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Tucson Mayor William Armine Julian
William Armine (W. A.) Julian arrived in Tucson in 1899 at age 34 from San Diego with his wife Margaret. He promptly opened the W. A. Julian Company in a two-story building featuring a handsome facade of granite and pressed brick and several large show windows at 122 E. Congress. The business would eventually control 85 percent of Tucson’s plumbing, heating and roofing business. He also sold Cha[...]
Hoover Dam
Construction of the Hoover Dam took five years — from 1931 to 1936 — to build what was then the largest concrete dam in the world. It was built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, in northwestern Arizona on the border with Nevada.
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.”
Marvel Crosson and the Powder Puff Derby
Women had been flying airplanes since the early days of aviation, and by 1928, they had also piloted balloons, parachuted out of disabled planes, served as their own mechanics, set altitude and speed records, wing-walked and barnstormed. But they hadn't yet raced airplanes.
Al Sieber
When the great scout, Al Sieber, was killed in a construction accident near Roosevelt Dam, a headline read: "Famous scout who escaped a thousand deliberately aimed shafts of death, a victim of a mere accident." The irony of Al Sieber escaping decades of hard Arizona living was evident.
The Southwestern Society of Spizzifiers
According to a writer for the Great Depression's Arizona Federal Writers Project, Arizona's prospectors and miners have been famous for stretching the truth for many years. These raconteurs have spun marvelous stories about their diggings and exaggerated the value of their strikes, often for the sole purpose of entertaining friends.
A legendary Tombstone cowboy
On the silver screen and the wide-open southern Arizona ranges, Sid Wilson was one of the last authentic 19th century cowboys. His genuine, hard-working, real cowboy lifestyle provided authenticity to the characters he played in Hollywood movies and Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.
Guarding the castle
Montezuma Castle near Camp Verde is an enigma. The great Aztec chief Montezuma would never have seen the structure on the cliff walls. It certainly is not a castle, but merely secure living quarters for a long-gone people.
Fiorello La Guardia’s Arizona connection
A man widely recognized for making sweeping changes in labor conditions as part of his work as New York City mayor may have held a small Arizona town in higher regard than The Big Apple.
The Condemned Asylum
In 1885, the Thirteenth Territorial Legislature appropriated $100,000 for a hospital to house the insane to be built in Phoenix.
The Bankhead Highway
In 1922, there were 14,000 cars in Maricopa County with more than 8,000 cars being owned by Phoenix residents.
Highway of History
Travelers driving on U.S. Highway 180 (aka Fort Valley Road) near Flagstaff are greeted with a mix of rustic-looking buildings, wooden cattle fences and open space as the road carves a route through the ponderosa pine forest. While the times have changed, the panoramas that gripped homesteaders in the 1880s and influenced the historic road's route still amaze.
