Different cultures and numerous illustrious men and women make up the landscape of Globe and Miami’s past. Pieces of that past can be relived during the Tour ‘N’ Talk at Bullion Plaza Cultural Center, 150 N. Plaza Cir., in Miami, on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 9:30 a.m.

Thomas Foster, executive director of the Bullion Plaza, will guide the Tour ‘N’ Talk, a Gila County Historical Museum program celebrating its first full year this month.

Two of the stops on the tour will be the Governor Rose Mofford and Slavic Cultural exhibits. The Slavic room is the only one of its kind in Arizona and features traditional dress, art, musical instruments and picture and history boards of the families who pioneered this area.

All of the pieces in the exhibit were donated by families whose ancestors mined, grew businesses and raised their families here — and many local families in the area can still trace their lineage back to those times of exploration and discovery.

The Governor Rose Mofford exhibit is filled with preserved Kachina dolls and gifts given to the governor during her time as a public servant. Mofford was Arizona’s first woman governor and served from 1988 to 1991. She was also the state’s first woman secretary of state, Globe High School’s first female class president and was involved in state government for more than 50 years.

The cultural center owns a large selection of Mofford’s collection, which was deeded to it upon her death in 2016. Pieces of her collection can also be found at the Cobre Valley Center for the Arts, the Gila County Historical Museum and at the Arizona State Museum.

“It meant a lot to be deeded Gov. Mofford’s collection,” Foster said. The museum pays tribute to several other dignitaries from Globe Miami, including Arizona’s first governor, George W.P. Hunt, Senator Bill Hardt and Congressman Ed Pastor.

Foster said his main goal is to keep the cultural center relevant to this area’s history, and donations from local residents of their families’ historic pieces and heirlooms helps bring the past alive for today’s visitors.

“One of the most exciting things about this museum is that it is not static,” he said. Previous visitors will find that exhibits have grown and improved. There are also several new exhibits planned. Foster said the Pancho Villa Exhibit is in the building phase and will be completed in the next couple of months.

The museum has also taken steps to protect its collections from damage caused by the sun, extreme temperatures and the passage of time. The Mofford and Slavic displays have benefitted from updated display cases, and the museum was recently outfitted with LED lighting, which is energy efficient and protects artifacts from light and heat damage. Track lighting was also installed in the building, which allowed the museum to better spotlight displays and remove more than half of the more damaging fluorescent lighting.

Also included on the tour is the Mineral and Geology Hall, the Native American and Mexican Cultural exhibits, as well as the Military, McKusick Tile and Military displays.

For more information about the Tour ‘N’ Talk, contact the Gila County Historical Museum at 928-425-7385.

Submitted by Aimee Staten.