Join Arizona Pathfinders for Our Pot Luck Meeting
December 12, 2019 at 6:00pm
“The Pleasant Valley War and the Unspoken Price of Settling the West”
Presented by Dr. Eduardo Pagán.

Born and raised in Arizona, Dr. Eduardo Pagán received a Ph.D. in American history from Princeton University and is the Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History at Arizona State University. He is the author of Valley of the Guns: The Pleasant Valley War and
the Trauma of Violence (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime LA (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), Remembering Phoenix (Turner Press, 2010), and Historic Photos of Phoenix (Turner Press, 2007). He has appeared in domestic and international documentaries, and co-hosted History Detectives on PBS from 2007-2010.

The Pleasant Valley War?

The Pleasant Valley War is a storied conflict in Arizona’s history, where a small settlement beneath the Mogollon Rim turned on itself with terrible violence. By the time the conflict was over 18 men were dead, four were wounded, and one was missing, never to be found. Valley of the Guns draws upon psychology, literary studies, economics, and trauma studies to explore how several dynamics in the settling of Arizona combined with tragic effect to provoke neighbors in this particular settlement to turn on each other. Eduardo Pagán will share highlights from Valley of the Guns that sift fact from legend, and offer new insight into the causes of this conflict and to the settling of the West.

This is a Pot Luck Meeting. Bring food to share. Board members will provide coffee and dessert. The meeting is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome. Enjoy the free parking that’s available one block west of the Museum in the Arizona Historical Society garage at the northeast corner of East Second Street and North Euclid Avenue. Use the East Second Street entrance; drive straight in, do not turn left.