In 1998, Tucson Audubon Society acquired a 20-acre homestead northwest of Tucson at the intersection of Thornydale and Hardy Roads. This land was donated to Tucson Audubon by Mrs. Orpha Mason, who came to Tucson as an independent young woman in 1934. She valued the Ironwood-Saguaro forest that surrounded her home but that was rapidly diminishing as Tucson grew through the 80s and 90s. Her instruction to Tucson Audubon was to use her property as an Ironwood-Saguaro nature preserve and environmental education center for the public.

Tucson Audubon Society put Mrs. Mason's directive into effect almost immediately by holding its first Ironwood Festival in 1999 and almost every year since then. Named for the local ironwood tree, an important, endemic species to the northern Sonoran Desert that often blooms purple in late spring, this Festival offers a variety of local ecology-based activites for kids and adults. We partner with many other local organizations for the Festival like Friends of Ironwood Forest, the Arizona Native Plant Society, Tucson Herpetological Society, the Local Trust, Desert Harvesters, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

This year the Ironwood Festival takes place on Saturday, May 15 and runs from 8:00 a.m. to noon and it is FREE! Special features of this year’s event include presentations on the unique attributes of Ironwood Forest National Monument, native tree planting for carbon sequestration, live critters including a gila monster, bird identification and migration games for kids, trail walks to learn about edible plants in the desert, a natural history used book sale, and lots more! For full event information, visit the Tucson Audubon website at  or contact Lia. You can also download a PDF of the complete event listings.

The Mason Center is not yet open to the public, except during special events like the Ironwood Festival. This free, family-friendly event is a great chance to visit the Center and explore the ironwood-saguaro forest! We hope to see you there!