A tragic loss for Arizona

I have always intended to keep this blog light and entertaining, and avoid rants. But, I read something in Rock and Gem Magazine today which upset me greatly. Our esteemed unelected Governor, she who is famed for her championing of the Arizona Immigration bill SB 1070, is closing the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum to make room for a “Centennial Museum”, celebrating the upcoming Arizona centennial and the “5Cs”, cattle, cactus, climate, copper, and cotton. This is the most shortsighted and stupid move yet for her, which, if you live in Arizona, know is saying a lot!

The Mining and Mineral Museum is recognized by those in the field as top rated and is internationally recognized. As has been noted by others, the Museum is on at least 10 different lists of the top 10 museums in Phoenix and Arizona, but the (dis)honorable Ms. Brewer has cut the ADMMR budget, so that they could not pay the rent and must move out next month. (The Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources (ADMMR) previously paid the $589,000 rent on the building for use as office space and for the mineral museum.) It should be noted that other than the rent, utilities, and a small portion of the curators salary, there were essentially NO other costs in keeping this world-class facility open. If you take into account the earnings from the minimal admission and sales from the gift shop, it is estimated that this wonderful facility, which has over 50,000 visitors annually, (including about 25,000 students) was largely self-supporting.

Polly Rosenbaum, a state legislator for more than 45 years, revered as the “First Lady of the state legislature” in 2003 said “The (mineral) museum is about more than minerals; it’s the identity of Arizona. The prospector and burro came hunting for gold and silver, but copper revolutionized the electrical industry and created the modern world. Many people have no idea how dependent we are on minerals, until they come to the museum.”

Another blogger’s (http://www.minmumad.blogspot.com) words express my sadness, if not my anger, at this travesty. “How unfortunate that the current administration plans to celebrate Arizona’s centennial by replacing the “identify of Arizona” with a 5C Centennial Museum. How ironic that the Arizona Historical Society (responsible for the 5C museum) is a participant in erasing the historic “identity of Arizona”.”