page_title: History of Flagstaff, Arizona
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: History of Flagstaff, Arizona / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Downtown Flagstaff.
context_page_description: Flagstaff is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. Established as a modern settlement in 1876 and incorporated as a city in 1928, the land had previously been lived on by native peoples of the southwest, primarily the Sinagua. Mountaineer Antoine Leroux then traveled the area, with Edward Fitzgerald Beale following in his footsteps and establishing a trail through the city in the mid-1800s. With a local spring, a small settlement grew by the wagon road, and the town was dominated by the McMillan, Riordan, and Babbitt families. Focused on agricultural pursuits, these families constructed some historic red stone buildings that still stand today.
  Beale's trail was replaced with cross-country railroads and highways, including Route 66. This expanded tourism – a main draw of the city is its location surrounded by sites of natural wonder, including the Grand Canyon – and was cause for an economic boost even through the Great Depression, before overpopulation and poor infrastructure led to the city's decline. A heritage project revitalized the city in the 1990s, leading to it developing a downtown culture.
context_section_description: 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. In this year, it had a population of 600 and "more saloons than all other businesses combined". In 1888, McMillan purchased an unfinished building that sits 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. Coconino County was created in 1891, and Flagstaff was chosen as its county seat over nearby Williams; McMillan became chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the new county.
  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. In 1894, Massachusetts astronomer Percival Lowell hired A. E. Douglass to scout an ideal site for a new observatory. Douglass, impressed by Flagstaff's elevation, suggested it to Lowell, saying: "other things being equal, the higher we can get the better". The Lowell Observatory was constructed on Mars Hill, overlooking the town. Two years later, the specially designed 24-inch (610 mm) Clark Telescope that Lowell had ordered was installed.
  Flagstaff became incorporated as a town in 1894. The city grew rapidly, primarily due to its location along the east–west transcontinental railroad line in the United States. By the 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 this decade, the Arizona Lumber and Timber Company was founded by the Riordan brothers to process timber. Michael and Tim Riordan worked in Flagstaff, and introduced electricity to the town for this purpose. The Riordans also built the Lake Mary area of Flagstaff, and Michael Riordan took a particular interest in protecting the surrounding native ruins of the present Walnut Canyon National Monument. The CO Bar Ranch was opened in about 1886 by the Babbitt brothers for cattle. Five Babbitt brothers from a mercantile background in Cincinnati – Billy, Charlie, Dave, Edward, and George – had set their eyes on becoming ranchers out West and sent Billy and Dave with $20,000 to buy a ranch; the brothers were told of some good, cheap, land just east of Flagstaff when in Albuquerque and took the railroad there, arriving in February 1886. 
  After some years, the other Babbitt brothers also moved to Flagstaff. Three of the brothers married three daughters of a Dutch merchant, who advised the men to expand their business across many avenues, which they did, opening all kinds of stores, theaters, and even a mortuary in 1892, investing their money across northern Arizona. They also introduced sheep to their cattle farm, with Billy and Charlie working as cowboys. The Babbitt family would be very influential in northern Arizona for decades (one descendant is former Governor of Arizona and Clinton's Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt). According to True West Magazine, "it was said, God made northern Arizona, and then he turned it over to the Babbitts to run." 
  The Northern Arizona Normal School was established in 1899, renamed Northern Arizona University (NAU) in 1966. In local culture, the Flagstaff Symphony made its concert debut at Babbitt's Opera House on April 11, 1899; the orchestra continues today as the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, with its primary venue at the Ardrey Auditorium on the campus of Northern Arizona University.
  On January 1, 1900, John Weatherford opened the Weatherford Hotel in Flagstaff. In c. 1900, journalist Sharlot Hall described the houses in Flagstaff as a "third rate mining camp", with bad air and expensive goods. 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 brothers are remembered
caption: Part of the Babbitt Brothers Building (1888) in 2007
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