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EVENT: A Neon Legacy: The Rise and Fall of Tucson’s Highway
DATE/TIME: April 7, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Casa Vicente, 375 S. Stone Avenue, Tucson, AZ.
At Archaeology Café‘s seventh meeting, we leapt forward in time to the 20th century. Demion Clinco reviewed the historic events that led to the local development and demise of U.S. Highway Route 80, the remnant of which is better known to Tucsonans as “Miracle Mile.” This historically significant, all-weather, coast-to-coast auto route was among the first U.S. highways commissioned in 1926. It stretched from San Diego, California, to Tybee Island just east of Savannah, Georgia—ocean to ocean. In Tucson, it was a thriving commercial corridor up through the mid-20th century. Demion’s presentation was based, in part, upon a historic context study submitted to the City of Tucson Department of Urban Planning and Design as part of the Oracle Area Revitalization Plan. Demion also shared vintage postcard images of many of these local motels—most long gone—in their heyday.
ABOUT DEMION CLINCO
Native Tucsonan Demion Clinco is the proprietor of Frontier Consulting Group, LLC, where he serves as Historic Consultant. Demion is on the boards of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation and the Center for Desert Archaeology, and he is also an appointed member of the Tucson Pima County Historical Commission.