By J.J. Lamb The verdant stretch of land along the Pantano Wash we call Rancho del Lago today has drawn people to Vail for millennia, but Otto Schley, Vail’s first unofficial ‘mayor’, was...
Category - Vail Preservation Society
Tea, Dancing and Bridge – 1930s High Society in Vail
Tea, Dancing and Bridge – 1930s High Society in Vail “Mr. and Mrs. Cleaveland Putnam entertained Sunday for [newlyweds] Mr...
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The New Deal in Vail
The New Deal in Vail In 1935, little Shirley Temple was singing “Animal Crackers in My Soup” and cheering up a country devastated...
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Making a Difference for 25 Years
The past is a significant part of what defines who we are on a personal level, as well as the world around us. It is both a...
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The Whole Damned Hill is a Total Wreck!
It was a brisk winter morning in the Empire Mountains. John Harvey and John “Jerry” Dillon rode out on horseback to officially...
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Between the Grape and the Glass – Milton and Susan...
By J.J. Lamb Charron Vineyards is one of Vail’s very special places. The original owners Leo and Rhea Cox planted the vineyard in 1995. Charron is Rhea’s maiden name. The name is French and...
Vail Preservation Society: In Her Own Words
Growing up in the Rincon Valley:Memories of family, School and the 1918 Pandemic By Ramona Benitez Franco “I was born on the thirteenth of May 1902, on my parents’ ranch in the Rincon...
Vail Preservation Society: The Trotter Sisters –...
By J.J. Lamb The Trotter sisters haven’t lived in Vail for almost sixty years, but their legacy remains strong in the Town Between the Tracks™. From 1931 through 1962 they taught school for...
Vail Preservation Society: A 65 Year Love Story
By JJ Lamb “…I first met Jack when I was 13 and he was 16 and at that moment I said to myself, “that’s the man I’m going to marry; oh, those beautiful blue eyes!”...
Vail Preservation Society: Welcome Home
By JJ Lamb Twenty years ago, there were approximately 1,500 people living within a five-mile radius around the original village of Vail Between the Tracks™. Today, the population has...
Vail Preservation Society: Christmas in Frontier...
By JJ Lamb Arizona made Christmas official in 1881, eleven years after it was declared a federal holiday in 1870. It was not the commercial event that it is today. Having enough toys to...