Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald: Nick Bingham (left) and Scott Alder flipped pancakes and fun at the previous Pima Heritage Days Festival. The event will be held this Friday and Saturday.
Contributed Article/Courtesy Terry Bryant
PIMA – Celebrating the 144th anniversary of the town’s founding in April 1879, Pima Heritage Days takes place this Friday and Saturday with a variety of food, fun, family-friendly exhibits and historic forging demonstrations. will be split.
The event kicks off with a quilt show in the Old Pima Church Cultural Hall on Friday from noon to 4pm, followed by a barbecue dinner in the Pima School cafeteria from 5pm to 7pm. (ages 5 and under are free), includes house-made BBQ beef and beans, coleslaw, dinner rolls, house-made root beer, and water.
On Saturday mornings, enjoy a cowboy breakfast at 7:00 AM at the Willman Carter Farm Museum. Fees are $6 per plate and $4 per plate for children. Breakfast includes pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, gravy, and Dutch oven biscuits. All proceeds will go to the Eastern Arizona Museum and the Graham County Historical Society. The quilt show runs from 9am to 2pm on Saturdays.
This year’s theme is “Eastern Arizona Museum – Celebrating 60 Years of Gila Valley Legacy” with flag hoisting, national anthem performances, steam engine demonstrations, kilt raffles, and multiple family exhibits. This year’s event will also feature a blacksmithing exhibit at Amos Packer’s historic forge by Max Maxwell.
The Eastern Arizona Museum & Graham County Historical Society in Pima displays many artifacts of 19th-century tools and machinery.th and 20th Centuries. Most of them were manual or animal-powered and had not been used for decades.Thousands of museum visitors have only seen them with interest over the years. Things have changed in recent months, thanks to the constant efforts of local Mr. Maxwell, a self-taught blacksmith.
First, some background on artifacts. In 1908 Amos Packer opened a blacksmith shop in Pima repairing wagons, buggies, farms, ranches and harnesses. The attached photo shows Mr. Packer resting his arm on the smithy at his shop, with helper Joe Horn in the background. Packer served his six terms as mayor of Pima, but when the city council asked him to continue his one term, he declined. His business building was one block south of where the museum is located, that is, he was at 100 S. Street, and stood a few yards west of that street. He ran his business until his death in 1940. It is not known how the forging came into the hands of William (Bill) Carter, but his family donated it to the museum in 1977.
Max Maxwell and his wife, Korra, discovered the existence of the forge while they were at the museum’s holiday bazaar last November and December, and brought the dusty artifacts on the museum’s patio back to life. I started thinking about sex. With the approval of his Karrie Wilson, museum curator, and the support of the museum committee, Max lit a blacksmith and demonstrated the process he went through to create a variety of useful metal items for sale. offers.
Mr. Maxwell is one of those blessed souls who finds what they love in their own time every day. He easily shares his passion and what has brought him to this point in his life. “In 2007, I had an art teacher named Robert Pugh,” Maxwell said. “He was and still is a knife maker in Joseph City, Arizona. He taught me a lot about how to install the , shape the handle, etc. My method has changed a lot over the years, but until 2018, that’s how I made my knives. .”
“I work for Ponderosa Aviation and was asked to train a new mechanic to run a fuel truck. His name is Parker Merrill. I asked him if I built it.I told him I did and the conversation turned to forging.He built a gas furnace and offered it to me.I learned that new skill. I jumped at the opportunity.At first I saw a lot of YouTube videos and a lot of wasted steel.I have now been working full time for two years for a living.”
Max will be demonstrating his blacksmithing skills this Friday and Saturday on the patio of the Eastern Arizona Museum Friday 10am-4pm and Saturday 9am-4pm. madmaxforge.com.
