HISTORY43 - Flagstaff, Arizona - The City of Seven Wonders

Pat and I have been vacationing in Flagstaff for years.  We even have a timeshare there.  I figured it was about time to research and document the history of the area.

 

After a short introduction to Flagstaff, I cover the early Inhabitants, the founding of Flagstaff, the city’s development, Route 66 and growth, decline and resurgence, and Flagstaff today.  Principle sources include the Museum on Northern Arizona; the Flagstaff Visitors Center; “Flagstaff History” and “Historic Downtown Walking Guide,” flagstaffarizona.org; “Flagstaff, Arizona - City of Seven Wonders,” legendsofamerica.com; “History of Flagstaff, Arizona,” “Flagstaff, Arizona,” and “Yavapai,” from Wikipedia; plus numerous other online sources.

Flagstaff is a city in northern Arizona, located near the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, alongside the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the continental United States.  The city sits at 6,910 feet altitude, next to 9,301-foot Mount Elden, about 10 miles south of Humphrey’s Peak, the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet.  Flagstaff is about 80 miles south of the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and lies along the Rio de Flag watercourse, about 130 miles north of the State capital, Phoenix.

Flagstaff is often called the “The City of Seven Wonders” because it sits in the midst of the Coconino National Forest and is surrounded by the Grand Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, Walnut Canyon, Wupatki National Monument, Sunset Crater National Monument, and the San Francisco Peaks.

Flagstaff offers a beautifully mixed landscape of forests, high deserts, lakes, and volcanic craters.  Some of the open forest space contains bunchgrass, and local animal species that roam on this include elk, mule deer, Merriam's Turkey, and Abert's squirrel.  Birds that live around or visit Flagstaff include the thick-billed kingbird, only documented in the area since 2016, the red-faced warbler, a Madrean species, and waterfowl including the Eurasian and American wigeon (shallow water ducks).

Flagstaff is one of the United States' sunniest and snowiest cities, with a variable "semi-arid" climate and a monsoon season in summer.

 

Map of Flagstaff area.

Early Inhabitants

The first people who inhabited the Flagstaff region were probably descendants of people who followed herds of large animals from Siberia across a land bridge in the Bering Strait into Alaska between about 45,000 BC and 12,000 BC.  Subsequent generations of these Paleo-Indians (ancient ones) gradually spread southward to populate North America, reaching Arizona in about 9,500 BC.  The Paleo-Indian tradition was followed by the Archaic Period which lasted in Arizona from about 6,000 BC to AD 200.  Two Archaic cultures had influence in the Flagstaff area:  the Cochise culture, that dominated Arizona, and the Basket Maker culture, occupying the Colorado Plateau in the four-corners region.  This was a time of transitions, after the big game (mammoths, bison, sloths) died off, to hunting smaller game and gathering a variety of edible wild plants, and most importantly, learning to farm, leading to permanent small settlements.

Sinagua.  The prehistoric Sinagua (Spanish for “without water”) people occupied a large area in northcentral Arizona between approximately AD 500 and AD 1425. Sinagua land extended from the Little Colorado River, northeast of Flagstaff; south to the Verde River near Sedona, including the Verde Valley; the area around the San Francisco Peaks; and significant portions of the Mogollon Rim country.  The Northern Sinagua began living in the pine forests of northern Arizona in the 5^th century, before moving into the area that is now Flagstaff in about AD 700.

The Sinagua culture was a combination of hunter-gatherer foraging and subsistence agriculture. They hunted a variety of game from antelope, bear, and rabbit, to turtles and ducks. They used amaranth, ricegrass, cactus fruit, beeweed flowers, and cattails for flour.  Sunflowers, hackberry fruit, yucca, wild grapes, walnuts, pine nuts, and acorns were also important sources of food.  Sinagua farmers cultivated maize beginning in the 8^th century. They learned irrigation techniques from their southern Hohokam neighbors and added beans and squash to their crops.  

