Erik Berg

Award-winning historian and writer Erik Berg has been exploring and researching the unique history and culture of the American Southwest for over twenty-five years. Berg grew up in Flagstaff and attended the University of Arizona where his archaeology classes led to field work experience at prehistoric, Old West, and Spanish Colonial sites in southern Arizona. Today he lives in Phoenix and has a special interest in topics related to the role of science, technology, and business in the American West.

In addition to contributing to several books on Southwest history, his work has appeared in Arizona Highways, Sedona Magazine, and the Journal of Arizona History. He is a past president of the Grand Canyon Historical Society and a speaker with Arizona Humanities.

Berg became curious about Arizona’s wine history after visiting several tasting rooms in 2014 and hearing conflicting stories on how and when winemaking first came to the Southwest. That launched two years of research through museum archives, archaeological reports, government records, and newspaper accounts, as well as interviews with living winemakers. In 2016, he presented the results of his work at the Arizona History Convention where it won the first-place Barry Goldwater Award for best paper. Berg’s lengthy follow-up article in the Autumn 2018 issue of the Journal of Arizona History was the first detailed historical account of Arizona’s wine industry.