Community Input Meeting

Pedaling a New Concept: The US Army Bicycle Corps-America's Rolling "Black Army" Tuesday, May 28, 2024, from 5:30-6:30pm, Free to attend Join us for a fascinating look at a little known military experiment and the brave soldiers who took part. Cochise College instructor Glenn Minuth will share his research at a free event, to be held at the Copper Queen Library. This lecture is a partnership event co-sponsored by the Copper Queen Library, the Naco Heritage Alliance and Camp Naco Project. During the late 1800s, it's no surprise that the widespread popularity of the bicycle attracted the attention of U.S. Army leaders. In 1892 the Army Chief of Staff communicated his interest by approving one regiment to be equipped with bicycles, to obtain all information of military importance surrounding local forts. A young officer organized the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps whose mission was to thoroughly "test the practicality" of the bicycle for military purposes. How did the A. G. Spalding Company play into this experiment? What did each bicycle carry? Training trips of increasing lengths prepared the unit for a major 800-mile expedition. How did they complete their longest expedition 1,900 miles away? And why was an even longer trip to San Francisco from Montana not approved and what did that signal for the Corps future? Presenter Glenn Minuth was a (35-year) Department of Defense civil servant who retired at Fort Huachuca. His bachelors and graduate degrees are in geography with emphasis in cartography, geomorphology, remote sensing, and geology. He is also a graduate of the Army Management Staff College. He has been an instructor for 30 plus years at Cochise College, AZ in both credit and non-credit programs and leads field trips and lectures in the areas of: geology, geography, earth science, astronomy, ecology, weather/climate, agriculture, and military history.

Preserving Place & Empowering Community: The Past, Present, and Future of Camp Naco with Rebecca Orozco and R. Brooks Jeffery Saturday, May 4, 2024, 11:00 am – MST A Free Online Program sponsored by the Arizona Historical Society Presented by the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum Register at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__yn-tSfVTQCGVR-OyE7YUw#/registration Camp Naco is a cornerstone of Buffalo Soldier history in Arizona and represents the proud tradition of Black military regiments after the Civil War. The Camp's 17-acre site and 100+ year-old adobe buildings sit just 600 yards north of the US-Mexico border in the community of Naco Arizona and reside on the ancestral lands of the Chiricahua Apache. In 2022, the City of Bisbee and Naco Heritage Alliance received $8.1M in funding support, initiating a 4-year journey to 1). Preserve and rehabilitate the site's 20 buildings and open spaces; 2). Develop place-based programming to reactivate the site by interpreting its diverse cultural landscape and addressing community needs; and 3). Build organizational capacity to successfully sustain Camp Naco's mission into the future. This presentation will outline the diverse histories of the Camp Naco site, the tireless efforts to preserve its buildings, and the future vision to reactivate Camp Naco as a destination to honor its past while addressing contemporary needs in the border community of Naco Arizona. Rebecca Orozco is a third-generation resident of the border in Arizona. She recently retired from Cochise College and the University of Arizona as a history and anthropology instructor. In 2021 she was named Faculty Emeritus for Cochise College. She helped develop a cross-border studies program at Cochise College and the Center for Lifelong Learning and continues to offer non-credit history and travel programs. For the past 22 years, she has been working to save historic Camp Naco. She discovered the camp while working to develop cross-border programs for Elderhostel, an educational travel program for seniors. The abandoned adobe fort set off a quest to discover the history and then to preserve the Mexican Revolutionary War era camp built to stop the conflict from spilling across the border. After arson fires destroyed five buildings in 2006, she helped get the property transferred first to Huachuca City and then to Bisbee. The Naco Heritage Alliance was formed in 2008 and under their work, a Brownfields grant of $400,000 was secured to mitigate the asbestos from the Camp. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 and named one of the Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places in 2022. R. Brooks Jeffery is a heritage conservation consultant serving as Startup Executive Director of the Naco Heritage Alliance. He is a Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Arizona where he had a 35-year career as a teacher, scholar, and administrator advancing heritage conservation as part of a comprehensive ethic of environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability in places throughout the world. This online program is free, but space is limited.

