(upbeat theme music) (upbeat theme music) - [Tom] This week on Arizona Illustrated, making the massive mirrors for Magellan.

- [Buddy] One of these days, these mirrors are going to be in the world's largest telescope and they're going to be discovering things that could not be seen with any previous telescope.

- [Tom] A surprising and colorful creation of flower bomb.

- [Akiko] To be able to flower just for art's sake.

- [Tom] Guiding boys, becoming men.

- [Alexander] It's definitely given me a lot of purpose that I didn't have before and like having something to offer whether it's just being there to listen.

- [Tom] And when Old Tucson burned.

- [Peggy] Been on lots of movie.

- [Man] Lots of movies, that's really a shame.

(upbeat theme music) (upbeat theme music) - Welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We start this program once again on the campus of the University of Arizona, just outside Arizona stadium.

The site of many exciting Wildcat football games and the site of the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab.

That's the location of our first story.

As always we're masking up and being careful to keep a safe distance from each other.

As the Corona virus continues to infect and kill in Southern Arizona.

Here's an update.

Arizona's coronavirus numbers are staying fairly stable.

However, the virus continues to kill and injure Arizonans including four deaths reported on April 13th.

That compared with the state's highest number of deaths on January 18th, when 177 people died.

Well over 4 million Arizonans had been vaccinated.

And that while the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was paused, amid reports that a handful of recipients developed blood clots and with summer's heat on the way many of Arizona's vaccination sites are moving indoors.

For information regarding vaccinations, visit azdhs.gov.

The University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab leads the world in making giant lightweight mirrors of unprecedented strength.

Mirrors that will revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe.

The lab is currently in the process of fashioning mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

A massive optical device that will be located in one of the highest and driest regions of the world.

Chile's Atacama desert.

Here's a tour of the lab with the creators of those mirrors for Magellan.

(upbeat piano music) - [Buell] The Giant Magellan Telescope or GMT is a telescope with seven 8.4 meter primary mirrors that will be connected and supported together to work as one giant 24.5 meter in diameter mirror.

That is 10 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.

And we'll see details 10 times sharper.

We've completed the fabrication of two of the seven mirrors that we need for the primary mirror of GMT.

We're working on the third, fourth, and fifth at various stages of manufacture.

And we just cast, just started making the sixth mirror.

The seventh mirror will be cast in two years.

We're hoping to see for light in 2029.

(electric door buzzing) (electric door buzzing) (metal screeching) (electric door buzzing) (metal screeching) - [Buddy] Well, the Richard F Caris Mirror Lab is unique in several ways.

Most obvious is that we do make the biggest mirrors in the world.

More important than that, they're the only big lightweight mirrors.

So they're the only mirrors that have the ideal mechanical and thermal properties to hold their shape accurately in the telescope.

I came into this job in an uncommon way.

I started out as an astronomer when I was young a professional astronomer, but I was finding that I was more interested in building equipment than studying stars and galaxies.

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to meet Roger Angel.

(emotional guitar music) Roger work in mostly with John Hill, developed the methods of melting the glass to form this lightweight structures.

They started working on this around 1980, but by 1983, they had settled on the method that's almost identical to what we're still using today.

(emotional guitar music) - So, I got my PhD here at the university of Arizona and I arrived in the fall of 1984, shortly after Roger and John had started developing the techniques that would lead to the spin-cast mirrors.

I still remember going and roasting marshmallows off of one of those early furnaces.

And while that was going on, the plants were being made to build the Mirror Lab under the stands of Arizona stadium.

And then that was completed just a few years later.

- [Stuart] Yeah, Roger Angel's vision was at bigger and bigger mirrors.

So we needed more space.

And that's where this started way back in the late 80s.

The real estate here was available and it started as one hall and it is now three halls.

Is a, we now have a casting hall, polishing hall, and integration hall.

And that's what it takes to fabricate multiple 8.4 meter mirrors.

(engine humming) - So, it takes us roughly four years to make a mirror.

And about the first year of that is the whole casting process including building the mold and the long cooling that has to go on.

(suspense music) We actually do spend four months building this mold that is filled with 1700 hexagonal boxes.

And when the glass melts and flows around those boxes, that'll form the cavities in the honeycomb.

The glass is piled on top of it.

We receive it in chunks.

We buy it from the Japanese company, Ohara and they have a process that is perfect for our needs.

They melt the glass in one ton clay pots and then break it carefully into chunks.

We'll pile those carefully on top of the mold then enclose it in the furnace, heated over about five days.

And at that point, the glass, it doesn't get very runny.

It has a consistency like molasses.

