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GUEST BOOK

September 1

1970:Tropical Storm Norma Labor Day Storm the "Deadliest storm in Arizona history". Twenty-three deaths were reported in Central Arizona, 14 from flash flooding on Tonto Creek. At Workman Creek, 11.92 inches of rain was captured and 11.40 inches fell in 24 hours time.

1976: Hurricane Kathleen moved across Baja, California with the storm's circulation still intact sending tropical storm force winds producing considerable damage in Yuma, where gusts as strong as 76 mph were reported! Those wind speeds can be compared to the same winds we associate with category one hurricanes. Severe flooding was reported in Mohave County, hail the size of golf balls hit Tucson and nearly 5 inches of hail covered Mount Lemmon.
 

2007:In the richest mayoral primary campaign in Prescott's history, the two candidates seeking Prescott's top job, incumbent Rowle Simmons and challenger Jack Wilson, combined to collect nearly $31,000 leading up to the Sept. 11 primary.
 

September 2

1883: The Sentinel says that finger boards have been have been set up and are now to be seen at all crossroads in Yuma. This is something that ought to be done in Yavapai County

1901: Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.

1908: Edward H. Harriman, astute financier, magnate of all American railway magnates, the keenest student of industrial conditions in the United States, has just placed an order for seven thousand new cars - mostly freight.

1933: The Arizona intangible tax law as a whole is unconstitutional, it was decided late this afternoon by Judge Martin T. Phelps of Maricopa county court, who on Wednesday of this week heard arguments by plaintiff and defendants in two suits brought against the state and county tax authorities to test the validity of the tax.

1945: Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II

September 3

1877: Ed Schieffelin recorded his claim to the “Tombstone Mine” in the Territorial courthouse in Tucson.

1929: George Truman, state senator from Pinal County, died in San Francisco. Truman had been a Rough Rider, deputy sheriff, assessor, treasurer and member of the Board of Supervisors for Pinal County.

1934: A crowd of 10,000 persons visited Chiricahua National Monument to witness ceremonies opening the new scenic highway through the Wonderland of Rocks.
 

September 4

1857:  Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale arrived at the Colorado River approximately 125 miles above Needles after surveying a wagon road along the 35th parallel from Fort Defiance. Beale experimented with the use of camels on his expedition.

1886: the Geronimo surrender conference was held in Skeleton Canyon near the present city of Douglas.

1921: August Ealey, a miner working a silver claim near Redington, reported finding a “burial ground of a race of giants.”

1924: The first Arizona Indian cast his ballot under the provisions of an act of Congress granting citizenship to American Indians.

1958: Concerning the future of the two Prescott factories, Prescott Sportswear and Thunderbird Fashions, established by the late Jack Mims, is the fact that both are definitely being continued. All employees are being retained, officials said.

1933: Frank Gillette of Phoenix, who qualified yesterday in the Hassayampa Country Club's run-off for the annual Labor Day Tournament, led the field today with a score of 70.

1908: Attorney Henry T. Andrews, who has been the legal representative of the Arizona Brewing Company ever since it was organized three years ago, was a very much surprised man when a Journal-Miner representative called upon him yesterday afternoon for information concerning the suit filed against the Santa Fe and Prescott and Phoenix Railroad Companies.

1883: W. G. Campbell and wife are coming back to Bradshaw


September 5

1865: Sonora Gov. Ingacia Pesqueira crossed the border to elude capture by Imperialist troops. He made his headquarters at Tubac, which became the capitol of Sonora for some months thereafter.

September 6

1891: the city of Tucson sprinkled 17,000 gallons of water daily on downtown streets to settle the dust.

1898: a tornado unroofed several homes in Casa Grande, causing one death.

1911: a fire destroyed one wing of the state asylum in Phoenix. The militia was called out to evacuate and guard 160 patients.

1911: Inspector of Weights and Measures found that 30 out of 33 scales in Tucson were giving short weight.

1932:  Northern Arizona State Teachers College in Flagstaff decided to accept hay, potatoes, eggs, oats or anything else man could eat in lieu of cash from students for room and board and books.

September 7

September 9

September 10

September 11

September 13

1998: Jack Shambaugh of the Arizona Department of Transportation told the Prescott City Council about ADOT's proposed realignment of Highway 89 that would re-route the highway around much of Prescott.

