The following is an original production of AZPM News.

(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, a new mural celebrates the women who've shaped the cultural, civil and historical landscape of Southern Arizona.

(Rhonda) The tremendous impact that women have had developing the culture, developing the art and the history.

(Tom) You've seen the signs, but do you know what The Thing actually is?

(Valkyrie) We see them pop up, "Hey, we're in The Thing," and they take these fun selfies with the dinosaurs and the aliens and they never give it away what The Thing is.

(Tom) We'll show you why this new form of golf is taking off in Tucson.

(Dillon) Disc golf attracts every person from every walk of life, and that's really what makes it so unique.

(Tom) And members of the Intellectual and Developmentally Disabled Community share their stories of bravery.

(Iris) This program was also to help me and my friends get jobs in the future.

Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

First up, the mural you see behind me here, commissioned by Rio Nuevo, is called Women Weaving History, and it honors southern Arizona's trailblazing females.

It's a nice connection to the region's past and also a reminder of what true grit looks like today.

♪ UPBEAT ROCK SONG ♪ (Jessica) My husband is my assistant.

When we're out painting together, people will go out of their way to talk to him because they assume that he's the artist.

(Camila) I had a suit on with spraying the mural of every single person that walked by was like, congrats man, good job, bro.

You're killing it, man.

Yeah, I didn't realize that only men paint murals.

♪ UPBEAT ROCK SONG ♪ (Rhonda) One thing that is groundbreaking that is happening in Tucson right now is the murals that are going up from women and not just men.

[ BEEPING ] (Jessica) We're making a mural here right next to JoJo's and it is a mural that's celebrating women and women's roles in carrying culture and tradition through generations and through history and into modern times.

♪ SOMBER AMBIENT SONG ♪ (Camila) The thing we started with was the fabric draped throughout the piece.

We wanted that to be significant to how women have woven the history and the culture.

(Pen) We were toying with using women, historical figures in Tucson and we ended up moving into women we know.

Somebody was walking past and was like, "That looks just like my grandma."

And that's exactly what we want.

We want you to see your own women in your life who are creating your traditions.

(Jessica) Beautiful thing about painting murals is that every single one is unique.

For this particular project, there are three of us.

The first challenge was kind of taking all of our voices and all of our creative styles and merging them into one.

So it was a very comprehensive design process.

That involved research, learning about what defines this area, kind of conceptualizing what we wanted the piece to be about.

And it's an old building, it's a historical building.

So there was a lot of work to the building that needed to happen too.

And then the image gets transferred onto the wall.

Now we're in the painting process.

So.

♪ SOMBER AMBIENT SONG ♪ (Camila) A lot of people like for Tucson murals to have landscape and certain plants.

So the prickly pear is something that's native to Tucson.

That the corn, the beans and the squash.

Those three ladies in the middle were really fun for me because I got that photo about a year ago by a local photographer named Steve Renzi.

So that picture is of three ladies in a parade at Mission Gardens during the prayer for rain and for the monsoons.

Right by the Santa Cruz River and all that.

The talavera in the sky is like a style of art in Mexican culture.

Although like all those pots that you see with those pretty colorful patterns, talavera.

So there's gonna be stuff like the sun is gonna be embroidered.

Just to kind of tie into the idea of women weaving and stitching our culture, so.

♪ SOMBER AMBIENT SONG ♪ (Rhonda) Historically, after Kit Carson and the soldiers came and decimated the orchards and the livestock and the crops for the Navajo and they were taken to Bosque Redondo.

When they came back, women weavers basically rose up and created a cash economy, and the value in these beautiful weavings created the ability to trade for essentials.

(Pen) This lady, she's a Tohono O'odham.

She was a mother of six.

Her name is Rosemary Benson.

She is representing the beginning of the culture here in Tucson and she's got devil's claw in her basket because Tohono O'odham used devil's claw.

And in fact, when I sent her kids the rendering, they said she used to collect devil's cloth.

So it's like kind of a beautiful moment.

And then in this next frame, there's an abuela making tamales with a little girl.

And it's actually my daughter and her abuela and they make tamales together every year.

I feel like every Hispanic family in Tucson can relate to making tamales with generations, and then there's Hispanic textile weaving through the background.

And then the sky has an atomi design and when we're done there will be like elements that look like they're stitched into the wall going into the man in the maze design.

And then a little Easter egg, there's a stork in the sky.

In the 30s, there was a holistic birth center and it was something like for $20.

They would take care of a mother for like 14 days.

This is like very early in like our medical development.

So we wanted to kind of honor that.

(Rhonda) When we opened the museum, Jim Conley and I in 2013, we were so impressed as we reviewed the landscape of the desert Southwest.