The atoms will finally get locked in place at about 500 degrees C. That gives you the structure that you need for a mirror.

It's got the ideal mechanical and thermal properties but it doesn't have an accurate optical surface yet.

The final three years are grinding and polishing and that's almost all about achieving the accurate surface.

And it's the polishing process that will eventually produce this surface.

It's accurate to a millionth of an inch.

As we're analyzing the structural processes, we always have to be very aware of the stresses that are put into the glass.

There's always a concern about stress because glass is a fragile material.

We all know that.

- [Buell] There's a reason why everyone at the Mirror Lab is fairly conservative in how you handle the mirrors and how you get the final figure that you want.

The current manager of operations, Stuart Weinberger has done a particularly impressive job over the last year during the pandemic.

- The first challenge was just getting back into the lab.

So we sent everybody home back in mid-March and then we had to come up with a plan to describe how was it we could perform operations in a safe manner.

Now, fortunately, these halls are very large so it's fairly easy to keep people separated.

So we only brought in those people that had to work.

Most of our scientists and engineers, they operate from home and that's still occurs to this day.

Keep the personnel density down and we keep people safe.

- Now the Mirror Lab is at its heart, the people, the talented women and men that use their science, their engineering, and their artistry to make truly remarkable and unique optics for telescopes.

- The real motivation for everything we're doing and I feel this is to enable the amazing science the stunning discoveries that are someday gonna be made.

I mean, it's happened every time.

There's a big increase in the size of a telescope.

(calming music) One of these days, these mirrors are gonna be in the world's largest telescope, and they're gonna be discovering things that could not be seen with any previous telescope.

- Roger and John started 40 years ago.

It's going to take us another 10 years to finish it.

And the young women and men that will actually use it to look for life on planets around other stars are probably in their twenties right now.

So it really is our equivalent of modern cathedral building.

We're all looking to the future and dreaming about what subsequent generations are going to learn with our efforts (ambient music) - [Tom] For more on the University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory, visit MirrorLab.arizona.edu.

- When it comes to art, people tend to think in terms of pieces and projects that will last for years if not centuries, but how about working in a medium of temporary beauty.

Weeks, days, or even shorter if the artist created outdoors.

Such is the colorful if fleeting life of a flower bomb.

(cars passing by) (cars passing by) - This a very exciting day.

We're doing our second ever flower bomb which means that basically we get a ton of flowers and we're just creating this pop-up art.

- We've been wanting to do these art projects to be able to flower just for art's sake.

I own Bloom Maven and we are a plant and flower shop in downtown Tucson.

We've been able to get these flowers donated from our vendor, Mayesh in Phoenix.

- A lot of those flowers are past their prime to go to retail but we wanted to give them a second life.

So, what better thing to do than to give it to a company like Bloom Maven and let them do their magic.

- Working with flowers, you always have the elements against you, whether it's time or whether because the medium we work with is so fragile.

(wind howling) - Our number one challenge all the time is the weather factor.

Especially I think living in the desert, today, it's super, super windy and freezing, which we weren't expecting.

- Nature.

I think that was the only challenge today.

And that's fine.

She can, she can do what she wants to do.

We're playing with her children anyway.

(water spraying) There's not really like a floral school that you can go to.

And, you know, you can learn certain techniques.

Obviously, we can learn about floral care.

I feel like it is kind of building an intuition.

You can't force it.

It is going to curve like this.

And that is all you can do.

- It's exciting in the sense that you never feel like you know everything you're always constantly learning and shifting.

(cars passing by) - For me, what feels right is monochromatic color palettes and using different shades of the same color together.

So even with the design you see today, there are multiple colors in it, but we've color blocked everything.

And that to me feels the most beautiful and the most peaceful.

- We really have developed our own style.

Akiko really has a unique vision.

And I think that sets us apart, not only in Tucson but just in the whole floral community, - Being with these girls and being a part of this family, it's like we go through the craziest things and we are put in the most like crazy situations and like, it's dirty.

It's not glamorous.

Then when you see it and you step back, you're like, oh my God, that's stunning.

- They hit it out of the park.

They use flowers that, you know, I there was no rhyme or reason to what we gave them and they did what they do best and made a beautiful art installation that the rest of Tucson can enjoy it.

- [Akiko] We are a small business and we're here to make money and all that, but we're also here to be part of the community in a positive way.

- [Tom] Watch Arizona Illustrated stories on demand on our website azpm.org/Arizonaillustrated.

Since 1960, the rate of boys in the United States without fathers has quadrupled, 85% of youths in prisons and 2/3 of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, but there's an organization here in Tucson that actively recruits and trains men from the community to mentor teenage boys by accepting, listening, and encouraging them.

