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Global Influence
“It says here Aunt Susie died,” said George Smalley, reading a letter from home at the family dinner table. “Oh, who shot her?” asked his daughter Yndia. It seemed like everyone died that way in Globe in those days.
Pioneer Days
For several decades, Arizonans held a grand, multi-day celebration of those who came to the territory before Dec. 31, 1890, called Pioneer Days.
Tombstone’s Sad Clown Legacy
For the Kelly family, clowning around was the only way to live. Three successive generations of Emmett Kellys would try to play the lucrative character of “Weary Willie,” a sad-faced hobo who would eventually become one of world’s most famous clowns.
Arizona’s cow-punchers
Arizona cowboys were often referred to as “cow-punchers,” with their styles of riding and dress made up from a mix of the traditions of Texas and California cowboys.
Charleston: Tougher than Tombstone?
“If a corpse had a gun on him and the fatal shot came from the front, you didn’t look for the killer.”
Such was one resident’s memory of Charleston.
Times Past: The ‘Mother of Arizona’
Gov. George W. P. Hunt called Josephine Brawley Hughes “the Mother of Arizona.” She fought for women’s suffrage and prohibition of drinking and gambling. She even fought to ban smoking in public. In Arizona’s rowdy territorial days she was often laughed at, but she prevailed courageously.
Times Past: Light’s Golden Jubilee
More than 7,000 Arizona residents celebrated “Light’s Golden Jubilee” in downtown Phoenix on Oct. 21, 1929. The more than five-hour celebration was considered “the greatest honor ever accorded an inventor during his lifetime.”
Times Past: Bob Burgunder, student murderer
As former Arizona State Teachers College student Bob Burgunder, Jr., sat on death row in Florence, he commented, “There’s too much free speech in this country. I think there’s too much education, too. I think we should stop educating the masses and educate only a few intelligent people.”
Brief rise and fall of the Arizona Cattle Company
Hidden behind buildings and a school playground along busy Highway 180 in Flagstaff is one of the few remaining historic barns in Arizona. If the walls could talk, they would tell of the ranching life in the 1880s and the quick rise and fall of its probable builders, the Arizona Cattle Company.
The Battle of Ambos Nogales
On the afternoon of Aug. 27, 1918, a Mexican civilian sparked a small gun battle after crossing from the United States back into Mexico at Nogales, without stopping at the U.S. Customs house. Customs Inspector Arthur G. Barber drew his pistol and chased the man, who was suspected of gun smuggling, followed by two enlisted men. A Mexican officer saw Barber coming across and fired at the customs ins[...]
Spirit of the Biltmore
Charles McArthur, Warren McArthur, Jr. and Albert McArthur dreamed about and ultimately built a resort "where the great men and women of the earth would come and rest and play, where these visitors could live in luxury while they surveyed the unexcelled advantages of the Salt River Valley, and where investors in a hotel could realize satisfactory profits from their investments.
Times Past: Mother Hanley
Margaret Murphy Hanley arrived in Flagstaff in the early 1900s with one goal in mind: To be able to offer her children, ages six to 16 at the time, higher education as a benefit of her employment with the Arizona State College. Through her four decades of work at the school, she would leave a legacy still visible today, but she wasn’t a teacher.
