The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum at 60
- Updated
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Labor Day. Daily Star photographer A.E. Araiza spent a day documenting the museum. Plus file photos through the years.
The new Great Blue Heron/Cienega exhibit, opening on Labor Day, is being prepared at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28. The exhibit showcases one of the largest birds native to the Sonoran desert which is familiar to both fresh and salt water environments.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A playful river otter occupies itself with a new toy, though temporarily, as a scooper is used to retrieve a pair of sunglasses that had fallen into the enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Electrician Doug Price runs wiring into the Warden Aquarium where salt and fresh water sea creatures, representing all aquatic life in the Sonoran desert, are to be exhibited at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Holly Swangstu, the new Art Institute and Ironwood Gallery Director, stands in front of some artwork that is in the permanent collection of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28. The show, "Vanishing Circle", is located in the gallery of the Baldwin Education Building, which is having its dedication on Labor Day. It has added more room for classes along with library and archive space.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Aquarist Debbie Hutchinson attends to the needs of numerous aquatic creatures such as the seahorses, frogfish, sea hare and eels at a temporary holding area in the Herpetology building until construction of the Warden Aquarium is completed at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Undated photo of two exhibits at the new watershed exposition of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum show how the types of birds and plants change with the amount of rainfall. The visitors shown here with the cages are members of the American Forestry Assn. that were given a preview of the exposition this week.
- Ray Manley photo
A desert bighorn sheep watches as keeper Julie Mudd approaches with some food at the enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28. The sheep are fed equine pellets, alfalfa and produce such as carrots, apples and sweet potatoes.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
File photo ca. 1960: The new Desert Demonstration Garden at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was dressed up yesterday to look its best for color photographs to appear in the April issue Sunset Magazine co-sponsors with the museum of the project. The workers are (left to right) William Woodin, museum director; Mrs. Elsa Uppman Knoll, senior editor of Sunset Magazine; and Eric Johnson, the magazine western garden consultant.
- Bill Hopkins/Tucson Citizen
File photo, ca. 1960: Tucsonans and tourists show equal interest in exhibits at a sneak preview of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's underground tunnel exposition. They stand 14 feet underground to see root systems of plants and animals in their burrows. Rock effects were obtained by using rubber molds and plaster.
- Bernie Sedley/Tucson Citizen
Raptor Free Flight keeper Larisa Thomas, left, catches a Barn Owl on her glove during the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum Free Flight Demonstration at the museum Friday, October 23, 2009. The shows featured three to four species that included Chihuahuan Ravens , Barn Owls, Great Horned Owls, Ferruginous Hawks, Gray Hawks, Prairie Falcons, or Greater Roadrunners.
- Jill Torrance/Arizona Daily Star
Wild Winter Kids' Camp 2011 at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson: Sophie Gray pets a Ringtail as Desert Museum Education Specialist Amy Orchard shows the mammal off to students at the Museum's winter class session on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2011.
- Zachary Vito/for the Daily Star
A desert bighorn sheep watches as keeper Julie Mudd approaches with some food at the enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. The sheep are fed equine pellets, alfalfa and produce such as carrots, apples and sweet potatoes.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star file photo
Jim and Ann Konz from Kansas City, Kan., check out the vistas while in the Coati Kid Clubhouse which is along the Desert Loop Trail at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A prarie dog nibbles on some grass in the desert grassland section at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A Coues White-tailed deer relaxes in the shade at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
The nocturnal beaver sleeps during the day in its enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
The new Great Blue Heron/Cienega exhibit, opening on Labor Day, is being prepared at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28. The exhibit showcases one of the largest birds native to the Sonoran desert which is familiar to both fresh and salt water environments.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A bobcat stretches out among the rocks at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A playful river otter occupies itself with a new toy, though temporarily, as a scooper is used to retrieve a pair of sunglasses that had fallen into the enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A hummingbird pauses for a drink in the aviary at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A coyote perches itself on top of a rock along the Desert Loop Trail at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Electrician Doug Price runs wiring into the Warden Aquarium where salt and fresh water sea creatures, representing all aquatic life in the Sonoran desert, are to be exhibited at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Holly Swangstu, the new Art Institute and Ironwood Gallery Director, stands in front of some artwork that is in the permanent collection of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28. The show, "Vanishing Circle", is located in the gallery of the Baldwin Education Building, which is having its dedication on Labor Day. It has added more room for classes along with library and archive space.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Pacific seahorses swim in a tank at a temporary holding area in the Herpetology building until construction of the Warden Aquarium is completed at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Aquarist Debbie Hutchinson attends to the needs of numerous aquatic creatures such as the seahorses, frogfish, sea hare and eels at a temporary holding area in the Herpetology building until construction of the Warden Aquarium is completed at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A couple of monarch butterflies cling on to some plants at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Frequent visitors Ida Mae Cowart and Jack Duncan sit under the ramada in front of the Mountain House Gift Shop and Phoebe's Coffee Bar at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A mountain lion keeps its eyes on its enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
Using a blow dryer, keeper Araceli Cons prepares the Kit fox den in the Underground LIfe Exhibit at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
The baby prairie dogs emerge from their holes in the ground at the Arizona Desert Museum on May 27, 2004.
