By Mary Kasulaitis

No account of the history of Arivaca’s artists would be complete without the story of the Arivaca Arts Council, an organization whose impact on the community’s life cannot be overemphasized.   It started back in the mid 1980’s, when the educationally minded mothers of the town’s preschoolers got together to provide enrichment and learning opportunities. Those mothers included Kathy Sheldon, Wendy Dresang,  and Glo Williams, all of whom later taught at Sopori Elementary School. At one of the Arivaca Days Celebrations the mothers had an arts and crafts booth for the kids.  Along came Leonard Starkey, who was looking for groups to be potential recipients of Rural Arts grants, then newly available through the Tucson-Pima Arts Council. The preschoolers caught his eye, and from then it was all uphill.  Kathy and the other interested parents, including Patti Lopez and Stacy Hoff, went to meetings in Tucson and decided to incorporate.  They formed the Arivaca Arts Council, a non-profit whose first organizational meeting was held in 1985.  Kathy was the first president, along with Stacy, Christina Swift and Sally Massey (Rucker). Their intent was to bring the arts to the community of Arivaca.  Two of the first programs they sponsored were Carlos Nakai and the Arco Iris Flamenco Dancers.          `

About this time the Arivaca Community Center was being formed, and it was natural that the two organizations would work together with the former as the location for theater and arts productions, which the Arts Council would fund through grants. The Arts Council provided entertainment for the grand opening of the Community Center, July 4, 1985.  At that time, Rural Grant monies provided half the cost of programs with Arivaca providing the other half.

In the beginning, the Arts Council focused on pottery and the visual arts.  In 1986 an opportunity  arose to rent a building in town from Ike and Mike Turnpaugh. With a grant, they bought a kiln and equipment and Kathy began teaching pottery and ceramics, using hand techniques, the wheel and ceramic molds.  This expanded to include visual arts classes taught by C Hues and stained glass by Maggie Milinovitch and quilting by Lorraine Armour.  The building was used as the Red Feather Gallery with showings by local artists. Finally the Arts Council gave up this building and began going in other directions. (Mike and Ike ran the ceramics shop for awhile and it was later sold to Pat and Andy Anderson.)

Over the years, many artists were involved with the Arts Council, either as board members or contributing artists. Susie Kromenacher was another of the local artists who helped in the beginning efforts of the Arts Council.  (For years Susie’s gypsy could be seen on the wall of La Gitana). Sabrina Sweetwater, Libby Brandt, Patty Hanson, Melissa Cowen, Deborah and Steve Steinberg, Hal Buckingham,  Rexanne Tucker, Meg Keoppen, Lorraine Armour, Ellen Dursema, Mark Dresang,  Maggie Milinovitch and many more were also involved.  Other projects followed. Many grants were written and received. In 1986 the face mask project made Sunset Magazine!  For some time masks of many local faces hung on the wall of the Arivaca Community Center.

As time went on in the 80s, the focus changed.  Nina Baldridge began teaching theater arts at the Community Center, which included acting and dance as well as stagecraft. A professional drama teacher and producer, Nina’s direction provided the children and adults of Arivaca with a rare opportunity to be involved with an exceptional theater experience. C Hues taught art classes for stage backdrops. A generation of children grew up with theater and learned how to act and do stagecraft.  Scrooge, The Wizard of Oz and numerous other programs were developed and performed.  It was an amazing endeavor of all the artists in the community.  The Community Center received a Pima County Community Development Block Grant to expand the stage area.  When  Glo Williams started Blue Sky Learning Center the Charlie Brown Christmas program was a part of the children’s activities.  The Arivaca Children’s Theater and Arivaca Performing Artists  performed until 1996 when Nina left Arivaca.

Patti Lopez picked up the tempo with dance classes and performances for children and adults, along with assistance from the Annie Bunker Dance Troupe. Tom Shook was involved as a sponsor of the arts and assisting with getting grants for sound and light equipment, along with Brad Knaub (who had also portrayed Scrooge and the Wizard of Oz). Allen Wallen and (later) Peter Ragan were involved with the sound and light. Everything required effort on the part of someone who took the time to make things happen. A large percentage of the community members were involved.

