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The Finest Job God Ever Made
Thirty-one years after America’s transcontinental railroad was completed, this steam locomotive — #1673 — pictured above in a 1960s photograph — was put into service in Arizona.
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 Hotel Adams: Best in Phoenix
“Strictly modern. Absolutely fireproof. Comfort plus, in a variety of accommodations ranging from single rooms to luxurious suites,’’ reads the reverse side of this postcard, issued by the posh Hotel Adams during the 1920s.
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[...]
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.
Building Roosevelt
At first glance, this 1904 photograph looks like a contingent of cavalry guarding captives. It is not. These are the engineers and laborers, and their wives, involved in construction of Roosevelt Dam, one of the first reclamation dams in the U.S.
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.
Boomtown Schoolhouse
A silver boom in Mohave County created an instant town that by 1894 had a school, a literary society, a church, a hotel and a population of more than 1,000.
Paradise, Arizona
This is the main thoroughfare of Paradise, Arizona, photographed sometime after the turn of the century. Note the boy running toward the hotel at right, the burro grazing in the street, another tied under the tree and the collection of barrels spilling over with things unknown.
