Alison Bunting

During the 1930s and ’40s, Harold Bernard ‘H.B.’ Thurber purchased a total of 1,600 acres and leased over 8,000 acres in the Sonoita area. One of the best known ranchers in the area, he was often referred to as ‘Mr. Hereford.’

A history of Rain Valley Ranch, stretching from the 1920s to the present day.

Here’s the story of the Fryer family, who homesteaded what would become the Little Outfit Ranch in the San Rafael Valley. A tin box of Harry Fryer’s “important” papers provides a glimpse of life in the 1930s.

In 1949, a tour bus full of cattle growers from California, Nevada and Arizona spent a day visiting five ranches in the Patagonia/Sonoita area. Here’s what they found.

A look at the life of an Arizona one-room schoolteacher in the early 20th century.

A brief history of the Elgin cattle ranching family.

A 1926 interview provides wonderful information about daily life on the remote Harrison ranch, including a trip to Nogales to purchase supplies and deliver a live turkey.

Here’s the story of the Solano family, who arrived in the Arizona territory in the late 1880s.