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Mount Lemmon - Summerhaven Entertainment Magazine

Summerhaven 2010 Events


Weekly Sunday afternoon summer concerts

This summer, Summerhaven's annual Music on the Mountain series will feature artists like Chuck Wagon and the Wheelchairs (formerly known as Chuck Wagon and the Wheels) on Sunday, May 30, 2010.

Music on the Mountain concerts are every Sunday through September 5th. The music event is held under a large tent at 12901 N. Sabin Canyon Parkway in Summerhaven. The area is located on your right as you enter Summerhaven.

Concerts are held from 1:00-5:00 p.m. Admission is free. You can bring lawn chairs, but outside food and drinks are not allowed. The event is sponsored by LAVA Music and by Mesquite Homes.

LAVA Music concerts for the Sunday Music on the Mountain features:

Sunday, July 11 - Black Leather Zydeco
Sunday, July 18 - Chuck Wagon and the Wheelchairs
Sunday, July 25 - Retro Rockets
Sunday, August 1 - The Wyatts
Sunday, August 8 - Strait Country
Sunday, August 15 - The Dreadnutts
Sunday, August 22 - The Last Call Girls
Sunday, August 29 - The Wayback Machine
Sunday, September 5 - Chuck Wagon and the Wheelchairs

Find out more at www.lavamusic.org for concert details and links to muician's web sites.

Mount Lemmon Marathon 2010

The annual Mount Lemmon Marathon will be held October 17, 2010 at 6:00 a.m. Up to 2,500 runners can participate in a full or half marathon. The full marathon is 26 miles long from the bottom to the top of the mountain. The Mt. Lemmon Marathon is considered one of the steepest road marathons in the United States. The event is nicknamed Blue Pants Racing in honor of Homer Simspon's blue trousers.

The race is open for 10 hours. No qualifying is necessary to enter. The Mount Lemmon Marathon course starts at the 3100 foot level and ends at 9,147 feet above sea level. The course is paved and the road is closed to traffic. The marathon follows the world famous General Hitchcock Scenic Byway.

Registration is $95 for individual racers. Group discounts are available. After September 1, 2010, the individual rates increases to $115. Applications, course previews, map and other event details are at mountlemmonmarathon.com.

Road closures on when rains are heavy

Summer monsoon rains occasionally close the Catalina Highway.

If clouds are threatening Tucson in morning, it may be raining on top of Mt. Lemmon by the afternoon. Check Mt. Lemmon road conditions before you head out.

During the winter, several seasonal roads along the Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon are being closed from December 15 therough March 1st. The roads are not be available for cars or other motorized vehicles.

The main road to the top of Mount Lemmon and Summerhaven village will be open, unless snow conditions warrant a short closure.

Those roads and day-use sites in the upper elevations of Mt. Lemmon are usually closed during the winter months. The roads are still open for hikers, skiers, bicyclists and non-motorized uses.

Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter Events

The Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter observatory is an chance for children and adults to view the planets, galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, and comets from Mt. Lemmon.

The public can view the wonders of the universe through the largest telescope in the country that is dedicated exclusively to public outreach.

Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter is an exceptional astronomy and science learning facility located on a desert "sky island" just north of Tucson, AZ. The SkyCenter builds upon the uniqueness of the 9157' summit of Mt. Lemmon and on the extensive knowledge base at the University of Arizona to deliver premium educational adventures including:
 
SkyNights: A night-time observing program that provides the opportunity to peer beyond the blue horizons adorning our southwestern skies and explore astronomical wonders that have fascinated us from time immemorial. Star charts, binoculars and a superb 24-inch telescope are just some of the resources utilized in this program. Join us as part of a group for evening hours or reserve the telescope all night and be treated as a visiting astronomer.
 
DiscoveryDays: Learn more about the scientific and natural wonders of Mt. Lemmon and the Catalina Mountains by interacting with UA scientists in this hands-on program. Topics include tree-ring science, hummingbird studies, updates on recent astronomical discoveries, ecology, and more. 
 
