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Sedona to Flagstaff Through Oak Creek
The road from Sedona through Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff, Arizona’s scenic Highway 89A, was just a patchwork of private tracks until the first part of the 20th century.
The Hanging of Dennis Dilda
In the 1880s, Dennis Dilda had left behind a string of murders in Texas and New Mexico by the time he arrived in Prescott in the fall of 1885. But in the frontier, little was asked of a man’s background, especially one with a wife and children. Dilda soon got a job running the ranch of W.H. Williscraft about 40 miles outside of town.
Territorial Criminal Justice
This is the body of highwayman William Whitney Brazelton propped against a wall on Tucson’s Main Street as a caution to anyone planning a career in crime.
Mormon Pioneer Lot Smith
This stern looking patriarch is Lot Smith, one of the early Mormon settlers of Utah. As a youth he marched with the Mormon Battalion from Illinois to San Diego during the Spanish American War. After leaving the military, he mined for gold, and was successful enough to buy good property for himself and his family in Utah. During the Civil War he worked for the Union Army protecting the telegraph li[...]
Charlie Brown’s Saloon
Built by Charles O. Brown (the taller man at left in the photo), a gambler said to have been a crack shot who carried several notches on his gun, the Congress Hall Saloon was the unlikely spot where the first Territorial Legislature in Tucson convened. The Capitol building, a series of adobe rooms with dirt floors and mud roofs, was spurned by lawmakers, who preferred to caucus at San Agustin Cath[...]
Firefighting in the Old Pueblo with Alex McNeil, Buck and Ted
This is Tucson fireman Alex McNeil on Old No. 1 chemical engine with his equine coworkers Buck and Ted in about 1906.
Trading Days in Canyon de Chelly
The S.E. (Sam) Day Sr. Trading Post was built at the turn of the century by Day and his sons near the spectacular canyon called Tse-ye (in the rock) by the Navajo and today known as Canyon de Chelly.
Boomtimes and Boomtowns – Lou and Oatman
This is Lou of Oatman, Ariz., sometime about 1920 in front of the building that served as his place of business. Most of the information on the sign to his right appears to be listing real estate he was selling or renting.
Builder and First Inmate of the Clifton Jail
This is a photograph of the old Clifton jail, probably taken in about 1900. The identity of the nattily dressed man is unknown, as is the explanation for the rubble piled high in front of the fence. We do know some about the jail, however.
The McNary Railroad
This is steam locomotive No. 36 on the old McNary Railroad in the White Mountains. At the time of this photograph, the railroad had been converted to a scenic line that carried passengers from McNary to the logging town of Maverick, south of Baldy Peak, during the summer season. As many as 200,000 passengers made the trip during the years it was running.
Page, Arizona
In contrast to the typical image of a little red schoolhouse, this one-room school in Page, Arizona, in 1957 was a war surplus troop carrier. (The troop carriers were called “cattle cars” and were pulled by trailer trucks during World War II.) The older woman standing in the doorway is Mary Howe.
