Tag: history
Who is Ol’ Bill Williams… as in Williams, AZ?
The picturesque town of Williams takes its name from Bill Williams Mountain that towers above and provides as beautiful high country setting for a community as can be found in America. It's a fitting place-name for ol' Bill Williams, the "greatest fur trapper of 'em all." Ol' Bill was as colorful a man as any who ...The Story of Carl Hayden: A New Breed of Frontier Lawman
The Old West was still pretty new in 1877 when Carl Hayden was born. His birthplace was a mud adobe house on the south bank of the Salt River that is now Monti's La Casa Vieja. The railroad linking Phoenix with the Southern Pacific transcontinental line at Maricopa and the rest of the civilized world ...Pauline Weaver: The Story of Prescott’s First Citizen
When old Joe Walker, a big, strapping, ex-mountain man, and his party of prospectors arrived at Granite Creek in the Spring of 1863, another old mountain man, Pauline Weaver, was already camped there. The area where the future territorial capital city of Prescott would be founded was the stomping grounds of the Yavapai and Tonto ...How the Nermernuh (Comanche) Tribe Finally Got Respect
Long before the white people migrated to the vast lands across the wide Missouri—and added a new dimension to the struggle for supremacy, native tribes battled continuously for the most desirable lands. As a rule, three things could happen to a weaker tribe and all were bad. At worst they were exterminated. If they escaped that, ...Trivia on Arizona Cities & Towns: Can You Pass?
Test your knowledge of cactus and wildlife of Arizona with this short quiz, originally published in Marshall Trimble’s Official Arizona Trivia. Don’t scroll down too quickly. The answers are posted shortly below the questions. When you’re finished, leave a comment with your score. Did any answers surprise you? 1. What Arizona city's name means big ...The Wounded Goddess Atop the State Capitol Dome
The white statue that has been a permanent fixture atop the State Capitol dome in Phoenix for more than a century goes by several names. She is called the Goddess of Victory, Statue of Justice and Winged Victory, but for a time the nickname Bullseye could have also been applied. The zinc goddess was cast in ...Why are Phoenix and Tucson so Different?
Q: My grandpa and grandma live in Tucson, and when we visit them, I always wonder why are Phoenix and Tucson so different? A: This is an excellent question. The answer would fill a volume or two, but the short explanation is: History, dear child, it’s all about history. In the great scheme of things, ...The Story of Sarah Bowman: Yuma’s First Citizen Left a Lasting Impression
One of the most colorful ladies who ever rode the old West was Sarah Bowman of Yuma. She didn't fit the common frontier stereotype woman—calico dress, sunbonnet and a youngster hanging on each arm with another tugging at her skirt. In fact, there wasn't anything common about Sarah. They called her the Great Western, after ...Origin of Old Arizona’s Railways
The Southern Pacific railroad stretched its steel ribbons across Arizona in the late 1870s, reaching Tucson in March, 1880. The rail station nearest Phoenix was 35 miles to the south at Maricopa. From the beginning, local citizens began clamoring for a railroad. Despite the fact that thousands of miles of track were being laid across ...Arizona’s First Christmas in the Pines
The first recorded Christmas in Arizona, north of the Gila River, took place in 1853 at the foot of the snowy San Francisco Peaks. And it was a wild and woolly affair. The celebrants were the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, their military escorts and helpers who were, at the time, mapping a future transcontinental ...