SkyCamps:  An expanded program of weekend camps is offered for young people and adults. Participants engage in interactive programs with scientists from the University of Arizona, and have the opportunity to learn how research is done. In addition to the 24-inch telescope at the SkyCenter, the 61-inch telescope on Mt. Bigelow will be available for use, as well as solar telescopes and other instruments.  This is a continuation and enhancement of previous astronomy camps that Professor Don McCarthy conducted in the past. Some young people found Don McCarthy's astronomy camps to be a life changing experience, and had their eyes opened to a potential career in science or education.

Devastating forest fire brings new life to Summerhaven community

The village of Summerhaven, Arizona, atop the Catalina Mountains Mt. Lemmon north of Tucson, AZ, slowly recovers from the devastating Aspen Wildfire that started on Thursday, June 19, 2003.

EMOL.org publisher, Bob Zucker, stands above the town of Summerhaven where burned sticks and stumps are being cleared for a new community. More photos of the rebuilding of Summerhaven. Photo by Melinda Zucker


Mt. Lemmon, AZ Index


Shopping & Dining in Summerhaven

What to do when you get to the top of the mountain. Stores, restaurants and sites to see.

Ski Valley

The winter 2009-2010 snowfall season at Ski Valley. Hours, information and resources.

Mt. Lemmon Weather, Snow Report and Road Conditions

Updated continuous RSS weather reports on Mt. Lemmon and driving conditions from weather.com. Links to Mt. Lemmon weather web sites and phone numbers.

Video Clips

First Snowfall 2008. Video clip of the first snow on Thanksgiving.

Fire on the Mountain. Watch a video clip from TEP looking at the Catalina Mountains during the 2003 fire. Other videos of Mount Lemmon and Summerhaven.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality Scenes Spin the images and zoom in for more detail on VR scenes of Mt. Lemmon and Summerhaven.

Mt. Lemmon Photos

Up Mt. Lemmon Drive Up Mt. Lemmon- over a dozen photos, video clip movie, views of new growth, Summerhaven progress

Summerhaven renewal. See how Summerhaven looks.

Drive up Mt. Lemmon: Photo tour up the mountain to the Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley. See Nixon Head Rock.

Drive Up Mt. Lemmon Take an early winter drive up the mountain. Large photos and video clips of scenery, rock formations, and the latest construction pictures of Summerhaven.

Mt. Lemmon Weather, Shopping, Dining, Entertainment & Culture

Connect Online to Mt. Lemmon Internet links. Mt. Lemmon businesses, hiking spots, ski and weather conditions, road conditions, camping.

The legend of the Iron Door

Deep in the mountains north of Tucson, Arizona may lie the legendary Iron Door Mine.

In Spanish, the Iron Door Mine is called "minas de la ferro con puerto en la Canada del Oro."

This mine is said to be one of "the most extensively hunted losts mines in North America."

Read about the Iron Door Mine, Iron Door Mine Museum and the Cody Stone, a precious mineral mined near Mt. Lemmon.

Saving history with a mission

The Santa Catalina Historic Preservation Project

An old battered adobe building, with a stone foundation, sitting at the mouth of the Cañada del Oro, has some historical significance.

Called the “Mission of Santa Catalina,” the undated structure may have been a mission in the 1700’s. It was a way station for miners crossing through the mountains during the 1800s, the main road north through the mountains, and the first guest ranch in the area – “Linda Vista Guest Ranch” - during the early 1900s. Now, it is a home with a mission and needs to be preserved. Read more about the Santa Catalina Historic Preservation Project.s

Tucson, Arizona Events Guide

Plants to sprout along Catalina Highway

With federal funding, more than 10,000 trees and plants will be planted along the highway that connects Tucson to Mount Lemmon.

The 20-year reconstruction plant is mostly completed with the replenishing of the plants and trees lost during construction and the 2003 Aspen Fire. Pine and Douglas fir will be planted at higher elevations from seeds of the trees from the mountain.

Drip irrigation will water the seedlings until they can survive on their own, especially during the warm, summer droughts that might come along.

