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Tent City Hero
Sporting a pitch helmet, linen suit and big white mutton-chop sideburns, Oliver E. Comstock pedaled his bicycle along Tucson’s dusty roads with a soup kettle hanging from the handlebars. He will never be as famous as Wyatt Earp, but he was a real hero to the residents of southern Arizona’s Tent City.
The Oasis at a Cultural Crossroads
For almost two centuries, Spanish missionaries, mountain men, ’49ers, Civil War soldiers and American settlers benefitted from — and often depended on — the plentiful crops and hospitality of the Pima and Maricopa people.
The questionable Battle of Carrizal
In 1916, Capt. Charles T. Boyd, Lt. Henry Adair and Capt. Lewis S. Morey, on direct orders from Gen. John “Blackjack” Pershing himself, led their regiments across large swaths of desert to check on a possible buildup of Mexican troops around the small northern Mexican town of Villa Ahumada.
Tucson’s nymphs de pave
Maiden Lane bordered Congress Street, and between the two was a stretch of “unholy” land shaped like a thin slice of pie and called the wedge — pictured here in the accompanying turn-of-the-century photo. The red light district was anything but invisible.
Frustration and futility: Farming in Flagstaff
For more than 100 years, Arizonans have tried to grow crops to feed themselves, feed their livestock and make their living, with varying degrees of success.
Tombstone’s Boothill Cemetery
The Boothill Cemetery, which was laid out in 1878 on a rocky hillside facing the Dragoon Mountains, earned the name for a reason. If a body was buried not wearing boots, it meant the person died of natural causes. If the body was buried wearing boots, it meant the person was killed.
Alexander J. Chandler
Shortly after arriving in Arizona Territory from Detroit in 1887, Alexander J. Chandler was appointed territory veterinary surgeon as a part of the newly created Territorial Livestock Sanitary Commission by Gov. C. Meyer Zulick.
The Farm that Founded Scottsdale
On July 2, 1888, U.S. Army Chaplain Winfield Scott directed an agent in Tucson to file a claim and make an initial down payment of 50 cents an acre on 640 acres of land just below the Arizona Canal near the intersection of present-day Indian School and Scottsdale roads.
Clifton Mineral Hot Springs
Clifton is situated in a deep canyon formed by the San Francisco River. The town is synonymous in Arizona vocabulary with its twin neighbor Morenci and the rich copper deposits responsible for the existence of both.
Arizona’s River Crusader
Fred Tuttle Colter was a visionary who was instrumental in saving Arizona’s rights to Colorado River water.
Times Past: Castle Hot Springs
The natural beauty and healing waters of Castle Hot Springs have enticed several owners during the years to attempt to craft the area into a successful resort destination, with varying degrees of success.
A Thousand words
This photo, taken in the early 1930s, captures Phoenix near the end of a transition. The area in the foreground of the picture is now occupied by Chase Field. At... […]
