‘Will Rogers of Arizona’ at Cave Creek Museum
Arizona’s Official State Historian
by Jim Crawford

CAVE CREEK – Look in the dictionary under “colorful” and you’re likely to see the image of Arizona Official State Historian Marshall Trimble.

Philosopher, cowboy singer, historian, author, teacher, Trimble has made it his life’s work extolling the virtues of Arizona and its people–good, bad or itinerant–to audiences everywhere.

Referred to as the “Will Rogers of Arizona,” he’s written more than a dozen volumes about his native state.

Trimble will be on hand at the Cave Creek Museum on Feb. 24 to sign copies of his books during “Author’s Month.” Visitors will be in for a treat because Trimble said he doesn’t like to just sit and sign books all day. There’s gotta be a little action.

“I don’t like to just sit at a desk and feel like a monkey at a zoo,” he says. “I prefer doing it like an old‑fashioned medicine show. The ones where the guy gets up there and plays and sings and it’s real lively. Then he tries to sell you something at the end. Some kind of cure‑all that’s about 50 percent alcohol.

“My appearances are mixed with music and education, especially a lot of learning about Arizona,” he said. “I’ve been teaching since 1961 ...  I started teaching Arizona history in 1969.”

Trimble has been teaching Arizona history at Scottsdale Community College since 1972.

“I only teach one class every semester there now,” he said. “I love to teach. I teach a 100 level history class and have a lot of adults and 19‑ and 20‑year olds in the classes. It seems like they all learn from each other.”

In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Trimble was immersed in the folk music scene, having attended a Kingston Trio concert and catching the folk music bug in 1959. He met Travis Edmonson, a popular Arizona folk singer during that period, established a fast friendship, and began a foray into folk music performing that has lasted to this day.

He suffered the same traumatic experience many others did when Bob Dylan went electric with his music.

“Yeah, I kind of did,” he said. “What I thought was really traumatic was when the Beatles landed on these shores. All of a sudden our hair was too short. Our tight black pants and white socks were out. We were very cool there for a few years.

“I’ve never played an electric guitar and don’t intend to. You have to play an acoustic guitar to really appreciate them. I finally gave my old Martin (guitar) to my son. That was tough to do.”

Trimble was first approached about being the state historian in the early 1990s but declined, saying he didn’t like the political implications of such a job.

Finally, about two years later, he consented to becoming historian, a job that pays nothing.

“I think they gave me a T‑shirt,” he cracked. “I serve for the governor. I make about 70 to 100 appearances a year.”

Writing is in Trimble’s blood and he has something in the works almost all the time. Future plans call for a book about the West’s gunfighters.

“I’m going to call it “Law of the Gun,” he said. “It’ll be about all of the famous outlaws and lawmen of the West. The trouble with the stories we grew up with is, they are mostly myth. I want to tell the truth. It’s a suppressed desire.

“The problem is I don’t have a whole lot of time to just sit and write,” he explained. “I want them to put on my tombstone ‘He only wanted to write one book sitting down.’”

Marshall Trimble’s “Author’s Month” appearance will be from 2‑3 p.m. on Feb. 24 at Cave Creek Museum, 6140 Skyline Drive in Cave Creek.

Admission for the signing is $10 and seating is limited. Call (480) 488‑2764 for more information or to reserve a seat by Feb. 22. Cave Creek Museum is taking reservations for those who wish to have lunch with Trimble prior to his presentation.

The lunch takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Tonto Bar & Grill, 5736 E. Rancho Manana Blvd. in Cave Creek. Cost is $100 per person for non‑members, and $50 per person for Museum members. Cost includes lunch, an autographed Marshall Trimble book, and reserved seating at the 2 p.m. presentation at the museum.

Non‑members who attend the luncheon will also receive membership to the museum.

Seating at the special luncheon is limited to 25. Call (480) 488‑2764 to reserve a seat by Feb. 14.