September 16

2007: Arizona Game and Fish officials announce that three men were convicted of shooting two bighorn desert sheep near Bullhead City. Penalties ranged from a $4,500 fine for one man and 10 days in jail and 30 days in jail for the other two.

2003: Eight of 13 school districts in suburbs east of Phoenix have installed surveillance systems. School officials said the result is less theft and vandalism. Government watchdogs said the cameras are intrusive.

1998: Liz Berthold became the new executive president of the Chino Valley High School Future Business Leaders of America.

1983: The U.S. Education Department said an analysis of high school transcripts indicates fewer than 3 percent of the previous year's graduates met the academic requirements recommended by the National Commission on Excellence in Education.

1908: "Stock tumbled today, due to a fierce onslaught by the profit takers. Both industrials and coppers slumped notable exceptions being Calumet & Arizona."

1883: "The Montezuma Saloon and billiard hall, Montezuma Street, appears to be in favor with the people who visit saloons. It is a large, well kept building."

September 17

1883: "All who may have occasion to pass through Chino Valley will find good accommodations at Mr. Banghart's Hotel, which is advertised in the paper."

September 19

1958: "Haircuts are going up another two bits in Maricopa County on Monday. The Barbers Union voted 250-82 Thursday night to raise the price from $1.50 to $1.75."

1883: Prescott Courier reports"We are told that Mitchell, who was shot a short time ago in Turkey Creek district, is getting along pretty well."

 

September 20

2007: The Phoenix City Council approved a ban on text-messaging while driving, making it the first city in Arizona and one of the first in the nation to enact the ban.

2003: A schoolteacher in Lost City, Okla., started teaching her students in her native language - Cherokee. Her students - whose grandparents were severely punished for speaking their native language in the early 1900s - are only allowed to speak Cherokee in the classroom.

1933: "The Prescott Community Theater opens its fall season tonight at the St. Michael hotel at 8 o'clock with a production of 'Pearls,' under the direction of Mrs. J. Ogden Hoffman."

1883: Prescott Courier reports, "Mr. Atkinson, of Iron Springs, on the Skull Valley road, was here yesterday. He corroborates what John Dickson said - that the road is well nigh impassable."

September 25

1883: "Mr. J. H. Ketner, of the A. & P. Line, has gone East to bring his family to Prescott."

September 26

1908: "Every inhabitant in camp (in Morenci) gathered last night to hear the address of Ralph Cameron, Republican candidate for delegate to congress."


Arizona History Archives

1983:Tropical storm Octave caused heavy rain over Arizona during a 10-day period. Fourteen deaths were reported and 975 people were hurt. At least 10,000 Arizonans were left temporarily homeless. Damage in today's dollars is estimated at $370 million.

October 14

1908: "That the Yaqui Indians, tired of dodging Mexican soldiers and sated with murder and loot, have again sought to enter into peace negotiations with the Mexican government, is the news brought to Bisbee by Senor Garcia, Mexican consul at Naco, Sonora, who was a visitor in Bisbee yesterday.'

1958:  The first issue of the Page Signal will be distributed in the Glen Canyon Dam construction town Thursday. Its publisher is Platt Cline, who also publishes the Arizona Daily Sun at Flagstaff.
 

October26

1881: Shootout at the OK Corral Tombstone AZ

October 30

2001: Seven weeks after a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, U.S. President George Bush throws a strike wearing a bullet-proof vest before Game 3 of the Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Bob Sheppard announces an American flag recovered from the WTC found with 12 stars missing and covered in ash was being flown in centre field. Standing at the back of the press box we saw NYPD and New York firemen crying like it was a funeral.

Arizona History Archives

Arizona History Archives

1967: Snow Storm paralyzed Northern Arizona and it was actually two storms, with the second following closely on the heels of the first. Over a period of nine days, 86 inches of snow fell in Flagstaff alone!

Arizona History Archives

2006: A joint venture consisting of Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE:TOL), which is the managing member, Meritage Homes Corp. (NYSE:MTH), and Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) has purchased a 5,485-acre land parcel in northwest Phoenix from DaimlerChrysler Corporation (NYSE:DCX) for $312 million. According to research published by The Arizona Republic, this represents the largest dollar value land transaction recorded in Arizona history.

Arizona History Archives

1863: Arizona was administered as part of the Territory of New Mexico until it was organized into a separate territory on February 24, 1863 All of present-day Arizona became part of the Mexican State of Vieja California upon the Mexican assertion of independence from Spain in 1821. The United States took possession of most of Arizona at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. In 1853, the land below the Gila River was acquired from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.

