Our
History

William Boyce Thompson is born in Alder Gulch, Virginia City, Montana.

After studying engineering at Columbia and investing in various mining ventures, Thompson becomes a millionaire and purchases Magma Mine in Superior, Arizona.

The original Clevenger House is built by Robert Clevenger. It is surrounded by an herb garden with beds of native and southern European herb plantings. The planting beds are divided into specific use areas: culinary herbs, medicinal herbs, cosmetics, insect repellants, etc.

Thompson visits Russia as a member of an American Red Cross relief mission in the wake of the 1917 Revolution. Traveling through the arid reaches of Siberia on the way to St. Petersburg, he witnessed starvation and malnutrition yet was impressed by ingenious use of the scarce plant life.

Thompson begins construction on the 7,000-square-foot Picket Post House, called “castle on the rock” by local residents.

Thompson obtains the first of several Special Use Permits from the Forest Service to develop the area around Queen Creek just west of Superior, Arizona, for experimental agricultural purposes.

Thompson and his wife spend their first night in Picket Post House.

The first of many research scientists arrives to stay overnight.

A location is chosen for a dam, and a pump is installed to draw water for the new reservoir from Queen Creek Canyon over the steep ridge lying between them. The resulting lake was later named for Charles F. Ayer, a legal advisor to Colonel Thompson.

The Arboretum’s first administrative building, flanked by two Lord and Burnham greenhouses, is completed.

Botanist Charles Russell Orcutt names newly discovered hedgehog cactus Echinocereus boyce thompsonii after the Arboretum where he first identified and collected it in Cactography.

Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum is incorporated and, by a special act of the State Legislature, becomes the first nonprofit institution for scientific purposes in Arizona.

Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum is officially dedicated.

William Boyce Thompson passes away, leaving the Institution with minimal financial support as a result of the stock market collapse in October 1929, in which the Arboretum lost two-thirds of the value of its assets.

The Superior Spur Camp of the Civilian Conservation Corps houses twenty young men helping with erosion control. Beginning as an effort to find groundcovers that could survive on the cattle-damaged hillsides and hold the soil in place long enough to allow other species to become established, the Arboretum becomes home to a revegetation project.

The Arboretum’s second director, Frederick Gibson, publishes the first definitive botanical description of Agave murpheyi.

Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum partners with Crown Cork and Seal Company to cultivate cork oak saplings which are given to the public.

Picket Post House and property is sold to Walter A. Franklin, Jr. for $40,000.

Frederick Gibson hires Bill Benson as assistant director and allows him to plant trees, shrubs and flowers at his discretion. One of these – a Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis) – is sited by Benson where the tree could easily be seen from the highway. Visitors inquiring about the tree are encouraged to invest in landscaping requiring a minimal use of water – an early example of xeriscaping.

A new blue Dodge Power Wagon is purchased by the Arboretum. It is now part of the Drover’s Wool Shed installation in the Australian Deserts Exhibit.

The University of Arizona joins Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum Foundation to co-manage the Arboretum and reinvigorate the research program.

Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Arizona State Parks joins University of Arizona and Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum Foundation to co-manage the Arboretum. With the signing of a tripartite agreement on March 30, 1976, the Arboretum becomes a functional unit of Arizona State Parks, but also remains a scientific research facility and a nonprofit institution. This arrangement continues for 43 years.

The inaugural issue of the Arboretum’s journal, Desert Plants, is published.

The Desert Legume Program (DELEP) is established as a joint project of the University of Arizona and BTA, playing an important role in conserving global legume biodiversity. DELEP is one of only three U.S. organizations to have its seed bank backed up at the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway.

The new Visitors Center is opened to the public.

The Arboretum presents its first annual Welcome Back, Buzzards! celebration.

The Demonstration Garden is dedicated. It is built to illustrate how native and drought-tolerant plants can create beautiful landscapes and water-efficient gardens for residential and commercial uses.

The Gloria Wing Ong Children’s Learning Center is dedicated, “to honor and remember a nurturing teacher who inspired her students to discover the joy of learning.”

The Children’s Garden is opened.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum is officially dedicated as an Audubon Important Birding Area in conjunction with International Migratory Bird Day.

The State of Arizona purchases Picket Post House for $2,933,600.

The Wallace Foundation gifts its collection of 6,000 plants to the Arboretum, and so begins the five-year process of moving them 75 miles to the newly designed Wallace Desert Garden.

“Mr. Big,” a Longbeak Eucalyptus (or River Redgum), debuts on the National Register of Champion Trees. The largest known tree of its species in the country, the tree is recognized not only for its size, but also for the critical ecosystem services it provides, such a shelter and food for wildlife, water purification, absorption of CO2 from our atmosphere and storage of carbon in its wood.

The tripartite agreement with University of Arizona and Arizona State Parks is dissolved. Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum becomes an independent nonprofit.

The Wallace Desert Garden is open to the public!