State historian rewriting history?

As reported in the March 11 post, Marshall Trimble, history teacher and  official state historian, appeared to be revising history during a recent Channel 3 interview. Is that actually what he is trying to do, or was he duped by the AHS? Trimble is now also board president for the AHS. Therefore, the remainder of his term as president will determine whether or not he is an honest and competent historian and should continue to be the appointed Arizona state historian.

As documented on prior posts, with detailed references, the AHS is falsifying its own history.  It is pretending to be the same AHS that existed for only a few years in the 1860s, but it clearly is not. Will Marshall Trimble the historian correct this misrepresentation, or will Marshall Trimble the AHS board president permit the hoax to continue? It is a serious test that will either sustain or demolish his reputation as a historian.

To properly address this challenge, Mr Trimble needs to do some historical research. An excellent place to begin would be with Pioneer Heritage by C. L. Sonnichsen. This book was published by the present day Arizona Historical Society to celebrate its centennial in 1984. Yes, 1984, not 1964.

Sometime after 1984, the AHS rewrote its own history.

Note: The present  day AHS was named the Society of Arizona Pioneers when it was founded. The name was not changed to the Arizona Historical Society until nearly a century later.

History quiz for Marshall Trimble

Marshall Trimble is now both official state historian and president of the AHS board.  Is he qualified for those positions? Can he get even one right answer on the following quiz? 

Who founded the AHS?

             a.   The Territorial Legislature

b           b.   Charles Poston

c           c.  Governor Hunt

d           d.  Father Kino

How often has the AHS change its name?

a           a.  Never

b           b.  Once

             c. Twice

d           d. Seven times

Where was the AHS founded?

            a. Prescott 

            b. Tucson

            c. Fort Misery

d          d.  Snowflake

When was the AHS founded?

a          a. 1864

b          b. 1842

c          c. 1884

     d. 1914

In 1920, who was eligible to join the AHS?

   a. Anyone

b        b. Tucson residents

c        c.  Descendants of pioneers

d        d. Designated historians

 How many years after its centennial did hte AHS celebrate its 150th anniversary?
     a. 50
      b. 30
      c . 51
      d. 49

How much money did the AHS raise to build their Tempe museum?

a        a.  $5 million

b        b. $25 million

c        c. $1 million

d        d. None

Hint: According to written Arizona history, (a) is not the correct response to any of the seven questions. That is contrary to AHS promotional material.

History lesson for Marshall Trimble

As reported in recent posts, Marshall Trimble made completely fallacious statements about the history of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in a recent Channel 3  interview. It was remarkably careless and unprofessional behavior for an official state historian.

A key employee of the top rated mineral museum has corrected Mr. Trimble with a letter first sent directly to him and then posted on www.cammaz.net on March 25. A brief history lesson for Mr. Trimble was enclosed with the letter. It is also posted on CAMMAZ.

Is Mr. Trimble a professional historian who can still learn and correct his mistakes? Or is he now just a political hack for the Arizona Historical Society who is using his name recognition to spread AHS misinformation?

Is Marshall Trimble credible?

In his recent interview on Channel 3 (see 3/21/2016 post), Marshall Trimble emphatically stated that the mineral museum did not meet Arizona earth science education standards.

In a 3/24/2016 guest post on www.CAMMAZ.net, a former mineral museum curator said it did.

Who should we believe: a university geology instructor who was the curator of the top rated mineral museum, or a history teacher that plays the guitar?

AHS incompetence noticed

This blog began nearly six years ago with the position that a science museum should not have been transferred to the Arizona Historical Society. Over the years, it became clear that the problem is far greater than first anticipated because the AHS is not even capable of planning and operating a successful history museum. Money is not the problem. Taxpayers have provided funds by the tens of millions of dollars, but the result has always been the same.  Overly ambitions plans, developed at incredible cost, resulted in complete failure.

The author of this blog has not been the only taxpayer to notice the ongoing waste of public funds. The continuing and escalating conflict over the unnecessary destruction of the mineral museum is drawing more and more attention to the severe limitations of the AHS. The March 21 post on www.cammaz.net is yet another example of this growing awareness.

