Shot on location at the Rosson House in Phoenix by Mark Peterman “My passion has always been the history of the American Southwest.”

It may seem, in his own words, “completely serendipitous” that Eduardo Pagán has become the newest detective on PBS’s hit TV show History Detectives. The Arizona State University history professor got the gig after a series of events that began when he put his name on a scholarly Internet e-mail forum a decade ago. But early clues pointed to his future role as a Sherlock Holmes of antiquities.

“In my first book I was trying to solve an unsolved murder [in 1942] in Los Angeles, and I wrote it consciously as a detective novel,” he says. “The excitement of the hunt is something that motivates me.”

Next up for this Arizona native and author of Historic Photos of Phoenix is a book about violence in Territorial Arizona that ended with a shootout at Broadway Road and 48th Street in Tempe. At press time, he was filming a History Detectives episode attempting to determine whether a rock in South Mountain Park purportedly inscribed by Spanish missionary/explorer Marcos de Niza is authentic. The new season begins in June, so tune in to find out.

How did you get interested in history?
I was taking a class straight out of community college, and my teacher was [Representative] Mo Udall’s sister, Inez Turley. I have to confess that up till that time, history was terribly boring to me. [But] she conveyed such a passion for history that it just clicked in my mind.

Is there a particular theme you’re passionate about in history?
My passion has always been the history of the American Southwest…. I had friends visit me when I lived in Washington, D.C., for a while. They would always say, ‘Wow, there’s such history here,’ and I would think, ‘What are you talking about? Humans have been occupying Arizona for thousands and thousands of years, and their dwellings are still around.’ There’s an antiquity to Arizona that is so obvious, but so many people don’t see it.

What’s your favorite part of being a co-host on History Detectives?
Getting out and meeting other people who are passionate about history. So many of these people are unsung heroes just working away in small museums and love what they do. You recognize someone who’s of your tribe.

If you could live during any time and place in history, when and where would it be?
I would pick the late Anasazi Period, from about 1200 to 1400 A.D. – the ancient Pueblo peoples – because there were so many dynamics going on that led to their collapse as a social organization. A lot of it had to do with climate change… and new religious practices that were being imported from South America. I’m endlessly fascinated by the level of sophistication they had.

The Wall Street Journal recently ranked “historian” in the top five best jobs in the U.S. What’s so great about the job?
I do find a lot of satisfaction listening to previous generations. I really strive to understand them as they understood themselves…. By understanding how people really tried to grapple with very complex issues of their time, that gives us some insight into how we can grapple with issues in our time. I wouldn’t say that history repeats itself. But there are themes that repeat themselves…. History is the story of the human experience, and there are some marvelous stories out there, both ennobling and tragic.