A Message from the President
THE CARR HOUSE IS UP AND RUNNING!! We have been open every weekend since the second of April with good visitor participation. Our Sunday afternoon programs have been well received. Thanks to Dwight Hoxie for the Huachucas Geology presentation and Tom Wood for the Turkey Vulture presentation. Please check out our Facebook page or handouts available at Carr House for information on upcoming presentations.
In addition to our normal activity, we supported Village Meadows Middle School with a day field trip attended by over 70 students, parents and teaches. We also supported SW Wings Spring program with two backlighting programs conducted by Jeff Babson.
When visiting the Carr House please check out the new Donor Tree above the fireplace in the main room. Special thanks to Tim and Judy Phillips for donating the Alligator Juniper plank and a huge Thank You to Tomas Misicone of Apache Sign of Sierra Vista for donating all design, layout and carving as well as all the Donor Plates.
Administratively Mike Foster will be on leave most of June and John Broz will be filling in. Please stop by and stay hi to the Forest Service Summer Site Host Brads and Anita Grabowski.
The Forest Service has reminded us to let everyone know they have gone to Stage 2 Fire Restriction on the entire Coronado National Forest, which means no campfires anywhere. This next month will be high adventure as temperatures, winds and dry lightning will all be increasing before the rains show up.
Thank You to the Board and FOHM members for everything you do to make this successful organization accomplish its mission that provides educational opportunities and awareness of the natural and cultural history of the Huachuca Mountains.
Respectfully,
Eric Andersen
President, Board of Directors
A Message from the Treasurer
As your treasurer, I would like to thank all of you for your continuing support of Friends of the Huachuca Mountains through your annual membership renewals and special donations. These funds allow us to maintain Carr House and continue our environmental education activities for you and all our visitors. But what does that mean? Where does the money go? Well, here’s a short (and rather general) overview of what expenses we have and how we manage the stewardship of your funds.
We have a salaried host at Carr House every weekend and federal holidays during our open season. Of course, having a paid staff also then means we must have workers’ compensation insurance. Other insurance policies we carry are for general liability, officers’ and directors’ liability, and house contents. The salaries and insurances are our largest regular costs (though well worth it, of course).
To provide our ever-popular programs, we use as much free advertising as possible, but we also pay to print copies of the program schedule to distribute around the county and run advertisements in the Sierra Vista Herald.
We have a robust and very informative website, and we pay a webmaster to ensure things are running smoothly and our site stays secure and is not vulnerable to hackers.
Special projects that require funding include printing of membership forms and brochures. Wonderful educational items inside and outside Carr House, such as the history banners, all the items in the Children’s Discovery Room, the tree signage, and the landscaping of some of the areas around Carr House have also been paid for with funds our members and donors have provided to us.
Of course, just having Carr House open means additional costs such as cleaning and bathroom supplies and sugar to satisfy the hummingbirds. Administrative costs include post office box rental, postage, paper, and all the other small – but necessary – items that are the cost of doing business.
We maintain a checking account with enough funds to manage current and upcoming expenses; the remainder of our funds are kept in investment accounts we have with the Arizona Community Foundation and Charles Schwab. We work very hard to ensure we are making the best use of the organization’s money and are ensuring a secure future for Friends of the Huachuca Mountains.
If you have any questions about the organization’s finances or want more information, don’t hesitate to contact me via our email address, info@huachucamountains.org
Thank you all again for your continuing support!!!
Pat Dillingham, Treasurer
1934 vs 1939: Virginia and Cicero Martin at Carr House
Virginia Moson Martin and Cicero Martin are known as the “Builders of Carr House,” credited with building the two large middle sections that included living areas, bedrooms, and a large rock fireplace.
Virginia had arrived in SE Arizona in 1882 at the age of five with her extended family and settled in Tombstone, according to an article in the Journal of Arizona History, Autumn 2004, titled “The Mosons and the Martins: Pioneer Ranchers of Arizona and Sonora” by her granddaughter Virginia Culin Roberts.
Cicero Martin arrived in SE Arizona in 1897, according to his obituary in the Arizona Daily Star, January 15, 1959.
