Exploring Mars has captivated generations of scientists and the general public, including right here in Arizona. In 1894, Percival Lowell brought his telescope to Flagstaff to study Mars. Over the next two decades, he explored Arizona’s canyons, deserts, petrified forests, and mountains to help imagine what the Mars landscape might look like. Join Journal of Arizona History author and historian Michael A. Amundson from Northern Arizona University for a special “Ask the Author” virtual event on Thursday, April 29 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. Learn how Arizona’s landscape and irrigation  inspired the now discredited theories popular at the end of the 19th century that Martians existed and built irrigation canals much like those in Arizona. How can this history help us to learn about global climate change in the changing American West?

Seeing Arizona, Imagining Mars

Deserts, Canals, Global Climate Change, and the American West

Michael A. Amundson

The Journal of Arizona History Vol. 58, No. 4 (Winter 2017)

To read Michael’s article on JSTOR, create an account to download 100 free articles. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44985770

AHS Members also have access to all past issues of the Journal through the AHS Members Only portal. https://arizonahistoricalsociety.org/members-only/

Save the date! The Arizona Historical Society’s newest exhibition, “Ready to Launch: Arizona’s Place in Space” opens May 20, 2021 at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson.

Image credit: Courtesy Lowell Observatory Archives