The Patagonia Museum members meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 18th at 2 PM in the Patagonia Library. Our guest speaker will be Mary Noon Kasulaitis who will speak on the history of Arivaca.

Mary Noon Kasulaitis is a cattle rancher and retired Pima County Public Library librarian. She has been researching Arivaca history since the early 1980s. Her great grandparents, Dr A.H. and Emma Noon, came to Southern Arizona in 1879 to do some prospecting and started a cattle ranch at Oro Blanco, which is still in the family. Her father, Fred Noon, was on the Board of the Arizona Historical Society and wrote articles on Oro Blanco and Arivaca history in the local papers. Mary has published in the Journal of Arizona History and the Tucson Corral of the Westerners’ Smoke Signal. She is involved in historic preservation and is President of Friends of the Arivaca Schoolhouse & Historic Townsite, Inc. She lives on her grandfather’s homestead at Arivaca.

The Museum board will be holding our annual members meeting on January 18th at 10:30 AM in the Patagonia Public Library meeting room.

Following a short business meeting, you will hear from our guest speaker, renown local author, Nancy Valentine. She will speak about passages from her historical novel—”J.R. Bartlett and the Captive Girl”.

The book is based on a true U.S./ Mexico Borderlands story of the perilous and heartwarming journey of John Russell Bartlett, head of the 1850-1853 U.S. Boundary Survey Commission, to return a rescued Mexican Apache captive girl, Inez Gonzales, to her family in Santa Cruz, Sonora Mexico.

Call it what you will, the idea that items that have outlived their short term usefulness can be of value is a concept that matters to an organization like the Museum. Happily, our neighbors at the Empire Ranch Foundation feel exactly the same way which is why we are now the proud owners of 14 1940’s era school desks.

In terms of the back story on the transaction, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is partnered with the Empire Ranch Foundation (ERF)  for the purpose of preserving the Empire Ranch, one of our area’s treasures. School desks that were not needed at another BLM restoration project at the Fairbank schoolhouse have been in storage in an outbuilding at the Ranch since 2007.  Fortunately, Alison Bunting who is the historian for the ERF, as well as a member of the Museum, was aware of our plan for the Lochiel schoolhouse to become a community meeting place in the near future. She contacted our curators, Linda & Tom Shore, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We owe a big round of thanks to the BLM for their generosity, Alison for her thoughtfulness and the ERF volunteers for their helpful hands. The desks are off to a good new home and the ERF has regained some storage space…..which sounds like a win/win to us.

Good news! The Patagonia Museum will host our fifth fundraising and educational tour to the Rio Sonora Valley on February 18, 19 and 20. Our expert guides are Dr. Deni Seymour and Bill Steen. You can read more about their very impressive backgrounds here.  Musical entertainment will be provided by P.D. Ronstadt and The Company.

Our chartered motor coach will depart from Patagonia on Tuesday, February 18, at 8 am and will return to Patagonia on Thursday, February 20, in the late afternoon.

The price per person which includes transportation, lodging, meals and meal gratuities is $600 (double occupancy) per museum members and $650 for non-members. (As an FYI, membership into the Patagonia Museum is open to anyone who supports our work. The fee starts as low as $5 for students, $35 for individuals and $50 for households so if you are planning to go to Banamichi, it’s worth becoming a member….for that reason and a lot more.)

There is limited seating for this tour so please let us know if you plan to go  as soon as convenient. Proceeds from this fundraising event support our programs and projects.  For more info, see the Banamichi Bus Tour Flyer March 2020.

If you would like to join us, please print off the registration form and return it along with a check to PO Box 919, Patagonia, AZ 85624.

Banamichi Bus Tour Registration Form March 2020

Questions should be directed to German Quiroga at 520.343.5641 or via email: german@thepatagoniamuseum.org.

The official word: the Patagonia Museum enjoyed another educational and entertaining bus tour to Mexico. On November 9, 10 and 11, museum guests traveled to Casa Grandes, Chihuahua and Mata Ortiz.

Highlights of the tour included a picnic lunch at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico, a guided tour of Paquime and El Museo de las Culturas de el Norte, a pottery making demonstration in Mata Ortiz and a visit to the plaza at Viejo Casas Grandes .

Don’t take it from us…here’s what one of the participants had to say:

“Just wanted to thank you again for a great tour with wonderful people! You did a super job of getting everything organized and making adjustments when needed! Having Bobby Ronstadt along was an added bonus. Becky was also an excellent guide…..we learned so much!

Thanks to the generosity of the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, the Museum’s home (formerly the Patagonia Elementary School) is looking pretty spiffy, if we do say so ourselves.

The Museum was awarded a grant by the South32 Hermosa Project Community Fund and used it to contract with Doctor Construction out of Tucson who was definitely up for the challenge.

A much need paint job and repair to the wear and tear of the last century leads us to believe the grand old lady is good for the next 105 years.

If you haven’t stopped by to see us in a while, please do. We think you will be pleasantly surprised by the updates, particularly to the exhibits inside.  The Museum is open Thursday – Saturday 2 to 4. Other times are available by appointment.

Our Fall hours go into effect next week: Thur – Sat 2 to 4.

If you haven’t been up to check out the Museum recently, we have new things on exhibit and even more on the horizon. Special items from the George Proctor collection are making their way into our exhibit rotation.

Thanks to the people in the community who are helping make our vision of preserving the memories of eastern Santa Cruz county a reality. You know who you are and we appreciate your generosity.

The Patagonia Museum invites you to join us for our second fund-raising bus tour to Mata Ortiz on November 9, 10 and 11, 2019. We depart from Patagonia on Saturday, November 9, at 8 am. By mid-afternoon we arrive in Paquime and tour the Museo de las Culturas del Norte. We lodge and dine at the Hotel Hacienda in Nuevo Casas Grandes for 2 nights. On Sunday, we proceed to Mata Ortiz and view a pottery making demonstration, visit with several pottery makers and enjoy lunch provided by our Mata Ortiz hosts.Rebecca Orozco, a history and anthropology instructor at Cochise College and the University of Arizona, will provide commentary throughout our tour. Peter Dalton Ronstadt and Company will provide the musical entertainment during the tour. On Monday, we return through  Puerto Palomas and dine and shop at the Pink Store. We return to Patagonia by 6 pm that day.

The fee for Museum members is $550 per person (with double occupancy) and includes your transportation, lodging, entertainment and meals. There is a $50 per person surcharge for nonmembers of the museum. Membership to the museum is available to anyone interested in supporting our work and begins at $5 for students, $35 for individuals and $50 for families.

Please click on the link below to download the Tour Registration form that needs to be returned along with your check.

The Borderlands Earth Care Youth and The Patagonia Museum partnered to plant 4 apple trees and various native flora on June 17 and 18 at the Lochiel Schoolhouse.

The project included an elder sharing session on the evening of June 17. Bud Bercich, Gooch Goodwin, Maureen De La Ossa, Frank De La Ossa, Ramon De La Ossa, Bob Brandt, David Ellis and German Quiroga were the elders attending this event that was supported in part by a grant from the Patagonia Regional Community Fund.

Congratulations go to Gianna (Gigi) Martin who recently graduated from PHS. She began her school career in the building that now houses the Museum so it’s only fitting she was our inaugural Student Docent.

She helped us design the program and recruited her successor for which we also owe her a big round of thanks. Gigi is off to the University of Hawaii and we hope the scholarship she was awarded by the Museum Board will come in handy.

On a personal note, we are looking forward to hearing of your adventures, Gigi, knowing you will represent Patagonia well.  As Dr. Seuss said:

“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact.

And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed)

Kid, you’ll move mountains.”