Arizona family rescued Arizona relics...

What may arguably be his greatest historical ``save'' is front and center for all to see: the portal from the old San Agustin Cathedral, which now graces the entrance to the Arizona Historical Society.

But for decades, many of George Chambers' other "rescues" - varying from the bar at Tombstone's famous Birdcage Theater to old courthouse documents dumped down a mine shaft - have enjoyed little visibility. Until now.

On May 3, that all changes when the Arizona Historical Society presents: "Saving History: the George Chambers Family Legacy."

The exhibit, which begins with a fundraiser celebration, will then be on permanent display at the museum.

And what an exhibit it is, with vignettes showcasing everything from the aforementioned bar where legends such as Wyatt Earp and Johnny Ringo bent elbows, to the registration desk of Tucson's old Orndorff Hotel, check-in site for everyone from Buffalo Bill to Gen. Nelson Miles.

Deborah Shelton, director of the society's Southern Arizona Division, calls the collection ``massive'' in scale.

Its upcoming exhibit, she adds, is a way to honor and celebrate donor and philanthropists such as George Chambers and various members of his family, who have generously donated items to the society over the years.

"They illustrate saving and preserving history," said Shelton. "They were so connected to the community and honored the history of it."

So who was this George Chambers?

Born in Kansas in 1901, young George was a teenager when he and his family wound up in Arizona purely by chance, says grandson Dan Chambers, who is a board member of AHS and contributed several items to the exhibit.

"They were going to California and camped at the side of the road," says Dan Chambers. "Another family heading east was camped across the way. They wanted to sell their dairy in Arizona and get a farm in Missouri."

George's parents had a farm in Missouri. And so a swap was made.

The family settled first at Fort Huachuca, and later Tombstone. With no high school in Fort Huachuca, young George enrolled at Bisbee's high school, took up residence in the basement of a Bisbee bordello and worked after school at the mine.

He spent a short time at what is now Arizona State University, joined the Navy at the tail end of World War I, then landed in Tucson.

Here, he enrolled at the University of Arizona, becoming business manager of the Wildcat and editor of the yearbook.

"He was dirt poor when he got out of school," says Dan Chambers. "He and my grandmother lived in a tent at Sixth Avenue and Grant Road for most of the 1920s."

Times got better. Chambers wound up working for what was then the Tucson Daily Citizen, and later, the Arizona Daily Star, rising to business manager at both papers.

When Tucson Newspapers Incorporated was formed in 1940, he became its business manager, a post he held until his 1963 retirement.

He also served on the Arizona Board of Regents, did one term on the Tucson City Council and served on various boards.

But his lasting legacy was in preserving our past. In the 1930s he led a campaign to save the original San Agustin Cathedral, which after its closure in 1897 degenerated into everything from a whorehouse to a fight arena.

The cathedral was razed in 1936, but not before Chambers had its portal removed block by block, numbered, then built into his own home. In the mid-'70s, it was rebuilt into the front of the Arizona Historical Society.

Chambers also swooped in before the old Orndorff Hotel was demolished in 1934, rescuing its registration desk, mailboxes and assorted furniture.

Even the seemingly mundane was precious in Chambers' eyes.

When the Cochise County seat was moved from Tombstone to Bisbee in 1929, courthouse workers dumped a lot of old court records down a mine shaft, says Dan Chambers.

"They knew there was a pit right under the courthouse so they pulled up a plank and dropped them down."

Undeterred, George Chambers did some research and found an old map that showed how to get into that mine shaft.

"He and my grandmother followed that map," says Dan Chambers. "They were wearing little pith helmets. They finally found the documents. Some of them go back to the 1880s."

Those too, will be on display - just a few of the many historical treasures saved by this remarkable man for future generations to savor.