Docent Tours
Docent-led walking tours of the historic Empire Ranch House are held at 11 am on the second and fourth Saturday of each month. Reservations are required. Tours start at the Empire Ranch Visitor Contact Station and provide an introduction to the history of the Empire Ranch families and the buildings in which they worked and lived.
Special tours for groups can be scheduled by request. Click here for more information about docent tours and to make a reservation.
Docent Training
Docent training classes are generally held once a year at Empire Ranch headquarters. The initial class is six hours in length. Upon completion of the class each docent receives individual tour training.
Interested in becoming a docent?
Click here for more information about the docent training program.
Presentations
Foundation speakers are available to provide educational presentations to classrooms or community groups on the history of the Empire Ranch and the Empire Ranch Foundation. Listed below are several talks currently available. We are happy to tailor presentations for specific interests. Classroom presentations are free of charge. We appreciate contributions to the Empire Ranch Foundation for our presentations to community groups.
Arizona’s Empire Ranch – A Prominent Past and Promising Future – 25 minute presentation with slides summarizing the history of the Empire Ranch, preservation of the Empire Ranch buildings, and the Empire Ranch Foundation’s history and activities.
Diary of a Desert Trail: 1890 Cattle Drive from Arizona to California – 20 minute presentation with slides of the Empire Ranch’s boycott of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s cattle shipping rate hike. The drive of 900 steers began in January, 1890 and took two months and ten days to complete.
The Boice Family Legacy – 30 minute presentation with slides of the history of the Boice family, who owned and/or leased the Empire Ranch from 1928 to 1974.