SAFFORD — Over the weekend, the Graham County Historical Society honored one of its longtime supporters and talk about a new museum with little detail.
The Historical Society held its annual meeting at the Ranch House on the EAC Discovery Park campus on Saturday, where Myrna Curtis was presented with the Heritage Award.
Curtis’ children recounted tales of her growing up in Eden and Fort Thomas, and her shouldering the responsibility of running the family farm in Sanchez and taking other jobs to raise the family after her husband was seriously injured in accident on the farm in 1977.
Curtis said she was “embarrassed” to be the center of attention but was grateful for the recognition.
“It was very exciting to me to just have somebody know that I got to be a part of this organization,” Curtis said.
Attendees also hear a presentation on finding the site of the Lindsey Canyon Plane Crash on Mount Graham by Brent Quinn. In the early 1960s a plane crashed while fighting a fire on Mount Graham and pieces of the wreckage can still be found on the mountain.
Graham County Historical Society Board President Harvey John said the organization is continuing efforts to develop a new museum.
The Historical Society has raised $244,000 toward development of a new museum, and was donated a prefabricated metal building that has to be constructed once a site has been determined. The Historical Society anticipates needing at least $341,000 to develop a museum on land at the Graham County Fairgrounds.
“We have a strategy put together to try to see what we can do, in regards to that, because we think it’s very important that we re-establish our museum,” John said.
The museum had been housed in the old Thatcher Middle School building, before it was torn down in 2013 for development of a new middle school. The museum’s artifacts have been in storage for the last 13 years.