Marshall Trimble's judgement questioned

As reported by the March 11th post, Marshall Trimble, official state historian and AHS president, made a series of inaccurate statements when interviewed by Channel 3 about the mineral museum controversy. The resulting article and  short version of the video are available at:
www.azfamily.com/story/31441475/battle-over-mining-and-mineral-museum

A very thoughtful comment by Steve Decker, a long time mineral museum supporter and K-12 science education volunteer, now questions why Marshall Trimble would jeopardize his long established reputation as state historian by distributing misinformation for the dysfunctional AHS. The comment, questioning Marshall Trimbles actions at length, appears below the March 10 article by Jay Crandall. Scroll way down below the many adds to see the comment. Then, wait a bit. The comments load much slower than the article and ads do.

Does Mr. Trimble have an answer for Mr. Decker?

AHS hoax exposed

In 2015, Senate Bill 1200 passed both house and senate with nearly unanimous votes. The bill would have enabled restoration of the mineral museum by transferring all museum assets from the dysfunctional Arizona Historical Society to the highly effective and efficient Arizona Geological survey. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed the bill. The veto letter said the Governor wanted to see an implementation plan before signing such a bill.

In 2016, SB1200 was reintroduced as SB1440. In response to the Governor’s request, the bill’s sponsor (Senator Gail Griffin) prepared an implementation and action plan for restoring the mineral museum and expanding its scope to include all natural resources. The detailed plan addresses all issues related to reopening and operating the museum, including financial viability. Senator Griffin has graciously made the plan available to CAMMAZ. It can be viewed by clicking on “Implementation and Action Plan” under the HOME tab on www.cammaz.net

The plan reveals that the AHS cost estimate of $2.1 million dollars to reopen the mineral museum was greatly inflated. Did the AHS just want a posh facility for their wine and cheese crowd rather than a mineral museum, or did they inflate the estimate because they wanted to block reopening of the mineral museum?

 

More AHS nonsense

The AHS has now turned Marshall Trimble loose on the mineral museum controversy with a mixture of old and new misinformation. Some was presented in a short clip on Channel 3 (Friday March 11 at 5:30 PM) and some was included in an online article: http://www.azfamily.com/story/31441475/battle-over-mining-and-mineral-museum

Among the false assertions made were:

The AHS had no choice but to close the mineral museum because fundraising failed. In fact, the AHS had a statutory obligation to keep operating the mineral museum and was funded to do so.

The mineral museum did not comply with State education standards.  The statement is nonsense because there was no formal requirement to do so.  Nevertheless, the mineral museum K-12 earth science programs did meet or exceed state standards and did assist teachers who brought 25,000 students a year to the museum. Parents and scout leaders brought another 15,000.

The mineral museum was in poor condition and the collection was in disarray. A complete set of museum photos on www.miningmineralmuseum.com and a complete collection inventory (pre
AHS takeover) prove that statement is false.

The minerals are now where they should be and the new arrangement is working. Since everything is now fixed, restoring the mineral museum at the old location again would be a waste of resources. These statements are so preposterous a somewhat more detailed rebuttal is called for:

The AHS has been and is wasting the entire mineral museum budget and the people of Arizona are receiving absolutely no benefit. They are being funded to operate a museum that does not exist.

The AHS museum in Tempe is the worst possible example of wasted resources. When facility cost is included, each visitor is costing taxpayers hundreds of dollars per year.   The situation continues to deteriorate as attendance drops further each year. Moving a portion of a scientific collection to a history museum was bad enough. Moving it to a failing history museum was worse. The mineral museum had over 50,000 visitors per year. The AHS Tempe museum has only 3,000 every year, and attendance keeps dropping.

Furthermore, the AHS high balled the cost of reopening the mineral museum. Their outrageous $2.1 million estimate has been shown to be a hoax.

Whether or not Marshal Trimble believes what he is saying is unknown. However, if he does, he is hopelessly misinformed.

SB1440 sent to House

SB1440 was sent to the House today following a 24 to 2 vote with 2* Senators not voting. Senators Pierce and Hobbs voted no.

Senators Mesa, Quezada, and Farley previously voted against the bill in Senate committees (Government and Appropriations) but changed their vote to yes in the full Senate vote.

Senator Contreras voted no in the Government committee but did not vote on the senate floor. Senators Barto, Miranda, and Dial were the other three Senators who did not vote today.

*there are two vacancies in the Seante