the Indigenous and Hispanic building roots of the borderlands region. Whether you're curious about adobe, historic preservation or just love learning about the Southwest, this presentation offers something for everyone. 

     On YouTube ~~~ October 2025 ~ "Arizona's Prisoner of War Camps" by Steve Hoza

• Please come join us for a PowerPoint presentation by historian Steve Hoza on the history of German prisoner of war camps in Arizona during World War Two. Mr. Hoza has interviewed hundreds of former prisoners, guards, camp personnel and Arizona residents that worked with the POWs. There will be artifacts from the camps to see as well. A Phoenix native, Mr. Hoza has written extensively on the history of World War Two in Arizona and has appeared in numerous television documentaries.

• Click here to watch on YouTube

    November 2025 ~ "Buffalo Soldiers in Bonita Canyon" by Sharon A. Kennedy

• This is the story of two troops of the Tenth Cavalry, an all-black regiment, that arrived in Bonita Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains in 1885 to defend the use of the waterhole by Geronimo and his people, should they return from the mountains in Mexico.  During that time, the soldiers built a ten-foot stone monument honoring assassinated President James A. Garfield.

    On YouTube ~~~ January 2026 ~ "Chinese-Run Grocery Stores From Yesterday:  Continental Store & Right-Way Market"

• by Dr. Howard J. Eng & Paul E. Tang

•      Before today’s supermarkets or convenience stores, Southern Arizona families shopped in mom and pop neighborhood grocery stores, most operated by Chinese merchants who emigrated or were descendants of immigrants from China.  From the early 1800s to 1991, the Tucson area housed 582 Chinese-owned stores, selling everything from butchered meats, fresh produce and over the counter drug items, to dry goods, cowboy hats and gasoline.  Learn how these family-owned businesses thrived in their respective communities before eventually going extinct. 

     Paul Tang’s dad and mom, who came from Toishan, China and Hong Kong, respectively, ran the Continental Store from 1958 to 1977.  Tang is a retired superior court judge and has an intimate perspective about growing up in the migrant farming community founded in the 1900s, located east of Green Valley. He helped build the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center (TCCC), which hosts events advancing the culture and history of Asians in Southern Arizona. 

     Dr. Howard Eng is author of “Pursuing the American Dream: Tucson Chinese-Owned Grocery Stores,” whose parents immigrated from Toishan and sold groceries in rural Arizona from two trucks, eventually acquiring Right-Way Market, which they ran for 27 years until retiring in 1987.  Dr. Eng is a retired UA associate professor emeritus and pharmacist who is a community historian at the TCCC, which contains an exhibition of story boards showcasing local Chinese Stores and the families that ran them. 

     After the talk, Dr. Eng will be available for a book signing, with copies of the text available for sale, the proceeds of which benefit the TCCC.  

• Click Here to Watch on YouTube

     On YouTube ~~~ February ~ Arizona's World War Two Airfields by Steve Hoza

• Historian Steve Hoza spent more than a year flying over the state of Arizona photographing and documenting the fifty-plus airfields used for pilot, bombardier and gunnery training during World War Two.  Cadets from the United States, Great Britain and China came to the desert to prepare for battle on some of the country’s largest airfields.  Please join us on February 10th at 10:00 AM in the St. Francis in the Valley’s Episcopal Church auditorium. Steve will share stories, photographs and artifacts from his years of travel and research.  You won’t want to miss it. 

• Click Here to Watch on YouTube

     On YouTube  ~~~ March ~ WWII Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) by Jerry G. Bryant

• Tuesday, 10 March 2026, 10:00 AM

• Click Here to Watch on YouTube

     On YouTube ~~~ April ~ Going Nuts:  The Santa Cruz Valley's Transition from Cotton to Pecans by Oscar Gomez

•     Those who have traveled through the Sahuarita, Green Valley and Continental areas very likely noticed what appeared to be unending rows of towering trees spread almost as far as their eyes could see.  

    Prior to the mid 1960’s, the Santa Cruz Valley was home to farms raising the same “traditional crops” that were readily available in all areas of the Country, but with the spread of cotton farming outside of the United States, crop destroying diseases and the development of very popular synthetic fibers, local land owner Keith Walden began seeking alternative options to ensure continued success of the very profitable Farmer’s Investment Company (FICO) holdings.  

    Many have come to wonder how miles and miles of fields filled with cotton, peanuts, assorted vegetables and even guayule, a rubber substitute grown during WWI, transitioned to orchards full of mature, majestic, non-native pecan trees.  The Santa Cruz Valley Historical Society cordially invites you to explore this topic with us as local historian and former FICO employee Oscar Gomez presents, “Going Nuts:  The Santa Cruz Valley's Transition from Cotton to Pecans.”

• Click Here to Watch on YouTube

2024-2025 Season Recap

     On YouTube  ~~~  September 2024 ~ Buffalo Soldiers by Mary Kasulaitis

•      From 1917 to 1920, the 10th Cavalry, also known as Buffalo Soldiers, were stationed in Arivaca, Arizona, as well as many other border towns, to protect the residents from the effects of the Mexican Revolution, happening just across the line in Sonora. Since the Revolution had started in 1910 and did not end until 1920, the entire U.S. had felt the impact of the civil war in our neighbor to the South. This is part of that story. 

