Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

The toll road — Central Ave. (then called Center Street) north of McDowell — was built by the Central Avenue Driving Association. It was a dirt road, eight miles long and 100 feet wide, with a row of olive and ash trees on either side. Property owners north of the gate paid $2.50 a month for sprinkling and improvements. Buggies and wagons paid a 25 cent toll. Bicycles were free.

The Miners and Merchants Bank on Bisbee’s Main Street incorporated on June 12, 1900, with a capitalization of $50,000. Founding directors were Bisbee merchants L.C. Shattuck, Joseph Muheim, L.J. Overlock, Jakob Schmidt and J.T. Hood.

Powderface was one of the few horses in the world trained to dive off a platform into a tank of water.

This is Willie Marshall, Warren Country Club’s first golf pro, hitting a fairway shot in 1910. Over his right shoulder, in the distance, is the Warren/Bisbee Trolley. The trolley provided transportation to the golf course, which was located just south of Warren, Ariz.,within sight of the Mexican border.

Whist, a precursor to the card game bridge, was taken seriously enough in Holbrook to have rules — specifically for women — printed in the local newspaper in the mid 1890s.

During the first session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1864 — when not a single public school existed in the newly formed territory — lawmakers authorized a university and wrote a constitution to guide its affairs.

This is Main Street in Bisbee in August 1908, during one of the worst months of flooding in the town’s history. In a three-week period, Bisbee was ravaged by three separate storms.

The bald pate and rotund body seen here on the Capitol veranda is that of George W.P. Hunt, photographed on Valentine’s Day, 1912, delivering his inaugural address as the state’s first governor.

The Kaibab suspension bridge over the Colorado River was to link Bright Angel Trail on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon with the Kaibab Trail on the North Rim. At the time, the only means of crossing the river between the two trails was by small canvas boat. (The closest ferry crossings were at Lee’s Ferry, upstream near the Utah border and downstream at Needles on the California border.) Construction began in January 1921.

“Upon the summit, where he placed a sun flag, it was his dream to erect a temple where deity would be worshipped with solemnity on the uprising sun, a glorious manifestation of celestial omnipotence.”