Life On Ye Ol’ Homestead

Written by Bob Riddell Jr., Life On Ye Ol’ Homestead is a remarkable true story of a family arriving in Tucson from Philadelphia in 1927 and homesteading in the Tucson Mountains foothills. It includes building a rock house with incomplete plans, learning the harsh unpredictable ways of the desert, developing relationships with other homesteaders and the wildlife, and living without plumbing, electricity or phone, among other adventures.

The book also includes some stereotypes of Mexican Americans and Native Americans, which the TMA Board emphatically refutes. (The current Board of TMA believes the book’s historical value merits its inclusion on our website.)

Robert Riddell Jr. graduated from Tucson High and attended the University of Arizona. He worked as a freelance writer and photographer before being appointed publicity director for the Tucson Sunshine Climate Club (which later became the Tucson Chamber of Commerce) in 1955. As publicity director, he took photographs, wrote captions, and sent them out to national publicity and advertising media. He was an active freelance photographer, and his photographs appeared in various national magazines including Arizona Highways. He died in 1992.