1912: Arizona admitted to the Union and becomes the 48th State of the United States of America

Arizona History Archives

1861: During the Civil War southern New Mexico Territory around Mesilla (now in New Mexico) and Tucson declared itself independent from the United States to join the Confederacy. Confederate Territory of Arizona (CSA) was regarded as a valuable route for possible access to the Pacific Ocean, with the specific intention of joining southern California to the Confederacy. (In 1860, Southern California had cleared all legal hurdles for secession from the rest of California and was waiting reorganization as a new US territory, which never materialized. At that time sparsely populated southern California was a hotbed of Southern-sympathizers.) In March 1862, Union troops re-captured this Confederate Territory of Arizona to return into their New Mexico Territory. The Battle of Picacho Pass was the western most battle of the Civil War fought in the CSA, and the only major one to be fought in Arizona.  In 1863, the U.S. split up their New Mexico Territory along a north-south border to create the U.S. Arizona Territory, which was later to become the state of Arizona.

Arizona History Archives

Arizona History Archives

1847: Earthquake hit most of Arizona centered south of Douglas in San Bernardino Mexico. An entire mountain range collapsed in the Santa Catalinas. 50 people died.

May 6

1896: Bisbee Daily Review Newspaper established

1903: Theodore Roosevelt made his first trip to the Grand Canyon

1908: Federal government ruled Fog bells must be installed on all steamer boats even on the Colorado River where there is no fog.

May 9

1897: Tucson police chief requested a horse and buggy to patrol town but was refused because of cost of $12 to feed the horse.

1898: Arizona column of roughriders left Prescott  for Cuba to fight in the Spanish American War where Bucky O'Neil died from a Spanish sharpshooter bullet who saw the glow of his cigarette at night.

1907: Bisbee created it's own fire department

1908: Bisbee created it's own fire department

May 10

1910: Railroad opens between Tucson and Quaymas Mexico

1917: State appropriates funds for purchase of the Governor's Mansion in Prescott which is now at the Sharlot Hall Museum

l872: First lawyers admitted to practice law in Maricopa County.

1916: Yuma Game Warden reported War in Mexico scared game across the border into Arizona

1927: Wife of owner of Slaughter Ranch was kidnapped by local Indians and held for ransom of horses and clothing

Arizona History Archives

July 12

1917: A posse comitatus swept through the streets of Bisbee, Arizona.  The deputies arrested more than 2000 men, most of whom were miners on strike against Bisbee’s three mining companies.  Later that day 1186 of them were herded onto a train and unloaded at Columbus, New Mexico, 173 miles to the east.  Few ever returned.

July 30

1872: A corporation was formed in San Francisco to develop diamond fields in northern Arizona. The undertaking was eventually proven to be a swindle which became known as the “Great Diamond Hoax.”

1911:  Sharlot Hall and hired guide Al Doyle departed for a trip through the remote lands north of the Grand Canyon and forged westward to small Mormon towns in Utah and down through Nevada known as the Arizona Strip.

1921: Gov. Thomas E. Campbell canceled the state fair to save taxpayers $90,000.

July 31

1875: Captain A.W. Corliss, commanding at Fort McDowell, reported to the Department of Arizona Headquarters that the roof on one wing of the guard house had fallen in and the roof on the main building was liable to fall in at any moment.

1903: Prescott Journal Miner announced that the hanging of two murderers “was from a professional or official standpoint” a perfect success.

Arizona History Archives 

August  6

1873: Vincente Hernandez, keeper of a general store and jewelry shop in Tucson, and his wife were beaten to death and robbed. Two days later a citizens committee hanged the murderers from the gallows in the plaza.

1879:  the first ice-making machine in Arizona began operation in Tucson.

1880:  the first bar of bullion was turned out from the Bisbee smelter.

1891:  an earthquake followed by a tidal wave caused extensive damage to the Cocopah Indian villages and lands along the lower Colorado River.

1896:  the Black Jack Christian gang attempted to rob the International Bank of Nogales, but were defeated by John Dessart, president of the bank, who held off the five armed men until help arrived.

August 7

1833: Frederick A. Tritle, who became Arizona’s seventh Territorial Governor, was born in Pennsylvania.

1909:  Arthur Joseph Bayless, founder of the A.J. Bayless grocery stores, was born.