The tremendous impact that women have had developing the culture, developing the art and the history.

This is a very unique part of the world because women and ethnic minorities have had such a major impact on what we have become.

The True Grit experience is a group of women that I personally selected because the political situation today with the current administration has underscored the need to look to these women and the achievements that they have made for women.

This exhibition takes us to a place where we realize how important those achievements have become to us.

(Jessica) I personally feel that grit and how it relates to being a woman specifically is that it kind of means like maintaining a softness, but then having strength and courage at the same time, which I think is sort of a superpower in a way.

There's an expectation that women need to be soft.

There's something very special about owning that softness and persevering at the same time.

So kind of like pushing through adversity and choosing courage.

(Pen) We are where we are today because of like so many women who persevered, who pushed against oppression and built the freedom we have today.

Rosemary Benson, I grew up with her children.

She kept the culture so vibrant for her children that her children are now advocates for the tribe and for giving children in the Tohono O'odham tribe opportunities.

So that is a woman with grit.

[ LAUGHING ] (Camila) It's crazy the climate that we live in today and the rights that people think that women shouldn't have.

I don't understand why women are viewed as different, as deserving of less than or other things than men.

(Jessica) If you really were to give in to how much pushback there is from the world, that could be easy, but having grit means just fighting through all that.

(Rhonda) It's important for people to be involved right now.

It's absolutely critical.

If people aren't involved, we're going to be facing this same situation for years to come.

And people just, they can't look the other way right now.

They cannot.

It's not a time to put your head in the sand and say, "Oh, somebody else is going to resolve this situation."

♪ UPBEAT ROCK SONG ♪ (Jessica) We can't have a truly free society if half the population isn't free.

(Camila) Everyone can bring something to the table.

There's so many people in this world.

I think everyone has their right to choose what they want to do with their life.

And so it's just weird to put limitations on people.

(Jessica) Women do so much to care for their communities.

There's such a big role that is put onto women to do that.

So in order to be the best version of ourselves, we need to be able to advocate for ourselves.

Bottom line.

♪ UPBEAT ROCK SONG ♪ (Rhonda) The populace that we are and the community that we are looks ahead and says, "We fought so hard for all of this.

Let's not go backwards now."

♪ UPBEAT ROCK SONG ♪ Recently, Buc-ee's Travel Center opened its very first Arizona location in Goodyear to enormous fanfare, as you would imagine.

Well, here in Arizona, we have our own roadside attraction that's captivated drivers' attention for years.

With one simple question, what is The Thing?

(Valkyrie) We try really hard not to tell people.

They ask all the time, what is The Thing?

(Theodore) I tell them it's the mystery of the desert because according to legend, that case has not been open since 1965.

And so nobody knows what it is.

They have a ton of different stories.

(Ron) One was, could it be the remains of somebody from Pompeii?

I've had people say, well, could it be maybe somebody from Vietnam that got hit with napalm and they were still holding their child?

(Theodore) Some people say it's a mummy.

Some people say it's an alien.

(Valkyrie) And I'll always say, we have to go.

I can't tell you.

I can't give it away.

My favorite comment is, just remember, Roswell's not that far away.

And the crash in 1947, not everything has always been told.

And then I just turn around and walk away.

♪ LOW SYNTH ♪ (Valkyrie) In 1969, we leased the original Thing Museum from Janet Prince.

And then when she passed away, we took ownership of The Thing from her daughter.

We had an old museum to start with.

It was basically in three different warehouse buildings.

It was open air.

It was kind of quirky.

(Theodore) Used to be that you walked out the back door and you followed the little yellow footprints in which a lot of people know about.

(Valkyrie) And then one day we decided, hey, we can do something even better.

And we worked with a team of artists and creators to build this dinosaur alien kind of conspiracy theory museum.

Just to get people off the road, give them something fun to look at.

Then they can take a break from their travels.

(Ron) We see people from all over the world and I mean, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, South America, Ireland, England, France, Spain.

And a lot of people really appreciate it for what it is.

They have a lot of fun with it.

I always tell people that if you take the time you read the signage and you have an open mind, it makes for a very good story.

(Theodore) You'd be surprised how many people come in to see the old cars.

And they're really neat.

They've refurbished them, they look great.

I got dibs on the '32 Buick, but the Bolin family won't let it go.

[SNAP] [LAUGH] (Valkyrie) It's fun to see kids reactions, because these are big.

And to see them, they light up, their eyes get big.

And then they send us pictures and tag us and they're just so excited.

Growing up, we didn't have cell phones in a lot of this media we have now.

Before you knew about things, you would hear about things just from people talking.

