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.

The Springerville “Madonna of the Trail” looms 18 feet high across from the Post Office on Main Street, also known as Highway 60. She has 11 identical sisters, each in a different state: Bethesda, Md.; Beallsville, Pa.; Springfield, Ohio; Wheeling, W.Va.; Vandalia, Ill.; Richmond, Ind.; Lexington, Miss.; Council Grove, Kan.; Lamar, Colo.; Albuquerque, N.M. and Upland, Calif.

John Clum figured that every tombstone needed an epitaph. In 1880, he founded Tombstone, Arizona’s, most famous newspaper, The Epitaph. He prided himself on providing his readers the opportunity to read their epitaph every day before breakfast.

Flagstaff hotel owner John W. Weatherford envisioned a toll road from Flagstaff up to the timberline of the San Francisco Peaks; similar to the road up Pikes Peak in Colorado.

Williams Lane Rogers was born Dec. 29, 1944, in Salt Lake City. The 30-year Arizona resident chose to go by “Lane” because there was already a somewhat-famous “Will” Rogers in the world.

Rogers, who died July 30 at the age of 64, would leave his own lasting impression on those who knew him, starting with a 23-year-old girl responding to a job ad in 1977.

Colonel Charles D. Poston, self-named “Father of Arizona,” commissioned the opulent treasure while serving as Arizona Territory’s first delegate to Congress. He presented it to the president in March 1865, as a gift of appreciation for splitting New Mexico Territory in half to create Arizona in 1863.

“Look for the mine with the iron door, Jimmy,” my dad said. When I was about six years old, Dad told me the legend of the lost mine and the Spanish missionaries who mined silver and gold on the north side of the Catalina Mountains. We’d leave Tucson in the dark to hunt quail on Golder Ranch, Owl’s Head, or Tecolote northwest of town….

In 1879, six men met in Globe, Ariz., to discuss leaving their respective Masonic temples.

Their first task was to figure out if enough of them were actually willing to dimit (a Masonic term used for a written certification of honorable withdrawal from membership) from their respective lodges to establish a new lodge of Free & Accepted Masons in the small town east of Mesa.

Charles D. Poston was born in Hardin County Kentucky on April 20, 1825. At age 12, he was apprenticed to the County Clerk’s Office for seven years, after which he studied law and was admitted to the Bar.

The 1873 and 1876 migrations into Arizona Territory by the Church of Latter-day Saints (LDS) primarily followed the wildly fluctuating course of the Little Colorado River. Town sites initially established at river’s edge were often washed out, which caused settlers to move to higher ground. The settlers usually located at sites that were already occupied by others, and today’s names of these locations often reflect LDS heritage. Following is a brief history of the names of some of these areas.