by J.J. Lamb of the Vail Preservation Society Six-year-old Willie ran excitedly into his new home at Marsh Station. The beautiful wooden shingle roof had been painted green, it came to a point over the center of the house. Such a big beautiful home. He ran straight to the corner of the parlor across from the cast iron stove that would keep the...
by J. J. Lamb The Voices of Vail film documentary premiered to a sold-out Fox Theatre on August 12th. The Vail Youth Symphony brought the sounds of The History of Vail, an original composition to life on the Fox stage, setting the tone for the film. Cheers and clapping punctuated the experience as familiar faces shared stories from the silver...
by J. J. Lamb and David Hook This year, well over 8,000 people connected during the weeklong “A Colossal Fourth” celebration of community and country! The highlight was the spectacular fireworks on July 3rd. This wonderful display, as well as all the other A Colossal Fourth events, were the result of community-powered partnerships forged with the...
By J.J. Lamb, Vail Preservation Society The Vail Preservation Society is proud to host A Colossal Fourth. From June 30th through July 4th events will unfold from the Rincon Valley Farmers Market and Colossal Cave Mountain Park, south along Colossal Cave Road to Charron Vineyards in the beautiful Empire Mountains. Vail and Corona are the places to...
by J. J. Lamb and Rob Samuelsen On December 14, 1846, the Mormon Battalion camped on the banks of Cienega Creek; about eight miles east of the place that would become Vail in 1880. They were under the command of Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke. Recruited as a result of a directive by President Polk, the 500 or so volunteer soldiers remain the...
by Rob Samuelsen and J. J. Lamb While some of their peers may have spent their Rodeo Break sleeping in or traveling to Disneyland, for over 300 teenagers from the Rincon and Tucson South Stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this Rodeo Break was spent building friendships in one of the most unconventional of ways – reenacting...
by J.J. Lamb (part two). Continued from March Vail Voice Three train robberies east of Tucson in 1887 on the Southern Pacific Railroad’s main line that wound through Cienega Creek kept everyone on edge. After the August robbery, the posse, dispatched to find the bandits, discovered tracks leading towards Mountain Springs, located within present...
by J.J. Lamb It was midnight, April 27th, 1887, the Sunset Express was past due at the Tucson Station. To the east, Southern Pacific Brakeman Paul Moroney entered Pentane Station to report that the Sunset Express had been held up by bandits at the Cienega Cut. The creek’s banks were especially high and narrow at this point. Tucson was immediately...
“… and Lord, how that black [cow]boy can heave a rope!” – Edward ‘Ned’ Hillyard-Black Cowboy. As the sun set and threatening clouds became a storm that took hold of the night, cowboys serenaded the herd, using their years of experience to keep the cattle calm. Ned had been in the saddle nearly 14 hours when the “straw boss” delivered the...
Daybreak revealed a horrific tangle of metal, hot fuel oil, flesh, and fire. Just minutes before the impact, a chain of events that would end in a wall of flame was set in motion when the Sunset Limited, already two hours behind schedule, pulled into the Vail Station. By sunrise, a temporary track had been quickly built to bypass the accident so...
