Sharlot Hall Museum presents the fifth annual Western History Symposium - a day of presentations by experts on Old West history - 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, at the Lawler Exhibit Center. The event is free.

Professor Timothy Braatz of Saddleback College in California will serve as keynote speaker. Dr. Braatz, author of "Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples," will discuss the lessons we can learn from the history of the Yavapai Indians.

The program will also feature three award-winning papers from the 2008 Arizona History Convention: "Arizona Politician Nellie Trent Bush" by Arizona State University professor Heidi Osselaer; "The Woolsey Women of Yavapai County" by Katrina Jagodinsky of the University of Arizona; and "Civil War Veteran, Indian Fighter and Arizona Pioneer Charles Veil," presented by his great-grandnephew Fred Veil.

Presentations rounding out the program are "Mountain Meadows Massacre" by Westerner Roland Michaelis; "Arizona's Overland Trail" by local historian Bruce Fee; "The Real Story of Jack Swilling" by local historian and author Al Bates; and a discussion of the opening and closing of the Western frontier by Gregory McNamee of Tucson.