Guiding them from Boys to Men.

(multiple footstep) - [Michael] I was raised to never cry, to always dominate, to always be in control.

Don't show weakness.

Don't act like a girl.

Don't act gay.

Don't ask for help, Don't show any emotions or weaknesses.

That socialization process has really clear links to higher rates of depression and suicide and even school shootings.

- Three.

- Four.

- Five.

- Six.

- Seven.

- Eight.

- Nine.

- About 12 years ago, we piloted our first group mentorship talking circle in Tucson high school.

And since then, we've really just grown by word of mouth.

As other schools have invited us in.

- Okay.

So here, this is how this works.

- My name's Dominic Perez.

I am in at a Boys to Men circle at Pueblo High School.

Tried to go on every outing that we have.

- [Michael] Can you tell me what skills you've learned from Boys to Men.

- To open up about my feelings and tell people what I want and what I don't like and what I like.

It's just giving me a better better way to talk to people.

- About 12 years ago, we piloted our first group mentorship talking circle in Tucson high school.

And since then, we've really just grown by word of mouth.

As other schools have invited us in.

- My name is Ramiro Ramos.

Last year, I had some, lot of problems with my dad and I took it out on my mom and my step-mom.

My counselor at school recommended Boys to Men.

I realized that there's a lot of things I can't control.

So that gave me a sense of relief.

It's an awesome group of men who have more or less the same problems as you because they're men doesn't mean that they're the typical kind of guys who criticize you.

And they're generally good men.

- Bro, Saiko was right there at the mountain.

- [Michael] For a lot of the boys.

They have a tremendous amount of trauma, pain, stuff that they've been holding tightly.

The Rite of passage weekend, which we just did.

And it's an intensely structured weekend for the boys to look at, who am I?

Who do I want to be?

And what's in the way?

And the men are really there to just support them in that deep reflection, - I'm Waylon Ethridge.

Most people call me by DJ.

Without the Boys to Men, I probably wouldn't be around.

I started being with the community in 9th grade now I'm in 10th.

I really do enjoy the Boys to Men community.

They are a safe place for certain things that I would really enjoy talking about that I can't really talk to other people about.

I used to be teased a lot with who I was and my personality.

But with the Boys to Men I feel more safe around other people and that I feel respected as well.

- What is he doing?

Oh, Shaun I almost tripped over a hole.

- So have you guys check this out?

- [Michael] We find tremendous safety in our programmatic approach which is group mentorship.

And that's really different from a lot of other mentorship organizations that focus on one-on-one.

So we specifically never do one-on-one and we make sure that there's always at least three folks together at any time.

The group mentorship model also helps to support the men in showing up.

It takes some of the pressure off of for mentorship that men can sometimes feel.

- My name is Alonzo Bailey.

I work at Tucson High and I saw a training for how to become a mentor.

And it was through Boys to Men.

I think one of the biggest and the major things is creating space for men, young men, boys to be themselves and be vulnerable and open.

And it'd be okay outside of these spaces that we open up with like, they open circles.

There is no other space.

- I'm terrified of Heights, but knowing that those people behind me to support me that's the only reason that I actually went where I was.

So thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Thank you.

- Is there anything you're holding onto right now that you feel you've just not shared.

You held back.

Now's your time.

- I haven't really shared this to anyone else but only to Carl and a few people but I'm also out here for my sister, Faith.

She had gotten into a serious car accident just recently and she is still in the hospital now but she's doing a little bit better.

I just wanted to give you guys that information of what of what's been happening currently in my life.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for sharing.

- I appreciate.

- We're on it with you DJ.

- Indeed.

- But what does that, what is that?

What is something for you in your life you're carrying around today that you brought to this weekend?

Can you think of it?

Would, you might be a relationship, might be some grief, might be some sadness, might be anger.

I'm mad at this person and I'm carrying it, whatever it is, might be shame.

Regret that you're carrying, fear about something.

And just maybe you could begin to identify what that thing is and how it might just begin to shift on this weekend.

Just a little, find some chances on this weekend to risk letting one of your brothers here to support you in that process.

To risk letting someone have your back, letting someone encourage you about the thing you fear the very most, the thing you keep private.

Then maybe there'll be an opportunity on this weekend to not have to try to do the hardest things in your life, all by yourself.

- I'm just going to say it.

One of the things that I have to work through.

I never received the blessing of my father.

I was putting my life on hold, my power on hold cause I thought in order to be a man in order to be the man I needed to be I needed that man's blessing and it was never going to come.

