Tucson, Ariz. – A recipe for how to make a 8.4-meter telescope mirror: Ingredient: About 44,000 pounds of glass chunks. Instructions: Load all glass chunks into 27-foot diameter mold. Place mold in giant spinning oven and set for 5 revolutions-per-minute. Cook...
Tucson, Ariz. – Longtime Tucsonans remember the area as Prison Camp. From 1939 to 1973, it was the Catalina Federal Prison Camp. The inmates who built the Catalina Highway were the original occupants. Conscientious objectors were also housed there during WW II....
My first attempt at interviewing Tom Russell was stymied by a bad cell phone connection. He was driving around the edge of Ft. Worth, trying to find his hotel. The signal was so bad that we agreed to wait until he’d checked in. My second attempt to interview Tom...
Picacho Pass, Ariz. – On April 15, 1862, two small groups of Union and Confederate soldiers fought a battle in central Arizona. The engagement left several Union troops dead, including the detachment’s commanding officer, and wounded several men on each...
Benson, Ariz. – About 40 miles southeast of Tucson, under the limestone rock of the Whetstone Mountains, lies a vast, living cave called Kartchner Caverns. It was discovered in 1974 by Gary Tenan and Randy Tufts, two amateur cavers from Tucson. A small cleft in...
Arivaca, Ariz. – Byrd Baylor’s love of the desert serves as both setting and subject for her writing. She’s best known for her children’s books, mostly set in the Southwest and populated with Native Americans and desert creatures. After years...
Open Range News
Exploring the American Southwest through story, sound & image.
