Grace Sparkes

Grace Sparks stands next to the Coronado National Memorial Headquarters sign. NPS photo.

Quick Facts

Significance:

Advocate for National Parks, including Tuzigoot and Coronado.

Place of Birth:

South Dakota

Date of Birth:

1893

Place of Death:

Arizona

Date of Death:

1963

Grace Marion Sparkes was born in South Dakota in 1893. In 1906, when she was 13, her family moved to the Arizona Territory. Her father, TJ Sparkes, Sr., bought several mines in the area, and in 1930, was elected Arizona State Mining Inspector. When her father died, Grace inheirited his mines.

Grace worked for the Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce in Arizona, and later became the Immigration Commissioner, a position she held until 1945. In these positions, Grace often pushed for the preservation of historic sites in the state. After leaving her position, Grace and her sister Charity moved to Hereford, Arizona where, for the next twenty years, they worked the State of Texas Mine that Grace had inheirited. They saw little profit.

From the 1930s, Grace was an advocate for national parks. She supported the excavation of the ruins of the Tuzigoot Pueblo during the Great Depression and advocated for establishing it as a national monument. She later secured a grant to build a museum adjacent to Tuzigoot. Grace also played a crucial role in establishing Coronado National Monument and expanding Montezuma Castle National Monument. By 1960, Grace worked part-time as a Park Historian documenting park histories and providing historical interpretation to park visitors.

Grace never married. She died at age 70 in 1963.

More information:
Grace Sparkes Photographs Finding Aid at the Arizona Historical Society