After that, the Arts Council wrote grants and sponsored programs of various kinds, such as Barbea Williams Dance Performers and OperaTunity, but the effort became less intense.  Individuals who had been involved went off to do other things. Sabrina and Patti passed on. Some moved away. Kathy began teaching first grade (a high intensity profession).  But the generation who benefited from the most artistic immersion has begun to take charge.  Second-generation Arivacans Nathalie Dresang and Aja Knaub, along with Jenni Stern,  put together a dance workshop featuring trapeze work and an enthusiastic group of young girls took part.  These are the now-grown-up children (and their children) who have inherited the love of the arts that came out of the years of dedication and professionalism of the Arts Council.  More recently, Winterfest, a variety show held at the Arivaca Community Center (last on January 12) follows in the footsteps of past performers. The decades of focus on the arts has encouraged and attracted artists to come live in Arivaca. Many showcase their work in the Arivaca Artists’ Coop on Main street.  Beginning in late 1994, Lorraine Armour, Nancy and Robert Fricchione, C Hues, Ellen Dursema and Peggy Kane organized a cooperative which is still operating today, in the same location. Others joined them, producing paintings, photographs, drawing, pottery, sculpture, leatherwork, glass blowing, jewelry, tie dye, fabric, metalwork, and local writers.  Besides this, Bart Santello has initiated Arivaca Film Festival, held each March, featuring local filmmakers or those whose subject is Southern Arizona. The Caviglia-Arivaca Library also has a collection of artwork by local artists. 0000000000

by Mary Kasulaitis

There once was a time of great change. During the 1960s and 70s America underwent a drastic overhaul of politics, social norms, religious affiliations and cultural practices. Most of the followers of this movement were young people who traveled the country, hitchhiking or whatever, going from place to place, searching for answers. Some of them came to Arivaca.

There are people who live here now who were in Greenwich Village, at Woodstock, hung out at Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, gave out flowers on street corners, knew Weathermen in Wisconsin, went to the Gathering of the Tribes, followed the Rainbow people, traveled the craft fairs, or in other ways were in the absolute middle of the counter-culture movement.  They represent many of the values that grew out of the rebellion in those years. There are any number of different definitions of the term hippie. Many people just think negatively of drugs and student riots, but we need to remember the reasons behind the rejection of the culture that had developed after World War II.  Rejected were:  racism, segregation, Joseph McCarthy style fear and control, unthinking exploitation of nature and animals, discrimination against hiring or educating women, gays, Jews, Catholics and other groups. Hippies denounced the consumerism which, spurred on by advertising, had taken over people’s interests and drove their competitive lifestyles. Questions were raised as to who our enemies were and why we were at war in Vietnam.  There was women’s liberation. Like primitive Christianity, Eastern religions like Buddhism and Taoism promoted peace and love; but churches had buildings and rigid exclusionary doctrines that had to be supported with money.  Most importantly, for hippies, individual freedom was the ultimate goal. For many people, freedom lay in owning very little. “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”  People began to demand the right to be free–there was no one right way or wrong way to live, eat, dress, sing or practice religion or politics. Some had no goals: “You went with the flow–you didn’t have expectations.”   Being instead of doing. “Living in the present moment,” Sunny said. Spurred on by music, which became a driving and unifying force behind the revolutionary changes, our country became a different place.  Looking around us now, we can see the results of the generation that changed everything, both the benefits and detriments, and we watch as our culture’s pendulum swings.

Frequently rejecting their parents’ lifestyle, and traveling (often hitchhiking) across the country from one place to another, young people searched for their perfect haven.  Some of them found it here. Bobbie’s first sight of cows walking down a totally deserted Main Street gave her a vision of the peaceful life.  One might say that Arivaca was the perfect place for hippies. One could tune in, turn on and drop out and no one’s the wiser.  There were old vacant mining camps and shacks in the hills, recently inhabited by old prospectors like Walt Edwards, Tomás Torres and George Goehring who had died or moved away, leaving their places unoccupied. Why not move in?  And what is more perfect than a patented mining claim (privately owned land) totally surrounded by National Forest on which you could camp?

The late sixties-early seventies were a different world. Arivaca was at one of its lowest points of population in those days, but the community of hippies, most of whom were from somewhere else like snow birds, grew together. Many of them came to Ruby, a deserted mining camp with habitable buildings, and California Gulch, where Tom & Eileen Shook and John Godsil & Debra Rosegrove had bought a mining claim. The Lower Lakes was a good camping spot. Quite a few people set up tents or teepees and moved in. Some people lived in buses.

