The challenge of writing a history of Sedona is that Arizona's population is 7.4 million. As a result, most people associate the city with resorts, art galleries, restaurants, and shopping at Tlaquepaque or in Uptown Sedona, hiking through the red rock country, and Oak Creek Canyon, all easily accessible on wide highways. A few may recall the incident in 2009 where a self-help guru killed three people, baked to death in a sweat lodge.
And the "spiritual vortices." New Age tourism is big business. Bell Rock, Airport Mesa, Cathedral Rock, and Boynton Canyon are considered to be vortexes of unique power. The "Harmonic Convergence" was held here in 1987. Sedona also offers a film festival and chamber music program.
In the 2000s, I did several book signings at the Well Red Coyote bookstore (now sadly gone) and gave speeches to Kiwanis and Rotary. It was an easy hop up Interstate 17 and Arizona 179 from Phoenix.
The problem for me is that it's not the Sedona I remember as a child, when the state had 1.3 million people. Sedona was harder to reach, with far fewer people, and a charming row of shops, including a restaurant called The Turtle. The Red Rock Country was empty and majestic. I'm grumpy company on a road trip.
Sedona is named after Sedona Schnebly, wife of early homesteader T.C. Schnebly. They built a general store and hotel at the turn of the century. About 15 other families were nearby. According to the Sedona Heritage Museum, "T. C. suggested the names, Oak Creek Crossing and Schnebly Station, to Washington, D.C., but the Postmaster General at the time had a prejudice for one-word names for postmarks. Ellsworth advised him, 'Why don't you name it after your wife?' "
In addition to ranching, Sedona farmers raised produce for themselves and to sell in Flagstaff and Prescott. Unlike most Arizona towns of the era it lacked a railroad, so teamsters had to haul the produce in horse-drawn wagons.
Sedona's first national star turn came from nearly 100 movies filmed here, beginning in 1923. Among them were 1947's Angel and the Badman, starring John Wayne and the 1950 3:10 to Yuma. Some called Sedona "Arizona's Little Hollywood."
Today, Sedona is not immune to challenges facing the rest of Arizona. The 2006 Brins Fire was started by campers a mile from the city and burned more than 4,300 acres. The 2014 Slide Fire burned more than 21,000 acres in Oak Creek Canyon, causing evacuations and shutting down the highway to Flagstaff.
For all its success, I'm grateful that I saw Sedona when it didn’t even have a traffic signal, much less a McDonald's. And I miss The Turtle.
Sedona Gallery (click on a photo for a larger image):
The Roman Catholic Chapel of the Holy Cross, carved into a butte in 1956 (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress).
An aerial view of the red sandstone formations for which Sedona is famous (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress).
Cathedral Rock.
Red Rock hikers looking toward Oak Creek Canyon.
Oak Creek.
Slide Rock on Oak Creek.
The Red Rock Country with monsoon lightning.
Thunder Mountain (Rodney Lappe).
Arizona 89-A heading into Sedona (Ken Lund).
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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 and Arizona history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.
"Grumpy" or not, I'd love to take a road trip with you. Anytime. How about a drive to Young, AZ? In 1998, I took an ill-equipped-car drive specifically to see their general store. That road scare the bejeezus outta me. d
Posted by: Joanna | July 17, 2023 at 11:22 AM
I remember when Slide rock had parking to up to six cars and room for a dozen of your closest friends. NOW....it rivals any of the large water parks in Phoenix.
Posted by: AzRebel | July 17, 2023 at 11:51 AM
And the creek has a virus.
For years i have asked that 89A from the bridge north of downtown Sedona to the rim be closed to long term vehicle camping and commercial and residential buildings.
I first visited Sedona in 1950 while on a hunting trip on Mingus mountain.
Then, no McDonald's.
Today at least three Starbucks.
Due to marriages and my love of the female species I've been a Los Abrigados member for 32 years. Since it was owned by the Italians of Cottonwood. And i once owned a small place on the Verde Riverbank.
However including Sedona there are
between the Bradshaws and the rest of Arizona north still many great day trips.
Go while you can. At 83 it has gotten very difficult to hike down and back up the Grand Canyon. A magnificent part of the planet.
Earth First
Posted by: Cal Lash | July 17, 2023 at 02:20 PM
@ Joanna -- the road you were on (and it sounds like you came up from the south) is State Highway 288, the Globe-Young Highway, a.k.a. the Desert to Tall Pines Scenic Byway.
It's still narrow and winding, with some of the hair-pin-i-est turns you'll ever see in the area of Parker Creek, halfway in the road's 4000-foot climb into the Sierra Ancha. ADOT has thrown a thin layer of asphalt on it in places to reduce dust, but there is still no painted center stripe or any other improvement.
I've been going up to the Sierra Ancha since 1970 to hike its spectacular but low-use trails, usually several times a year. Fire has touched portions of the forest. Still lovely, though.
Most of the millions of recent AZ arrivals have never heard of Young or the Sierra Ancha.
Hope it stays that way, so, Rogue-ists, mum's the word.
I don't go to Sedona or Oak Creek Canyon anymore.
Locusts.
Eventually, Americans love a place to death.
Posted by: Joe Schallan | July 17, 2023 at 09:25 PM
More Roadless Wilderness.
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and bread."
Edward Abbey
"The deserts should never be reclaimed. They are the breathing' spaces of the west and should be preserved forever."
John Van Dyke
The Desert,1901
Posted by: Cal Lash | July 17, 2023 at 10:37 PM
@JoeSchallan, I think you are correct about the road number.
Posted by: Joanna | July 18, 2023 at 05:32 AM
Beverly Hills-by-the-Vortex. So many low-wage jobs and so little affordable housing. Practically all the workers you see in town drive in from one of the "C's" of the Verde Valley (Camp Verde, Cornville, Clarkdale, and Cottonwood), or Rimrock. To Sedona's credit, they have teamed up with the City of Cottonwood on commuter buses to try to reduce the environmental impacts of all those workers' daily round trips, as well as their out-of-pocket transportation costs.
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | July 18, 2023 at 02:53 PM
Last time I saw it must be 40 years ago, and there were people standing in the creek with a volleyball net across it. I'll just remember it the way it was before Arizona became air-conditioned.
Posted by: Pat | July 18, 2023 at 05:25 PM
As a rule of thumb, a pair of cut-offs was good for about three trips down Slide Rock.
Posted by: Chuck Albertson | July 22, 2023 at 08:00 PM
On a similar note, whatever happened to the official (as shown on USGS Topo maps) and long-used name Capitol Butte? Why has it come to be called "Thunder Mountain?" I remember the Sedona of the early 70s - before the horde of pink jeeps. If we can't go back to the good ol' days, I say we at least keep the ol' place names.
Posted by: Jeff Johnson | August 02, 2023 at 04:47 PM