The body of folklore surrounding Mickey Free makes it difficult to separate fact from fancy, but a few facts are known. He disappeared from a ranch west of the Chiricahua Mountains when was about 12 years old and was either ...

When Cochise County Sheriff Harry Wheeler set about destroying illegal whiskey, he nearly stopped a trial in this building. He was working outside the Cochise County Courthouse in Tombstone, shown here in a photograph taken by C.S. Fly about 1890.

Bishop Granjon of Tucson and most of his clergy plus a crowd of parishioners and politicians are gathered on the balcony under gray skies, probably following the dedication of St. Mary’s Church.

In the second row near the center is the unmistakable hulk and balding pate of George W.P. Hunt, the convention president and the man who would become the state’s first and longest-serving governor. Directly behind Hunt in bow tie and fedora is Morris Goldwater. In the back row second from left is future Governor Sidney P. Osborn.

Graduation, 1945

Cigarettes had been made by machine for 25 or 30 years by the time this ad ran, but loose tobacco like Bull Durham still had a solid following and its ads carried a tag line “Experienced Smokers Roll Their Own’”—together with instructions so you could join the rolling elite.

Tombstone Destroyed

Fort Bowie is linked in history with the Apache wars of the 1870s and ’80s. But it owes its existence to the Battle of Apache Pass in 1862 and the Confederate invasion of what was then New Mexico Territory.

This is Main Street in Bisbee on January 21, 1916, the day after the biggest snowfall in city history. The storm began on January 19 with heavy winds that tore off roofs in the Warren District. The wind abated, the sky cleared briefly—then it began to rain. The streets soon ran like rivers. The sky cleared again in the afternoon, but by 5 p.m. snow began to fall, increasing throughout the night until by morning all of southern Arizona from Benson to the Mexican border was blanketed.

During World War I, there would have been no young men in this photo—most had been sent overseas. But by 1920, the boys were back, the economy was beginning to boom, dating was in style again and the Confection Den was one of the places to go.