Arizona State Representative Ed Ablesar has introduced Senate Bill 1023, Restoration of the Mining and Mineral Museum, adding language to statute that says, "The Arizona geological survey shall maintain a mining and mineral museum as the state depository for collecting, cataloging and displaying mining artifacts and specimens of various ores, gemstones and lapidary material and other valuable mineral specimens."Sen. Ablesar introduced similar legislation the past three years but none of the bills came out of committee. The intent is to replace the former Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix that had been run by the Arizona Dept. of Mines and Mineral Resources.
Hope this goes through. My understanding is the building has been paid for so kind of a no brainer. It is a world class collection and people come from all over the world to view it. It is our heritage and so it will be a benefit to all!
ReplyDeleteI also hope the mineral museum will be be restored. It was a wonderful museum and great for learning about rocks and minerals, mining, and important information about Arizona's geologic and cultural history. This was a very valuable museum for students, local residents, visitors, and tourists. I hope the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum is back in business very soon.
ReplyDeleteArizona voters and taxpayers should be aware they are funding a mineral museum even though hey don't have one. The entire mineral museum budget was transferred to the Arizona Historical Society. They accept the funding, but refuse to allow the museum to reopen.
ReplyDeleteI hope it is done before some other state agency wants the space for some other purpose. The Arizona Historical Society has no business doing minerals. They don't even do Arizona History very well. The attendance is dismal and they don't do many exhibits that have actual artifacts. Just social events and meetings and parties. National History Day has no bearing on the collections inside the AHS. Same for the recent "Holiday Crafts" program. Maybe they could do some actual history. So what does AHS staffer Madison Barkley do if they don't even exhibit the minerals they "took".
ReplyDeleteThis is so confusing. The Governor wants to celebrate the Az Centennial. So she picks out a well attended mineral museum to dismantle and scatter its collection to the winds. She gives a small state agency the job of putting together these dumb exhibits. The director of the Arizona Historical Society is incapable of raising money. Guess the Governor likes the Mineral Museum facility because it was close to the Capitol. Those are good reasons!?
ReplyDeleteNow that the Centennial is long past, what will the AHS do with the building?
So where is the Arizona Historical Society Board of Directors in all of this? They allow AHS Director Woosley to get involved with the Rio Nuevo mess which wasted $230,000,000 in a failed project where nothing was built. The AHS part of this was a wasted $1,400,000 for exhibit designs from and east coast exhibit company.
ReplyDeleteThe AHS has spent about $400,000 on the failed Mineral Museum problem. Can someone please tell the AHS Board of Directors to control their director? Or maybe fire her. Director Woosley has destroyed the agency.
This is one building that I think should be restored. It is so important to keep the history of the miners in Arizona. I know many family members of the miners would really appreciate the restoration.
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