• Click Here to Watch on YouTube

     October 2024 ~ Stories from Sahuarita by Oscar Gomez

•      Oscar Gomez, former Sahuarita School District student and teacher, will share the experiences of the Gomez, Lopez and Estrada families as they journeyed from Lee Moor Ranch #1in Fabens, Texas, to the cotton fields of Arizona’s Lee Moor Ranch #2 and eventually to the farms of Sahuarita in the late 1940’s. Over 50 years of  treasured family photographs and stories will be merged with a historic display of aerial photos and maps to provide a glimpse of Santa Cruz Valley evolution through the eyes of  the families who lived it. 

     November 2024 ~ United Community Health Center (UCHC) History by Dr. Amy Rosenberg

•       Many Green Valley, Sahuarita and Continental residents are familiar with the United Community Health Center (UCHC), but few know the story behind the organization that provides medical, dental and mental health care to patients scattered throughout the Southern Santa Cruz Valley.  How did the Rural Health Office, an offshoot of the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine become the organization we know today?  From humble beginnings in a trailer on the side of White House Canyon Road, Valley residents are now served by clinics in Amado, Arivaca, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Three Points and Vail.

     The Santa Cruz Valley Historical Society would like to invite you to join us as we explore this story.  You will learn how local communities, a rural initiative from the University of Arizona, medical staff dedicated to a mission to provide health care to communities in need and determined community engagement came together to become UCHC. 

     Dr. Donald Smith M.D., Lori Juris, the original CEO, and Claudette Pippin COO, will present the discussion.  Dr. Amy Rosenberg M.D. will introduce the speakers.

     On YouTube ~~~ February 2025 ~ German Prisoners of War in Arizona by Steve Hoza

•      Please come join us for a PowerPoint presentation by historian Steve Hoza on the history of German prisoner of war camps in Arizona during World War Two. Mr. Hoza has interviewed hundreds of  former prisoners, guards, camp personnel and Arizona residents that worked with the POWs. There will be artifacts from the camps to see as well. A Phoenix native, Mr. Hoza has written extensively on the history of World War Two in Arizona and has appeared in numerous television documentaries. 

• Click here to watch on YouTube

     March 2025 ~ Sahuarita Bombing & Gunnery Range, Oscar Gomez

•    In December of 1940, the War Department in Washington announced expansion plans for the Tucson Air Base with an investment totaling approximately $2,211,212.  As a part of this National Defense Program, focused on the Army Air Corps strategy of sending “heavy bombers of the Flying Fortress type to fields in the interior—hidden from the Pacific Coast by high mountain ranges,” the Sahuarita Gunnery and Bombing Ranges were established.

    Long-time Sahuarita residents have many memories associated with these sites that were in use through the early 1970s. Former students remember field trips to the gunnery range, the sounds of weapons firing and even the excitement of drones falling on their playground.

     In 1944, local farmers, in cooperation with the Pima County Agricultural Extension Service and the Prisoner of War Program, established Camp Continental on the James B. Bull Farm. This POW work camp, located along the Nogales Highway between Sahuarita and Continental, played a critical role in the Valley economy while many local farm workers were overseas, enlisted in the war efforts. Stories of this endeavor provide a critical war-time component of area history, as well as observations and interactions with the German captives who lived there.  

     Oscar Gomez, former Sahuarita School District student, teacher and Vietnam Veteran, will relate his personal memories interspersed with images and stories shared by his contemporaries.

     April 2025 ~ Before Their Time, Women in the Valley:  Betty Hazen & Frances Emmons, Amy Millet

•       In 1937, Frances Graves Emmons homesteaded on land in the Sahuarita area going up to Twin Buttes Mine. She was the daughter of Colonel Graves, who was stationed at Fort Huachuca, and chased Pancho Villa back to Mexico on campaigns during the late 1800s. A single woman in that time period, she had the gumption to tame the desert and build her own custom home there. She entertained the elite from Tucson by having luncheons at her “RoadRunner Ranch.” Marrying later in life, she enjoyed having a home in Tucson as well. She stayed active politically and received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the UofA in 1982. 

     Another single woman who pioneered the housing development in Sahuarita was Elizabeth “Betty” Hazen. She built custom homes in the Santo Tomas area for people who wanted to get out of Tucson and enjoy the quiet country life here in Sahuarita. In 1958, she bought 640 acres and bulldozed and grated Camino de Las Quintas herself. She had picked up the word Las Quintas (pronounced “Loss Keentus”) meaning “country estate” while traveling in South America. She envisioned her own town center with shops on the cross street, Calle de La Plaza.  She brought in metal workers and craftsmen from Nogales Mexico to assist her, and learned brick laying, plumbing, electrical work and everything in between; helping to build the homes herself. In fact she preferred to do things herself and worked 13 hour days out in the sun to get things done. Come hear these and many more stories of women that shaped our community in the early 1900’s.

Do you have ideas for future topics or speakers?  Please send requests to info@santacruzvalleyhistory.org