General Information

Arizona History Museums
www.museumstuff.com/museums/usa/arizona/history.html

A list of weblinks to 73 history museums in Arizona. The perfect starting point for research into Arizona history. The extensive list contains little-known museums like The Rex Allen Museum in Willcox, the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, and the Hall of Flame Museum of Fire Fighting in Phoenix.

MuseumStuff
www.museumstuff.com/museums/usa/arizona/all.html

The best list I’ve found of museums in Arizona. View by a list of all museums and historical sites, science and tech museums, history and culture, or art and design. There are 116 entries, not bad for the last state in the continental U.S. to be admitted to the union.

Yavapai County Tourism Council – Cultural Heritage in Arizona
www.yavapai-tourism.org/yavapai_cultural_heritage.htm#4

A nice list of cultural heritage websites concentrated in Yavapai County, one of the primary counties that comprises the central territory of Arizona and includes Prescott, Jerome, Cottonwood, and Sedona.

West Web – Catherine Lavender
http://scholar.library.csi.cuny.edu/westweb

Super list of Southwestern museums for Western studies and research.

Sedona

Red Rock State Park
2 miles west on Hwy 89A then 2 miles on Lower Red Rock Loop Road
928.282.6907
www.azparks.gov/Parks/parkhtml/redrock.html

Located on lower Red Rock Loop Road, one of Sedona’s most scenic local drives, the Red Rock Center for Environmental Education and State Park opened in 1991. A peaceful, uncrowded place for learning, picnicking, hiking, photography, and just plain relaxing. There’s even the well-known “ Wedding Tree” on this property along lower Oak Creek that can be used for weddings through prior arrangement with the Park. Guided nature walks, special programs with expert speakers, hiking tours to the famous “House of Apache Fire”, bird walks, seasonal moonlight hikes, and five-miles of open hiking trails make this property a jewel in the State Park system.

Sedona Heritage Museum
Uptown Sedona
735 Jordan Road
928.282.7038
sedonamuseum.org

The Heritage Museum is located in Jordan Historical Park in Uptown Sedona. It highlights Sedona history from 1870 – 1950. Housed in the original 1930 Jordan homestead cabin, the museum is filled with authentic period furnishings and packed with photos. There’s a great reference library with 1,000’s of historic newspaper clippings on Sedona-related subjects, a “Western movies made in Sedona” room, and a small gift shop offering Sedona art and history-related items. Their photo collection numbering 20,000+ historic photos obtained from many old-time area families is being scanned into digital format and will one day be available on DVD or CD. A 4,000 square foot Apple Packing Barn complete with an antique apple grading machine is located adjacent to the Museum. I have known many of the Museum volunteers for years. When I was the Guide Manager at Pink Jeep Tours they assisted me with several local history questions that I needed answered in order to complete the curriculum I used for training new guides. It’s a must-see for anyone interested in the Sedona that once was. Many of the historic photos used on SedonaInformation’s website are from their collection, courtesy of the generous time and patience of Janine. Thanks!

Cottonwood

Clemenceau Heritage Museum
1 North Willard Street
928.634.2868
www.sharlot.org/roundup/artifacts/CHM.shtml

Modestly located in Cottonwood’s old Clemenceau School building, the museum’s specialties include a vintage classroom, a model railroad room representing early Verde Valley trains and towns, and rotating exhibits pertaining to Verde Valley history, complete with photos, newspapers, maps, and miscellaneous pioneer artifacts from 1900 to present.

Camp Verde

Camp Verde Historical Society
435 S. Main Street, Room 202
928.567.9560

Camp Verde was the first area in the Verde Valley to be settled by white settlers. In 1865 a small group of tough pioneers moved from Prescott to a spot along West Clear Creek. The Camp Verde Historical Society highlights this community’s unique history through displays, documents, and its research library. The book Pioneers Stories of Arizona’s Verde Valley, originally published by the Verde Valley Pioneers Association in 1933 and reprinted in 1954, gives an in-depth glimpse into what this early life was like. It provides short, first-person narratives on topics like the last few Pioneer-Apache skirmishes and describes personal stories by cowboys who would ride 20 miles on horseback just to attend a western dance. It’s the sort of stuff most Western movies wish they could even begin to portray and that the Camp Verde Historical Society captures quite well. If you are into local Verde Valley and western pioneer history, this center should be high on your list.

