Keams Canyon
Indian Agent Leo Crane took this photograph of the Hopi Agency in Keams Canyon in 1919. The agency was built on a site 13 miles east of First Mesa, in a narrow canyon on a spring-fed stream. The canyon was named after Thomas Varker Keams, who settled there in 1876.
Dr. J.C. Handy: Jekyll And Hyde
This photograph, more than 120 years old, is a testament to someone’s eye for composition. It’s a little work of art, really, because it implies the truth about this doctor, a Tucson icon in his day. In public life, symbolized by the light, airy buggy he used on his Samaritan rounds, he was admired, even revered. But he had another side, as dark as the shadow he stands in, and finally it kille[...]
The Capture of Augustine Chacon
The tall man at right is Augustine Chacon, a notorious criminal tracked down and captured by an Arizona Ranger in 1901. The man with him is identified simply as Chavez. Both men are in leg irons.
McFarland’s contributions described as unprecedented
Ernest William McFarland (1894-1984), known throughout his career as “Mac,” served as a U.S. senator, governor of Arizona, and ultimately chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, but millennials, baby boomers, and even many seniors have difficulty recalling his name or his numerous accomplishments. His life story should inspire Arizonans. His career in politics, law, as a television executi[...]
Shivaree
This illustration of Miss Beautiful in June appeared in a 1912 bridal advertisement for the Phelps Dodge Store in Bisbee. The ad featured such fine merchandise as onyx silk boot hose, long and short silk gloves, parasols, white and beaded bags and lingerie dresses of sheer fabrics “beautifully finished.’’
Emory meets the Pimas: All ‘honesty and virtue’
This excellent sketch of the Gila River Valley was rendered by Lieutenant (later General) William H. Emory of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, as he accompanied General Stephen Watts Kearny’s Army of the West and guide Kit Carson on the 1846 trek across the Southwest en route to California. His journal of that expedition later appeared in book form as “Notes of a Military Reconnaissa[...]
Jack August: Historian, author is captivated by Arizona lore
Historian Jack August can tell you tons of tales of Arizona’s past, from the story about Fife Symington saving Bill Clinton’s life to August’s own memories of interactions with the state’s heavyweights.
Part of Phoenix’s Restored Past: J.W. Walker Building
This is what the building on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and Washington Street looked like 70 years ago, when it was occupied by the Central Arizona Light & Power Company. Today it is home to Stickler’s Restaurant, which opened in early 2004, replacing Walker’s Café, which had been at the location since late 2001.
Flagstaff Mill Pond
The logs were hauled from nearby forests by steam locomotive, off-loaded by crane (right foreground) and floated in the mill pond of the Flagstaff lumber mill until they were selected for cutting. The tiny figure on the far edge of the pond is a mill worker choosing logs for the conveyor to the second floor of the saw mill.
Downtown Hackberry
Hackberry, 27 miles northeast of Kingman, was a center of commerce and shipping for cattlemen and miners, and later was a rest stop for motorists on Route 66.


















