Flagstaff: One Century Old

Night telegraph operator John Vining spotted the flickering tongue of flame behind John Berry's saloon. It was an icy February morning, 1886, and in minutes the spreading inferno reached blast furnace intensity. By sunrise, only smouldering rubble remained of the tiny frontier settlement of Flagstaff in northern Arizona Territory.

Not yet 10 years old, the community had been ravaged in a similar disaster just two years before. Many predicted this latest holocaust spelled the end of the place, but within a year 60 new buildings dotted the mountain landscape. Clearly, Flagstaff's early citizens had intense faith in the community's future.

The chronicle of northern Arizona's largest city began a century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. On July Fourth of this year - the historic date of America's Bicentennial - Flagstaff marks her hundredth birthday.

On Flagstaff's natal day the Arizona Territory was a wild, sprawling outpost of the Old West which had been divided from the immense New Mexico Territory 13 years earlier. Most of northern Arizona's rugged plateau country remained thinly settled, as it had for centuries.

In 1540, members of the treasure-seeking Coronado expedition became the first White men to enter northern Arizona. No European explorer journeyed near the site of Flagstaff until 43 years later, when the Spaniard Antonio de Espejo trekked from the ancient Hopi village of Oraibi to the vicinity of today's Jerome.

Lt. Edward F. Beale's task when he led a wagon train and camel caravan across northern Arizona in 1857 was to plot a practicable wagon road from Fort Defiance in the east to the Colorado River in the west. The camels, claimed Beale, "pack 750 pounds of corn apiece and go twice as far as wagons in a day," and were imported from the Middle East for use by the U.S. Army.

That same year, Brigham Young's Mormon missionaries ventured into northern Arizona from Utah to work among the Indians. John Young, son of the great Mormon Leader, later became a pioneering cattleman in what was to become Coconino County.

In the two decades prior to 1876, many travelers stopped in the vicinity of Flagstaff because of abundant springs, but none settled permanently. New Englanders in far-away Boston, inspired by enticing tales of fertile valleys and rich mines, had just formed the Arizona Colonization Company. The colonists planned to settle the luxuriant lands along the Little Colorado River east of Flagstaff.

At the end of February, 1876, fifty prospective settlers (known later as the "Boston Party") boarded a train to start westward. The long voyage was slowed when they reached the railhead at La Junta, Colorado, and transferred to muledrawn wagons. Weeks later, finally arriving in the Little Colorado Valley, they discovered that Mormon colonists were already in possession of the fertile land.

Disillusioned, they continued west, camped briefly at Canyon Diablo, and proceeded to a cool spring near the site of Flagstaff. It was midsummer, 1876; one hundred years since the explosive birth of the United States. To commemorate the nation's Centennial, the New Englanders fashioned a makeshift flagpole from a slender pine tree and ceremoniously raised the Stars and Stripes.

Although the "flagstaff" tree remained for many years, the Boston Party did not; most rhembers migrated south to Prescott or Phoenix, or to California. But Flagstaff's first permanent settler had preceded the New Englanders by a few months, was there on that historic Fourth of July, and remained; and a brand new community was born.

Homesteader and sheepman Thomas F. McMillan had arrived earlier that year after fortune-hunting in California and sheep raising in Australia. The Tennessee pioneer was soon joined by settlers Frank Hart and James O'Neill, and sheepman John Clark.

A decade later, McMillan built a fashionable two-story log house that is now the oldest in Flagstaff and a familiar landmark across from the Museum of Northern Arizona.

In 1881, industry creaked to the new settlement as laboring oxen carted a massive sawmill from the rail's end at Winslow, 58 miles to the east. Chicago Lumberman Edward Ayers set up his steam-powered mill amid the world's largest ponderosa pine forest and began cutting ties for the westering railroad.

An observer wrote over 75 years later that "the industry that would become the busiest in Flagstaff already was spewing sawdust in '82 when the Atlantic & Pacific RR [later the Santa Fe] squealed in, switched off a boxcar for a depot, and shoving its tracks ahead, whistled on westward."

Railroad construction crews raised their tents at Antelope Spring (later Old Town) at the base of what is now called Mars Hill. An assortment of merchants, ranchers, cowboys, businessmen, and gamblers followed the new rails west. P. J. Brannen arrived from Prescott with a tent full of merchandise, opening the first general store. "Old Town" was beginning to boom.

It's Brannen who is credited with naming Flagstaff a name suggested from either the Boston Party flagpole or one of two other "flag trees" fashioned by early settlers before the rails arrived, possibly even by Beale's group.

When the railroaders set up a temporary boxcar depot about a mile east of Old Town, the shrewd Brannen saw the advantages of the location and invested $10,000 to build an impressive granite building nearby. Others followed his lead, and soon "New Town" developed.

Like most early railroad towns, Flagstaff in 1881 was a lusty, brawling place composed mostly of saloons, dance halls, gambling houses, and other establishments catering to the hardy construction workers and frontiersmen. With a population of 200 on weekdays that doubled on weekends, the one-street hamlet consisted of about 20 wood frame buildings and an equal number of tents.

By 1883 the resident count had increased to nearly 600 and the town boasted six general stores and a hotel. One year later Old Town was swept by fire. None of the destroyed structures were rebuilt; instead, the original settlement was abandoned in favor of the more convenient location near the railroad station (which itself went up in smoke in 1889).

Spawned by the beef demand of the timber and railroad crews, cattle became Flagstaff's next big business. Ranches and livestock outfits materialized by the score in an area whose national forests today provide the grazing land for 19,000 cattle and more than 13,000 sheep.

Ayers' lumber mill, the cattle industry, and the railroad had injected a measure of prosperity into Flagstaff. It was then that two families - Riordan and Babbitt - were to emerge as giants in the economic and social lifestream of the community.

