Tom Zoellner on Zoom with Border Community Alliance

Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Time: 10:00 – 11:30 a.m., AZT

Rita Cantu of the Border Community Alliance Literature and Film Club will interview Tom Zoellner about his book, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona. The virtual event is free and open to the public.

Not only is the book a quest for the origin of Arizona’s enigmatic name, but it’s also a probing look into the past: the roots of the state’s colorful politics, literary heritage, music, cuisine, geology, and complex mix of races and traditions—the whole dazzling combination of elements that make the 48th state a prism of the past and unique laboratory of the future.

Book excerpt:

Here it was at last. I would be hiking across the Kaibab Plateau, down and out of the Grand Canyon, past the cinder cone of Humphreys Peak, across Anderson Mesa, down the Mogollon Rim, through the Mazatzals and the Superstitions, across the Black Hills of Pinal County, and then up and over four major ranges in succession: the Catalinas, the Rincons, the Santa Ritas, and the Huachucas to the Mexican border and then—hopefully—the spot in the valley that poured forth silver for about a week and from which the state had taken its beguiling name.