By J.J. Lamb On a Monday afternoon in February 1936 teachers Esta Trotter and Edwin Van Doran hiked with their students to “El Rancho del Lago” to see Bee Adkins’ hunting dogs. His daughters, Alpha and Gladys attended the Vail school. Their younger sister Vina was still too young, but liked to tag along to class when she could. The Vail school...
By JJ Lamb and Gerald Lamb We usually take our roads for granted. But sometimes we have to fight for them. On June 26, 1926, 11 Vail residents—including brothers Guy and Carl Monthan and Colossal Cave Park Operator Frank Schmidt—petitioned the Pima County Board of Supervisors to declare the “the concrete dip over the Pantano Wash on the old Vail...
By J.J. Lamb Sarah Eveleen “Evie” Rae Schley arrived in Arizona in 1900 from New Jersey with her husband George Rae, who was ill with tuberculosis, and their daughter Jessie. They were hoping for improved health and a fresh start. Evie, George and business partner Otto Schley had interests in the Cuprite Mine and other mines in the Santa Rita’s...
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 the first to imagine building a golf course there. His dream was written up in the January 31, 1914, edition of the Arizona Citizen. “Tucson is not the only city...
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 Mountains. My parents’ names were Angel Benítez and Desideria Vindiola. My father was born in Banamachi, Sonora, Mexico, in 1860 and died in 1937. He came to Tucson...
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 the children of the railroad and ranching families living in and around Vail. It was visits to their older sister Julia who lived in Tucson that brought Esta...
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!” Jane Dillon moved with her family to Vail in 1935. The Dillon family operated the Vail Junction Texaco Gas Station. She and her brother attended the Vail School...
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 ballooned to nearly 13,000. With so many new people calling Vail home it’s important we take the time to understand the reasons people live here. New and old...
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 actually have a toy box was almost unheard of. Boys may have received homemade marbles of baked clay, glass aggies or coveted steelies as treasured items. Some...
Since 2006 Vail Preservation Society has worked to celebrate and connect our heritage and history and build strong relationships within our community. Vail and Corona are great places to call home. They are even better when their stories are celebrated, preserved, and put to work for the future. By JJ Lamb On the southwest intersection of Highway...
