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FEATURES
THE FOOTHILLS FOCUS | THEFOOTHILLSFOCUS.COM | JANUARY 26, 2022
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Sixth annual WinterFest, BookFest returns BY ANNIKA TOMLIN Foothills Focus Staff Writer
T
he WinterFest and BookFest will mark their return to Black Canyon Heritage Park on Saturday, Jan. 29. WinterFest offers participants of all ages and physical abilities discovery experiences to instill respect, responsibility and stewardship for the surrounding area’s cultural, historical, recreational and environmental offerings. History buffs and established and fledgling authors will have the chance to meet writers, booksellers and illustrators at BookFest. During the event, the Old Cañon School Museum will be open for tours. Longtime Black Canyon Heritage Park volunteer Ann Hutchinson has watched
Smokey the Bear will make an appearance at the WinterFest and BookFest held at Black Canyon Heritage Park on Saturday, Jan. 29. (Photo courtesy of Black Canyon Heritage Park)
the event evolve. “The first one was mainly a celebration of getting everything finally in place at the park because the land had been donated to us in 2006,” Hutchinson said. “Every year since we’ve done it and our partners keep coming back and we grow.” This year’s upgrades include ADA-compliant improvements to the visitor center, an update to 8 acres of the park, and the addition of fish and native trees. “The Black Canyon Community Library will be there,” Hutchinson said. “Barbara Renner has children’s books, specifically. Her ‘Quincy and the Quail’ books are great.” Additional BookFest participants include local authors Wayne Treptow, Ann
see WINTERFEST page 17
Watch Wyatt Earp come alive in Scottsdale BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Foothills Focus Staff Writer
O
n Sunday, Jan. 30, the Fellowship Center of the Desert Hills Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale will host a one-man play about Wyatt Earp performed by … Wyatt Earp. The Earp who will embody the famous lawman in “Wyatt Earp: A Life on the Frontier” said he descends from one of the Wild West Earp’s uncles. Though the connection is distant, the actor bears a family resemblance to the frontiersman. While the modern Earp was growing up in Indianapolis, he said his family didn’t talk much about their Western connection, even though his mother named him Wyatt in honor of it. The name came in handy, he said, as an insurance agent for New York Life, where he worked for 50 years before retiring.
Wyatt Earp, a great grandnephew of the famous Tombstone lawman, will perform the one-man play “Wyatt Earp: A Life on the Frontier” at the Fellowship Center of Desert Hills Presbyterian Church on Jan. 30. The play was written by Earp’s late wife, Phoenix playwright Terry Tafoya Earp. (Photo courtesy of Wyatt Earp)
“(The name) made me a little more memorable to my clients than other people,” he said. Then in 1978, Earp met Phoenix playwright and theater owner Terry Tafoya Earp. Her passion for Arizona history drew Earp deeper into his historical connection. After pursuing her dream of playwriting in the late ’80s, Tafoya Earp wrote “Wyatt Earp: A Life on the Frontier,” a play about her husband’s famous namesake. The play is set in 1928 and features an elderly Earp telling his story to a reporter in Los Angeles, where the lawman, bodyguard, miner, saloon keeper and buffalo hunter, to name just a few job titles, died in 1929. Earp is probably most famous for the Tombstone shootout that killed three outlaw cowboys, but Wyatt and his wife, Sadie, traveled throughout the West during their 47-year life together, from Prescott to Alaska. The play aims to present a view of
Earp that goes beyond the Hollywood legend. “A Life on the Frontier” and other plays proved successful for Tafoya Earp. She died in 2019, following years of medical battles after an accident in 2006 that left her quadriplegic. Wyatt Earp, who today splits his time between Tombstone and Phoenix, said he has performed “A Life on the Frontier” 1,049 times. He’s also branched out into other historical characters, including Doc Holliday, Will Rogers and the Western photographer Edward Curtis. He’s giving weekly performances as Curtis at the Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West during its “Light and Legacy: The Art and Techniques of Edward S. Curtis” exhibit. But it’s the Wyatt Earp show that has taken the actor to 22 states and five coun-
see WYATT page 17
