Statehood Day is coming early this year, so don’t forget the flowers and the chocolates.

Arizona’s actual 111th birthday is on Feb. 14, but the Arizona Historical Society has decided to celebrate on Feb. 4 instead with free admission to Arizona History Museum in Tucson and the Arizona Heritage Center in Tempe.

“We felt that no one would be interested in bringing their family to the museum on Statehood Day, which is not only Valentine’s Day but a Tuesday,” said Jaynie Adams, history engagement coordinator for the historical society.

The weekend before Feb. 14th is Super Bowl weekend in Phoenix, so that was out, too, Adams said. “There is a method to the madness — promise!”

The two museums will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on fee-free Feb. 4.

The Arizona History Museum at 949 E. Second St. in Tucson will feature statehood-themed artifacts, as well as displays dedicated to Barry Goldwater’s Ham radio, copper mining, and an interactive tour of Tucson in the 1870s.

Visitors also will be able to handle archival materials, take a virtual scavenger hunt through the museum and check out the community mural project in the lobby.

The event provides one of the last chances to see the Migrant Quilt Project exhibit, which closes at the end of February.

That display features 20 intricate quilts stitched together from clothes abandoned on Arizona’s migrant trails to honor those who have died crossing the desert in search of a better life.

The ongoing textile tribute is the work of more than 50 artists. Each quilt memorializes the migrants whose bodies were found — but, in most cases, never identified — during a single federal fiscal year in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which extends from the New Mexico state line to the eastern edge of Yuma County.

The Arizona Heritage Center at 1300 N. College Ave. in Tempe includes On Air, an exhibition about the Valley of the Sun’s history of broadcast news, and the brand new Rebuilding Home Plate, about baseball in Arizona’s Japanese incarceration camps.

How well do you know Arizona? Here is another quiz to test your knowledge on Arizona history and facts. Video by Pascal Albright / Arizona Daily Star


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Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean