In 1540 Coronado searched for the Seven Cities of Cibola and camped some 60 miles (100 km) east of Holbrook.

Coronado sent an expedition west to find the Colorado River, and they crossed the Little Colorado some 25 miles (40 km) east of Holbrook and found a wonderland of colors they named "El Desierto Pintada" – The Painted Desert.

From 1851 to 1857 the U.S. Army sent three expeditions along the 35th parallel, the third led by Lt. Beale who created a 10 feet (3 m) wide wagon road.

Soon afterwards a store and saloon were established at the confluence of the Rio Puerco and Little Colorado Rivers two miles east of Holbrook, and the area became known as Horsehead Crossing.

In 1876, Mormons emigrated from Utah and began settlements near Horsehead Crossing on both the Little Colorado and Rio Puerco rivers.

The railroad sold a million acres to a Boston investment group which established the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, better known as the Hashknife Outfit.

It leased another million acres of government land and became one of the largest cattle ranches to ever exist.

The Hashknife Outfit hired cowboys, many of whom were wanted men hiding from arrest.

On September 4, 1887, Commodore Perry Owens, the Apache County Sheriff, came to Holbrook to arrest Andy Blevins, a.k.a.

Owens single-handedly taking on four men made him a western legend rivaling the Earp Brothers and Texas John Slaughter as lawmen of the Old West.

President Roosevelt named the Petrified Forest (including part of the Painted Desert) a National Monument in 1906.

In the evening of July 19, 1912, a smoke trail appeared in the sky and soon after, at 7:15 p.m., a meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kilograms (419 pounds) exploded high in the atmosphere.

An estimated 16,000 or more minor fragments rained down over Navajo County in an area approximately 6 miles (10 km) east of Holbrook.

[6] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.4 square miles (40 km2), all land.

The other three main campuses are in Show Low, Snowflake, and Winslow, all in Navajo County, Arizona.