The Santa Cruz Patagonian Newspaper was first published in Patagonia on December 1912. The Patagonia Museum, the Patagonia Library and the Friends of the Patagonia Library have partnered to reformat copies of this local newspaper on electronic media. The total collection purchased from the Arizona Library State Archives includes 693 editions of this newspaper from 1915 to 1929.

Special thanks to Abbie Zeltzer, Bill Eifrig, Bob Ollerton and Murphy Musick who made this possible.

View all these editions here.

In 2009, a grant was secured with the assistance of the Patagonia Public  Library from the Arizona State Library Office of Records and Archives to collect oral histories in eastern Santa Cruz County. Ralph Schmitt and German Quiroga proceeded to collect oral histories from long time area dwellers over the next three years.

The Patagonia Museum is grateful for the support from the Patagonia Public Library, Arizona State Library (Public Records and Archives Division) and the Patagonia Regional Community Foundation, in affiliation with the Arizona Community Foundation, for providing resources to complete this project. Thanks go to Abbie Zeltzer, Patagonia public librarian, Laura Palma-Blandford and Carlos Lopez of the Arizona State Library Office of Public Records and Archives for providing support and technical assistance and Kate Ervin of Typewell who provided the transcription service.

Very special thanks go to the twelve interviewees who provided us with their recollections of the early days in eastern Santa Cruz County. To read the histories for yourself, please click to download them.

The O’odham people inhabited a large area of desert, foothills and river valleys south from the Gila River (in Arizona), east to the Rio Sonora , west to the Colorado River and south into Sonora, Mexico.

Dwight Thibodeaux of The Rio Rico Historical Society has complied a list of Santa Cruz County Historical Organizations.