Denis M. and Timothy A. Riordan, key officers in Ayers' lumber company, bought out their boss in 1886, formed the Arizona Lumber and Timber Company and ruled northern Arizona's tall timber for 45 years.

By 1901, despite fires that twice leveled their mill, the Riordans had more than 300 workers on their payroll. The company also owned another sawmill east of town and operated the Arizona Central Railroad (three locomotives, 64 logging cars, and 24 miles of track).

Today, Southwest Forest Industries, the largest forest products firm in Arizona, is the sole producer of lumber in Flagstaff. The years between Riordan and Southwest brought such firms as Kaibab Lumber Company, Saginaw and Manistee, Sunset Lumber, and the Fish Brothers Mill.

It was a drab February day in 1886 when David and William Babbitt stepped from the plush railroad coach into the slippery mud of Flagstaff's main street. Flagstaff rowdy and homely compared to their native Cincinnati was a bedraggled cluster of crude board shacks feverishly slapped together following a devastating fire earlier that month.

The enterprising Babbitts had sold their Cincinnati grocery store to come West and build a future as cattle ranchers. Brother Charles J. arrived that spring; George and Edward came the next year. The young brothers started with a herd of 1200 cattle, soon added a small hardware store, and in 1889 created the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company which today is a thriving mercantile, lumber, hardware, grocery, and livestock operation extending in four directions across northern Arizona.

Although the original Babbitt combination of ranching and retailing was rare, their later concept of raising both cattle and sheep especially in an era of vicious range wars was a bold venture indeed.

By the turn of the century, Flagstaff was taking on a cosmopolitan charm. Electric lights beamed overhead and telephones brought instant communication to the town, now the seat of Coconino County (created nine years earlier from enormous Yavapai County). A celebrated observatory graced the skyline and eager young students attended classes at the new normal school.

When astronomer Dr. Percival Lowell came to Flagstaff in 1894 he liked what he saw: a city at a lofty 7000 foot altitude with unsurpassed clear air for astronomical viewing. In that year he established the wood-framed Lowell Observatory atop Mars Hill, another 300 feet skyward.

A brilliant scientist, Lowell was an authority on the planet Mars and had formulated a theory that life existed there. Later, using intricate calculations, he reasoned that an undiscovered planet existed farther out in our solar system. Lowell predicted the exact position of the unknown "Planet X" in 1915, but death in 1916 cut short his search. Fourteen years passed before young Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 photographically verified the existence of the mysterious planet; thus was Pluto discovered, bringing world-wide fame to the Observatory and the city. Only twice before in modern history had the existence of a major planet been so detected.

It was early 1899 when Coconino County lawmaker Henry Fountain Ashurst took the floor of the Territorial legislature to introduce a bill that would have monumental impact on Flagstaff.

Six years earlier, a handsome sandstone building had been constructed at Flagstaff for use as a reform school. The building was never so used, and Ashurst proposed to develop it into a school for teacher preparation.

The lawmakers agreed, and that fall the Northern Arizona Normal School opened its doors and 33 students began their studies under Professor A. N. Taylor and Miss Francis Bury. Two years later, four women comprised the first graduating class; their diplomas warranted them life certificates to teach in Arizona. Today the rustic building is beloved Old Main, and the school is Northern Arizona University, the newest and smallest of Arizona's state universities. NAU gained university status only a decade ago it had been Arizona State College since 1945. The University now consists of six colleges and two schools, a faculty of 493, and an enrollment that has climbed to nearly 11,000.

As Flagstaff entered the twentieth century the census showed a still-growing population of 1271. Many were drawn to the mountain community solely because of its beautiful natural surroundings, and writers spoke eloquently of nearby scenic attractions. Already the city was a haven for visitors from around the nation and the world.

J. W. Thurber operated the Grand Canyon Stage Line, jouncing passengers 65 miles to the Canyon in fourand sixhorse carriages. Round trip cost $15, and for $3 (including meals) a visitor could stay overnight at Bright Angel Camp on the South Rim.

Flagstaff's unique surroundings inter-nested scientists as well as sightseers. Geologists studied the plateaus, canyons, and mountains; archaeologists pieced together the history and culture of pre-historic peoples with evidence gathered from countless Indian ruins in the area.

In 1928 Dr. Harold S. Colton, former zoolo professor at the University of Pennsylvania, organized a small museum in two rooms at the Flagstaff Women's Club to "preserve objects of artistic and scientific interest." Citizens joined with the scientific community and eight years later the new Museum of Northern Ari-zona moved into a new tile-roofed stone building on Fort Valley Road north of the city.

The fledgling museum quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest in the Southwest. Today, as it has for nearly 50 years, the Museum catalogs and preserves the grand variety of nature found in northern Arizona, and is devoted largelyto the ethnology and archeology of the region.

Colorful, controversial George W. P. Hunt became the state's number-one citizen on February 14, 1912 - and Arizona became the nation's 48th and youngest state. "I trust that prosperity and peace will reign in Arizona," exclaimed the new governor.

It was, coincidentally, exactly 26 years to the day since a fiery calamity had left an earlier Flagstaff in a twisted heap of charred wood.

Statehood found the city moving progressively forward. Like the rest of Arizona, Flagstaff was modernizing, maturing from its unruly frontier mold. The succeeding years brought dramatic growth and the city and vicinity is now a bustling visitor and trade center whose population has grown to approximately 35,000.

The fire that started in John Berry's saloon that fateful winter morning left Flagstaff's pioneer settlers without a town, but it certainly did not obliterate their spirit. The modern city that now begins its second century is vivid testimony to their unshakable faith in their own future and the future of Arizona and the Nation.