Photos by Carlos Quintero, Outreach, Program Coordinator, The Southwest Center, University of Arizona The 2024 Bazy Tankersley Southwest Laureate Lecture was presented by two community scholars, Rebecca Orozco and R. Brooks Jeffery. This event included a Friday evening lecture followed by a Saturday site tour of Camp Naco. The Friday lecture was preceded by a short memorial to honor the life and career of J.C. Mutchler (1961-2023), Associate Research Historian, Southwest Center, University of Arizona. The tribute video is available to view HERE and a video of the lecture is available HERE . In the footsteps of Bazy Tankersley, J.C. Mutchler’s career was devoted to empowering communities through their understanding of history and sense of place. No project better exemplifies Mutchler’s passion for community-based applied history than Camp Naco. Located in the Cochise County border community of Naco AZ, Camp Naco is a cornerstone of Buffalo Soldier history in Arizona but also represents the multi-layered histories of border protection, mining and railroads, Spanish exploration, as well as the history of indigenous peoples who occupied this region for millennia. Beginning in 2000, community advocates – including Mutchler – began efforts to preserve Camp Naco’s 100+ year-old adobe buildings and 17-acre site when it was under threat of outright demolition. This led to the establishment of the non-profit Naco Heritage Alliance and a 22-year journey of preservation advocacy that resulted in the recent designation of Camp Naco as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Community Input Open House Camp Naco Site Program and Preliminary Conceptual Site Plan Saturday, March 9, 10:00am – 12:00pm Camp Naco, 2118 W Newell St, Naco The public is invited to Camp Naco for an Open House to review the proposed site program elements and a preliminary conceptual site plan for development of the 17-acre site at Camp Naco. This Preliminary Site Plan and Site Development Program, developed by the design team, led by architectural firm Poster Mirto McDonald , incorporates years of ideas and feedback from the community, stakeholders, and advisors. In this informal event, the public will be granted limited access to the Camp Naco site and the ability to review program details, diagrams, and drawings of the proposed plan, to ask questions, and to provide feedback. Members of the design team and the Camp Naco Project Team will be on-hand to answer questions and gather valuable input from the public before further developing plans and applying for permits. Snacks and beverages will be provided.

Fireplace Chat: Women on the Border Saturday, March 2 at 2:00pm Warren Peace Cafe, 123 Arizona Street, Bisbee, AZ Register at: https://forms.gle/5bQNMA3GQmsAtBTy9 Join us for a Question & Answer session with Dr. Katie Benton-Cohen and Dr. Larisa Veloz to discuss the profound contributions of women in shaping the Arizona borderlands. Larisa Veloz is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas, El Paso, where she teaches the histories of the U.S. and Mexico, Mexican Migration, Latin America and the Latinx diaspora, and the US-Mexico borderlands. She received an MA in Latin American and Iberian Studies from UC Santa Barbara and her Doctorate in History from Georgetown University, where she won the 2017 Glassmann Award for the best dissertation in the humanities. Her work, supported by a Fulbright IIE Garcia Robles Fellowship to Mexico and a Mellon/IIE Graduate Fellowship for International Study, led to her book, 'Even the Women are Leaving': Migrants Making Mexican America, 1890-1965 currently out and published by University of California Press 2023. It explores the histories of Mexican migrant families, focusing on women and gender relations from the early decades of circular migrations, through depression era repatriations, to the rise of the bracero contracts and parallel family migrations from the 1940s into the 1960s. Her current project focuses on the oral histories of Mexican migrant women during the latter part of the twentieth century.

A collaborative event sponsored by the City of Sierra Vista Library, Recreation, and Cultural Services,  Camp Naco and the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers

January 28, 2024, 2-4pm at Camp Naco. Free to attend, registration is required .

November 11, 2023, 10-11am Join Naco Heritage Alliance Community Liason Becky Orozco on a tour of this historic site. Limited capacity, registration required, free to attend. To register click the HERE or to arrange for a private tour call (520) 432-9031

In October 2023 we hosted leaders from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) including members of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the HOPE (Hands On Preservation Experience) Crew, and the Where Women Made History Initiative (see photo). It was the National Trust who oversees the 11 Most Endangered List on which Camp Naco was included in 2022 that became a watershed moment for the current funding and is a testament to NTHP's continuing support and advocacy to preserve Camp Naco. In addition to Camp Naco, the group toured a constellation of African American heritage sites in southern Arizona in our efforts to build a collaborative regional partnership and have national organizations recognize the unique qualities of the Black experience in the West. Front row (left to right): Christine Rhodes, Molly Baker (NTHP), Tiffany Tolbert (NTHP), Milan Jordan (NTHP), Juanetta Hill, Michael Engs, Mike Normand. Back row: Becky Orozco, Demetria Warren, Lawana Holland-Moore (NTHP), R. Brooks Jeffery, Christine Morris (NTHP). Not pictured: Bisbee Mayor Ken Budge and Bisbee City Manager Steve Pauken.