Flags, t-shirts, artwork, toys and thousands of letters. Tributes of every kind were left to honor the memory of the Granite Mountain Hotshots between June 30 and September 10, 2013.
The Tribute Fence Preservation Project (TFPP) and Prescott Public Library partnered with the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records to create an online digital collection of materials left in tribute for the Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots. This digital collection is available to the public as part of the Arizona Memory Project.
Beginning June 30, 2013, the day that nineteen Granite Mountain Hotshots died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire, the fence outside Fire Station 7 became a place of tribute and mourning. In September, an amazing group of volunteers recognized the need to preserve the tangible outpouring of community grief and respect along the fence at Prescott Fire Station 7. Led by Jan Monroe and Dottie Morris, the volunteers began to carefully remove t-shirts, flags, toys and artwork from the fence, photographing them and documenting details. Six months and 10,000 photographs later, Jan and Dottie identified the Arizona Memory Project as the perfect place to make these digital records available to the public, creating a kind of online museum about the Tribute Fence.
Prescott Public Library provided the assistance the TFPP volunteers needed to make this poignant part of our city’s history available worldwide. For more information about the project, contact 928.777.1526.