The women raised their children with help from each other, learning midwifery, gardening,  herbalism, goat-raising,  how to find and prepare good natural foods, living a life similar in many ways to homesteaders. They practiced kind, peaceful living and opened their homes to strangers. Although not really a commune with no group philosophy, it was communal living by choice and freely made. There were couples and families, not just free love. People learned that being loving means setting limits, because there is karma. Was this a life of ease? Not hardly. The days were filled with chopping wood, keeping fires going, hauling water, grinding grain, making fry bread, cooking, gardening, milking goats, dipping candles, yoga and caring for children. In the early days these were mostly young city kids, unprepared for what amounted to an extended camping trip in dry rugged canyons. Living in the hills like the prospectors. The ones who couldn’t take it moved on. The ones who stayed spent time hiking, discussing spirituality, philosophy, politics, practicing old time crafts like leatherwork, carving, dyeing cloth, beadwork and other Native American crafts, carving gourds, weaving and making music.  As Jerry Garcia said, “What we’re thinking about is a peaceful planet. We’re not thinking about anything else. We’re not thinking about any kind of power. We’re not thinking about any kind of struggles. We’re not thinking about revolution or war or any of that. That’s not what we want. Nobody wants to get hurt. Nobody wants to hurt anybody. We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life. A simple life, a good life. And think about moving the whole human race ahead a step, or a few steps or half a step.”

Terry was the caretaker at Ruby from about 1968-72. He first learned about the place from some hitchhikers. He thought, “Here’s an adventure!” Then he came back several times to visit before he finally came here for good, feeling a strong draw from the place.  Most people who stayed have a strong attraction for place. They just know this is the place for them. One weekend Terry showed up and the caretakers were gone. Just like that. He asked Marge at the Mercantile and she said they had gone to South America!  So Terry became the caretaker. At that time he had given away his truck, so he had to depend on others to get a ride to town. It sure was fun, those times, he said. For a long time he didn’t even have a bedroll, just a big long leather coat with a sheepskin lining. And a big white dog. It was primitive living–getting by on very little. Jeannie remembered: “We’d go to the Warehouse in Tucson and get a big load of food. 50 pounds of rice, flour, beans, oatmeal, carrots–staples. A big block of wax, and we’d make candles– and that would hold us for the month. People would come out from Tucson on the weekends and bring food and share it.” At the swap meet in Tucson you could trade for things and meet like-minded people.  A guy came up in a big truck and asked Rex for directions. It was Terry.  She said, “I don’t know you.” He said, “Sure you do, I’m just one of the brothers.’

Obe, Hal, Mike, Brad, and Tom always had their guitars along. Singing and playing music came together. Brought people together. Rock, bluegrass and folk music, playing and writing songs. Any number of bands have emerged from the musicians who moved here.

Obe liked what he saw in the Gulch and asked Tom if he could set up a teepee.  He agreed, so Obe went off to get the materials, then spread the cloth out in a field and sewed it himself, eventually (in the 17 years he lived there) making four teepees.  To earn money for this, Obe and Sabrina made and sold candles at the Coop in Tucson where they did yard work and house cleaning to buy food and gas, then would come back and stay here until they needed to earn more. People would go to the Tucson swap meet to sell things they made. Eventually, the gulch people moved to Arivaca where life was a little less rough. A not-uneducated group of souls, they joined their neighbors and helped Arivaca grow, and so we got the Gadsden Coffee and Cafe Aribac, Arivaca Community Center, Arivaca Arts Council, C Hues’ murals, Alan’s internet–Arivaca.com, Blue Sky Learning Center, Sarah’s Bakery, the Clinic and the Library, the Main Street Artists’ Coop, Hal’s Woodworking, Obe’s Solar power, Kevin’s Recycling, yoga, the cooperative buying club,  Ellen’s tie dye, Robert and Nancy’s mesquite furniture,  Marian’s Farmers Market and the Arivaca Action Center, thanks to these folks called hippies.

What has remained in Arivaca with the people who came here in the 60s and 70s is an evolved sense of lifestyle: living as best you can within the constraints of the economy but maintaining the ideals of freedom, acceptance and the quiet life in the country. Where else can you find signs that remind you of PEACE, LOVE and COMMUNITY!

Please join us on January 26, 2019 at the Old Schoolhouse from 10 am to 4 pm to celebrate the world of hippies at the Arivaca Memories and Music Festival, which this year features the 1960s and 70s. Gertie N the Boyz will again perform at 12 noon, following the Mariachi Estrella. Not hippie music, but it’ll wake us up! Then Banjo Bob will lead Arivaca musicians in playing for the rest of the afternoon. We’ll have historic displays at the Schoolhouse, with photos of the Gulch and that other world. A meditation corner. Food of all kinds, crafts, games, something for everyone!

