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Admission Day
Admission Day is a nearly forgotten day in the history of Arizona. Sept. 26, 1864, was the date "men, by organizing and beginning work, brought American government to the newest unit of America."
The Globe flood of 1904
The rain began as a gentle shower. An hour later, six people were drowned and the damages amounted to half-a-million dollars. They called it the Globe flood, but the official government name was the Pinal Creek Flood, since it was the creek that did the flooding, not the town.
Water: Feast and famine in early Phoenix
Irrigation helped make Phoenix an attractive place to live for many of the pioneers who were heading west to California in the 1800s. Mrs. Columbus Gray started toward California with her husband in 1868 in a wagon train from Arkansas.
John C. Frémont
People have always come to Arizona for a new beginning or to reinvent themselves. John C. Frémont, "The Great Pathfinder," was no exception.
A century of weather
Early U.S. Forest Service (USFS) scientists assigned to study the northern Arizona forests realized the importance of climate when it comes to the life of trees. One of the first tasks researchers undertook was to establish weather-recording equipment at the nation's first USFS forest research site at Fort Valley, near Flagstaff.
Harry Truman and the Springerville Madonna
The Springerville "Madonna of the Trail" looms 18 feet high across from the Post Office on Main Street, also known as Highway 60. She has 11 identical sisters, each in a different state: Bethesda, Md.; Beallsville, Pa.; Springfield, Ohio; Wheeling, W.Va.; Vandalia, Ill.; Richmond, Ind.; Lexington, Miss.; Council Grove, Kan.; Lamar, Colo.; Albuquerque, N.M. and Upland, Calif.
‘The Epitaph’ — A paper too tough to die
John Clum figured that every tombstone needed an epitaph. In 1880, he founded Tombstone, Arizona's, most famous newspaper, The Epitaph. He prided himself on providing his readers the opportunity to read their epitaph every day before breakfast.
San Francisco Mountain Boulevard Co.
Flagstaff hotel owner John W. Weatherford envisioned a toll road from Flagstaff up to the timberline of the San Francisco Peaks; similar to the road up Pikes Peak in Colorado.
AZ historian, ‘Times Past’ writer passes away
Williams Lane Rogers was born Dec. 29, 1944, in Salt Lake City. The 30-year Arizona resident chose to go by "Lane" because there was already a somewhat-famous "Will" Rogers in the world. Rogers, who died July 30 at the age of 64, would leave his own lasting impression on those who knew him, starting with a 23-year-old girl responding to a job ad in 1977.
Arizona’s glittering silver inkwell
Colonel Charles D. Poston, self-named "Father of Arizona," commissioned the opulent treasure while serving as Arizona Territory's first delegate to Congress. He presented it to the president in March 1865, as a gift of appreciation for splitting New Mexico Territory in half to create Arizona in 1863.
Mine with the iron door
"Look for the mine with the iron door, Jimmy," my dad said. When I was about six years old, Dad told me the legend of the lost mine and the Spanish missionaries who mined silver and gold on the north side of the Catalina Mountains. We'd leave Tucson in the dark to hunt quail on Golder Ranch, Owl's Head, or Tecolote northwest of town....
Globe Masons
In 1879, six men met in Globe, Ariz., to discuss leaving their respective Masonic temples. Their first task was to figure out if enough of them were actually willing to dimit (a Masonic term used for a written certification of honorable withdrawal from membership) from their respective lodges to establish a new lodge of Free & Accepted Masons in the small town east of Mesa.