Whether it's the biggest ball of twine or the biggest pistachio.

So it's been really interesting to see how the TikToks and Instagrams and Facebook, now you actually see it.

And people walk through with their cameras on.

You get a sneak peek and then it makes you wanna come back.

We see them pop up, "Hey, we're in the thing."

And they take these fun selfies with the dinosaurs and the aliens.

And they never give it away what The Thing is.

But it's really become kind of a revolution of these influencers.

(Ron) I see a lot of TikTokers, a lot of YouTubers that come through.

And I really appreciate them coming in because they encourage all of their followers to, if you're in the area, take the time, stop, come into stores.

So I do say thank you to all of them.

(Valkyrie) Everybody can fly, but getting on the road and really seeing this country and to see what all is out there.

To see these unique stores and attractions.

(Ron) I like to use the term stop and smell the roses because life's really short and it's only what you're willing to make of it.

And the world has so much to offer if you just take the time.

You find out things that are quite interesting and it goes back to the old question, what if?

If you've seen people throwing discs around Tucson parks and you're wondering what all the fuss is about, well, it's about the growing sport of disc golf.

And if you spend some time on the local courses, you'll see that this sport is about more than competition for the players.

It's about a place of belonging.

♪ SYNTH NOTE MUSIC ♪ (Dillon) A couple of my buddies that I grew up with come across disc golf out on the Santa Cruz River path.

♪ SYNTH RIFF ♪ Happened to stumble upon a disc that was in the path, picked it up like most people do that don't know where they are.

Looking around thinking somebody's throwing a frisbee, what is this?

Sure enough, a couple disc golfers come rolling up, hey, that's ours.

They can explain what they're doing.

They got into it through that and when I came back, they were like, you gotta try this, man.

♪ UPBEAT MUSIC ♪ You know, it was one of those things, I played it once and I was like, this is it.

I love this, this is great, I think I'm gonna do this now.

[ LAUGH ] ♪ UPBEAT MUSIC ♪ (Steven) First time I ever played was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

My dad brought me out to a course on the side of a mountain and it was awful.

My disc went about 400 feet past the basket and I said, "I'm done".

Fast forward about a year or two, he moved down here to Tucson.

We went out to Groves and it was a lot easier because it was flat.

So it made it a lot more fun and I just picked it up from there and just loved it.

♪ UPBEAT MUSIC ♪ My friend actually lived down the street and he knew a little bit more about it than I did and one day we were just playing basketball in the front yard.

So we just came out and I got stuck on it.

♪ UPBEAT MUSIC ♪ Everybody turn in tags, tag is with Dylan.

You don't have a tag, I'm so- All right, let's do it.

(Dillon) If someone were to show up to, let's say, the Thursday league, the first thing we would do is explain what disc golf is, what we're doing, why we're gathered there.

The least amount of disc golf you play, the better.

Less throws, the better.

You wanna have fun.

Most fun wins though.

That's what I like to say.

You can have a 65-year-old man competing against a 12-year-old kid and there could be like a 30-year-old lady in that division too.

Anyone can play in it and it's awesome.

And it just, like you said, it just brings people together from all different walks of life, races, you name it.

If you can throw a frisbee, you can play.

[ METAL CLINK ] (Dillon) There are essentially four different kinds of discs.

You have your high speed drivers.

This is for throwing distance shots off the tee.

You have fairway drivers, which are a little bit slower in speed.

You have your mid ranges, that's for shorter distances.

And then you have putters.

Putters are self-explanatory.

They're when you're on the green for putting and it's, these are our clubs.

(Steven) There's lots of different uses for them.

Some of them, when you throw them will kind of fade left, some will fade right.

All depends on, the disc itself.

You can throw like a backhand throw where you're throwing it this way or like forehand where you're kind of throwing it this way.

There's overhand, there's a million different throws.

Or you can go out and buy a frisbee for $5 on a used rack and come out here and play this course for free.

That alone, opposed to traditional golf, that'll draw a lot more people because all you need is like two frisbees and you're good to go.

(Cruz) I live right in the neighborhood, so I come here every day that I can.

Besides working out and stuff and working, this is always my resort.

There's just really great people surrounding here, great environment, and you just always feel comfortable.

[ YELLING ] That Thursday league has been running there for 20 plus years in that park, at that course.

The longest running league in Tucson.

(Cruz) I love being competitive.

I played college baseball, and I got hurt, I tore my labrum.

So I just got back from surgery, and it's just a great way to stay competitive, stay active, and just stay healthy with a lot of friends and people that are amazing to be around.

(Steven) I'm just a competitive person by nature.

