Talk:McNary, Arizona

message: I have no idea where this citation could be found, so therefor I share my personal experience.  The school bus I rode also drove to McNary; in fact I lived so far southeast in Pinetop that the only people who got on the bus before me in the morning was the bus driver and the "McNary kids."  ("Kids" is a misnomer, they were teenagers.)  Likewise in the afternoon they were usually the only ones still on the bus (aside from the driver) when it was my turn to disembark, except on days when the driver decided to vary things and drop the McNary kids off and then me on the way back.  170.215.38.47 (talk) 22:47, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Served by the Blue Ridge School District 

message: From the fall of 1951 to the spring of 1952, my father, Charles E. Abbott,  was employed by the Southwest Lumber Mills, as "Townsite Engineer" at McNary.  As a civil engineer, he generally oversaw any engineering problems at McNary, the logging community at Maverick, and one other town. (I forget the name but it was something like Haber, and I think NW of Show Low.)  Headquarters, or main offices, were in Phoenix as I recall. This was considered the largest stand of ponderosa pine in North America, located on the edge of the Mogollon Rim.  
In the spring of l952, the company changed hands. At that time, a company in Alaska was urging my Dad to come to Anchorage, and my parents saw the purchase of Southwest Lumber Mills by another company as an opportunity for him to resign, and so we left, driving north to Alaska in l952.  During the time we were there, I worked in the payroll department and also, for a few issues, edited a monthly house organ, and wrote features about individual employees and company activities.  I have no idea what happened after that, but offer this as a small piece of history about McNary.  The company was not the McNary Company, but Southwest Lumber Mills at that time.  
I went on to receive degrees in anthropology at the University of Alaska,  inspired in no small part by my time in McNary where I became acquainted with both Apaches and Navajos.  The Navajos worked in the mill primarily, and the local village next to McNary town was Apache.  There were many conflicts in town between the two groups. The Apaches had horses and generally dominated the conflicts with their superior horseback positions and lassoes, while the fire department raged war with hoses and water, the local sheriff frantically trying to put an end to what was considered great sport by the Apaches.  
We often heard the sound of their drums at night coming from the village and wondered what they might portend.  A few Apaches worked in my Dad's office and I treasure memories of my acquaintance with them.  We became acquainted with Navajos outside of Dad's office, in other contexts, and that also was rewarding.  They are all related to the Dene of Alaska, otherwise known as Athabascan, and their languages are all related.  The Apache's and Navajos apparently migrated south from their earlier northern homeland many hundreds of years ago, to settle in that region. 
Perhaps this will add some bit of information about the history of McNary and the White Mountain Apache Reservation in its relationship to the information you have.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.174.99.86 (talk) 11:06, 7 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Following from Neville Abbott Jacobs (Mrs.) of Fairbanks, Alaska