Sign In
Free Newsletter
This Week in Arizona Political History – February 4 to 11
Friday, February 4 1903 The Salt River Valley Water Users Association was organized. 1919 The expressed desire of the state of Utah to purchase the “Arizona Strip” north of the Grand Canyon set off a storm of protest in Arizona. Saturday, February 5 1880 The Vekol Mine was located by John D. Walker, Peter R. […]
Central Avenue, Phoenix c. 1928
The photograph of Central Avenue in the 1920s shows the famous ash trees planted by pioneer William J. Murphy. Thye secord photograph is a 1903 view of the home he built on Central Avenue in the Orangewood subdivision, far north of the Phoenix city limits. The ash trees, along with a row of olives, flanked […]
Sirens, Courtesans & Ladies of Ill-Repute
Frontier Tucson had a red-light district like most Western towns. In the late 1870s and ‘80s, prostitutes operated along Maiden Lane in the Wedge between Church and Main. (The Wedge was later demolished to allow for the widening of Congress Street). The average prostitute’s room or crib was furnished with a double bed and a […]
The Shrine at the Casa
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico, of the Americas and of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. The mosaic being dedicated was erected by the Franciscan Renewal Center (the Casa de Paz y Bien) in 1954 on the center property at Lincoln Drive between Mummy and Camelback mountains. The priests are Father […]
Arizona Adopts a Flag
In 1921, the Tempe Normal School Cadet Company posed under the U.S. and Arizona flags with the silver cup they won in the State Cadet Rifle Match at Tucson. The young men were officially the First Regiment of Arizona, and the Arizona flag behind them carries their regimental designation. Rifle teams were popular in the […]
The Road Once Traveled
For those who think that the most treacherous way of getting from Arizona to California is in a Ford Explorer equipped with Firestone tires, this picture of the Plank Road built in 1915 is a reminder that there might be even more harrowing ways in which to make the trip. Impetus for building the road […]
Nogales Shopping Trip
Nogales, Sonora, a traditional tourist attraction that draws streams of visitors from Arizona, is a city of some half a million, but was only about one-sixth that size when these Phoenicians posed in front of one of its shops in 1948. The little boy in the photograph is life-long Phoenix resident Frank Barrios. Beside him […]
The Sanitary Milk Crusade
“Local Milk Fails the Standards” announced the headline of the Bisbee Daily Review on June 18, 1914. The following day more alarming news greeted citizens as they read: “Conditions of Milk Bad in District.” The headlines announced the results of tests on Bisbee-area milk supplies performed by the state bacteriologist in Tucson. It was all […]
Just call him Mac
According to Arizona State Historian Marshall Trimble, “If Arizona had a Mount Rushmore, the men on it would be Carl Hayden, Ernest McFarland, Barry Goldwater and John McCain. “ The unprecedented career of Ernest W. McFarland (1894-1984)—U.S. Senator, Senate Majority Leader, Arizona Governor, Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, founder of KTVK in Phoenix […]
The Battle of the Bicycles
America’s love affair with the bicycle began in the 1890s, and Tucson was not immune to its charms. Here Charles Frederick Miller, a member of the Tucson Ramblers cycling club, stands beside his racing bike. Spandex had not yet been invented, but Miller is wearing the latest of racing attire – what appears to be […]
Still-Busting in Flagstaff
Ten-plus years of national Prohibition brought two groups of Flagstaff citizens together – those who made bootleg liquor and those who confiscated it. Here, members of the Flagstaff Fire Department stand around a confiscated still. A group of curious children gathered for the event. It is 1931, and Arizona has been dry since 1914. Everyone […]
A Voice for Giving Women a Voice
As this picture of Frances Munds clearly illustrates, she was not the kind of woman afraid of wearing a very large hat. She was also not the kind of woman afraid of taking on a very large project. She was one of the Arizonans more instrumental in securing the right to vote for women of […]
