Odds and Ends

I was writing articles about Gila County history for the Payson Roundup awhile back, but they decided to go with more local histories. Well, I guess they ran out of good stories about Payson. Nothing really ever happened here during the territorial era. The history of Payson is just a bunch of ranchers watching their cattle and an occasional prospector looking for traces of gold (which they rarely found). It is a history which is really only of interest to the descendants of those families. So, the new General Manager has decided he would like a monthly story from me. I am starting the series with the tale of the shooting of Charles Dye by future Arizona Ranger and Globe City Marshal Roland Morrison "Bob" Anderson (pictured below on the left) - because the more sanguine tales are of more interest to the reading public. We will see if this time around it is a successful relationship with the newspaper.

Meanwhile, I am hunting up photos for my next book, tentatively titled Arizona Homicides: Gender and Ethnicity and the Territorial Justice System. This is a bit of process. The Arizona Historical Society has some fantastic and rare photos, but they have very steep fees for scanning and publishing these photos. The Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records is more reasonable with their pricing, but it is still somewhat costly. I have also contacted a number of local archives, including the Jerome Historical Society, The Bisbee Mining Museum, and the Pinal County Historical Museum - all of whom have been very accommodating. In order to keep cost down, I have searched for other resources. Interestingly, Ebay is a great resource for postcards of places in Arizona from the territorial era. I picked up a great original stereoscope card from Yuma in the early 1900s and a postcard of the town of Roosevelt before it was submerged beneath the lake of the same name for much less than I would have paid A.H.S for the same photos. I am hoping McFarland & Co. will be sending back the proofs for my book The Red Lights Districts of Tucson, 1870 - 1918 soon, as I would like to see this published before I head to Tombstone and Tucson for the respective book festivals in those places in March of 2026. Hope while I am in those towns, I will have the opportunity to see some of you, my faithful readers and friends.