Here’s how you do it:  Log-on to the website at    www.arizonahighways.com/stateparks.html    Just follow the simple steps to enter your subscription(s) and enter the specific code for the Riordan Mansion which is VOCPRM.  Bingo:  you get a year of beautiful magazines to arrive at your home, and the Riordan Mansion receives support from Arizona Highways.  What a deal for you and for the Riordan Mansion!

Join the fun and celebrate Arizona’s 100th birthday a day early at the Riordan Mansion.  Reservations aren’t required for Brown Bag lectures, but arrive early on the 13th to ensure a great seat.  If you enjoy the presentation,and we know you will, please show your appreciation by leaving  a little “tip” in the Riordan Action Network’s  “RAN Can”.  All donations to the Riordan Mansion and to RAN stay at the “mansion” to ensure that it continues to remain open for all to enjoy in the future.

Happy centennial, Arizona!

Flagstaff author, Rose Houk will present “Where a Soul May Speak Aloud:  Sharlot Hall and the Arizona Strip”.  Sharlot Hall and hired guide Al Doyle departed in July of 1911 for a trip through the remote lands north of the Grand Canyon and forged westward to small Mormon towns in Utah and down through Nevada.  Seventy-five days and a thousand miles later, their trip ended.  Re-travel their route with Rose Houk as she relives the journey with the words from Sharlot Hall’s own diary and photos by renowned photographer Michael Collier.

Please call the Riordan Mansion at 928–779-4395 to reserve your seat to experience Sharlot Hall’s adventure on the Arizona Strip.  Riordan Mansion dedicated volunteer and Flagstaff historian Kathy Farretta is pleased to be able to continue to provide outstanding presenters for the Saturday night and Brown Bag Lunch lecture series at the Riordan Mansion.  There has never been a fee for the lectures, but donations help to keep the Riordan Mansion open for all to enjoy.

Happy 100th birthday, Arizona!

The annual volunteer training will be conducted in the visitors’ center at the Riordan Mansion on the first three Saturdays in the month of February and the first Saturday in March from 8:30 — 10:30 AM.  The schedule is as follows:

Feb. 4  -  Flagstaff’s First Twenty Years:  Building a Community on the Railroad Line

Feb. 11  -  Basics of Interpretation

Feb. 18  -  Giving a Guided Tour

MARCH 3  -  School Tours Training (Note: this date has been changed from Feb. 25 to March 3)

Don’t let the title of the Feb. 11th training scare you away.  “Interpretation”, as it is used in this sense, does not mean language interpretation, though that would also be very useful and appreciated at the “mansion”.  “Interpretation” at the Riordan Mansion means helping visitors to make emotional and intellectual connections to the information they gain from their visit.

Though staff and volunteers would love to have you join the Riordan “team” after attending training, there is no obligation to do so.  As a matter of fact, the training would be helpful to people interested in volunteering or working at other museums, historic sites, etc. especially those in northern Arizona.  You do not have to commit to attending all of the trainings, either.  You might be surprised, but there are many volunteer opportunities at the Riordan Mansion which don’t involve giving tours such as maintenance and repair, greeting and interacting with visitors in the visitors’ center, working in the gift shop, data entry, research, etc.  Though there is a great need for school tour guides, staff realizes that not everyone wants to work with the school children, so you may choose to only attend the first three trainings.

If you have questions about the trainings or volunteering at the Riordan Mansion in general or would like to register for any or all of the training sessions,  please call the Riordan Mansion at 928–779-4395.  If you plan to attend the March 3rd school tours training session, please be sure to RSVP at 928–779-4395.  Staff and volunteers will be very interested in talking with you.  They look forward to sharing their experiences and their love of what they do to help ensure the continued operation of the Riordan Mansion.

When you “like” our page, you will receive updates on events and lectures at Riordan Mansion.

Thank you!  We “like” you, too!

1.  Eat at Coco’s in Flagstaff.  That’s easy!

2.  After you pay your bill, ask that the receipt be placed in the Riordan Mansion Dine for Dollars box kept behind the cash register.  You may ask the waitperson to put the receipt in the box, or do it yourself at the register.  If you pay by credit card, put the “table bill” in the box and keep your credit card receipt.  That’s easy enough!

Just follow those two easy steps, and the Riordan Mansion will receive 10% of the bill (before taxes).  To date, Coco’s has donated $124.71 to RAN.  Every time you eat at Coco’s, please thank them for supporting the Riordan Mansion.  That’s easy!

The Grand Canyon National Park was just one beneficiary of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program, a brilliant piece of legislation which brought work for the unemployed and revived the country’s natural resources.  The Corps was a saving grace for young men beaten down by the Great Depression and its 25% unemployment rate.  Follow one boy, Roy Lemons, from poverty in Texas to hope at the Grand Canyon.  Hear in their own words how the lives of poor boys and their families were affected by the CCC.

CCC workers made improvements in the Grand Canyon’s infrastructure such as trails, roads, telephone lines and fences.  Trail rest houses benefited visitors in the park shortly after their construction, and many still exist today.  From the first Corps camp at the South Rim to the Colorado River Trail, Corps members put their hearts and souls into digging, constructing and restoring the canyon’s assets.  Photos from the park’s museum collection and other archives illustrate the rugged conditions.  Also learn about the “boys” leisure time and daily life in camp.  From 1933 to 1942, nearly three million men performed conservation work in national parks, state parks, national forests and other publicly held lands.  The Corps’ work in the Grand Canyon is the focus of a new book on a topic close to the Author’s heart:  Audretsch spent almost 20 years as a ranger at the park.

Robert Audretsch retired as a National Park Service ranger at the Grand Canyon National Park in 2009.  Audretsch, who has degrees in history and library science form Wayne State University, has now devoted himself to research and writing full time about the Civilian Conservation Corps.

To reserve your seat for this informative lecture, please call the Riordan Mansion at 928–779-4395.  The Riordan Mansion continues to offer its outstanding lectures for no charge, but donations are welcome especially during the traditionally slower visitation months of January and February.

Happy reading!