Juneteenth event 2026

 Supporting the Juneteenth event, Historical League members are happy to volunteer. Thanks to Jolynn Clarke, Anne Lupica, Pat Faur, Laurie-Sue Retts, Bonnie Newhoff, Cathy Shumard and Norma Jean Coulter.

Norma Jean commented, "Senator Mark Kelly stopped at the 6888 table honoring those mostly black women who solved the mail problem for the troops during WWII." (Fascinating story).

Dolan Ellis 2023 Arizona Historymaker

 Dolan Ellis, honored as Arizona Historymaker in 2023, continues to share stories of Arizona through his songs.

Button trading at NHD Nationals

 One of the most beloved traditions at the NHD National Contest is button trading! 

Throughout the week, students from across the world gather to exchange state-themed buttons, share stories about their projects, and make new friends from every corner of the world. 🗺️
What starts as a simple trade often becomes a conversation about history, research, and the communities they represent. 

Education Team at AHS

 Wow. We have a GREAT group of educators at Arizona Historical Society . . .

Dr. Kristen Rex writes, "Have I mentioned lately I love working with this team? Teamwork makes the dreams work. We are in Alpine, Tucson and Tempe collaborating this morning writing a grant to recruit rural teachers to participate in NHD project based learning opportunities for their students!"

— with Emily Hahn, Leonard Moody

The Historical League is proud to support all their work!

Juneteenth at new location

 

Delores Tomasek 1942-2026, long-time Historical League member

It is with great sadness we share that Delores Tomasek passed away May 27, 2026.  Delores has been a league member since 1993. She was a past president 2003-2004, a Past Historymakers co-chair 2008, and also co-chaired the Children's Holiday Party. She has been fighting cancer for more than a year. May her memory be a blessing to all who knew her. Her smile was infectious and we will miss her.

A funeral Mass celebrating Delores’s life was held on Saturday, May 30, 2026, at Church of the Ascension in Fountain Hills. Many Historical League members attended the beautiful service and lovely luncheon that followed. Cathy and Tom Shumard, Margaret and Larry Baker, Jolynn Clarke, Chris Hackett, Nancy and Stan Evans, Diane Smith, Carolyn Mendoza, Mary and Bill Parker, Susan Dale, Mary McMahon, Clede Gorrell, Jan Murray, Diane Linthicum, Joan Galloway, Lindy Isacksen, Bonnie Newhoff, Anne Lupica, Donna Esposito. 

Delores was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Francis Edward Tomasek with whom she shared 45 years of marriage.

WWII Papago Park POW huts

 Restoration and preservation of those surviving WWII Camp Papago POW Huts is an ongoing project at the Arizona Heritage Center at Papago Park.

One of the wildest forgotten stories in Arizona history happened right beneath what is now Papago Park in Phoenix.
During World War II, Camp Papago held mostly German naval prisoners captured during the war. But in December 1944, 25 German POWs pulled off the largest Axis prison escape ever from a U.S. camp.
Using homemade tools, they secretly dug a 176-foot tunnel beneath the camp and escaped into the Arizona desert under the cover of darkness. Their plan was to follow rivers south toward Mexico… except they didn’t realize most Arizona riverbeds were completely dry.
Lost, exhausted, and running out of supplies, the escapees were eventually captured one by one or turned themselves in. What started as a daring wartime breakout became one of the strangest stories in Arizona history.
Today, thousands visit Papago Park without realizing a WWII POW camp once stood beneath the desert landscape.