Virginia Culin Roberts (granddaughter) often visited the Martins at Carr House while a student at the University of Arizona. She became a well-known educator, writer, and historian in Tucson. She met and corresponded with Rosemary Snapp, providing photos and recollections of her time with her grandparents.
Original date for the 1939 move of the Martins to Carr Canyon was based on a warranty deed of December 4, 1939 giving the survey description of ten acres of property and that it was transferred from Myron and Matred Davis of Florida, the son and daughter-in-law of the original owners, A.E. and Effie Davis.
However, in the same Journal of Arizona History article cited above, Virginia Culin Roberts gives the date of 1934 for the Martin’s purchase of a “few acres” in Carr Canyon and that they moved there with a cow, a few calves, a mule, and two “outstanding brood mares,” staying until 1942 when they “needed more pasture” and bought a ranch in Sonoita.
Also, a photo dated June of 1940 and given to Rosemary Snapp by the Martin granddaughter, Virginia, shows her on a visit with her fiancée. The couple is standing by the patio door. Mature landscaping vegetation is shown in front of the house and growing up the pergola covering the patio. How could the Martins have arrived in December of 1939, built at least one main stone living section, and had the heavy growth of vegetation by June? Or did they move to Carr Canyon in 1934?
In a letter to Rosemary written January 21, 2003, which contained a copy of the warranty deed, Virginia Culin Roberts herself questioned the 1939 date as she “visited the Martins in the stone cabin in 1939—probably December during college break” and her grandmother told her that “she and Cicero built it.”
Recent research has firmly established the 1934 date as accurate due to the availability of online newspaper searches. “Society” columns of small-town newspapers of the day would report on the comings and goings of their more well-known inhabitants (or former inhabitants). The Martins had been living in Nogales. On June 16, 1934 the Nogales International reported that they moved to “their ranch near Hereford.” While this could mean the old family holdings along the San Pedro, later reports are more precise. For example, on November 17, 1934 the International reported that “Cicero Martin, former Nogalian, was an Armistice Day visitor here from his ranch in Carr Canyon near Fort Huachuca.” There are many more such reports.
So why a warranty deed from 1939? We also can learn from newspaper articles that in 1939 Cicero took a job managing a ranch near Willcox and then as a cattle inspector based in Sonoita. Possibly the Martins were thinking of selling the property and moving? Or, since the grantor of the deed is the son and daughter-in-law of the original owners maybe it was used just to tie up loose ends of an inheritance? Or some other act of “officialdom?” Or maybe the Martins had been just renting the property up to that point?
We will never know quite the whole story, but the evidence is overwhelming in establishing 1934 as the date for the arrival of Cicero Martin and Virginia Moson Martin in Carr Canyon, where they lived for eight years and built most of the structure that we know today as Carr House. They deserve their title of the “Builders of Carr House.”
Submitted by Karen Poole. Research by Rosemary Snapp and Karen Poole
Sunday Afternoon Programs Continue
I have been privileged to organize the programs at the Carr House. People involved in various aspects of the environment in the Southeast Arizona area have shared their expertise depending on the enthusiasm of the audience for their pay. We have a comfortable, air-conditioned room for the programs which are usually an hour long. Our programs are every other Sunday starting at 1:30 p.m. The programs run the range from poetry, learning how to use binoculars, finding out about different species of animals that live in Huachuca Mountains, to history of the area. All are welcome and there is no charge. A schedule of our programs is on the Friends of the Huachuca Mts. Website:
Our next program is Tom Miscione bringing his snakes, lizards and other reptiles (in cages of course) and sharing knowledge about these animals. It will be Sunday, June 19th.
Jane Chambers, Board Member and Program Coordinator
Friends of the Huachuca Mountains Board of Directors:
Eric Andersen, President
Dwight Hoxie, Vice President
Linda Stitt, Secretary
Pat Dillingham, Treasurer
Jane Chambers, Director
Steve Merkley, Director
Carolyn Santucci, Director
To contact the Friends of the Huachuca Mountains or the Board, email info@huachucamountains.org.
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