So I would never get what I needed if I didn't let that go.

This is the work man.

We're doing it.

- All right.

I love you guys.

- Love you too, man.

- All right, let's go back.

- All right.

- All right.

- Thank you.

(Man laughs) - Take a short left when you get out of cave.

- I'm Tim, this is my third Rite of passage.

It's a way for us to kind of relive, you know, positive way our own adolescents and in our own growing up.

- [Michael] I think you told me too this has been kind of healing for you.

- Yeah.

Healing for adolescents, that was a challenging time for me.

I didn't feel very good about myself and didn't realize at the time but mostly it was because I didn't feel like I measured up as a young man.

Wasn't good at sports and wasn't dating and all that sort of stuff.

So- - I'm Manuel, I'm in the board of Boys to Men.

I'm the treasurer.

Been involved with the organization for about three years.

And it is always amazing to see particularly in nature, the impact of, you know that nature has on kids that are mostly city boys and that have a really not much opportunity to do this.

- My name is Idan.

I grew up in gangs and without a father and you know, all that stuff that maybe some of these guys can relate to.

And it's just a, it's a really good feeling that they have this opportunity and that they have these these men that care about them and love them.

And you know, it's just beautiful because you know, we love them and they love us and it's just all given you know, so it's just a beautiful experience.

And it's really a blessing to be a part of it.

- [Michael] You know, the thing about Rite of passage work is we think of the boys and we think of them making that journey.

But the real part about Rite of passage work is about men.

The men have to show up repeatedly time and time again.

Men need to be doing this work to be okay.

We began to do work on some of our own stuff from our own teenage years.

You know, we heal our own wounds.

- My name is Alexander Smith.

This is my stick.

And I'm involved with boys men through Goodwill Metro.

And it's a program I've been working through for awhile.

I guess I'm seeking a lot of spiritual guidance, you know and looking into myself.

And I found a lot of that in, in Boys to Men.

It's also helped me find out like who I want to be.

You know, like I think now I want to work in the community and like having something to offer, whether it's just being there to listen.

It's definitely given me a lot of purpose that I didn't have before.

(indistinct chattering) - Right (laughs) - You're an angel.

- They use to do that in the olden days warmed up rocks then they put them in the hands.

- [Michael] You know, the truth is we're all human beings.

We have vulnerabilities, we have weaknesses.

It's healthy to have a feeling reaction to my world.

It's healthy that I have sadness and grief, but for young boys growing up today, if no men ever show and tell them that, how are they going to feel safe to express anything?

(wood burning and crackling) (indistinct chattering) - [Tom] For more on Boys to Men Tucson, visit their website at btm-tucson.com.

Last September, Old Tucson, the tourist attraction in Western film studio built in 1939 closed indefinitely.

It's not the first time that this location of movies such as Rio Bravo and The Three Amigos and TV shows like Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza was forced to close its doors.

26 years ago this month, fire consumed more than 75% of the MOC Old West city.

The next morning, crews from Arizona Public Media or KUAT as it was known then, got a tour of the devastation.

- [Peggy] When you first walk into Old Tucson, it's almost as though nothing has changed, but then the evidence of last week's devastating fire begins to come into focus.

- The Golden Nugget stood right here.

It was actually, we use it as an ice cream parlor and restaurant, but it dates back to several John Wayne movies.

Remember the McLintock?

It was the McLintock hotel.

It was the hotel in Rio Bravo, another John Wayne film.

So, that's gone.

- So how much history was lost right here?

- Lots.

I mean movie history, particularly if we go into Mexican Plaza, probably the most photographed area in the park constantly.

And again, it goes from 1939, all the way up to the present.

It was used, you know, Tombstone use the front of it for the opening scenes in Tombstone.

And then it goes clear back again to 39, so.

You can look at a lot of movies and see the Mission and Golden Gate Mountain up there kind of go hand in hand.

And that's an identifying point of was the film actually done at Old Tucson in that.

- [Peggy] Estimates vary depending on who you ask and what they are basing it on.

But the official Old Tucson estimate is that 40% of the park and studio were lost in the fire last week.

- Loot at the Reno.

That's what's devastating to me.

I just, every time I look at that it looks like a monument set there or something.

Now that's really got history that goes clear to the 1870s - [Peggy] Been on lots of movie - [Man] Lots of movies.

That's really a shame.

(wild western music) (wild western music) (wild western music) (wild western music) (wild western music) - While the future of Old Tucson is unclear.

Pima county's Old Tucson taskforce, recently expressed hope to have the Old West attraction reopened by sometime next fall.

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We'll see you next week.

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