PIMA — It’s that time of year again to celebrate the families that established and grew the Gila Valley.
Pima’s Heritage Days will take place Friday and Saturday, April 10-11.
The celebration starts Friday with the Quilt Show in the Wm. Carter Farm Museum. Quilt show hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Immediately following the Quilt Show Friday is the annual barbecue dinner at the old Pima High School cafeteria from 5-7 p.m. The adult plate is $10, children 6-11 are $7, and children under 5 are free. The dinner includes barbecue beef, beans, coleslaw, roll, homemade root beer and a choice of cake.
The Matheson Music Foundation will provide fiddle music during the dinner.
The flag raising and traditional cowboy breakfast kicks things off Saturday at 7 a.m. Featuring real Dutch oven biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and syrup, and a drink; cost is $6 for adults, and $4 for those 11 and younger.
After breakfast, tour the Wm. Carter Museum and view the new roof and windows, as well as the photos from long-time Gila Valley families.
A 70-inch by 80-inch chain link-patterned quilt will be raffled, as will a piece of original artwork donated by Peggy Esplin and a bracelet with 24-karat diamonds, with proceeds to benefit the museum’s improvements. Tickets are $1 each, six for $5, 13 for $10, and 27 for $20; and can be purchased at the museum, during Friday’s barbecue dinner and Saturday’s cowboy breakfast.
Following the breakfast and announcement of the raffle winner at 10 a.m., the Quilt Show will re-open in the Old Pima Church’s cultural hall and run until 5 p.m.
All proceeds benefit Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society, which preserves and displays the history of the region.
“It’s truly an Eastern Arizona Historical Society,” said Darwin Weech with the museum. “You can’t draw lines at the city boundary, or the county boundary, because it goes over the entire area. Up on the mountain, it goes into Clifton and Morenci, over into Bonita and Willcox, Globe and Miami — it’s all part of eastern Arizona’s history.”
