Lon Megargee: The Southwest’s Cowboy Artist

It’s hard to find a more interesting character than Lon Megargee, the maverick artist who lived the cowboy life & then painted it. His legacy stretches from the murals at the Capital in Phoenix, Santa Fe Railroad posters, & A-1 Beer ads to the Stetson hat logo & pulp fiction magazines.

His Philadelphia upbringing gave way to the cowboy dream, & he headed to Arizona in 1896 & reinvented himself into an early version of the Marlboro Man. After a decade of cowboy life, he put down his rope & saddle & picked up a paintbrush. His most characteristic themes were the desert landscape, Native Americans, & the cowboy’s life – the grit as well as the romance.

Described as a lovable scoundrel, he was married 7 times; divorced only 4. His life reads like the pulp fiction he illustrated. He dealt poker in unsavory saloons, & was kidnapped & held for ransom by Pancho Villa's troops in Mexico. In his art, he portrayed many of the central myths of the West that absorbed his better-known contemporaries, Frederic Remington & Charles Russell. His career intersected with significant events & institutions connected with this state’s history. His tale is a good Arizona story.

Find out more about this fascinating character & see his work in a lively talk by Betsy Fahlman at the Pinal Co. Museum in Florence on Nov. 12th, at 2 p.m. Her program is underwritten by a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council & is presented free of charge.

Dr. Fahlman is Professor of Art History at Arizona State University, having taught there since 1988. A specialist in American art of the 19th & 20th centuries, she is the author of The Cowboy's Dream: The Mythic Life & Art of Lon Megargee (2002). Her book will be available for sale & signing.

Come early so you will have time to also explore the museum collection which includes everything from Apache playing cards to furniture made out of cactus. And don’t miss the sobering prison display of the nooses used for hangings & a double gas chamber execution chair. Learn about the shootouts & lady stagecoach robber form the days when Florence was a silver mining boom town.

Don’t miss the unique opportunity to find out about a real Arizona legend & visit a unique museum. For more information, contact the Pinal County Historical Society at 715 S. Main St. in Florence. Phone: 520-868-4382.