Fort Verde Historic Park
928.567.3275
www.azparks.gov/Parks/parkhtml/fortverde.html

From Camp Lincoln to Camp Verde to finally Fort Verde, this historic site has been an important outpost in Verde Valley and Arizona history. Spanning a dusty period from 1865 to 1890, the fort was home to many pioneer families, doctors, military men, and was the base for General George Crook’s famous Army scouts and soldiers. Fort Verde served as a protective site for early Verde Valley settlers and was also a vital connecting point between Fort Whipple in Prescott to the west and Fort Apache on the San Carlos Indian Reservation to the east.

Jerome

Jerome Historical Society
928.634.1066 – 928.634.7122
www.jeromehistoricalsociety.org

A historical society dedicated to the history of Jerome, known as “The Wickedest Town in the West”. This website hosts a modest photo gallery and links to information that every visitor to Jerome needs to understand like Spook Hall, the Ghost Walk, and the Jerome/Churchill connection. Have you ever heard of “Jerome Standard Time”? Well, Jerome has its own time zone. Visit and you’ll know what I mean.

Jerome Mine Museum and Gift Shop
200 Main Street
928.634.5477
www.jeromehistoricalsociety.org/gift/gift.htm

The Museum and Gift Shop raises money to help fund the Jerome Historical Society and to keep expanding their excellent projects around the town such as the Plaque Project for historic buildings. This jam-packed museum opened in the early 1950’s and is located uptown near the Spirit Room bar and Paul and Jerry’s Saloon, both ideal locations for a soda or suds break after you’ve delved into the ethnic displays, mining history, and historic artifacts that make the Museum such a wonderful place for enhancing your knowledge.

Jerome State Historic Park
928.634.5381
www.azparks.gov/Parks/parkhtml/jerome.html

The James S. Douglas mansion, built in 1916 above the Little Daisy Mine, now houses an Arizona State Park museum filled with period furniture, photos, and household articles. Their educational display features a fascinating cut-away model of Cleopatra Hill showing the various layers, tunnels, and mining activity below the surface. Some copper mining tunnels reached elevations as far as 4,000 feet below Jerome, almost to sea level. The Douglas mansion’s view provides a sweeping panorama of Jerome, the Verde Valley, Sedona’s red cliffs, and the San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff. It’s one of Jerome’s finest vantage points due to its solitary location on its own detached hill.

Flagstaff

Lowell Observatory
928.774.3358
www.lowell.edu

A must-see, must-do site in Northern Arizona. Best known as the discovery site in 1930 of the ninth planet in our solar system, Pluto, the Observatory was founded in 1894 by Boston mathematician Percival Lowell. It continues to fire the imagination of youngsters and oldsters alike as they experience the magic of such an important astronomical site. Evening programs feature viewing through the 24-inch Clark Telescope, the original telescope used by Lowell and later by Clyde Tombaugh, Lowell’s assistant who made the actual discovery of Pluto. Even the Apollo astronauts had their first close-up view of the eventual Apollo lunar landing site from this historical observatory. Call for their seasonal program schedule and make plans to include the observatory on your Sedona visit. Your children will enjoy it as much as you.

Museum of Northern Arizona
928.774.5213
www.musnaz.org

A medium-sized museum with excellent quality and focus highlighting exhibits relating to Northern Arizona’s Colorado Plateau region. With over five-million objects in their collection, the exhibits change with the seasons and are children-friendly in their scope. I have used their library and research office across the street and it has one of the most complete collections of pertinent Arizona historical, scientific, and cultural materials anywhere. Their 250,000 photo collection is superb.

Pioneer Museum
928.774.7262
www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org

This pioneer history museum is located in the old Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent. It opened in 1963 and houses exhibits covering all phases of early settler life. The 1908 Ben Doney homestead, moved to the Museum property in 1967, serves as a center for craft demonstrations held throughout the year.