Eruptions of Sunset Crater between AD 1064-1067 covered 800 square miles of the surrounding land in cinder and ash, which greatly enriched the soil for farming.  Following this initial period of eruptions, there were intermittent lava flows and ejections of cinders for the next 200 years.

Early Sinagua sites consist mostly of pit houses, lined with brush, poles, timbers, or stones.  Later structures were masonry pueblos, like other contemporaneous cultural groups occupying the southwestern United States.

Besides ceremonial kivas, Sinagua pueblos had large "community rooms" and some featured ballcourts and walled courtyards, similar to those of the Hohokam culture.

The Sinagua were active in the region's long-distance trade which reached the West Coast, Gulf of California, and Mesoamerica. They traded their baskets and woven cotton cloth for copper, macaws, marine shells, salt, and rare pigments.

There are several archaeological ruins of former Sinagua settlements to the northeast and east of Flagstaff, each within about 15 miles of Sunset Crater - all probably finding agricultural benefit from the fertile ash from the volcano’s eruptions.  The most well-known of these settlements are Wupatki and Walnut Canyon.  Other significant Sinagua settlement sites include Elden Pueblo (in eastern Flagstaff), and a little further east, Rio de Flag (in today’s Picture Canyon), Winona Village, and Turkey Hill Pueblo.

 

Wupatki, occupied from AD 500-1225, had over 100 rooms, a community room, a ballcourt, and two kiva-like structures.

 

The Sinagua occupied over 80 Walnut Canyon cliff dwellings like this one from AD 1100-1250.

The Sunset Crater eruptions and subsequent agricultural benefits may have contributed to a population growth in the area, with Ancestral Puebloans, from the four-corners region, and Cohonina people, from northwest Arizona, moving to the Wupatki site.

The Northern Sinagua culture started to decline in the early 13^th century and by the mid-14^th century had disappeared. The Southern Sinagua hung around a little longer, abandoning their Verde Valley sites by the early 15^th century.  Like other pre-Columbian cultures in the southwest, the precise reasons for such a large-scale abandonment are not yet known; resource depletion, drought, and clashes with the newly arrived Yavapai people have been suggested.  Some of the Sinagua likely moved northeast, becoming the Hopi.  The San Francisco Peaks (which mark the city of Flagstaff's northern border) are a sacred site in Hopi culture.

Yavapai.  Most archeologists agree that the Yavapai Native Americans in Arizona originated from Patayan groups who migrated east from the Colorado River region.  Archeological and linguistic evidence suggests that the Yavapai people began developing independently from the Patayan at around AD 1300.  Until American western expansion, the Yavapai, specifically the Northeastern Yavapai, occupied the land around Flagstaff up to the San Francisco Peaks. 

The Yavapai were mainly hunter-gatherers, following an annual path, migrating to different areas to follow the ripening of different edible plants and movement of game.  Some tribes supplemented this diet with small-scale cultivation of corn, squash, and beans - in fertile streambeds.

The main plant foods gathered were walnuts, saguaro fruits, juniper berries, acorns, sunflower seeds, manzanita berries and apples, hackberries, the bulbs of the Quamash, and plant greens. Agave was the most crucial harvest, as it was the only plant food available from late fall through early spring.  The hearts of the plant were roasted in stone-lined pits, and could be stored for later use.  Primary animals hunted were deer, rabbit, jackrabbit, quail, and woodrat.  Fish and water-borne birds were eschewed by most Yavapai groups.

The Yavapai built brush shelter dwellings. In summer, they built simple lean-tos without walls. During winter months, closed huts would be built of ocotillo branches or other wood, and covered with animal skins, grasses, bark, and/or dirt. They also sought shelter in caves or abandoned pueblos to escape the cold.

The Yavapai lived in local groups of extended families, that would form bands in times of war, raiding, or defense.  Most food-providing sites were not large enough to support larger populations.

Government among the Yavapai tended to be informal.  There were no tribal chiefs.  Certain men became recognized leaders based on others choosing to follow them, heed their advice, and support their decisions.

