Odd Street Names in Sedona
SEDONA — Only a few Sedona streets go in a straight line. Equally interesting are the names. There is no First Street in Sedona. No Elm Street, either. Instead, the city has streets named after caffeine, like Coffee Pot Road, Silex Circle, Nescafe Drive and Lipton Drive. And antique auto streets, like Stanley Steamer Drive, Maxwell Drive, Stutz Bearcat Road, Essex Road and Reo Road.
Some names reflect Sedona’s western heritage — Johnny Guitar Street, Zane Grey Drive, Shotgun Drive, Flaming Arrow Way, Fabulous Texan Way and Eagle Dancer Road. The city has been featured in several movies, which is the probable reason for Paramount, Columbia and Universal Drives.
But, to make sure nobody gets too serious about driving around here, the city fathers also approved Doodlebug Road. And to satisfy the poets, they okayed Quail Tail Trail.
Also note that all of the streets in west Sedona have one name if you go north, and a different name if you go south – possibly a reflection of Sedona’s roots as a small, rural, and former retirement community. It might have been that this dual-naming gave the illusion of being a larger community. Other interesting name anomalies around Sedona include Boynton Canyon and Boynton Canyon Road, which is a corruption of the name of the Boyington family who homesteaded in the canyon where the Enchantment resort now resides. Then there are Cathedral Butte and Courthouse Rock, whose names were switched in 1907 from their original Courthouse (now Cathedral) and Church Rock (now Courthouse). None of the lots in the Cathedral View subdivision in Village of Oak Creek can see the rock we now call “Cathedral”. One of my personal favorite street names in Sedona is Pine Drive, down at the end of which is located one of the old pioneer cemeteries. This street has a sign that proclaims it as a “Dead End”, and, given that it is a cul-de-sac, could just have easily been named “Pine Box”, which would have neatly summed up the equation. Sterling Springs and Sterling Canyon are named for a rustler/counterfeiter, and Wilson Canyon, Wilson Mountain and Wilson Street are named for Richard Wilson, who was killed when he attempted to kill a grizzly bear with a small caliber rifle and an untrained dog. Given our penchant for naming things after the winners, rather than the losers in this country, shouldn’t those names be Grizzly Mountain, Wrong Gun Canyon, and Bonehead Street?
We live on Disney Lane, which is off the Red Rock Loop Road. Walt Disney filmed several films in the area. The story goes that while Disney himself never lived here permanently, he did spend several months in the area. His film crew, supposedly, had a trailer they lived in while on location, located where today’s Disney Lane is.