- Benjie Sanders/Arizona Daily Star
A nice Spring morning as visitors at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum watch Harris Hawks with their cameras and binoculars during a Raptor Free Flight exhibition on Tuesday March 27, 2007.
- Benjie Sanders/Arizona Daily Star
Cody Hanson attempts to get some close up shots during the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's 6th Annual Butterfly Festival & Plant Sale in Tucson, Ariz., Sunday October 1, 2006.
- Greg Bryan/Arizona Daily Star
A queen butterfly, one of the more common varieties, pollinates a flower during the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's 6th Annual Butterfly Festival & Plant Sale on October 1, 2006.
- Greg Bryan/Arizona Daily Star
Bighorn sheep at the museum on September 18, 2006.
- Greg Bryan/Arizona Daily Star
Star file photo: "George L. Mountainlion," the museum's mascot, at the Desert Museum - circa 1958.
- Arizona Daily Star file
Eleanor Roosevelt at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum c. 1958.
- Arizona Daily Star file
Undated photo of two exhibits at the new watershed exposition of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum show how the types of birds and plants change with the amount of rainfall. The visitors shown here with the cages are members of the American Forestry Assn. that were given a preview of the exposition this week.
- Ray Manley photo
Hal Gras of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum gets the full attention of the kids with a porcupine's quill stuck in his finger in 1982,
- Benjie Sanders/Arizona Daily Star
Hal Gras feeds a banana to a box turtle during a Desert Ark program at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in 1983.
- Ron Medvescek/Arizona Daily Star
Hal Gras visits with one of the coyotes at the Desert Museum in 1979.
- Jack Sheaffer/Arizona Daily Star
Lush and green after recent rains, a couple walks along the Desert Loop Trail at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A desert bighorn sheep watches as keeper Julie Mudd approaches with some food at the enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28. The sheep are fed equine pellets, alfalfa and produce such as carrots, apples and sweet potatoes.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
The 10 day old baby bighorn sheep sits with his mother at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on May 8, 2007 in Tucson, Ariz. The sheep, born on April 28th, was the 8th successful birth at the museum.
- Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
File photo ca. 1960: The new Desert Demonstration Garden at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was dressed up yesterday to look its best for color photographs to appear in the April issue Sunset Magazine co-sponsors with the museum of the project. The workers are (left to right) William Woodin, museum director; Mrs. Elsa Uppman Knoll, senior editor of Sunset Magazine; and Eric Johnson, the magazine western garden consultant.
- Bill Hopkins/Tucson Citizen
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in 1953.
- Sedley - Hopkins Photography
File photo, ca. 1960: Tucsonans and tourists show equal interest in exhibits at a sneak preview of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's underground tunnel exposition. They stand 14 feet underground to see root systems of plants and animals in their burrows. Rock effects were obtained by using rubber molds and plaster.
- Bernie Sedley/Tucson Citizen
Raptor Free Flight keeper Larisa Thomas, left, catches a Barn Owl on her glove during the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum Free Flight Demonstration at the museum Friday, October 23, 2009. The shows featured three to four species that included Chihuahuan Ravens , Barn Owls, Great Horned Owls, Ferruginous Hawks, Gray Hawks, Prairie Falcons, or Greater Roadrunners.
- Jill Torrance/Arizona Daily Star
Wild Winter Kids' Camp 2011 at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson: Sophie Gray pets a Ringtail as Desert Museum Education Specialist Amy Orchard shows the mammal off to students at the Museum's winter class session on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2011.
- Zachary Vito/for the Daily Star
Photo taken in the 1930s of buildings that were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp and are now part of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
- Courtesy of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
The original resident/mascot mountain lion of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, George L. Mountainlion (photographed here in 1958) was famous for being incredibly friendly and a published columnist.
- Arizona Daily Star file
A desert bighorn sheep watches as keeper Julie Mudd approaches with some food at the enclosure at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. The sheep are fed equine pellets, alfalfa and produce such as carrots, apples and sweet potatoes.
- A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star file photo
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