After about the mid-18^th century, Yavapai groups had tumultuous relations with the nearby Havasupai and Hualapai people.  Though the Pai peoples all spoke the same dialects and had a common cultural history, each peoples had tales of a dispute that separated them from each other.

Tonto Apache.  The Yavapai land in the Flagstaff area saw overlap with Northern Tonto Apache land that stretched across the San Francisco Peaks to the Little Colorado River.  Two Northern Tonto Apache tribes lived within the area of present-day Flagstaff:  the Oak Creek band and the Mormon Lake band.  The Oak Creek band mixed with the Yavapai and was largely centered near Sedona, but lived as far north as Flagstaff. The Mormon Lake band consisted entirely of Apache and were centered around Flagstaff. The Mormon Lake band also faced off against the Navajo to the north and east.  They were exclusively hunter-gatherers, and traveled around places like the foot of the San Francisco Peaks, at Mount Elden, Lake Mary, Stoneman Lake, and Padre Canyon.

Note:  From here on in this paper, I’m dropping the anno Domini (AD) notation for dates.

Spanish.  Flagstaff did not have a colonial Spanish presence.  Spanish explorers and missionaries got close, but never reached Flagstaff.  In 1540, García López de Cárdenas, on a side trip from Hernando Coronado’s expedition seeking the Seven Cities of Gold, discovered the Grand Canyon, but no Spanish returned.  In 1604-1605, Juan de Oñate made an extensive exploration of today’s Arizona, marching west from New Mexico, past the Zuni and Hopi villages in Arizona, reaching the Verde Valley and the Prescott area, finally arriving at the Colorado River, and then heading south to the Gulf of California, but missed the Flagstaff area.  Later in the 17^th century, Spanish missionaries, about 65 miles away in the Hopi village of Oraibi, gave the San Francisco Peaks their name.

Founding of Flagstaff

Soon after Arizona became American territory, following the War with Mexico in 1848, the U.S. Congress acted to explore the Nation’s new lands, sending out various parties to find resources, make maps, and locate routes from the East across the new lands to California, where a gold rush was happening.   In 1851, Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves led an Army expedition to explore northern New Mexico and northern Arizona to the Colorado River, and then south to Yuma.  In northern Arizona, the expedition found a spring and named it after Sitgreaves guide, Antoine Leroux.  Leroux Springs was about seven miles northwest of today’s Flagstaff.  A supplies station was established there in 1856.  Sitgreaves National Forest, along the Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains in east-central Arizona, was named after Lorenzo Sitgreaves.

In 1853, Army Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple led an expedition to survey a possible transcontinental railroad route along the 35^th parallel.  By Christmas 1853, the expedition reached the San Francisco Peaks near present-day Flagstaff, then continued west, reaching Los Angeles in 1854.  Although Whipple encountered no major obstacles, the 35^th parallel was not chosen for the first transcontinental railroad route due to a calculation error which added $75 million to his estimate to build a railroad along the route.

Between 1857 and 1860, Army Lt. Edward Beale was sent to build a wagon road across northern Arizona.  Beale made sure to stop at Leroux Springs.  He sent glowing reports to Congress, telling them how the Flagstaff area was rich in grasslands, water, and timber.  Once the Beale Road was established, it became well-traveled by emigrants going to California.  The travelers noted Flagstaff’s resources as a treasure chest, but its isolation meant no nearby markets for farm products, meat, or lumber, and no way to ship goods to distant markets. 

 

Beale's Wagon Road brought Flagstaff to the attention of the nation.

Meanwhile, Arizona was attracting an increasing number of miners and settlers from the East.  Arizona Native Americans fought hard to resist encroachment on their tribal lands and practices.  Between 1851 and 1886, there were a series of “Indian Wars” across Arizona.  In the end, superior American military resources won the war of attrition.  In northern and central Arizona, the Navajo, the Hualapai, the Yavapai, and the Apache were decimated, and the survivors placed on reservations. 

After short, brutal wars with the Army, a Military Reserve of 900 square miles was established in 1871 for the Yavapai and Tonto Apache in the Upper Verde Valley.  However, this Reserve was rescinded by President U.S. Grant in 1875 and the Native Americans, numbering around 1,700 were forcibly marched to the San Carlos Apache Reservation east of Phoenix. 

The first permanent settlement in the Flagstaff area came in 1876 when Thomas F. McMillan built a cabin just north of present-day Flagstaff and started a successful sheep ranch where he found grass and water.  The isolation of the area was not a problem to him because wool did not spoil, and could withstand the long, rough journey to market in Boston.

Another party of emigrants came from Boston in 1876.  Originally planning to settle in the Little Colorado River area near Winslow, they found the area already settled and decided to move on to California.  On July 4, 1876, the group camped in the Flagstaff area.  Supposedly, in honor of the nation’s centennial, they stripped a pine tree of its branches and bark and raised an American flag.  When they moved on, their “flag staff” became a landmark for those who followed.  So, Flagstaff was founded with a flag raising ceremony.

The days of isolation ended for the Flagstaff area in 1880, when the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad began to lay track westward from Albuquerque on its way to California to complete the country’s third transcontinental railroad.  Entrepreneurs quickly found they could capitalize on the railroad’s construction crews by selling food, supplies, and entertainment from the supply camps they set up along the line.  As the rails neared the San Francisco Peaks, a small settlement began to take shape by a small spring on the slope of what is now called Observatory Mesa (or Mars Hill), just west of today’s downtown Flagstaff. In early 1881, merchants and saloonkeepers set up shop for the advance parties of workers who were coming to grade and cut ties in the abundant ponderosa forest. The citizens of the little camp called their new town Flagstaff, in honor of the landmark. By the fall of that year, Flagstaff boasted a population of 200 and swiftly became a wild railroad town filled with saloons, dance halls, and gambling houses.  On August 1, 1882, the railroad finally reached Flagstaff.

As the construction crews moved westward to California, some of Flagstaff’s citizens followed after them, but others stayed, hoping that the camp could continue to thrive.  Fortunately for those who stayed, Flagstaff became an established stop for water servicing the railroad and its passengers.  Sheep ranchers began to use the railroad to transport wool, and cattle ranchers, drawn by the prospect of free or inexpensive land, realized that they could now affordably ship their beef to the eastern market. Businessman E. E. Ayers set up a lumber mill before the railroad got to town, and began shipping lumber within days after the rails arrived.  By winter 1882, Flagstaff was a firmly established town with a railroad, livestock, and lumber industries and a service industry of merchants, cafes, hotels, and saloons to serve the sheepherders, cowboys, lumberjacks, and train travelers.

In 1883, the railroad decided to move their depot about a half mile east of the Flagstaff settlement so their trains didn’t have to start up on the steep hillside.  One of the local merchants, P.J. Brannen, saw this as an opportunity and decided to move his mercantile across from the new depot.  Others followed, building a strip of shops, saloons, and hotels along what became known as Front Street. As a result, Flagstaff became two settlements:  the original site called Old Town, and the site near the depot named New Town.  Old Town had water, but New Town had commerce and soon outgrew the older settlement.

 

The original Flagstaff, called Old Town, 1882.

In 1884, a devastating fire burned down many of Old Town’s buildings, and New Town became the one and only Flagstaff.  Its center was the intersection of today’s Santa Fe Avenue (aka historic U.S Route 66) and San Francisco Street.

The name Flagstaff was reinstated in 1884 when a post office was introduced alongside the railroad depot.

Development

During the 1880s, Flagstaff began to grow, with the early economy based on timber, sheep, and cattle.  By 1886, Flagstaff was the largest city on the railroad line between Albuquerque and the West Coast of the United States.  The city had a population of 600 and "more saloons than all other businesses combined.”  

In 1886, the (several) Babbitt brothers started and began to work the CO Bar Cattle Ranch on lands between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.  (The Babbitts saw the height of their "cattle empire" between 1907 and 1919, with around 100 ranches between Kansas and California funded by the brothers in the 40 years after their arrival in Flagstaff.  The historic CO Bar is one of the largest ranches in the Southwest and continues in operation today.)

The ambitious Babbitt brothers soon expanded their business interests, opening all kinds of stores, theaters, and even a mortuary in 1892, investing their money across northern Arizona.  In 1888, they established the Babbitt Brothers general mercantile store in Flagstaff.  The Babbitt family would be very influential in northern Arizona for decades (One descendant, Bruce Babbitt was Governor of Arizona and President Bill Clinton's Secretary of the Interior.)

Babbitt Brothers general merchandise store in Flagstaff, 1888.

 

In 1888, sheep rancher Thomas McMillan purchased an unfinished building at the present-day intersection of Leroux Street and Route 66/Santa Fe Avenue, turning it into a bank and hotel known as the Bank Hotel.  The next year, stagecoach tours to the Grand Canyon began running from the Bank Hotel, which also housed an opera house that doubled as an events hall for entertainment.

 

Thomas McMillan's Bank Hotel, 1888.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway completed the track from Williams to the Grand Canyon in 1901. The company could make a return on its investment through tourism. The $3.95 train ride replaced the $15.00 eight-hour stagecoach ride from Flagstaff.

By 1890, the young town of Flagstaff had reached a population of almost 1,000 and had become one of the largest towns in the territory.  It had a well-developed business district, and homes were being built throughout the area.  But the inhabitants realized that the town would soon be too big to continue without some kind of formal organization.

In 1891, with newfound status, and at the urging of prominent local citizens, Coconino County was split off from Yavapai County.  Flagstaff became the new county seat, with Thomas McMillan as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the new county.  Unfortunately, concerns such as the regulation of drinking and gambling and most importantly - the need for water - were not being addressed.  In Flagstaff’s early days, water was provided from Old Town spring and other small area springs, but with no water close to Flagstaff, several large fires, like the 1884 fire that burned Old Town, took a hefty toll.  A logical solution was to tap the springs in the San Francisco Peaks, but the cost and logistics were not feasible.  Town leaders talked about the need to incorporate Flagstaff, not only to gain the status it needed to have an effective local government, but also to allow for the sale of municipal bonds to pay for the water project.  On May 26, 1894, by action of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, Flagstaff became an incorporated town. 

The city grew rapidly, primarily due to its location along the east-west transcontinental railroad line.  By the mid-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. 

In the 1890s, Anglo settler John Elden established a homestead on lower slopes of the mountain just northeast of Flagstaff and grazed sheep on the open grasslands below.  The mountain became known as Mount Elden.

In 1894, the Lowell Observatory was constructed on Mars Hill, overlooking the town from the west.  Two years later, the specially-designed 24-inch Clark Telescope was installed.  (In 1930, the Clark Telescope was used to discover Pluto.)

 

Percival Lowell observing Venus from the Lowell Observatory, 1914.

In 1899, the Northern Arizona Normal School was established, renamed Northern Arizona University in 1966. 

On January 1, 1900, John Weatherford opened the Weatherford Hotel in Flagstaff.  Weatherford also opened the town's first movie theater in 1911; it collapsed under heavy snowfall in 1915, but in 1917, Weatherford replaced it with the Orpheum Theater. The Weatherford Hotel and Orpheum Theater are still in use today.

 

John Weatherford's Hotel, 1900.

 

Flagstaff's Orpheum Theater, 1917.

Flagstaff saw its first tourism boom in the early 1900s, becoming known as the “City of Seven Wonders” -   Coconino National Forest, Grand Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, San Francisco Peaks, Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, and Wupatki. 

By the late 1890s, the reservation system was breaking down and beginning in 1900, the Yavapai and Tonto Apache survivors of the removal began drifting back to their home country in small family groups.  In 1903, a small reservation was established in Camp Verde, followed by additional small parcels in Middle Verde, Clarkdale, and Rimrock.

In the 1910 U.S. Census, Flagstaff had a population of about 3,200 people.

The state of Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912.

Route 66 and Growth

The railroad largely controlled Flagstaff - being its main source of industry and transport - until Route 66 was started for automobiles in 1926, passing through Flagstaff.  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.

 

Flagstaff prospered and grew steadily with the completion of Route 66.

Flagstaff worked hard to be ready for Route 66.  Forecasting a rise in tourism, the townspeople collectively funded the Hotel Monte Vista, which opened on January 1, 1927.   Flagstaff was then incorporated as a city in 1928 (having the required population of over 3,000 residents), and in 1929, the city's first motel, the Motel Du Beau, was built at the intersection of Beaver Street and Phoenix Avenue. The local newspaper described the motel as "a hotel with garages for the better class of motorists."  A number of motor courts, auto services, and diners sprouted up along Flagstaff’s new highway. (Today, the city still sports a number of vintage cafes and motor courts along its historic downtown district.)

 

Flagstaff's Hotel Monte Vista, 1927.

 

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.  To combat Route 66, the Santa Fe Railroad (succeed the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad) opened a new depot in Flagstaff in 1926.  As part of the celebrations, Front Street was renamed Santa Fe Avenue.

 

The Santa Fe Railroad built this train depot in Flagstaff in 1926.  Photo from the 1940s.

 

In 1927, Flagstaff's primary industry was still timber, though farming persisted into the 1920s. 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.  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.

In 1928, the Museum of Northern Arizona, one of the best archeological museums on the Prehistoric Southwest in the world, opened just northwest of the city.  (Today the Museum features displays of the biology, archeology, photography, anthropology, and native art of the Colorado Plateau.)

Starting in 1929, Flagstaff weathered the Depression, and by the end, was prospering.  The importance of Route 66 to cross-country travel, and thus to Arizona's interests on a national level, meant that it received a large share of state funding through the Depression. Flagstaff's unemployed soon became highway construction workers, and by the end of 1934, Flagstaff had financially recovered to pre-Depression levels, aided by tax cuts and continued tourism.  In 1935, many residents had enough disposable income to remodel their homes or build new ones. In 1936, based on the city's continued economic upswing, General Petroleum announced it was building a new refinery just outside of town.  The first hospital in the city was also opened in 1936.  

Route 66 was entirely paved by 1938.  Also in 1938, the northern section of State Route 89A, from Sedona to Flagstaff, through Oak Creek Canyon, was paved, providing easy access from Flagstaff to Sedona, Clarkdale, Jerome, and Prescott.

In 1938, the Snowbowl opened for skiers on the San Francisco Peaks.

With America’s entry into World War II in 1941, Route 66 was used to transport military outfits, bringing more prosperity to Flagstaff and doubling its population.  Flagstaff hosted a huge ammunition dump then, which brought increased business to the surrounding area and heavy traffic to and from the facility.  Tourism boomed at war’s end, and Arizona’s National Parks, mountains, and tribal lands drew travelers to the area.

In the 1950s, Route 180 was paved north of the city to provide better access for Grand Canyon tourists and skiers on the mountains north of town.  Flagstaff became a seasonal ski resort.

In 1955, the U.S. Naval Observatory joined Flagstaff’s growing astronomical presence, and established the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station five miles west of Flagstaff. Pluto's satellite Charon was discovered there in 1978.

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.

At the end of the 1950s, the Glen Canyon Dam was built north of the city, with the construction efforts requiring a road to bring in equipment and resources from Phoenix.  That road became Interstate 17 (from Phoenix to Flagstaff) and U.S. 89 (from Flagstaff to Glen Canyon).  Interstate 17 was finally completed in 1978, greatly facilitating north-south travel, and directly connecting Flagstaff to Phoenix.  Until 1962, scientists spent time in Flagstaff, documenting the archeological history of Glenn Canyon as it was flooded, making Lake Powell.

Flagstaff grew and prospered through the 1960s, with a train running through the city on average every eighteen minutes through the decade. In 1964, the Lowell Observatory was designated as a National Historic Landmark.  Buffalo Park, a large open park with free-roaming wildlife within the city, was opened in 1966.  During the Apollo program in the 1960s, Lowell Observatory’s Clark Telescope was used by the United States Geological Survey to map the Moon for the lunar expeditions, enabling the mission planners to choose a safe landing site for the lunar modules.  Astronauts also trained in the cinder cones around Flagstaff.  

By 1970, Flagstaff’s population had grown to over 26,000 people.

Decline and Resurgence

As the baby boomer generation began to start their own families in the 1970s and 1980s, many moved to Flagstaff, based on its small-town feel, and the population began to grow again.  But there were not enough jobs to support the many educated individuals moving to the city

Downtown Flagstaff suffered a decline in the 1970s and 1980s.  Several historic buildings from the 19^th century were destroyed for construction of new ones, or leveled completely.  Downtown became an uninviting place, and many businesses started to move out of the area, causing an economic and social decline.  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.  In 1987, the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, a retail fixture in Flagstaff since 1888, closed its doors.  

Another factor in Flagstaff’s decline was the completion of Interstate 40 across northern Arizona 1984.  Business was siphoned away from Route 66 and downtown Flagstaff.

To protect historic buildings in downtown, the Railroad Addition Historic District was formed and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.  That action preserved many important historical buildings, including the McMillan Building (1886), the Babbitt Brothers Building (1888), the Waterford Building (1898), the Orpheum Theater (1917), the Santa Fe Depot (1926), the Monte Vista Hotel (1926), and many other historic travel, trade, and social buildings that date from the period between the late 1880s and the 1940s.

In 1987, the city drafted a new master plan, also known as the Growth Management Guide 2000, which transformed downtown Flagstaff from a shopping and trade center into a regional center for finance, office use, and government.  The city built a new City Hall, Library, and the Coconino County Administrative Building in the downtown district.  

By 1990, Flagstaff’s population was just under 46,000 people.

During the 1990s, downtown Flagstaff became more cultural again.  Store owners in downtown supported the Main Street programs of preservation-based revitalization.  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. The historic sandstone buildings were restored, and parts of downtown became targeted towards tourism.  After the Railroad Addition district became protected, and the historic quality of the city was appreciated by officials, more neighborhoods became registered as historic districts.  Heritage Square was built as the center of the revitalized downtown, including mapping the history of the area on various structures.  The local Flagstaff Pulliam Airport began running more flights to Phoenix, allowing commuting, and the school district was expanded with a third high school.  Microbreweries opened downtown in the early 1990s, as did craft restaurants.

 

Brick-lined Heritage Square, designed to accommodate 1,200 people for a performance or just a handful of folks hanging out on a sunny afternoon, surrounded by restaurants, shops, and galleries.

On October 24, 2001, Flagstaff was recognized by the International Dark-Sky Association for its efforts in preserving the nighttime environment for astronomy.  Flagstaff was designated as the world's first "International Dark-Sky City,” and in 2012, it was officially named "America's First STEM Community,” for its work in improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education.

Industrial use of the city grew in the 21st century:  SenesTech started in 2004, a major producer of pest control agents, and was the first publicly-traded company headquartered in Flagstaff, until it downsized and moved to Phoenix in 2020.  The Nestlé Purina Pet Care factory in East Flagstaff is also a major industry hub.  A new industry also sprouted in the 2010s, with Flagstaff becoming an altitude training destination for elite athletes.  The Hypo 2 High Performance Sport Center in the city trained over 85 Olympic medalists from 44 countries between 2012 and 2019.

Flagstaff’s industry and population have continued to grow through the present time. 

Flagstaff Today

Today, Flagstaff’s population exceeds 75,000 people. 

Northern Arizona University is the city’s largest employer and has a major economic impact annually.  Besides NAU, other major public employers include the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, Flagstaff Medical Center, Flagstaff Unified School District, U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.  Major private employers include Joy Cone (ice cream cones), Nestle Purina (pet food), and W. L. Gore and Associates (manufacturing company specializing in products derived from fluoropolymers).  Tourism is also a large employer as the city sees over five million visitors per year.

Flagstaff’s Historic District proudly displays its historic buildings that the city went to so much trouble to save and preserve.  The McMillan Building today contains the McMillan Bar and Kitchen, and other businesses.  The Babbitt Brothers Building operates today as Babbitts Backcountry Outfitters. The Weatherford and Monte Vista Hotels are still welcoming overnight visitors.  The Orpheum Theater still provides entertainment.  The Santa Fe Depot now serves as Flagstaff’s Amtrack Station and the city’s Visitors Center.

 

The history of these Flagstaff buildings was discussed earlier.  Can you identify them as they look today?

The Flagstaff Visitors Center provides a brochure and directions for a walking tour of the city’s historic district.

Flagstaff has an active cultural scene. The city is home to the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, attracts folk and contemporary acoustic musicians, and offers several annual music festivals during the summer months.  Popular bands play throughout the year at the Orpheum Theater, and free concerts are held during the summer months at Heritage Square.  Beyond music, Flagstaff has a popular theater scene, featuring several groups.  A variety of weekend festivals occur throughout the year including festivals for books, film, Hopi and Navajo arts and crafts, beer tasting, and science.

Flagstaff has two world-class museums, the Museum of Northern Arizona, featuring prehistoric southwest history, and the Lowell Observatory, containing a wealth of local astronomy history and instruments.  Other local museums include the Fort Tuthill Military Museum, with local National Guard history; the Pioneer Museum, with remnants of northern Arizona's farming and transportation past; and the art galleries at the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Flagstaff has acquired a reputation as a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts, and the region's varied terrain, high elevation, and amenable weather attract campers, backpackers, climbers, recreation and elite runners, and mountain bikers from throughout the southwestern United States. There are 679.2 acres of city parks in Flagstaff, the largest of which are Thorpe Park and Buffalo Park. Wheeler Park, next to City Hall, is the location of summer concerts and other events. The city maintains an extensive network of trails; the Flagstaff Urban Trails System includes more than 50 miles of paved and unpaved trails for hiking, running, and cycling. The trail network extends throughout the city and is widely used for both recreation and transportation.  There are over 56 miles of urban trails in Flagstaff.  The area is a recreational hub for road cycling and mountain biking clubs, organized triathlon events, and annual cross country ski races. Several major river running operators are headquartered in Flagstaff, and the city serves as a base for Grand Canyon and Colorado River expeditions.

Flagstaff's proximity to Grand Canyon National Park, about 75 miles north of the city, has made it a popular tourist destination since the mid-19th century.  Other nearby outdoor attractions include Walnut Canyon National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, and Meteor Crater.  Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Lake Powell are both about 135 miles north along U.S. Route 89.  Sedona, and the red rock country, are just 25 miles south on U.S. 89, via Oak Creek Canyon.

Flagstaff also offers tourists the 200-acre Arboretum at Flagstaff, home to 750 species of mostly drought-tolerant native and adapted plants representative of the high-desert Colorado Plateau.

Numerous Sinagua prehistoric archeological sites can be visited in the Flagstaff area.

The Yavapai-Apache Nation is still located in the Verde Valley, comprised of five noncontiguous tribal communities with 2,596 total enrolled tribal members.  About 750 members live in the five communities.

Since 1851, the Flagstaff area has been “on the path” of cross-country travelers, from the Sitgreaves expedition, to Whipple’s expedition, to Beale’s Wagon Road, to the Santa Fe Railroad, to Route 66, and finally Interstate 40.  And more recently, Flagstaff became an important stop for north-south traffic with Interstate 17, and U.S. Route 89.  This history as a transportation network “node” is represented by a current Flagstaff set of Route 66 road signs shown below.

 

Route 66 in Flagstaff, where all major area highways meet.