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The short-lived Papago Saguaro National Monument
Shortly after statehood in 1912, the Phoenix and Maricopa County Board of Trade began an effort to have what is now Papago Park declared either a national park or a national monument. Originally, the committee recommended the creation of a “National Cactus Park” just like Yellowstone National Park, the Yosemite National Park and the Mount Rainer National Park.”
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Flagstaff’s early opposition to Forest Reserves
“Hell and another Forest Reserve has been created at Flagstaff.”
This phrase greeted Fred S. Breen in August, 1898, at the railroad stop in Laury Junction, N.M. Breen was en route to report as supervisor of the Prescott Forest Reserve in Arizona, but was intercepted by U.S. Forest Service Superintendent John D. Benedict, who rerouted Breen to Flagstaff.
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Pioneer Aviators
In 1916, four men were assigned to fly reconnaissance with General John “Blackjack” Pershing’s punitive expeditionary forces in Mexico to help chase Pancho Villa.
Ira Rader, John B. Brooks, Ralph Royce and Arthur Reed Christie were among America’s earliest military aviators and were frequent visitors to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
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‘No one died a natural death in Globe’
“It says here Aunt Susie died,” said George Smalley, reading a letter from home at the family dinner table. “Oh, who shot her?” asked his daughter Yndia. It seemed like everyone died that way in Globe in those days.
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Wanted: 10 Explorers!
During the summer of 1933, a scientific reconnaissance project, “Rainbow Bridge/Monument Valley Expedition” (RBMVE) began in the remote reaches of northeastern Arizona. The idea was conceived by Ansel Franklin Hall of the National Park Service, following a suggestion by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes.
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Admission Day
Admission Day is a nearly forgotten day in the history of Arizona.
Sept. 26, 1864, was the date “men, by organizing and beginning work, brought American government to the newest unit of America.”
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The Globe flood of 1904
The rain began as a gentle shower. An hour later, six people were drowned and the damages amounted to half-a-million dollars. They called it the Globe flood, but the official government name was the Pinal Creek Flood, since it was the creek that did the flooding, not the town.
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Water: Feast and famine in early Phoenix
Irrigation helped make Phoenix an attractive place to live for many of the pioneers who were heading west to California in the 1800s. Mrs. Columbus Gray started toward California with her husband in 1868 in a wagon train from Arkansas.
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John C. Frémont
People have always come to Arizona for a new beginning or to reinvent themselves. John C. Frémont, “The Great Pathfinder,” was no exception.
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A century of weather
Early U.S. Forest Service (USFS) scientists assigned to study the northern Arizona forests realized the importance of climate when it comes to the life of trees. One of the first tasks researchers undertook was to establish weather-recording equipment at the nation’s first USFS forest research site at Fort Valley, near Flagstaff.
