The old High Country

Before land swaps and subdivisions in the pines, before a Super Walmart in Payson and wildfires started by the likes of Valinda Jo Elliott, the Arizona High Country was wild and lightly populated. Click on a photo for a larger image:

Loggers working between Heber and Overgarrd in the late 19th century.

Pack mules heading into Payson, 1901 (ASU Archives).

The Payson General Store (ASU Archives).

 

Montezuma's Well seen in 1886.

Montezuma's Castle. Far from the Aztec king, these cliff dwellings were inhabited by the Sinagua people. It's now a National Monument.

The Verde Valley, empty except for the Army post, seen in the late 19th century.

An oak grove in the White Mountains, seen in the 1870s (Library of Congress).

Snow remains on the upper elevations of the White Mountains, near Springerville 1940 (Russell Lee/Library of Congress).

One of the many logging train spurs south of Flagstaff, early in the 20th century.

Flagstaff in 1943 (Jack Delano/Library of Congress)

Irrigating the hay fields in the Little Colorado Valley, so they will be ready for the seasonal cattle drives from central and southern Arizona (Russell Lee/Library of Congress).

Cottonwood in the 1940s.

Whispering Pines bridge across the Verde River, below the Mogollon Rim.

Oak Creek Canyon (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress).

Sedona's red rock country (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress).

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.

 

 

Comments

[Cal Lash]

Excellent.
Thanks

[eclecticdog]

Mule Power!

[Mike]

Jon -

As a Flagstonian, I appreciate your look to the Northern swath of our great state. It is overlooked by many (although we like it that way) though I fear it will be overwhelmed in the next decade or so as our state population continues upwards.

My dad got a “down & dead” permit every year as I was growing up and I spent many a Summer/Autumn weekend harvesting wood for our house (yes, in PHX, long long ago). This was 30 years or so before fireplace bans, etc. but I remember spending lots of time hauling stumps and wood back to our truck to split before loading up and heading home.

Good times for a 12-year old playing in the forest though I rarely got to run the chainsaw!

And, dang, how Cottonwood has grown…