History

Sure, the drivers in this month’s Indianapolis 500 are the best of the best, but more than a hundred years ago, Barney Oldfield was the man in racing — so much so…

Arizona and California, its neighbor to the west, have an ongoing, mostly friendly rivalry. In 1934, though, a dispute over water rights led to a heated showdown between…

In 1929, Mary Adeline Norris Gray took to the sky over Phoenix at the invitation of local aviators. It was the 83-year-old’s first plane flight, but she wasn’t intimidated…

In 1953, an admirer recalled that watching Bert Goodrich run the 100-yard dash in college was “a horrible sight.” Perhaps because he stood 6 feet tall and weighed about…

Historic Route 66 extends from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. And the longest still-drivable stretch of the Mother Road is in Arizona: a 158-mile portion from the…

In April 1929, the discovery of a vein of gold and lead ore in the Hualapai Mountains, near Kingman, spurred the development of the Gold King Mine. And today, a building…

Decades ago, John Schaefer, who was president of the University of Arizona from 1971 to 1982, asked one bold question of legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams. It…

When the city of Phoenix acquired Sky Harbor Airport in 1935, it was just a glimmer of what the facility is today. It had one terminal and served a small number of planes…

At the turn of the 20th century, Bisbee might have been considered rough around the edges. At its peak, the Copper Queen Mine employed 2,700 men to pull copper ore from…