By Darlene Arvizu

             I knew that they had introduced the Mexican wolf back into the wild. I knew that there was a coyote problem near my property, particularly because of the chickens I raise. I raise me some beautiful buff orpingtons and marans, they lay some big eggs and they’re sweet. I get them their favorite snack: corn on the cob. They come right up to me like I’m Moses or something. Follow me around the yard. I got me about forty – the boy, “Tex” – he keeps to himself but he gives me some fine ladies that lay plenty.

             Since it was the fall season the girls were beginning to molt, you know, their feathers come off for a new plumage. Anyway, the girls weren’t laying much so I had to rake the coop up once a week to get rid of the feathers. Now this situation actually occurred over two nights: As I went to the coop I noticed a long trail of dried blood that moved from the coop out into the grassland and mesquite trees that surrounded my yard. From the coop there was a side panel that had been ripped in half FROM THE TOP down. Something that happen to reach about eight feet had taken the panel and pulled it down. On the siding were deep heavy claw marks, like a bear’s claw. The chickens were nowhere to be seen. I had gotten worried since they are my primary source of income after retirement.

             I followed the blood trail. The only thing I had with me was my rake. I held it like a spear, ready to encounter anything that came about. The first thing I picked up from the grass was a chicken foot, torn at the thigh and stuck with grass shards and blood. I put it in my apron and went further into the grass. Keep in mind this was early morning so I knew there were still coyotes hunting and I didn’t want them to have any taste of my girls to keep them returning for more. Besides the side panel being torn open, I had made the assumption it was just a coyote that had somehow crawled in from the top and broke the panel.

             But then I turned around a tree and there it was! A big, hairy thing, looking at me from the grass. I can see it’s large shoulders slunk in, keeping a low profile. It’s pointy ears had black tips, like a lynx and it had deep dark eyes that glinted in the sunlight. It just stared at me. I held up the rake and spun it in my hand toward the beast. It didn’t flinch. As I bent down to pick up a rock it began to move. By the time I grabbed a heavy stone the beast had disappeared into the thick grass toward a creek.

             As I came to the kill site I had found three of my girls mauled up and eaten. Feathers were everywhere. I wasn’t really afraid of the whole situation, more shocked really.

             I returned to find that my girls had hidden in a pile of wood near the house. I picked one up and held it – the feathers were cold, telling me she and the others had been there all night. I managed to fix the panel and put in some reinforcement screws to keep back the animals.

             Since I am a lonely girl I decided to spend the night outside under the stars near the coop. I had me a trusty six-shooter filled with snake shot. I didn’t want to hurt anything or anybody but I figure a few pellets in the butt would shy away any hungry predator. That night I had made a fire by the coop to keep warm. As I was dozing off I smelt a musky odor and as soon as it reached my nostrils the girls began to make noise – as if something was spooking them.

             I slouched up from the ground and looked across the flames of the fire – in the distance, at the grassline, I can see two black eyes staring at me. Before I could grab hold of my shooter, it disappeared, convert like. The girls settled down and I stayed awake all night before calling the sheriff.

-Darlene Arvizu (Arivaca resident, artist and chicken farmer)

“Baboquivari Monster” encounter interview, recorded December 2016

by Mary Kasulaitis

August 2017

As the 1930s wore on, most people in Arivaca continued as before.  The federal government began establishing programs to put people back to work. One of those locally useful programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps, the idea being that infrastructure would be created or improved while providing assistance to young men who otherwise had no prospect of jobs. In this program, roads, water development, fire trails and recreation areas were built, all across the country, but mostly in the West in the National Forests.  A camp was started in 1935 at Peña Blanca, southeast of Arivaca.  Something like 150 young men at a time populated the camp. The first group was from Texas and Oklahoma.  Locals weren’t hired, except for a few specialized jobs such as bookkeeping and trainers, who were experienced men recruited from the local construction industries. The young men built the Nogales Ranger Station and made significant improvements to the Ruby Road over the mountain to Nogales. Specifically they created drainage ditches and culverts and shored up the edges, so that it was finally a relatively safe road. This was particularly important during the period that the Ruby Mine was active. At that time the Peña Blanca Lake did not exist. Groups came and went over the years until the camp closed in the early 40s. The WPA was another program that made infrastructure improvements, but in Tucson, not in the Arivaca area. 

