Tony Zimmerman papers
The Mount Lemmon Inn. Owned and operated by Tony Zimmerman for 20 years. (Box 3 folder 8)
Collection area: Arizona and Southwest
Collection dates: 1928-2007
The collection contains the manuscripts of Tony Zimmerman. The writings are largely short stories that cover topics from personal and family history to commentary pieces. Also included are photographs of Mount Lemmon, newspapers, manuscripts by other authors, research materials, and personal materials. Some of the material in the collection was included in the published work The Road to Mount Lemmon by his daughter, Mary Ellen Barnes.
Tony Zimmerman was born in Osborn, Kansas in 1893 to Swiss German immigrant parents. He would go on to earn a teaching certificate in 1912 and would later settle in Blue, Arizona, where he taught for several years. By 1920, Zimmerman met and married Sena, a fellow teacher. The couple had five children together: Marjorie Joyce, Frankling, Mary Ellen, Norma Ann, and Robert.
Zimmerman continued to teach, moving to several small towns in Arizona to do so. Yet during a drought, the Zimmerman family returned to Kansas for a few years. By 1926, Zimmerman had moved the family back to the Tucson area where he taught at Stafford Junior High School for 18 years.
Zimmerman traveled to Mount Lemmon with a friend in 1937, and in 1943 he resigned from his teaching position to move his family to Mount Lemmon permanently. Until his death in 1996, at the age of 103, Zimmerman worked to develop the community of Summerhaven.
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