1922:  the Tucson Citizen reported that I.T. Frazier, state highway maintenance superintendent, talked to Cochise County officials about a house which was standing in the middle of the highway between Douglas and Rodeo.

August  8

1876:  Dr. Walter Reed reported for duty as post surgeon for Fort Lowell.

1930:  cloudbursts over the state caused extensive damage. A trestle gave away near Winslow and the Santa Fe eastbound passenger train dropped into a wash. Two were killed and 39 injured. Nogales was swept by a wall of water which filled streets, leaving four dead and hundreds homeless. The Red Cross and Salvation Army rushed aid.

1933:  Arizona became the 21st state to sanction the repeal of national prohibition in a landslide vote.

August  9

1860:  Sylvester Mowry became the owner of the Patagonia Mine for which he paid $22,500.

1909:  a party of six men with Dean Byron Cummings, archaeologist from the University of Arizona, became the first white men to see the Betatakin Ruins.

1913:  25 citizens of Douglas were sworn in as special officers and armed for the purpose of patrolling the city at night to stop crime.

August  11

1883: "The tail end of the 'rainy season' promises to be the biggest ... Mr. Hudson, of Copper Mountain, informs us that the mine is yielding pretty well."

2003: Kartchner Caverns opened a new room to the public using money from a $150 per person fundraiser. The "Big Room" encompasses about 1.7 acres. State budget cuts delayed the room's debut.

2007: Twenty years after a landowner carved the notorious "scar" at the base of Thumb Butte, members of the Central Arizona Land Trust met at the site to gauge the progress in the long-term effort to repair the damage. Their prognosis: the area is well on its way to recovery thanks to a conservation easement and a re-vegetation project.

August  13

1816: William Oury, who arrived in Arizona in 1857 as the first agent for the Butterfield Overland Stage Line, was born.

1875:The Prescott postmaster disappeared with all the post office funds. He was later captured in Nevada.

1889: A tornado hit Fort Lowell.

1908:"Traffic on S.F.R. P. & P. was delayed considerably yesterday on account of a landslide between bridges 272 and 273, three and one-half miles south of Wickenburg."

1915: A stock company was organized in Los Angeles to search for the fabled buried treasure of Tumacacori.


August  14

1883: "The trot at the park drew crowds yesterday... New furniture is being placed in our schoolhouses... Prescott, some people say, ought to have a brass band... Hathaway brought four passengers from Lynx Creek yesterday."

1898: A violent storm swept through Gila Bend, demolishing the school, tearing the drug store off its foundation, wrecking the Southern Pacific roundhouse and overturning freight cars.

1904: Tucson police began a series of raids designed to close down the city’s opium dens.

1913: 10 men were killed at the Coronado Mine near Clifton when two loaded ore cars broke loose and rolled down the steep grade.

2003: Gov. Janet Napolitano said the increase in gasoline prices in Arizona resulting from the rupture of a pipeline that supplies about 54,000 barrels of gasoline a day to the state was temporary and would not cause an ongoing shortage.

August  15

1888: Three men were lynched at Holbrook during the aftermath of the Pleasant Valley War.

1898: A locomotive boiler exploded in Prescott destroying the roundhouse and killing two men.

1913: Eight buildings were destroyed by fire at Ray and residents of the town pulled down several more buildings to prevent the entire town from burning.

1917: The federal government ruled that men holding mining claims did not need to do their assessment work while in the military service.

August 16

1879: The stages between Maricopa and Phoenix were held up so frequently that acting Gov. John W. Gasper offered a bounty of $500 for every highwayman caught in the act.

1881: Ethel Macia, Tombstone pioneer, was born.

1901:  Lightning struck a tree in Coconino County, killing nearly 200 head of sheep under the tree.

1936: The city of Tucson discovered that its new underpass on Stone Avenue became a lake after every heavy rain. The city council named it Lake Elmira after Elmira Doakes, a Safford school student who was the first to swim in it.

1936: It was announced that a new patrol boat in the San Francisco harbor was being christened “Jeff D. Milton” in honor of Arizona’s veteran

August 17

1908: Constable Charles King has started a freelance boom for himself for sheriff of Yavapai County by an exhibition of nerve shortly after midnight Sunday morning which has set all of Jerome singing his praises.

August 27

191: Ffour passengers were killed and 16 were injured when the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix train crashed through the Date Creek bridge.

1925: Picacho Dam broke and thousands of acres in the vicinity of Picacho and Randolph were flooded.

1929: The airship Graf Zeppelin sailed over Tucson on its world girdling journey. Citizens watched from their rooftops as the bells of St. Augustine Cathedral were rung.

August 28

1868: Theodore Dodd, first agent to the Navajos after Fort Sumner, issued the first trading license at the agency to Lehman Spiegelberg of Santa Fe to trade at the Fort Defiance Agency or at any place of his choice on the reservation.

1920: The mustering out of Pancho Villa and his army was completed. The men surrendered their arms and ammunition and were given three months pay and transportation to their homes.

August 29

1905: James H. Tevis, who settled the town of Teviston, now known as Bowie, died.

1905: Dr. Richard A. Harvill, former president of the University of Arizona, was born.

1935: Ffour passengers were drowned when the bus on which they were riding was swamped by a 7-foot wall of water in an underpass near Dragoon, Ariz.

August 30

1881: Troops from Fort Apache, under the command of Gen. Eugene A. Carr, arrested the Apache Medicine Man Noch-ay-del-klinne in his camp at Clibicue Creek, thus setting off a battle in which the Medicine Man, several soldiers and Apache Indians were killed.

1913: G.W. Caywood, returning from a cross-country auto trip, found the last leg of his journey from Phoenix to Tucson the most difficult. It required 36 hours to drive, the time being spent mostly digging out of flooded arroyos.

August 31

1883: "A lot of mules were sold yesterday at Whipple's, bringing a fair price."

1883: Colonel James W. Eddy had a crew at work digging a tunnel into the Mogollon Rim for the Arizona Mineral Belt Railroad, which he hoped to build to Globe. The 70 feet that were dug still exists and is located about 1800 feet south of the Battle of Big Dry Wash Historical Monument.

1908: "Deputy Sheriff J.J. Cavenaugh lodged in the county jail here yesterday Charles E., a Tonto Apache Indian, accused of being an accessory to the murder of Charley Nataker, at the camp of the Arizona Power Company at Fossil Creek, August 16."

1908: A. E. Hackett, Flagstaff enterprising weather man has a scheme by which the summer tourist business in Flagstaff may be made to add 500 to a 1,000 to our population every summer. He proposes to form a stock company and build 20 to 30 summer rental cottages.

1908: Thos. Sayer reports a rather thrilling experience. During the last storm he was on his way to the Dent & Sayer sheep ranches near Kendrick Mountain, when he was caught just this side of the old Maxwell ranch. Soon the water covered the road 200 yards wide and was rushing along carrying trees 2 feet through with it! Then the water came up to his wagon bed. That sure kept him busy for a while. Trainmaster Duffle of Winslow was in the other day much elated over the reports from the Dunkirk mine near Parker. The shaft is down 84 feet and the free milling ore is running at $76 per ton with 3 percent copper. All the stock is owned by railroad men working out of Winslow with Supt. E. J. Gibson Pres. of the company.

1933: A 1 -room school house is to be erected at Kendrick Park with the ranchers donating the service. County Superintendent Mrs. Bessie Kidd Best has assigned $500 for 26 children.

1933: A Tuba City-Cortez Road is planned to be built with Indian Service Funds and Indians in the CCC Camp.

1933: The Arizona Lumber Company's production is down the 1908 levels with a total of 58,061000 board feet of which 91 percent is Ponderosa.

1933: The Hopi Snake Dances have bought light showers.

1958:  "The Arizona State Legislative Council has appointed Judge W.E. Paterson, of Yavapai County Superior Court, to serve on an Advisory Committee to the National Probation and Parole Association, which will conduct a survey of correctional services and related maters in Arizona."

1958: Construction of the new ultra modern Southern Union Gas Co. building at 420 N. San Francisco St. is under way and is expected to cost more than $50,000! It will be the headquarters for more than 30 employees, part of the long range plan to serve over 4000 customers in the Flagstaff area.
 

1958: Residents of the area around Mormon Lake are protesting Flagstaff's application to the State Land Dept. to appropriate 3 billion gallons of water from their lake.
 

1958: The Civil Aeronautics Board has received a proposal to grant Bonanza a 5-year permit to provide service to Flagstaff, Page and Kanab as drop offs from their Phoenix to Salt Lake City run.

1998: A 1975 Beachcraft Bonanza V35B was part of Air Fair '08 and the 70th anniversary of Ernest A. Love Field in Prescott.


 Arizona History Archives