Distorted history

As show by the October 3, 2015 post,  the AHS is not  presenting its own history accurately. On their website (http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/), clicking on "about us" and "history of AHS" brings up the following statement.

Established by an Act of the First Territorial Legislature on November 7, 1864, the Arizona Historical Society (AHS) is Arizona’s oldest historical agency.

That claim is absolutely not true. Since the false claim was exposed in Arizona newspapers over a month ago, this curious situation raises a number of questions.

1. Has the AHS become so completely dysfunctional that it cannot correct errors?

2. Is the AHS so historically illiterate that it cannot research its own history?

 3, Is the AHS so historically inept that it cannot discern the difference between two completely unrelated organizations that just happened to have the same name?

4. Is the AHS deliberately misrepresenting its history in a pitiful attempt to enhance its image?

5. Is the AHS so arrogant that it actually believes its own fantasies rather than recorded history?

Since the AHS consumes five to ten million dollars in state funds (direct budget plus hidden costs) each year, these are serious questions for Arizona taxpayers.

CAMMAZ

There is now a new website dedicated to mineral museum education in Arizona. It is CAMMAZ at www.CAMMAZ.net

The Coalition of Advocates for Mineral Museums in Arizona was established to promote mineral museums and mineral education across Arizona. However, its first  project is the restoration of the mineral museum in Phoenix and the K-12 earth science education programs. For that endeavor, CAMMAZ will be a positive force to compliment the negative publicity this blog focuses on the Arizona Historical Society and its outrageous behavior.

In addition to having a complimentary but somewhat different and broader mission than this blog, the CAMMAZ Wordpress platform provides some features the Blogger platform does not offer. Viewers will be able to subscribe to CAMMAZ, and CAMMAZ will be able to alert members when political action is required. CAMMAZ will also display a list of supporters to demonstrate that the people oppose the reckless and unexplained closure of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum by the AHS.

Membership is free. All that is required is a desire to promote mineral museums and earth science education in Arizona. Please subscribe to CAMMAZ today and become a part of the ever growing effort to undo the damage caused by the AHS.

This blog will continue the muckraking mission of exposing the waste, lawlessness, and overall incompetence associated with the AHS.

Searching for a historian

As shown by the October 14th post, the AHS board has no apparent interest in early Arizona history.  That is indicated by their unwillingness to even discuss the preservation of historic mining equipment abandoned by the AHS. That equipment is now rusting and rotting in front of the empty mineral museum building.

The history of the early prospectors and miners is the early history of Arizona. Their efforts supported the construction of the railroads which opened the territory to farmers, ranchers, and others. That is why volunteers (non AHS) spent tens of thousands of hours over two decades to relocate, repair, and reassemble the equipment. The AHS shows no appreciation for either the history or the extraordinary volunteer effort.

Is there still a real historian in the AHS? Is anyone in the AHS interested in preserving that historic mining equipment?

No real interest in history?

The August 22, 2015 blog post includes a link to a rebuttal published by the AHS. At the conclusion of that rebuttal, the AHS requested meeting in person to discuss the issues based on a “mutual dedication to history”. In response, this blogger offered to  meet in front of the former mineral museum (1502 West Washington in Phoenix) to discuss preservation of the historic and functionally restored mining equipment still standing in front of the empty building.

The AHS declined.

Note: The Aug 23 blog post documents the many errors in the AHS rebuttal

Historically Challenged Historical Society

The Arizona Historical Society makes the following boast on its website at:  www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/ahshistory/

Established by an Act of the First Territorial Legislature on November 7, 1864, the Arizona Historical Society (AHS) is Arizona’s oldest historical agency. Architects of the Territory’s code of laws realized they were making history and that it was important to preserve a record of their activities. One of their earliest actions was to create the means for documenting the past and recording contemporary events as they unfolded. This became the Arizona Historical Society, formed to collect and preserve “all facts relating to the history of this Territory".

 It is very difficult to comprehend how any historical society could make such a major historical error. The following correction was distributed to 700 media contacts last week and is currently being printed in news papers across Arizona.

The Arizona Historical Society, now a state agency, proudly boasts that it was founded in 1864. Unfortunately, the claim is not true.  An organization called the Arizona Historical Society was established in1864 by the first territorial legislature in Prescott, but it faded into oblivion in the 1870s. The first AHS had no known connection to the present day AHS which was founded in Tucson in 1884 by Charles D. Poston. When established, it was named the Society of Arizona Pioneers, and it was primarily an elite social organization that excluded many people.  The name did not become the Arizona Historical Society until nearly a century later.

If the present day AHS cannot even properly interpret its own history, why are Arizona taxpayers giving it millions of dollars per year to preserve Arizona history?