Last month, a standing-room-only group filled the Patagonia Public Library to listen to longtime locals share their stories about growing up in Patagonia and the surrounding areas, when the region was a much different place from the one we know today. The Mexican border was four strands of barbed wire, and the train ran through the center of town. Muddy corrals served as collection points for cattle being loaded and sent to market in Tombstone. The Patagonia Hotel, constructed in the early 1900s by John Cady, lacked running water and served as a home to one of the speakers.
This was the second in this series of “Living Treasures” oral history events sponsored by the Patagonia Public Library. According to library assistant Jade DeForest, who suggested the idea to the library, plans are underway for a third session in February or March.
During this second installment, stories ranged from growing up with horses, goats, and ponies to attending elementary schools in the Lochiel and Harshaw areas until the buses took them to Patagonia High School in eighth grade. And there was some discussion as to which family had the first TV in town. What was agreed upon was how very tall the TV antennas had to be.
Joe Quiroga started the session by noting he was born in 1937 and lived his early years right near where the speakers were gathered. He pointed to the rooms beyond the library desk and said, “I lived right back there until we moved across the street to the Duquesne House. Spent my growing up years all around here… My uncle lived in the last room back there, and he grew a good vegetable garden in the back.”
Quiroga graduated from Patagonia High School, worked a while on the first stretch of Highway 83 around Gardner Canyon before working on local ranches. He was married in 1957 to Noemi. Three of their children were delivered by Doc Mock—a name that reappeared regularly in the stories of the afternoon.
Quiroga started ranch work by tending livestock and training horses. At the same time, both he and his wife drove school buses for years. Joe eventually retired as ranch manager after working 40 years for the Diamond C Ranch in Canelo. He said he was most proud of his work over the years with reclamation of degraded land by clearing invasive mesquites and building dams with local bamboo and wood from the mesquites. The dams collected rain water and allowed native species to return.
Ophelia De La Ossa Spence, born in 1940 in Lochiel, had equally compelling stories of growing up and attending school in Lochiel and Washington Camp. She had memories of walking to grade school about two miles with her two brothers and a sister.
She started taking the bus 20 miles to Patagonia School in the eighth grade. She assured the group that if you misbehaved too much, “they would throw you off the bus. I know because they did [that] to my little brother once!”
Ophelia liked school, especially math and credited her lifelong interest in sewing to the classes she took there. She also loved playing volleyball which was a school favorite. “I think we were the champions two or three times,” she recalled.
Ophelia graduated with a class of 14, eventually married at 22 and moved away with her husband for about 42 years. She always visited and stayed close to her family, even while living out of state. Years later, after her husband died, she moved back from Nevada when her mom was 98.
Her mom survived until she was 103. Ophelia now lives in Green Valley.
Bob Bergier’s roots were deep as well, even though he was born in Florence, Arizona at the end of World War II. When his dad was drafted his mom moved back to town when he was only a few months old. He lays claim to being a fourth generation Patagonian. Both sets of grandparents lived in the area since around 1900, and his dad was born in town on Pennsylvania Avenue. His family moved back to town in 1951, after the death of his grandfather Bergier. Bob attended school here first grade through high school.
“In 1951 we moved into a real old funky house on Pennsylvania Avenue,” Bergier told the crowd. “My dad tore it down and built a new house…Behind our house there was a jungle-like area and there was all this lumber and carpentry left over from the house…and the Patagonia fire engine was parked there and we would play on that. We had a great time.”
Bergier also had tales of a carnival coming to town. He arranged to buy a local chicken to feed to a python that was with the traveling group. He delivered the chicken on his bike but didn’t wait to see it get devoured.
Bergier earned a B.S. in Art at Northern Arizona University and returned to run the family ranch, following a bit of time in the Army. Since 1976, Bergier and his wife Gayle have worked on the family ranch that in the 1920’s his dad had dubbed “Hard Luck.” Bergier is an accomplished artist whose work often depicts regional scenes and captures the spirit of the area.
Patti Holbrook Oliver, who grew up on a ranch south of town on Harshaw, shared lively tales of filling her time riding horses, because she had neither radio or TV. She became a bit of an escape artist, stealing away from home at night to go visit the neighbors and sneaking out with a friend during a school sleep over through a passageway under the Patagonia High School stage.
She only attended junior high school and one year of high school in town. Her folks eventually sent her off to boarding school in Florida, where she made a connection with Cuban students and took a vacation to Cuba.
During the heyday of filming movies here in Santa Cruz County, Oliver was spotted by a casting director during the making of “Oklahoma” and ended up appearing in seven western movies with the likes of John Wayne and Harrison Ford. Her daughter shared a list of the films with the audience.
Arnulfo (Arnie) De La Ossa was born in Lochiel in 1938 and moved to a house between Lochiel and Washington Camp. His brother had a goat, and he rode a pony all over the hills until he was about 10. “The pony finally got it in for me, and I thought he was going to kick me to death,” he recalled, “so I graduated to a horse.”
Arnie’s tales of summer were filled with sharp contrasts to the typical summers now. The rains were regular, the creeks ran high, and the grass grew thick in his memory. He said. “I grew up cowboying with my family… We took our shoes off in May and kept them off all summer, at least until the 4th of July.”
Abel De La Ossa, Arnie’s father, had about 50-60 head of cattle, so they would separate 5-6 good milking cows out for the three boys to tend during the summers. His mother Armida made “real original” quesadillas, a soft cheese. Around noon every day, the boys would deliver small rounds of quesadilla wrapped in waxed paper to the miners.
“There were lots of mines back then,” he remembered. “We would go to the mines around noon and sell packages to the miners for ten cents each.” On the way home, they would stop at a local store for a soda or piece of candy.
After Arnie graduated from Patagonia High School, he served in the Navy SeaBees, which led to his building knowledge. He was assigned to the construction brigade. After he returned to the area in 1960, he married a local, Marsha Beach, and began working at the Vaca Ranch.
Eventually he left the county for a job in 1964 with Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) in Tucson, but the ties to home remained strong. Marsha was able to fulfill her dream of going to college and becoming a teacher. He worked for ADOT as an employee and consultant for a total of 50 years, but the trips back to his roots and family were a constant.
Among those attending the Dec. 6 “Living Treasures” event was Cami Schlappy, historian at the Boman-Stradling History Center in Sonoita, along with her family. She was impressed.
“I brought my daughter so she can see that working on horses, walking to school, and spending the summer barefoot really wasn’t that long ago,” Schlappy noted. “I wanted her to see the people who cowboyed the ranches, worked the mines, and lived in now abandoned places. I hope it gives her a new perspective and understanding about our shared community and the people in it.”
Library assistant DeForest was inspired to propose the gatherings by work she had done before she arrived in Patagonia.
“I had a clinic in northern New Mexico and I got to know so many of the people who were many generations there,” she explained “A lot of them were elderly and dying and I thought we needed to hear their stories. So I set a date at my clinic and so many people showed up that we couldn’t get them all in.
We did it four times actually. I believe in the power of oral histories, and so I wanted to bring that experience here to Patagonia.”
DeForest has been pleasantly surprised at the great turnout and audience response to the events here.
The richness of the participants’ stories was surpassed only by the apparent ties the group had to their shared history and their enduring love and appreciation of the area. During the question and answer period, someone asked how many in the crowd were related in some way to one of the speakers. At least a third of the audience raised their hands.
Video recordings of both “Living Treasures” events are available at the Patagonia Public Library’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/@patagoniapubliclibrary3528