WaterWorks at Arizona Falls plays with the serious subjects of water and power to bring new life to the historic falls along the Arizona Canal. SRP and the Phoenix Arts Commission commissioned the project from the internationally-renowned team of…

Arizonans often joke that whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting. Water's value to the state was made evident by the 1934 "war" with California as well as by longstanding disputes with neighboring states over allocation of the Colorado River.…

The National Park Service celebrated the Papago Saguaro National Monument for its more than 2,000 acres of rocky desert that showcased Phoenix's Sonoran Desert, giant cactus, and sandstone buttes. Just 16 years after its founding, however, the…

Among President Franklin Roosevelt's many "Alphabet Soup" New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was perhaps the most successful in reducing unemployment among America's youth. The highly regimented program brought benefit not only…

Breadlines, street corner apple vendors, and families traveling cross-country in jalopies looking for employment are phenomena unknown to most alive today. As those who lived through the Great Depression continue to fall by the wayside, memories of…

Wealthy Northeastern socialite Gertrude Webster seemed to delight in defying class and gender stereotypes as she worked tirelessly to "Save the Desert" by taking charge of the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society (ACNFS)--now known as the Desert…

Adobe has served as an inexpensive and reliable building material for cultures across the globe for several millenia. Although ancient in origin, the use of adobe boasts thoroughly modern advantages such as renewability and energy efficiency, making…

When the U.S. government sought a home for German U-boat sailors taken as prisoners-of-war during World War II, it found the ultimate contradictory landscape for the young mariners from the verdant nation along the Rhine: Phoenix's Papago…

When Edward A. Tovrea opened his stockyard operation in 1919, its location was far removed from the neighborhoods and commercial districts of Phoenix. Tovrea's impressive sprawling complex processed more than 300,000 head of cattle every year. The…

The prisoner of war camp that once stood in Papago Park was the site of stories like that of the ill-fated 1944 escape attempt of the "Crazy Boatmen," who planned on floating hand-made boats down the rivers they saw on their maps of the Valley.…