Sometimes small museums in small towns can surprise you with the content. There were two today: Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society and Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum. The former in downtown Pima, AZ (west of Safford) and the latter in Lordsburg, NM.
Pima is small. There are four or five buildings downtown… adjacent, on only one side of the street. The museum is housed in the former Bank of Pima building and the adjacent former drug store. They are supported by the local ice cream and lunch place, Taylor Freeze. We lunched there. Some nice exhibits:
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- Drill press.
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- Mechanical hammer for metal forming.
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- Wheel barrow used at the local saloon to move beer barrels.
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- Egg scale.
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- Staged picture of two local cowboys with a random Indian… who turned out to be Geronimo.
Lordsburg is larger. and so is the museum. It’s housed in the former National Guard Armory. The largest exhibit was for the interment/POW camp in town. Initially for Japanese-Americans, it later switched to Italian POWs, then German POWs. The Italians labored on neighboring farms and ranches… and, surprisingly, Air Bases. Townspeople remember the Italians as low key. The Germans tended to be troublemakers from other camps.
Yes, we’re on the road again, going places that we’ve never been. Including Fort Leonard Wood for Jake’s graduation ceremony.