In case you haven’t heard yet: This year is the United States’ 250th anniversary. And each state is organizing to celebrate it.
In Arizona, it’s as part of the Arizona America250 Commission, and it’s being headed up by former state lawmaker Laura Terech.
They’ve put together a travelling museum that’s been making its way to each of the state’s 15 counties, including an exact replica of the Liberty Bell. The Show spoke with Terech more about it.
Full conversation
LAURA TERECH: It's really an opportunity for every state and territory to tell their own story and connect with communities in meaningful ways.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So 250 years of this, you know, democracy experiment in the United States of America. I'm sure you've been thinking a lot about, as you've been running this initiative, what that means to you. Tell us what personally you've been thinking about.
TERECH: Oh, absolutely. Well, it's the semi-quincentennial ... which is what people are getting to know. Although I always like to tell the story of our friends in Colorado who are celebrating their, their statehood 150th at the same time. So they have branded their efforts the Sesquisemiquincentennial ...
It's a fascinating moment to be doing something like this. And one of the things I love about it so much. I mean, prior to my own career at the state Legislature, I taught kindergarten and second grade. And this project allows us to touch on so many different parts of Arizona civic life, whether it's educational initiatives or for tourism, military and veterans support Arizona's outdoor spaces, our civic life, arts, culture, history. I mean ... this just touches on so many different things.
And it has been such an incredible experience to connect with cities, municipalities, groups, organizations from across the state to really showcase what is so special about the Grand Canyon State and how we are marking this moment.
Because it certainly looks a little different here. You know, we don't necessarily have the same kind of revolutionary history per se is Pennsylvania or Virginia, but that doesn't mean that we weren't making history here 250 years ago and beyond. ...
GILGER: That's interesting to look at the history of Arizona beyond the country's founding. Tell us about the things you've uncovered. What's part of this traveling museum that, you know, encompasses some of those early days?
TERECH: Well, the traveling museum has been such an incredible project. Secretary [Adrian] Fontes, who's the chair of our Arizona America 250 Commission, had this idea about two years ago to pick up Arizona's replica Liberty Bell — every state has one — and tour it across the the entire state. And, and that's what we're doing.
And so we have the Liberty Bell which was quite a challenge to get picked up and get loaded into the vehicle. I'm sure we'll talk about that.
But we have a section on American history and then we also have a section on Arizona history highlighting things like our, our early territorial days, Indigenous Arizona, the way we've shaped our landscape, whether that's through mining or farming in Yuma and other places, to really showcase Arizona's rich history that does go beyond 250 years.
GILGER: Yeah, that's really interesting. What a broad perspective on it. OK, so yeah, I mean like how do you travel around the state to every county with a giant Liberty Bell replica?
TERECH: Well, it has been quite an interesting logistical challenge. I have to give a big thank you to our friends at Sundt Construction. And in fact there are so many people who have made this possible. We don't receive any state funding. So every bit of public programming that we're able to bring to communities across the state is through support of Arizona businesses. You know, Banner Health, Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Arizona, you know, Freeport-McMoRan and so many others have come together to make this moment what it is.
But we worked with Sundt. We all met at the Capitol at about 3:45 in the morning about a month ago and picked the bell up. And we had a vehicle specially built and designed from Michigan. It was quite a sight to see the video of it leaving snowy, snowy Michigan on its way out to us.
And we opened up the side of the rig and lifted the bell. It sits in a special cradle. But when it comes back to the state Capitol after its tour, Sundt is going to be installing and building a brand new ceremonial, beautiful copper base for that bell. Prior to now it had sat rather unceremoniously on two railroad ties, which is certainly not befitting of the ideals that it represents.
GILGER: Yeah, OK, so a little bit of a logistical challenge that you have overcome here. But in this museum I wonder what people have been saying to you? Civics and sort of the civic education that comes with this is, is kind of hard to come by these days. What kind of comments, questions have you gotten from people?
TERECH: Well, first and foremost people are so curious about the bell. These bells, a lot of people think they date to the bicentennial. They're actually older than that. It was part of a post-World War II savings bond drive. And state got one and they toured back then, which is really special. But they each tell such a unique story.
Like, Arizona is one of the few bells that has ever been loaned another state. California in the '50s ran out of time to get their bell across their vast space, so they borrowed ours. So when it rang on July 4, 1950, that was actually Arizona's bell.
But one of the things that is the most special is when someone comes into the museum and sees themselves or a part of their own history or something that inspires them and they feel compelled to share that. So when people are moved to connect it to their own story, that is really meaningful.
GILGER: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we're not at a moment of extreme unity, maybe, I could say, in the country right now. It's quite a divisive time. I wonder, as you're touring this around and kind of reflecting on Arizona's history, on the country's history, and this kind of thing that should be uniting of us all, that we're all Americans in this way. Is that a challenge? How do you think about where we are today in light of that history?
TERECH: Well, it was really important to the commission that in all of our programming, whether it's the traveling museum or Passport 250, one of our initiatives to help people explore the state, or some of the educational initiatives that we've run, scholarship programs, we wanted this to be something that all Arizonans see themselves in and want to participate in.
And what we are seeing over and over again is just how much pride people have in their local communities. And I think that this is actually a really wonderful moment to be talking about these things, because the 250th shines a spotlight that exists kind of outside. You know, we're not talking necessarily about an election or any political party, certainly. This is about our country and our state and what brings us together and what makes that special and where we want to go from here.
So it's a very reflective moment. But for me, it's one that invites a lot of pride. And I've seen that same thing echoed in the reception that we've received to this in all of our programming since we started.
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