Thank you to the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce for so many reasons, but most recently for the Oro Valley Chamber Foundation grant to the Oro Valley Historical Society! With this grant, the Society will be able to make Oro Valley history come alive for visitors to the historic Steam Pump Ranch any time they visit the Ranch.
Because the Historical Society is totally grant, donation, and supporter driven, our budget does not always provide us with the means to display the information we would like to disseminate to visitors. Also, volunteers are not always able to be at the Ranch. When people are at the Ranch, they are not always able to see the meaning behind, and the history of what they are seeing. Why is this building here? What was it used for? Did someone live here? When docents are at the Ranch on Saturday mornings from September through April, we can answer those questions with our temporary signage and by interacting with our guests.
With the grant from the Oro Valley Chamber Foundation, we will now be able to have permanent signage on the Ranch at all times so that our community will have knowledge of the historical center of Oro Valley – Steam Pump Ranch.
The project timeline for completion is one year, however, with 2025 being the Society’s 20th anniversary, we hope to have it completed much sooner than that. We are so appreciative of the trust the Oro Valley Chamber Foundation has placed in the Oro Valley Historical Society to make Steam Pump Ranch a true information center about the lives lived there before the Town’s purchase in 2007.