Top 10 True Western Towns of 2009
By: 01/01/2009
4. FLORENCE, AZ
Quiet, modest growth has allowed Florence—pop. 26,656—to preserve many of its historic structures and its traditions. Wait, actually, only 9,433 of those folks are free; the other 17,223 are locked up in prison.
The free folks don’t lock up their history. Want to see the prison records that date back to the other territorial prison in Yuma? They’re available on DVDs for public use. Want to see the knife with which Deputy Joe Phy killed a bystander at the Tunnel Saloon in 1888, only to die himself? Or how about all the nooses of those legally hanged at the prison, with their photographs (including one of the first, and last, woman hanged there, Eva Dugan)? The Pinal County Historical Society Museum is the place for you.
The town put its foot down in the 1960s, when its historic buildings were being demolished under orders of the county health department. Today, more good folks continue to help stabilize the more than 100 structures—many of which are made of fragile adobe—in its historic district, thanks to $3 million in town and grant funds. You’ll find the Chamber of Commerce housed in the recently-restored Brunenkant Bakery on Bailey Street. Projects are underway to stabilize the 1882 First Courthouse in McFarland State Historic Park, the 1891 Second Courthouse—where stagecoach robber Pearl Hart was tried—which already features a repaired cupola and roof, and the Silver King Hotel.
The Junior Prada is inching toward its 80th year, and the rodeo is held on city-owned grounds that local citizens donated 2,500 hours of their time to help refurbish and upgrade.
Every May, State Historic Preservation Officer Jim Garrison leads a walking tour of the city’s historic district—which includes the home of San Carlos agent (and later Tombstone Epitaph founder) John P. Clum—and awards are given for the year’s best-completed preservation project.
When you look around Florence, the history left for you to see and enjoy is the result of unseen hands from the town’s many preservation organizations—the city’s Main Street Program, Historic District Advisory Commission, the Pinal County Mounted Posse, the Arizona Rangers Superstition Company, the Industrial Development Authority (responsible for reconstructing the Tunnel Saloon on Main Street), the Florence Preservation Foundation and the Pinal County Historical Society.
Florence’s citizens today work as tirelessly as the Albert W. Gressingers, Della Arcadia Redondo Meadows and John Swearengins who came before them. The town’s riches far extend beyond the Silver King Mine. It’s no wonder that the man often regarded as the “father of Arizona,” Charles Poston, is buried atop his favorite butte here, where he had once wanted to build a Temple to the Sun.
Comments (2)
The city should make the downtown historic district more western all year long, that is what the tourists want to come and enjoy, just like Jackson Hole area. Wood sidewalks, old storefronts renewed, take down the horrible siding on all those old building and make it historic and western as much as possible. Pull all the businesses together and make a true western downtown. You don't have to all sell western items, just make the buildings western. You have a GREAT start with the Train Depot and surrounding areas!! Keep up the PLAN!! or MAKE A PLAN!! Cheyenne could be a truly great small city and as the State Capital SHOULD have a GREAT DOWNTOWN!!
Sir:
My Son is coming home from Iraq in, about one year. BUT in early July he is coming on leave to look your area over for a possible place to live, get married and raise a family. We will be in WYOMING in the 1st few days of July. Have you got any info that might help him
He has been Special Forces and, I suppose Police work is what he wants.
I am in California but I am not a
"Californian". 707-259-0949 or
wes.mac@comcast.net or P O Box 294.
Yountville, California 94599. WES MAC
Mc Girr
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