Desperado Trails: Outlaws on the Arizona Frontier

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

Michael Kloberdanz

Sun Valley Lodge

Phone (623) 933-0137

Fax (623) 933-5846

mike@sunvalleylodge.org

www.sunvalleylodge.org

Desperado Trails: Outlaws on the Arizona Frontier

Sun City, Arizona –Wednesday, April 04, 2012 – Sun Valley Lodge’s second installment of its annual Discover Arizona series will take place on Wednesday, April 11^th at 10:00 AM with a program entitled “Desperado Trails: Outlaws on the Arizona Frontier.”  The event will be presented by award-winning author, historian, and lecturer Jan Cleere.

The program will feature stories of some of Arizona‘s more notorious citizens, bringing to life a time when massacres, mayhem and mischief ran rampant throughout the territory. Outlaws were so prevalent in Arizona Territory in the 1800s that then Gov. Anson P.K. Safford proclaimed in 1877 they were “a scourge to civilization, a disgrace to humanity, and all should be swept from the face of the earth as remorsely (sic) as the most ferocious wild beast.”

Outlaws from across the country knew that if they could escape into Arizona they would be relatively safe from the law since no one was eager to follow their trails across the desert, and the law here often looked the other way as they rode by. Ms. Cleere relishes detailing the sordid details of desperadoes such as cattle/horse rustler and murderer Augustine Chacon, cattle thief Cecil Creswell, everyone‘s darling stagecoach robber Pearl Hart, and more.

Jan Cleere writes extensively about the people who first settled in the desert southwest. Her work reflects her love of the west and her knowledge of western history. She is the author of Levi’s & Lace: Arizona Women Who Made History, Amazing Girls of Arizona: True Stories of Young Pioneers, and Outlaw Tales of Arizona. She speaks to organizations across the state detailing the stories of historic people from a variety of lifestyles and occupations that she has discovered through her extensive research.

The Discover Arizona series is free and open to the public.  The presentations are made possible through a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council.  Sun Valley Lodge is located at 12415 N. 103^rd Avenue in Sun City.  For more information please call (623) 933-0137.

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Sun Valley Lodge is a nonprofit organization and has been providing independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing care in Sun City, Arizona for over 40 years.