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How They Got Stuff to the Dam

Greer is nestled in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona and is known for its untouched beauty and abundant wildlife. SR373, Arizona’s “Road to Nowhere,” terminates there, depositing travelers onto the town’s main street, which is lined with lodges, cabins, restaurants, a library, two fire stations, and sadly, since May 10, the smoldering remains of the Greer Lodge.

On the historic Sanborne Fire Insurance maps of downtown Flagstaff, this imposing, walled sandstone open court is listed as a ruin, nearly from the time it was built in 1926.

Sidney R. DeLong was one of Arizona’s early Anglo settlers — an engineer, miner, soldier, editor, historian and businessman. Unlike the stereotypical Westerner of his era, he was also a man of conscience, integrity and refinement.

While on a horseback near Flagstaff’s Elden Mountain in the fall of 1916, Mary Russell-Ferrell Colton made an impressive discovery that would eventually lead to a years-long naming battle between colleagues.

“I liked the tax portions of the jobs bill but didn’t care for the jobs portion of that bill.” — Sen. Andy Biggs, on his opposition to tax credits.

In November 1911, R.L. “Birdman” Fowler made a stop at the Bisbee Country Club on a cross-country air trip and became the first man to fly into the copper mining camp (Didier Masson whose plane appears in this photo was the first to fly out of Bisbee in February 1911, but his biplane was shipped into Bisbee by railroad.)

In the 1920s, a Hollywood director wanted to blow up the side of Sunset Crater for a movie avalanche scene. Flagstaff residents immediately objected.

On an outing from Fort Huachuca, this trio of unidentified soldiers hiked through a dense mesquite bosque to a clearing overlooking the San Pedro River near the crumbling remains of Charleston.

The view across 1880s Tucson from Sentinel Peak toward the barely visible Santa Catalina Mountains reveals a snapshot of a town on the cusp of an evolution.