Other trees include mountain yucca, golden flowered agave, desert spoon, Emory oak, Ponderosa pine and Arizona pine.

New life is now coming back to Frog Mountain- the name given to the Catalina Mountains by the Tohono O'odham Indians.

From the desert sand to the forest snow

Mt. Lemmon is a rare jewel in the hot Arizona desert. Jutting up 9,000 feet above sea level in the Santa Catalina Mountains 25 miles north of Tucson, Arizona, this magnificent mountain peak stands amidst the pale backdrop of the sparse desert sand and cactus.

Enjoy a tour up the mountain, watch videos of the new Summerhaven and fire that destroyed the village and scarred the mountainsides, and learn about the latest developments in the redevelopment of Summerhaven and Sabino Canyon Parkway.

When the summer heat beats down at more than 100 degree (F) in Tucson, visitors and residents enjoy about a 30 degree difference!

Some people accidently spell Mt. Lemmon as Mt. Lemon, Mount Lemmon, Mount Lemon or Mt. Lemman. If you spelled it wrong, Mt. Lemon is still in Tuscon, AZ. Either way, you have arrived at one of the top web site on Mount Lemmon and Summerhaven.

Watch Video and VR Clips of Mt. Lemmon and Summerhaven, AZ.

Tucson Entertainment Magazine
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Jewelry and Rock Art from Mt. Lemmon Mines

Cody Stone

Flint Carter is one of the few artists who create their entire work - from finding the stones, cutting, polishing and fabricating. All jewelry and art work materials are mined from Mt. Lemmon and the Santa Catalina Mountains.

With a large collection of high grade ore that has been accumulated over the decades, he has fashioned dozens of artistic creations- jewlery, polished stones and desert rock art. Read about Flint Carter's work, the legend of the Iron Door Mine and other stories of the Old Southwest. Call Flint at 520-289-4566 or email finder@emol.org.

by Mary Ellen Barnes (Author)

As you wind your way up the Catalina Highway, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a first-time visitor or a native Tucsonan; you know you’re on the way to someplace special.

The Santa Catalina Mountains first captivated Tony Zimmerman on a 1937 hunting trip. Regard for the alpine beauty must have been in his genes—he was the son of Swiss German immigrants—and by 1940 the Tucson schoolteacher had begun taking his family to Mount Lemmon to spend the summer. Back then, the road up the mountain was a rough two-track dirt road from Oracle, and Summerhaven was nothing but a sleepy cluster of summer cabins. But Tony Zimmerman was to help change all of that.

The Road to Mount Lemmon is a beguiling memoir of the Catalina Mountains told by the daughter of one of the pioneers in the life and development of Mount Lemmon’s communities. Mary Ellen Barnes tells how her father Tony resigned from teaching in 1943 to devote his career to the development of this mountain oasis. He not only sold real estate for long time landowner Randolph Jenks, he even bought the village’s tiny two-room store, installing a sawmill to build a larger store, and built the Mount Lemmon Inn. And as she spins Tony’s personal saga, she also gives readers a glimpse of the Catalinas before Tucson became a boom town, recalling idyllic adventures in wild country and the cowboys, rangers, ranchers, and loggers who worked there.

Barnes tells Tony’s story as if sharing it with family, evoking her father’s personality on every page. The Road to Mount Lemmon is an intimate view of a mountain community over the course of nearly sixty years—a view that few people have shared but one all can appreciate.

Product Details
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: University of Arizona Press (June 11, 2009)

Tucson Hiking Guide

Author: Betty Leavengood

Squeezing the Lemmon II ...
more juice than ever:

A rock climber's guide to the Mt. Lemmon Highway, Tucson, Arizona by Eric Fazio-Rhicard (Author) published 2000, 324 pages.

Climbers guide to Sabino Canyon and Mount Lemmon Highway Tucson, Arizona

by John Steiger

Frog Mountain Blues

A story of Frog Mountain (Paperback)
by Charles Bowden, Jack W. Dykinga (Photographer)

Sierra Club

Join the Sierra Club and
become part of history.