ARIZONA STATE PARKS: For Immediate Release
Managing and conserving Arizona’s natural, cultural and recreational resources for the benefit of the people, both in our Parks and through our Partners. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Bilbrey at (602) 542-1996 or (602) 228-8518. Contact by Email: pio(at)azstateparks.gov
Watch a Video of the Printing Press in Operation 
(Phoenix, Arizona - January 29, 2010) - Tubac Presidio State Historic Park presents printing press demonstrations in February and March 2010. The demonstrations will honor print journalism and Arizona's 150-year-old newspaper, The Arizonian, which is still being printed on the original hand press at the Park.
The demonstrations will take place on the following dates and times:
February 4 at 9:30 am
February 18 at 10 am
February 20 at 11 am
March 4 at 9 am
March 11 at 9 am
March 21 at 11 am
March 25 at 9:30 am
It took seven years to bring the historic Washington Hand Press back to its original glory. The press had been in Tombstone and was found in a garage in the back of a house in the late 1970s. It took State Parks staff and a very dedicated volunteer, many years to prepare an engineering plan and find all the parts to put it back together. They traveled to the Smithsonian to enlist the help of other experts to learn how to repair the press. This was the hand press that actually printed Arizona's first newspaper. Today volunteers operate the press on weekends for visitors, printing a commemorative edition of the original newspaper for the public.
On March 3, 1859 Arizona's first newspaper came off the presses. Its editorial policies included getting a separate government for Arizona as it was then part of the New Mexico Territory. The press had come to Arizona by ship on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, then across the Gulf of Panama, to the Sea of Cortez and at Guaymas, was loaded onto an oxcart and sent to Tubac. It later went on to print a paper in Tucson and the Tombstone Epitaph.
For more information contact Tubac Presidio State Historic Park at (520) 398-2252. Park Entrance Fee is $3 per person for children and adults aged 14 & up. Youths aged 13 to 17 years of age will be charged $1 per person. There is no charge for children 12 years of age or younger. Tubac Presidio State Historic Park is located at One Burruel Street in Tubac, Arizona. The park is located 45 miles south of Tucson on Interstate 19.
Please call ahead to find out the latest information about the State Parks by calling (602) 542-4174 (outside of the Phoenix metro area call toll-free (800) 285-3703) or visit AZStateParks.com. Follow us on twitter.com/AZStateParks.
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Watch a Video of the Printing Press in Operation
Learn More About Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
link to this page:
http://azstateparks.com/press/2010/PR_01-29-10.html
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