page_title: Flagstaff, Arizona
section_title: Local culture
hierarchical_section_title: Flagstaff, Arizona / Culture / Local culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Downtown Flagstaff lit up for the Holidays
context_page_description: Flagstaff is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has an estimated population of 139,097.
  Flagstaff lies near the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau and within the San Francisco volcanic field, along the western side of the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the continental United States. The city sits at around 7,000 feet and is next to Mount Elden, just south of the San Francisco Peaks, the highest mountain range in the state of Arizona. Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet, is about 10 miles north of Flagstaff in Kachina Peaks Wilderness. The geology of the Flagstaff area includes exposed rock from the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras, with Moenkopi Formation red sandstone having once been quarried in the city; many of the historic downtown buildings were constructed with it. The Rio de Flag river runs through the city.
  Originally settled by the pre-Columbian native Sinagua people, the area of Flagstaff has fertile land from volcanic ash after eruptions in the 11th century.
context_section_description: Flagstaff has its own New Year's Eve tradition; in the city, people gather around the Weatherford Hotel as a 70-pound (32 kg), 6-foot (1.8 m) tall, metallic pine cone is dropped from the roof at midnight. The tradition originated in 1999, when Henry Taylor and Sam Green (owners of the hotel), decorated a garbage can with paint, lights, and pine cones, and dropped it from the roof of their building to mark the new millennium. By 2003 the event had become tradition, and the current metallic pine cone was designed and built by Frank Mayorga of Mayorga Welding in the city.
  Local museums include the Museum of Northern Arizona, which features displays of the biology, archeology, photography, anthropology, and native art of the Colorado Plateau, and the Arboretum at Flagstaff, a 200-acre (81 ha) arboretum containing 2,500 species of drought-tolerant native plants representative of the high desert region.
  A lot of the local culture is also focused on Route 66, which originally ran between Chicago and Los Angeles, greatly increased the accessibility to the area, and enhanced the culture and tourism in Flagstaff. Route 66 remains a historic route, passing through the city between Barstow, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In early September, the city hosts an annual event, Route 66 Days, to highlight its connection to the famous highway.
caption: Weatherford Hotel with its pine cone and a countdown in December 2010
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