Anything from Yahtzee to just a race, running.

If you wanna be competitive, I'm your person.

♪ LOW SYNTH ♪ I put up a post on Facebook saying, I'm gonna go to Thailand for my birthday in February.

I'm gonna be there for two weeks, who wants to go with me.

My buddy Joey, who's another disc golfer, he's from North Carolina.

He says, "Hey Steve, they just announced an Asia disc golf tour.

Do you wanna go, instead of two weeks, do you wanna go for 75 days?"

And I said, "yes."

We started booking tickets to go to Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, China, it was really cool.

I won five out of the seven tournaments that were on tour, and then I won two tournaments off tour.

So out of the nine tournaments, I won seven of them and I came in second twice.

♪ LOW BEAT ♪ (Dillon) When I got into designing disc golf courses, I was working with the Tucson Disc Golf Association as the club president.

The opportunity to install the disc golf course here at Lakeside Park had come to us, and that was really my first opportunity to design a permanent course.

My peer that helps me take care of and maintain this place, he always says, "If you build it, they will come."

And sure enough, we had over 1,000 rounds played in the first month that this course was open.

And when I saw those stats come in, I was just blown away.

Even to this day, it's been several years now.

When I see this parking lot full and I see disc golf stickers on the car and know it's all disc golfers, it's awesome.

One perfect example of this is the Loma Verde course over behind the Park Mall.

The community in that neighborhood were a little standoffish about having disc golf in that park, cuz they didn't know what kind of people it was gonna bring.

And now, when you go to that same community, they're singing nothing but praise.

And the biggest reason for that is public policing, because there are disc golfers in there all hours of the day, going up and down the park, reporting anything, if something is seen and even then, it just deters them.

And the same goes for here at Lakeside.

We take a lot of pride in maintaining this property, keeping it clean, keeping the trash out, and a lot of people from (Steven) I run the local Facebook page, and people post on there all the time, hey, I'm new to town, I'm gonna be playing at this course, if anyone wants to join me.

Some people will chime in and be like, hey, I've been playing here for years, I'll show you around, and people are really nice.

It's very friendly.

(Dillon) It can be such a casual game that you can find yourself in a really deep conversation about life, or you're literally just cracking jokes back and forth with your buddy.

(Cruz) I feel like it's always an escape from whatever you may be dealing with or whatever may be frustrating you, whether it's a bad day at work or whatever hobbies you may be doing, it's just an escape to take a deep breath that always relaxes you.

I do struggle with a little bit of depression.

And this is one of those outlets.

I find it very leveling to get outside, get in the sun, throw some discs, really just take your mind off of things and just be in that moment.

It's so welcoming and it's really open to anybody.

Anybody can come out and throw some frisbees and have a good time.

And I think that that's definitely changed a lot of lives.

[ METAL CLANGING ] In August 2026, Arizona Public Media and Tucson Spotlight worked with the Tucson Jewish Community Center's day program, Taglit B'Yachad to host a storytelling workshop and live event at the Baker Center for Public Media.

The collaboration highlighted the experiences of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The goal was to build stronger relationships with the IDD community and share stories in their own words.

In the workshop, participants chose to talk about a time that they were brave, and here's Iris Lobel with her story.

Hello, my name is Iris, and today I am going to talk to you about something that happened to me that was very special last year.

Last year, my would-be boss told me about a shop they were running in the back of the J, where we still hold hats, bags, and our most important, coffee, which was the biggest seller.

I was to be one of the first of a cohort that would raise money for the J for our disabilities program.

This program was also to help me and my friends get jobs in the future.

I had to sign a paper that said I wanted the job, even though I was nervous.

Next, I wrote a resume with the help of my program staff.

They helped me with the wording of what I wanted to say.

It was the—and I thought to myself, "What did I get myself into?"

The following day came the most important part, the interview, the hardest part of the whole process.

I wasn't sure how I was going to act at first, but I was instructed to act natural.

I was able to push through the interview and nail it.

I wasn't sure how I did until my boss told me the very same day that I got the job.

I had a mix of relief and anxiety, and the difficulty of sleep also came.

I knew I was going to have to push through any emotions that came, and that I was going to have to work harder than I ever had.

And I had to please myself before I could please others.

I knew the expectations were to be on time, looking clean, and wearing a smile at work.

Then came the actual work.

Something I noticed right away is that my emotions and coworkers' emotions affected workflow.

Some days I had to put in more, and other days they had to put in more for me.

(Tom) This public storytelling event was supported by the Reynolds Journalism Institute in partnership with WordSlaw.

You can find out more about this collaboration and see all the stories on our website, azpm.org.

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We'll see you again next week.