The Old Trails Museum will present its 2017 Winter History Highlight at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12, at La Posada Hotel, located at 303 E. Second St. in Winslow. Join other attendees by the fire in La Posada’s Ballroom for author Lisa Schnebly Heidinger’s free presentation of Fireside Stories: Who Did You Say Was Here?
While researching Arizona’s official centennial book, Arizona: 100 Years Grand, Heidinger developed a treasure trove of anecdotes about famous figures and lesser-known characters from the tapestry that is Arizona. Her fireside presentation will include memorable stories that bring Northern Arizona to life on topics ranging from Navajo Code Talkers and Hopi artist Fred Kabotie to Percival Lowell’s legacy and Clark Gable’s adventure in the region. Come hear tales of the drugstore manager on Winslow’s famous corner who always wore a hat; Buckey O’Neill’s statue barely arriving at its own dedication in Prescott; and John D. Lee’s wife, Emma “Doctor Grandma” French, who gave birth twice by herself while her husband was hiding from the law.
An Arizona native, Heidinger’s deepest passion is discovering little-known stories about her home state and sharing them with a wide audience. She became interested in Arizona pioneer history as a small child, when she learned that the town of Sedona had been named after her great-grandmother, Sedona Schnebly. She began her professional career in Tucson as a broadcast journalist and a writer for several magazines. She continued television work in Flagstaff before settling in Phoenix, where she now focuses on publishing books and articles.
Voted OneBookAZ in 2012, Arizona: 100 Years Grand is a geographical, historical, and cultural collection of our state’s best and brightest people, places and events during the first century of statehood. Her other titles include Sedona’s Images of America, the children’s book The Three Sedonas, Tucson: The Old Pueblo, Calling Arizona Home, co-authored with Fred DuVal, and Chief Yellowhorse Lives On, a collection of essays. She has also developed a curriculum that she takes to schools around the state that helps children learn how to write.
The 2017 Winter History Highlight, a partnership program between the Old Trails Museum and La Posada Hotel, was made possible in part by Arizona Humanities, a non-profit organization and the Arizona affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
