[7] The location was originally called Tsézhin Deezʼáhí in Navajo, a reference to its rock formations.

In a poker game in 1873 Barth earned enough money to purchase cattle and enough land in St. Johns to start a ranch with his brothers Nathan and Morris.

A Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints community named Salem and led by David King Udall was established just north of the town under the direction of Wilford Woodruff on March 29, 1880, and then moved to higher ground by Erastus Snow on September 19 of the same year.

[14] The climate is humid continental (Dsb) with cold, snowy winters and warm summers with relatively greater precipitation via erratic thunderstorms.

Large diurnal temperature variations are typical, so warm days are often followed by freezing nights.

St. Johns is home to the Apache County Historical Society Museum and has four National Register of Historic Places: St. Johns is near the Placerias Quarry, the site where dozens of Placerias fossils were discovered in 1930 by Charles Camp and Samuel Welles, of the University of California, Berkeley.

Saint Johns is along the shortest and most scenic route from Phoenix to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[19] The city is home to the St. Johns Center of Northland Pioneer College.

[20][21] The Salt River Project operates the Coronado Generating Station near St.