Pioneer Living History Museum | Drone Zone

In the drone zone tonight, we step back in time to the 1800s at the Pioneer Living History Museum. And that is where original territorial buildings bring Arizona's wild frontier back to life. Drone pilot Brian Kay takes us there. You're stepping back into time, into Arizona Territory, where you could really see a picture of what life was like during territorial days. Hi, my name is Jessica Valenzuela, and I'm the event coordinator here at Pioneer Living History Museum. There are about 25 buildings here, the property is about 90 acres, majority of the buildings are original structures, so these are the real deal, they are not make-believe. Some of them are reconstructed to look exactly like the original. The buildings are based off of Arizona territory history during the time of 1862 to Arizona statehood of 1912, during that time when Arizona truly was a territory and held out from the Union 50 years. When you come to Pioneer, you are able to see living history. So you'll see seamstress seaming clothes in the dress shop, a barber doing a straight shave with a straight knife on the front porch. You'll see women turning butter. You'll see a blacksmith. You're also able to see a real picture of what life was like. The chapel is one of my favorite buildings here. So that It's actually the very first church of Globe, and it was a Methodist chapel, and it was the only church of Arizona where everybody was able to gather, and during Arizona Territory, your closest neighbor was 30 miles away. So on Sundays, it wasn't just a place of worship, it was a place where people can meet other people, trade items, and just communicate. It did, unfortunately, suffer a fire. The church was rebuilt in 1969 to look exactly like the original First Church of Globe. However, the church does still have the original... The original bell which survived four fires and still commences every single wedding that it sees today all the way from the 1800s. The Flying V-cabin is where Arizona's territory comes alive. That is a visual where you can see a battle truly took place. In Arizona there was families, the Tewksburys and the Grahams, that had a 20-year long battle. It was the bloodiest war in Arizona. It's called the Pleasant Valley War and it was just a constant fight of their allies one against another and it lasted 20 years and that news was heard all the way over to New York. So it was a big deal. You don't hear about it a lot but you come here you'll learn all about the Arizona history. This is Howie Hall. That's what it was originally called. We've renamed it the Opera House. In the 1800s, Gordon Goldwater created it with a partner. It was a store. It was a fire station. It was even a dance hall in the 1920s with the flapper ladies. It served many purposes in Arizona all the way till its relocation brick by brick right here to Pioneer Museum to be preserved. The takeaway should be to be grateful for the amenities that you have today and the easy way of life that you have today because a long time ago, it just wasn't so. These people suffered. They died from diseases, but they still loved. They still did things that we do today, like they got married and things like that, even though they were going through the most hardest times in life, they prevailed. So I guess the human... Fight and the human courage to prevail over all obstacles is something to take away because if they could do it, we could do it, right? In February, Pioneer Living History Museum will host a Civil War reenactment. And for more information on that, we have a link on Fox10Phoenix.com. And if you want to stream more Drone Zone, you can head to the Fox Local app.