The Desert Botanical Garden emerged as an antidote to the agricultural and economic development of Phoenix. A dedicated group of Phoenix residents, concerned about the city’s sprawling expansion and the increasing destruction of the surrounding…

Founded in 1939, the Desert Botanical Garden has helped to change the way Phoenicians see the Sonoran Desert. As Phoenix began to grow in the 1920s, many residents saw the desert as a blighted landscape in need of improvement. Local politicians and…

“The West’s Most Western Town” characterizes the city different than those around it. Embedded around this ideal, the Museum Western Spirit resides, selling the western ideal to visitors and residents. However, why was this name created? What…

In 1978, almost forty years after the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) opened to the public, the Garden introduced its first Las Noches de las Luminaria. The celebration has evolved beyond candlelit desert paths; the annual event now includes bell…

The development of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve drew from many currents within the region's history and American culture more broadly. Among these was a connection to the broader emergence of the environmental movement in the United States. …

There's an old joke about Arizonans and their rivers. An Arizona man is on vacation in Germany, and he visits the Rhine River. "Isn't it beautiful?" one admirer asks. The desert dweller responds, "Sure, but I can't see…

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,…