Alan Day, author of new book Cowboy Up

As part of the monthly Historical League meetings we often have guest speakers. Hearing the personal stories from Alan Day as he talked about his new book, Cowboy Up, on October 2 was most informative and entertaining. Alan grew up on the Lazy B and has been a rancher his entire life. After graduating from University of Arizona, he went straight back to the ranch and never left! Forty-five years later, he is sharing his life work in this new book and it is fascinating.

When his grandfather, H.C. Day started the ranch in 1880, it was part of New Mexico and Arizona Territories. It grew to 200,000 acres. The 5,000 head of cattle were originally from Chihuahua, Mexico and had the Lazy B brand. The name stayed.

H.C. Day and his wife, Alice, had many firsts in the area: the first brick house, the first bank, the first orchard, the first schoolhouse.

Cowboy Up, co-written with Lynn Weiss Sneyd, is filled with short stories of those times. Alan gave us the premier showing of his video of the ranch and his family. It has wonderful photographs and memories of his grandparents, his parents, and sister, Historymaker and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Foremost in his talk, Alan shared his love of the land, the grasses and the importance of stewardship to the ranch.

H.C. and Alice Day

Sandra Day O'Connor and Alan Day

Water is the life blood of the ranch. Each cow needs 60 acres to graze.

Lazy B Ranch

Lassoing young minds with Ourcourts.org

Great article on Sandra Day O'Connor in the Sunday, August 2, AZ Republic Viewpoints. Justice O'Connor has always championed education, wanting to "saddle up to help teach middle school kids about how their government works." Her life on the Lazy B Ranch gave her "lessons that inspired a lifetime of civic involvement and public service." Now she is working with Ourcourts.org to develop online lessons, games and history for teachers and students.

The Historical League has a summer project to do similar good works. Our volunteer staff is digitalizing the 55 Historymakers oral histories so they will be accessible on www.HistoricalLeague.org. This is part of the Legacy Project for the Arizona Historical Society to celebrate Arizona's Centennial. These oral histories are from Arizonans such as Erma Bombeck, Eddie Basha, Jerry Colangelo, Paul Fannin, Barry Goldwater, Esther Don Tang and Ed Mell. A complete list is on www.HistoricalLeague.org. The histories talk about their childhood, education, business and social and political life. You feel like you are sitting down talking with them over a cup of coffee . . . or glass of wine.

Love this photo of Sandra as a young girl on the ranch. Can you guess who is the other young man? . . . Barry Goldwater.

Sandra Day O'Connor Exhibit Opening at AHS Museum

Sandra Day O'Connor has always been a role model for me and to learn about the exhibit honoring her was wonderful. Dr Peter Welsh presented the plans for the Exhibit, open to the public Oct 24, 2009, to the League Executive Board. The themes are
1. Early Life (her early papers, artifacts and photos of life on the Lazy B Ranch)
2. Preparation for Public Life (with her schooling and education at Stanford University)
3. Supreme Court years
4. Her House today on the AHS Museum property.
Curator Aaron Monson has been gathering artifacts (ex. her Supreme Court robe) and photos and will travel to Wash D.C. to visit the Library of Congress for more information. The interactive audio kiosk will have films, oral histories and interviews.
For those who want more details, there will be a Virtual Exhibit on the internet with documentation of many aspects of her life.
The exhibit will be in the Changing Gallery at the Museum at Papago Park and is sponsored by the Historical League and the Friends of Sandra Day O'Connor.
It is inspirational to see what she has done and accomplished from her humble beginnings.