History of Flagstaff, Arizona
Established as a modern settlement in 1876 and incorporated as a city in 1928, the land had previously been lived on by native peoples of the southwest, primarily the Sinagua.
Mountaineer Antoine Leroux then traveled the area, with Edward Fitzgerald Beale following in his footsteps and establishing a trail through the city in the mid-1800s.
With a local spring, a small settlement grew by the wagon road, and the town was dominated by the McMillan, Riordan, and Babbitt families.
The Sinagua people[a] were a pre-Columbian culture that occupied a large area in Arizona from the Little Colorado River, near Flagstaff, to the Verde River near Sedona, including the Verde Valley, area around the San Francisco Peaks, and significant portions of the Mogollon Rim country,[2][3] between approximately 500 CE and 1425 CE.
[2][4] Guy Gibbon mapped the cultural phases of the Northern Sinagua, placing them around Sunset Crater between 700 CE and 900 CE[4] (leaving the Wupatki National Monument ruins);[6] the Rio de Flag from 900 to 1066 (leaving the Picture Canyon site); Angell and Winona between 1066 and 1100; Padre Canyon from 1100 to 1150; Elden Pueblo between 1150 and 1250; Turkey Hill Pueblo from 1250 to 1300; and Clear Creek between 1300 and 1400.
[7] The Sunset Crater eruption and subsequent agricultural benefits also caused a population growth in the area, with Ancestral Puebloans and Cohonina people also moving to the Wupatki site.
[10] Archeological and linguistic evidence suggests that the Yavapai people began developing independently from the Patayan at some point around 1300 CE.
[37]: 65–67 By the 1890s, Flagstaff found itself along one of the busiest railroad corridors in the U.S., with about 80 to 100 trains traveling through the city every day, destined for Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
Five Babbitt brothers from a mercantile background in Cincinnati – Billy, Charlie, Dave, Edward, and George – had set their eyes on becoming ranchers out West and sent Billy and Dave with $20,000 to buy a ranch; the brothers were told of some good, cheap, land just east of Flagstaff when in Albuquerque and took the railroad there, arriving in February 1886.
Three of the brothers married three daughters of a Dutch merchant, who advised the men to expand their business across many avenues, which they did, opening all kinds of stores, theaters, and even a mortuary in 1892, investing their money across northern Arizona.
[22] In c. 1900, journalist Sharlot Hall described the houses in Flagstaff as a "third rate mining camp", with bad air and expensive goods.
Route 66 had been supported by the businessmen of Flagstaff as early as 1912, knowing that the town was close to natural wonders that would make it a commercial opportunity, with the Babbitt family opening a car dealership.
[48] Seeing a rise in tourism, the people of Flagstaff collectively funded the Hotel Monte Vista, which opened on January 1, 1927, with Weatherford having begun construction of a toll road up the nearby San Francisco Peaks in the early 1920s.
[37]: 244–245 Flagstaff became a popular tourist stop along Route 66, particularly due to its proximity to the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, and the Petrified Forest National Park.
The city produced the majority of Arizona's timber supply that year, and was economically powered by the competing Arizona Lumber and Timber and Flagstaff Lumber companies, but in the last years of the decade, tourism took over and the face of the main commercial district changed to diners and motels in place of saloons.
[48] In 1928 the Museum of Northern Arizona opened in the city, and in the same year its workers prevented the destruction of Sunset Crater for use in a movie explosion.
[49] At the start of the Great Depression, the massive expansion of Flagstaff and Coconino County during the 1920s was seen as likely unsustainable with a lower income.
It was made worse by the unemployed workers traveling Route 66 to California stopping in Flagstaff, and young jobless Canadians venturing to the area for exploration having to be supported by the city before being deported.
[48] Known as "auto nomads" in Flagstaff, out-of-work families relocating to the city with children were particularly taxing on the public school system, and even those that did not stay long became unpopular as they could not afford to buy gas or food.
[51][49] However, some Flagstaff residents attempted charitable endeavors, including setting up food banks and imploring hunters in the local area to donate a percentage of each kill to them.
[49] At the outbreak of World War II, Route 66, now well- paved and maintained, was used to transport military outfits, bringing more prosperity to Flagstaff[48] and doubling its population.
[51] The Naval Observatory also observed the Dark Sky presence of the area;[49] in 1958, the city introduced light restrictions to maintain this.
[52] Through the 1950s the city conducted the Urban Renewal Project, improving housing quality in the Southside neighborhood that was largely populated by people of Spanish, Basque, and Mexican heritage.
[53] At the end of the 1950s, the Glen Canyon Dam was constructed north of the city, with the construction efforts meaning that a road that would become Interstate 17 between the town of Verde Valley and Flagstaff was laid to carry resources, providing better north–south access and directly connecting Flagstaff to Phoenix; scientists from the area also spent the decade to 1962, when Glen Canyon was flooded for the dam, documenting its archeological history.
The student population (at college and high school) also grew, but the city did not expand its infrastructure downtown, causing problems.
Sears and J.C. Penney left the downtown area in 1979 to open up as anchor stores in the new Flagstaff Mall, joined in 1986 by Dillard's.
By 1987, the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, a retail fixture in Flagstaff since 1891, closed its doors at Aspen Avenue and San Francisco Street.
As a result, many of the downtown sidewalks were repaved with decorative brick facing and a different mix of shops and restaurants opened up to take advantage of the area's historical appeal.
[65][66] Industrial use of the city grew in the 21st century: SenesTech started in 2004,[67] a major producer of pest control agents, and was the first publicly traded company headquartered in Flagstaff[68] until it downsized and moved to Phoenix in 2020.
[69] The Nestlé Purina PetCare factory in East Flagstaff is also a major industry hub, though is often under fire for making the city smell like dog food; mitigation acts were enforced in 2003 and 2020.
