Since 1952, Bill Carr and Arthur Pack have inspired visitors to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert. When the two men founded the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, it had only four employees, but today it has more than 100 paid employees, nearly 200 docents, and close to 300 volunteers. About 85 percent of the museum is outside, where visitors can enjoy native and the endangered animals exhibited in award-winning naturalistic habitat enclosures, an innovation in exhibitory developed by the museum. Most visitors spend between two and three hours touring the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, but as the museum continues to grow, it is becoming harder and harder to see it all in such a short amount of time. Visitors should plan to come early and stay late!
William Ascarza is the author of the Arcadia publication Tucson Mountains and is also the author of Zenith on the Horizon: An Encyclopedic Look at the Tucson Mountains from A to Z. Peggy Larson is the archivist for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and author of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: A Scrapbook, Deserts of America, and coauthor with Lane Larson of Deserts of the Southwest.