Another program created by the federal government in 1936 was the Rural Electrification Administration, which brought power to the far reaches of the country through loans to cooperatives.  However, Arivaca did not receive this power until the mid-1950s when Trico Electric Cooperative started running lines into the area, but it has made all the difference in the world to life in Arivaca.  

When the Ruby Mine reopened in 1934, life changed for the better in Arivaca.  There were jobs to be had and the income was often spent at Caviglia’s Café and the Mercantile. Sadly, there was a constant stream of job seekers even after the mine had full employment and they had to be turned away. For those who were working, a family-style culture developed in Ruby that is remembered fondly to this day. Dr Woodard’s medical services extended to Arivaca.  A competition grew up between the softball teams of the two towns:  the Ruby Tigers and the Montana Miners, aka Ruby Miners, and the Arivaca Cowboys. They played teams from Nogales and Tucson. The girls too had teams:  the Arivaca Rancheritas played “the girls of Ruby,” since apparently the reporter didn’t know their team name. At Ruby they played on the tailings, but Fred Noon also constructed an extra field at Oro Blanco. Sometimes there are lots of games going on at once. Reporting on these and other events were students from Sopori School who belonged to the 4-H Club.  Thelma Kinsley, Erlinda Badilla, Norma Angulo, Antonia Encinas, Josephine Jackson and Felicidad Rodriguez were the reporters.  Many local events like rodeos, roundups and parties were part of the articles they published in the Arizona Daily Star in a column called “What people of neighboring communities are doing,” as often as twice a month. (Thelma is Danny Stewart’s mother) 

The community events promoted a spirit of good cheer.  A Cinco de Mayo fiesta was celebrated in 1935 in which a number of baseball games were played, as well as a horse race promoted by Angelo Caviglia.  Angelo’s horse won but in other competitions he was not as lucky.  The races were held at the Alamo Park field a mile east of Arivaca on Noon’s ranch. All these activities inspired the locals to request a Deputy Sheriff for when the festivities were over and no one had gone home yet.  Having a sheriff around sometimes got in the way of the fun, as when 12 slot machines were found in Continental and Arivaca and gathered up by Sheriff Ed Echols.  No arrests were made, as the officials were waiting for the owners to claim them. The 50th wedding anniversary the G.W. Barnes’ was celebrated with a grand march and an orchestra from Tucson at a dance in Arivaca, attended by 300 people. Reports in the Tucson newspaper from the “Bystanders Club” reveals some typical Arivaca activities,  such as  partying frequently thanks to Angelo and his bar. Who penned the reports is anonymous. 

Now that Prohibition was over, drinking too much was part of life in Arivaca and perhaps in the country as a whole.  Sometimes it got out of hand.  Clinton Northrup was reportedly found by a couple in Tucson lying on their couch in a state of dead drunk.  He thought he was still in Arivaca.  Apparently he had been looking for a friend and walked into the wrong house, where the front door was unlocked.  Many years later Clinton was not so lucky, because he died in fire in his house in Arivaca in the mid-1950s and is buried in Arivaca cemetery. It makes you wonder:  one Ross Cartier, a druggist from Washington state, was found in Arivaca after being mysteriously missing from Tacoma for 3 months. His absence was unexplained. Who knows? 

There were other mines working in the Oro Blanco and Arivaca Mining Districts.  In fact, the 100 biggest mine producers in Arizona in 1937 include Ajax, Las Guijas, Ruby Mine-Eagle Picher, and the Oro Blanco mines. (Arizona Republic, Nov 21, 1936.) At the Ajax in October 1936 a miner named Alberto Soto was killed in a cave-in when the ceiling dropped on him. Apparently the roof of the tunnel was not shored up sufficiently and it was later claimed that one timber could have saved him. He left a wife and three small children. Regulations to prevent this kind of accident were still in the future. 

The Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture was another government program that has had lasting impact on the topography of Arivaca cienaga. It was created in the wake of the Dust Bowl, when tons of topsoil was lifted by winds off the prairie of the Midwest, due to unwise farming practices combined with a drought and terrible dust storms.  There had been so much overproduction in the 1920s when the agricultural economy was down.  What could be done to prevent this in the future? First, government aid in the form of education, loans and grants to support better conservation practices was taken advantage of by local ranchers.  In the mid 30s, Charlie Boice built dikes across Arivaca Creek to hold back the water and direct it to the south side of the valley where he built a small pond.  Moving the Creek was not popular with the town residents who had used the waters for washing and drinking. Eventually that meant a well had to be provided (courtesy of Charlie Boice) and piping provided. Another rancher built a spreader dam across a large wash that feeds into the Creek to direct its flow.  Due to the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, fencing was promoted in the interest of controlling grazing. Fencing pastures within a property allowed fields to be rested.  Active education programs informed farmers and ranchers about the choices they could make. Later renamed the Natural Resource Conservation Service, this agency is still in the business of assisting farmers and ranchers in conserving the land they own. 

Arivaca Ranch owner Charlie Boice got in the news in another way:  in 1935 he fenced off the Arivaca-Sasabe Road, making a detour necessary for Arivaca residents. You had to use a trail along the foothills.  Exactly why he did it is not known, but it had to do with the State land pasture that he leased for cattle in that area. Obviously, there was an outcry and officially protested and Pima County eventually made him take it down. In that same area,  he and Eva Wilbur Cruce continued their feud on the land and in the courts.  But she was not the only person in that family:  her uncle Charles Wilbur had been pressuring the County for years to make improvements in the road between Arivaca and Highway 286 in the Altar Valley, partly in the interest of mining activity and the needs of large trucks. The road had been officially dedicated in 1928 but it wasn’t in good shape and was often impassible in bad weather.  In 1937, after a petition signed by more than 100 local people, the County finally ordered the Engineer to do the road work as soon as possible and then maintain it afterwards.  It was not paved until the 1970s.

Continued next time. 

Mary Kasulaitis

July 2017

Arivaca in the early 1930s

What we think of as the Depression era of the 1930s began years before with a depressed agricultural industry all across the U.S. that had lasted a decade. Without price supports or controls (which came later) farmers unknowingly planted more and more crops, thus driving the prices down. There were many small farms in those days, with starving farmers who knew no other livelihood. This was one of the reasons for the stock market crash of 1929. Lack of regulation of banks and the stock market was another. Despite the fact that the Federal Reserve was established as far back as 1913 to protect against the frequent “Panics” or depressions that had been occurring since the 1850s, regulation was not yet sufficient to control speculation.

The “Roaring Twenties” was a time when stock market speculation went wild and economic prosperity seemed endless. “The era saw the large-scale adoption of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures, radio and household electricity, as well as unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media began to focus on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars.” In Arivaca, life went on much as it had before, with the addition of the automobile and radio.

The stock market crash in 1929 was just the beginning of the depression. In those days there was little imagination to remedy the problems that occurred.  Despite the fact that President Herbert Hoover was a progressive Republican, the predominant “laissez faire” mentality of the party (and previous President Coolidge) did not allow for federal government intervention.  Hoover held office until 1932 when things had gone really downhill.  By then it was obvious that pulling yourself up by the bootstraps was not within the ability of everyone in America.

More and more people were out of work and hungry, but during the Hoover era there was still an attempt to have relief provided by local charities unattached to the government or by state and local government, rather than federal.  By the middle of 1933, Pima County was having to deal with a great increase in the number of indigents, many of them now white middle class people, more than they ever had before. The number of people now unable to pay their property taxes had exacerbated the problem. Veterans (World War I and Spanish American War) had been having compensation and pension cuts, throwing them onto the public welfare rolls as well.  Two Arivaca teachers, Helen Noon and Nina Fay Adams were asked to act for the Tucson Organized Charities as distribution agents of local indigent relief. They had to make a survey of their district as to the number and condition of people in need and forward the information to the group who would provide relief services. The Board of Supervisors was anxious to work closely with state agencies since their own resources were overwhelmed.  An increased budget was sent to the Arizona State Board of Public Welfare in Phoenix.

Franklin D Roosevelt, a Democrat, was elected President and took office in March, 1933. He immediately began to forge a different path to stability. Within his first 100 days he and his team had created a number of federal government programs to provide immediate relief.  The slogan was: Relief (for the unemployed and poor), Recovery (of the economy) and Reform (of the financial system.) The New Deal was a series of programs that created government controls and regulations to provide stability and promote prosperity, in an attempt “to orchestrate the general welfare out of a myriad of competing self-interests.”  Since the federal government had not done this before in any organized way, it was new ground.  It was trial and error, but the conditions for many people in America were so desperate that any effort brought some hope.  The terrible desperation in the South and in the farming heartland of America was so extreme as to be unimaginable today. Imagine if the only affordable food available was “splits”: broken pinto beans that were culled in the sorting process. Perhaps some were lucky to have even that.