Riordan Mansion State Historic Park
928.774.4395
www.azparks.gov/Parks/parkhtml/riordan.html

Yikes. Built in 1904 by the Riordan family, this humble abode features 40 rooms and over 13,000 square feet. It was designed by the well-known architect of the El Tovar Lodge at the Grand Canyon, Charles Whittlesey. A popular backdrop for weddings, the Mansion offers daily tours of the east wing where visitors can enjoy period furnishings by famous craftsmen such as Edison, Stickey, Ellis, and Steinway plus many mementos from the Riordan families. Though it’s only half the size of the current largest private home in Sedona, for its time it was a true Western castle.

Prescott

The Phippen Museum
928.778.1385
www.phippenartmuseum.org

When George Phippen, Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, and John Hampton dreamed up the Cowboy Artists of America while sitting in a booth at the Oak Creek Tavern on June 23, 1965, little did they know what changes they would initiate in the art world. George Phippen was the first president of the CAA group and died a short time later in 1966. He left behind a group of artists interested in creating a facility that one day would exclusively represent artists of the American West. In 1984 the Museum opened its doors and is currently home to a wonderful collection of paintings, drawings, sketches, bronzes, photographs, and American Indian artifacts and jewelry representing the period from the late 19th century to the early 21st century. I like specialized museums that exhibit to a theme. This is one of the best of its kind bar none.

Sharlot Hall Museum
928.445.3122
www.sharlot.org/index.shtml

It’s the largest museum in the central territory of Arizona and encompasses several city blocks in downtown Prescott. I personally can’t get enough of this place because it is so complete in every way. It is a true walk back into time, not just because of the endless displays of pioneer artifacts like clothing, books, cooking utensils, furniture, clocks, paintings, bottles, crates, barrels, door knobs, and tools, but primarily because they are all displayed in historic buildings from the period. There’s the original Governor’s Mansion for the Arizona Territory that was built on this site in 1864, the Sharlot Hall Building completed in 1934 by the CWA that serves as the museum’s primary exhibit hall, the 1875 Fremont House with furnishings from 1875 - 1881, the 1877 Victorian-style Bashford House which is presently the Museum Shop, the 1863-64 Fort Misery which is the oldest existing log building from the Arizona Territory period, and several other choice buildings woven throughout the grounds. If you don’t spend an entire day here, you will only see the highlights. If you’ve only got a couple of hours just concentrate on the main exhibits, the original Governor’s Mansion, and whatever strikes your historic fancy. An architectural, antique furniture, and history lover’s must-see, must-do in Northern Arizona.

Smoki Museum
928.445.1230
www.smokimuseum.org

The Smoki people were a group of Prescott citizens organized in 1921 and dedicated to the perpetuation of American ceremonies and dance. The museum was built in 1935 out of local stone and wood to resemble a Native American pueblo. Barry Goldwater was a member of the Smoki people and donated a number of items in his collection to this museum. In addition to several ethnographic collections including clothing, ornaments, and ceremonial items from Sioux, Apache, and Woodland tribes, the museum has an extensive basket collection from the Arizona Yavapai, Apache, Pima, Tohono O’Odham, and Seri tribes, along with a bit of California tribal artwork. Native art and artifacts from all major historical periods accentuate their diverse displays.

Superior

Boyce Thompson Arboretum
http://ag.arizona.edu/BTA

I had to include the Arboretum because it’s one of my favorite Arizona places for plants and natural beauty. Two miles of walking paths will carry you through one man’s desert dream world. Started in the 1920’s by Colonel William Boyce Thompson, the arboretum is a bona-fide one-of-a-kind place in Arizona. A 400 acre back yard, if you will, that features an exuberant collection of desert plants from around the world, seamlessly transplanted into a rocky desert landscape in the middle of nowhere (at the time), Superior, Arizona, approximately 40 miles due east of Phoenix. A short Thompson biography is included on their website and is worth the read. He was an unusual man, gifted and adventurous, just the sort to go west and make his mark. Anyone who walks within this garden of earthly delight is a beneficiary of his imagination and drive. If you’re traveling east from Phoenix or just feel compelled, make the visit. It’s an oasis in the truest sense.