Library Invites Community to Explore Sedona's History

This week, Sedona Public Library joins libraries in schools, campuses and communities nationwide in celebrating the many ways libraries are transforming their communities every day through the services and invaluable expertise they offer.

April 9 to 15 is National Library Week, a time to highlight the changing role of libraries, librarians and library workers. Libraries of all types are evolving to meet the needs of the communities they serve. By providing such resources as ebooks and technology classes, materials for English-language learners, programs for job seekers or a safe haven in times of crisis, libraries and librarians transform their communities.

The Library embraces the entire community, offering unlimited opportunities for personal growth and lifelong learning. Libraries level the playing field for people of any age who are seeking the information and access to technologies that will improve their quality of life.

We chose National Library Week to launch Read Around Sedona, our first-ever community reads program. This is an opportunity to connect people to literature and to bring them together to read and discuss the same book. The novel chosen for this inaugural program is House of Apache Fires by local author Morgan Jameson.

Much of the action of this historic thriller, set during World War II, takes place in Sedona. In partnership with the Library, the Sedona Heritage Museum is hosting a special presentation on Wednesday, April 19, at 1:30 p.m., entitled “Memories of Sedona – The 1940s” with Sedona natives Paul Thompson and Ruth Jordan Van Epps.

Thompson is the grandson of J. J. Thompson, Oak Creek Canyon's first permanent Anglo settler. His memories include living under the dark clouds of WWII and the success of the Normandy Invasion.  He remembers well when Elmer Purtymun and some of his cousins built the House of Apache Fires for Helen Frye.

Ruth Jordan Van Epps is the daughter of Walter and Ruth Jordan, who established and ran the Jordan orchards, the largest private employer in Sedona at one time. Van Epps will share memories of how the news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor reached her family, how rationing and a shortage of men impacted her family’s orchard business and what daily life was like in general at that time.

The Sedona Historical Society now operates the Sedona Heritage Museum on the Jordan Farmstead, with many of the original buildings still in use. The museum is located at 735 Jordan Road, in Jordan Historical Park in Uptown Sedona, and is open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

This event and all Read Around Sedona programs are free and open to the public. This Arizona Community Reads project is supported by the Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Visit Sedona Public Library at 3250 White Bear Road or SPL in the Village at 51A Bell Rock Plaza to pick up your copy of House of Apache Fires or you can download the EPUB version from the Library’s OverDrive ebook platform. You can also purchase the Kindle edition at Amazon.com. Additionally, a set of books is available for book clubs.

Call 928-282-7714, ext 114, or visit the reference desk to sign up to participate in one of the Read Around Sedona book discussions that will be held  on Monday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. and Friday, May 5, at 2 p.m. 

Sedona Public Library
Column for April 14, 2017
Written by ​Virginia Volkman, Library Director