April 6, 2022

Old Tucson prepares to reopen under new management

New company is shooting for opening by Halloween

120111 Old Tucson 617_347
AZPM

The Pima County Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to approve an agreement with American Heritage Railroads to reopen Old Tucson. The legendary film studio and western-themed tourist attraction, first opened in 1939, closed two years ago due to the pandemic.

American Historic Railroads has a history of running historically themed tourist attractions. They are best known for running historical railroads in Durango Colorado and North Carolina's Smoky Mountains. John Harper will be the CEO in charge of getting Old Tucson back in business

He says his company will tap into Old Tucson's origins as a film studio - shooting films, commercials, and music videos – but that special events will also become a mainstay. They will start with Nightfall, a Halloween-themed event that has been popular in the past.

Harper: For Nightfall specifically, a major theatrical event takes about 6 months to produce," he says. "It needs a large staff and all that staff is going to be hired here locally. We expect there will be more than 125 jobs for that event alone."

He says once they have Nightfall under their belt, they will turn their attention to producing a Christmas-themed show to carry them through the end of the year.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona