Graham County

Graham county is one of the fourteen Arizona counties. Its area is 4,630 square miles and it ranks 12th in size. It is located in the southern and eastern sections of the state, and it joins in a neighborly way with Cochise, on the south; Greenlee county on the west; Pinal and Pima counties to the north, and a portion of Gila county to the east. Of it, the late Will Barnes says in "Arizona Place Names:" "Graham County: In southeastern part of the state, north of Cochise county. Created, 1881, from Pima and Apache counties. First settled, 1874, by members of the California Volunteers, who left the service and went to farming in the Gila Valley. Named from Graham mountains near center of valley. County seat established first at Safford; legislature of 1883 changed it to Solomonsville; in 1915, when Greenlee county was created, it went back to Safford." And in Safford the county seat is today.

A great transcontinental highway, U. S. 70, cuts it almost in half. Another federal numbered highway, U. S. 666, drifts into Graham county from Greenlee County and goes southward to the Mexican border through Cochise county.

There are three noticeable mountain ranges in the eastern and central parts of the county: the Santa Teresas, the Galiuros, and the Pinalenos, the latter rising almost in the heart of the Gila valley. Altitudes vary. The county seat, Safford, has an altitude of 2,922 feet in elevation. Mt. Graham, the highest point in the Pinaleno Mountains, rises right out of the valley to a height of 10,516 feet above sea level. The snows lie deep on Mt. Graham during the winter, an advantage to Graham county residents who enjoy winter sports. In the summer Mt. Graham is ideal for summer camping.

Nature's most important contribution to Graham county has been the Gila river, which flows through the heart of the Gila valley in the center of the county. The Gila rises up in the mountains of New Mexico and comes into Graham county via Duncan in Greenlee county. The Gila forms San Carlos Lake behind Coolidge dam. The water of this lake is used for irrigation in the Casa Grande valley, but before the Gila ever gets to San Carlos Lake it has irrigated a considerable area of farm land from which such communities as Solomonsville, Safford, Thatcher, Central, Geronimo, Hubbard, Pima, Fort Thomas, Eden and Ashurst derive much of their livelihood.

There is some mining development and considerable cattle in the county. A large part of the San Carlos Indian Reservation is in Graham county, and a no inconsiderable portion of business of the reservation finds it way into the county.

Safford, the county seat, is one of the friendliest, spick-and-spanniest cities in Arizona. According to McClintock, Safford was first settled by Americans in 1872, although traders and freighters moved through the area before that. The city was named after Territorial Governor Anson Pacely Killen Safford, who was touring Arizona at that time. A postoffice was established at Safford March 5, 1875, with Joshua E. Bailey, one of the founders, Safford's first postmaster. The population of Safford is about 5,000 people. Graham county has much of scenic and historic interest to the traveler and visitor. The "76" ranch at Bonita is a famed guest ranch. The Indian Hot Springs at Eden, perhaps one of the most effective health resorts in the west, is gaining an increasingly larger clientele each year. ... R. C.