The past, and future, of history adventuring


If you've ever wondered why I invest so much time in this history adventuring stuff that I do, I have to admit that I wonder, too. There are of course people who imagine that I'm doing it to get rich, or famous, and I guess I understand. I'm an old Marketing guy, and I've always been suspicious of things that, for whatever reason, don't seem to have an obvious motivation, like money, power, or prestige.

And I'll admit that it's hard to tell sincerity from chicanery on the internet, and the internet is a place that I've spent a lot of time on in the past twenty years. I was designing web pages by about the turn of the century (2001), and I learned all of the things that needed to be done for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I never went in for dirty tricks, I was what was known as a "White Hat", and I would just plain get the word out, creating content, sharing on social media.

I think you can officially say that I started doing this in 1992, when a box of old photos from Valley Bank's Marketing Department (where I worked at the time) were on their way to the dumpster, and I asked permission to take them home. My interest in history, especially Phoenix history, had been sparked by working for Valley Bank, and those old photos just fired me up. Sorry, but I'm a nerd.

Anyway, the photos sat in my garage for years and years until I started scanning them in and using them to practice HTML (which is what web design is based on) and I created projects for myself, because I learn best by doing. If you've ever done HTML, and especially CSS, you know that it's challenging, and kinda fun, and in the early days of the web you had to test it in every browser, and on both Mac and PC. Sometimes it would look fine in Safari, but be all garbled in Internet Explorer, or vice-versa. So I spent a lot of time testing, mostly at Glendale Community College, where I taught different software programs, and also web design.

As the web became more and more popular, my tests, which were out there on the internet, got attention from people who just liked Phoenix history. No one ever said, "Nice use of a CSS style sheet on that HTML!", they just liked the photos, and would often help me by making corrections on locations. I really revved things up when I started posting on social media, beginning with Google+ (remember that?) and Facebook. I was able to sharpen up my information because people were happy to help.

But by last year I'd had enough of social media, most of which was just trying to manage people from arguing with each other. That wasn't what I created those pages for!

Nowadays I'm spending most of my time on Patreon, and on Google Blogger. There are a lot of wonderful people who help me, and encourage me, both with word and gesture. And as for the future, I'd like to continue adding to my collection, finding new (old) photos to scan in and share.

Doing this has enriched my life, and I'm hoping to be able to do this, with your help, for a very long time. Thank you for history adventuring with me!

Image at the top of this post: One of the photos that I salvaged from the dumpster in 1992 at Valley Bank. It's at Christown before Valley Center (now Chase Tower) was built. The "Valleyette" on the left is named Chris (no, I won't post her last name, that's poor internet etiquette). I got an email from her husband a few years ago when he saw the pic on the internet, and recognized his wife. I sent him a high-resolution version of the photo, and it's stuff like that that makes it all worthwhile to me.
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please consider subscribing to History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

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