Back home in Arivaca, people were surviving on traditional Sonoran food: beans and tortillas, along with whatever they could grow in their gardens and wild plants.  If you worked on a ranch, beef might appear on the menu as well.  According to a census, there were 511 people in the area with 21 farms (or ranches), however the 1930 census showed more like 350 people in the town, with 80% being Spanish speaking.

One of the big changes for Arivaca was the purchase in 1931 of the 300,000 acre Arivaca Ranch by the Boice brothers, Henry, Frank and Charlie.  In those days it included the Tres Bellotas and Jarillas Ranches and Rancho Seco, besides what we think of now as the Arivaca Ranch.  Later they bought the K-X. Charlie was named as the manager, and he set to work making changes all over the valley, which meant keeping people employed. He built dikes across the Arivaca Cienaga, diverting the water away from the townsite and building the pond.  Using mules and wagons to haul equipment and cement, he built water catchments all over the remote areas of the ranch.  He moved the Tres Bellotas road up onto Black Mesa. After the death of Agustin Wilbur in 1933, when his daughter Eva moved back to town and took over their ranch west of town, Charlie demanded she take her 700 straying horses off his adjoining property.  When she did not, or perhaps would not,  he had them shot. A feud ensued which lasted until 1950. Some of the 21 smaller ranches mentioned above were purchased by Charlie, expanding the ranch to its largest extent ever.

Agustin Wilbur was not the only well known person to pass away during the early 30s, with their children taking over the family businesses. His mother, Rafaela Suastegui de Wilbur, had died in 1932. Dr. Adolphus H. Noon passed away in Nogales in 1931, but his son Arthur was already managing the Oro Blanco ranch.  Bernardo Caviglia passed away in  1932 and his son Angelo took over his many properties.  Angelo had always wanted a saloon, so he built a dance hall on the SE corner of Main Street and Ruby Road.  Prohibition had been repealed in 1933, just in time for Angelo’s business to take off.  For years he held dances and fiestas, horse races and parties, fueled by the Ruby folks who came down in droves.  In 1934, on the way home to Ruby at night, one Ramon Redondo died when the car he was riding in went around a curve and his door flew open.  He fell out and broke his neck. A marker is still there roadside  to commemorate his death.

Crime did not avoid Arivaca.  In 1931, a domestic feud between Frank Cortez and Santiago Padilla culminated in a shootout in the cienaga, in which Padilla was killed.  Cortez was found guilty of manslaughter (although tried for murder) and sentenced to the maximum 9-10 years. In late 1932 one Jose Villasenor was convicted of importing and concealing cocaine and sentenced to 18 months in prison.  The defense said he was a victim of entrapment by three narcotics agents from three different agencies.  The cocaine had been stashed somewhere along the Arivaca Road, but the seller was from Nogales. Villasenor was apparently from California. In another crime, the Arivaca Mercantile, owned now by the Boices, was broken into and robbed on February 24, 1933.

Mining continued in the area, with new work going on at the Yellow Jacket gold mine, briefly.  Over in the Guijas valley, north of town, a 50-ton tungsten mill was being installed in 1930.  Tungsten was the mineral with the most interest, and during the 30s General Electric bought the mine and operated it for some time. The Montana mine at Ruby had started up in 1926 by the Eagle Picher Company but had to close down in 1931 due to the depression. However development work was ongoing in anticipation of reopening,  which did happen in 1934. In the meantime many folks were out of work. Some began prospecting for themselves, hoping to find some salable ore, especially gold.  Panning in the local creeks became a constant pastime.

The United States went off the gold standard in 1934 because “adherence to the gold standard prevented the Federal Reserve from expanding the money supply to stimulate the economy, fund insolvent banks and fund government deficits that could “prime the pump” for an expansion.” Other countries had been doing the same. The Depression was world-wide, not just in the U.S.  This also meant that prospectors could get far less for their gold than before.  However, the same thing had happened to silver in 1893 when the U.S. went off silver. Both metals had been mined in this area. The Montana mine was a lead and zinc mine but gold and silver paid the bills. (continued next month)

Refs include articles from the Arizona Daily Star and Freedom from fear: the American people in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy)