Existing comment:
Flagstaff's Founding
Flagstaff was a name on a map before the area had any significant population. The first permanent settler was Thomas F. McMillan who arrived sometime in 1876. On July 4, 1876, a party of emigrants traveling from Boston to California was camped at Antelope Springs, near McMillan's homestead and in the vicinity of present-day Marshall Elementary School. In honor of the nation's Centennial, the emigrants stripped the limbs from a tall Ponderosa Pine tree and hoisted Old Glory. This event gave Flagstaff its name.
In 1881, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad was being constructed westward from Albuquerque along the 35th Parallel to California. The first train pulled into Flagstaff in August 1882. At the same time, a lumber mill had been built by Chicago industrialist Edward E. Ayer to take advantage of the abundance of timber in the Flagstaff area. The railroad and the lumber industry together created the settlement we know as Flagstaff.
A small tent city grew up beside the railroad tracks near Old Town Spring, along present-day Lower Coconino Avenue. The town was relocated to New Town (the present-day downtown area) in 1882.
James E. Babbitt
Businessman |