Coconino County Crater

It's been a while since we took a trip back to look at Coconino County history. So, here's an interesting excerpt from the 1906 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, about Meteor Crater, then called Coon Mountain:

"COON MOUNTAIN'S SO-CALLED CRATER. — Messrs. P. M. Barringer and B. C. Tilghman have made an examination of Coon Mountain in Arizona, and the results of their work are published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (December, 1905). Coon Mountain or Butte rises above the plain about five miles south of Sunshine station in Coconino County, Arizona.

The evidence collected has convinced the investigators that the "crater" was produced by the impact of an iron body falling out of space. The so-called mountain consists of a circular ridge from 130 to 160 feet in height, surrounding an almost circular depression in the earth varying from 3,600 to 3,800 feet in diameter and about 400 feet deep.

Viewed from the inside the surrounding ridge is about 560 feet above the level of the crater bottom. As this hole has a general resemblance to a crater, some observers have surmised that it was really the crater of a long-extinct volcano. The rim around it, however, is not composed of volcanic outpourings; the hole penetrates strata of red sandstone, yellowish limestone, gray sandstone, and, finally, a brownish sandstone, in which it terminates. The writers dismiss as untenable the theory that this is a volcanic crater.

Another theory is that the hole was produced by a steam explosion; but the vast amount of steam required could be stored up only in regions of volcanic activity, and there is no evidence that this was ever such a region.

The writers believe the evidence to be overwhelming that the cavity was formed by the impact of a large meteorite. Much of the rock was ground by the collision into fine particles and almost impalpable dust, and a great part of the crater rim is formed of this debris. The colliding body itself was, to a large extent, broken into pieces. Borings have revealed small fragments and splinters of it, but no large piece has been found beneath the floor of the crater. On the other hand, several tons of meteoric iron have been collected around the crater. Seven pieces of it weigh from 600 to over 1,000 pounds each, and smaller pieces were found around the crater to a distance of two and a half miles.

These iron specimens contain iron, nickel, iridium, and platinum, and there are millions of particles of it scattered far and wide around the crater. A shaft is now to be sunk in the centre of the crater, and, if possible, sufficient depth will be reached to demonstrate whether or not there are parts of the supposed foreign body buried several hundred feet beneath the central plain."

Pages 306-307
Bulletin of the American Geographical Society
By American Geographical Society of New York
Published by The Society, 1906

Coconino County Fair

Let's go to the fair--The 59th Coconino County Fair. It starts today and goes through Labor Day on Monday.

You can even leave your car in Flagstaff and ride the bus out to the Fairgrounds at Fort Tuthill County Park. See the details on the website above.

Whether you like the carnival rides, the music (The Bellamy Brothers will be there on Saturday.) or the exhibits and demonstrations, it should be a lot of fun way to officially end the summer.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Sounds like Sunday is going to be a cool, crisp day.

Early History of Flagstaff

Let's visit another book on Flagstaff history, by Platt Cline, They Came to the Mountain: The Story of Flagstaff's Beginnings.

You already know that I'm a big Platt Cline fan. And you know that I'm very interested in Flagstaff and Coconino County history. So, this is the perfect book for me--bringing the two together.

I was hooked from the beginning. Bernard L. Fontana, ended his foreword to They Came to the Mountain, dated April 1976, with this:

"At least as early as the summer of 1882, the townspeople were fussing over the need for schools, churches, and fraternal organizations. ...

None of this sounds like a wild and wooly western town of movie matinee and television fame. It sounds instead like a piece of already well-established middle America transplanting itself beneath the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks, 'The Mountain' to which men came. And the transplant has been a success. Today's Flagstaff boasts three astronomical observatories, a university and a renowned museum of anthropology and natural history, the Museum of Northern Arizona. As Cline remarks, 'the community's attitudes and values favoring [such institutions] were already evident in the 1880s.'

Platt Cline's concern for the present and his love for his home have led him to examine our common past. We are in his debt for having brought us, too, to the mountain."

This pretty much sums it up, but you really must find a copy of this book. You will be so glad you did.

Coconino County 2008 Report to Citizens

It's another trip you only have to take to your mailbox. On the heels of Cityscape, see our post, we just received the Coconino County 2008 Report to Citizens.

It's another excellent resource for all residents of Coconino County. This publication from the Office of the Board of Supervisors is 23 pages of must-know information. It covers everything from the Ready! Coconino emergency notification system on page 2, to volunteer opportunities on page 5, to employment, career and small business information on page 24. In between there's still more extremely important information.

If you didn't get your copy, you can contact Brenda Grey at 928.779.6695 or go to the Coconino County website, then click on "Citizens" and then on "Citizens Newsletter" to download the complete the report in pdf format.

Please take the time to read this entire publication. You'll be glad you did.

"Arizona, the Wonderland"

You never know where a trail will lead. I've been spending a lot of time on the history of Flagstaff. This morning, I happened upon a book called Arizona, the Wonderland written by George Wharton James, published in 1917.

The page that came up in my Google book search was page 365, the beginning of Chapter XXVII, Coconino County and Flagstaff. To catch a glimpse of what these early visitors to Coconino County saw is such a privilege. He says, "Coconino County is one of the vast slices pared off in the early days of Arizona's history from Yavapai County--the mother of Arizona counties. Imagine an area as large all Vermont and all Massachusetts, with little Rhode Island thrown in--an area across which the Grand Canyon is cut in all its sublime glory, an area in which stands in solemn majesty one of the most, if not the most, beautiful and inviting mountain cluster in the United States--the San Francisco range, 12,611 feet above sea level--this is Coconino County."

Further, on page 367, he celebrates the beauty of the area, "Why go to Asia, or to the heights of the Himalayas, or the Andes of the South, when here are places that challenge the strength, the power, the endurance of the explorer? And it is a region of color, too, that surpasses the most extravagant endeavor of either writer or painter to portray. A La Farge, a Reid, a Moran, a Turner, a Tintoretto, a Titian, a Velasquez aided by all the more and most daring of the modern painters of the greatest of schools might suggest its color extravagances, but even though the artist were to paint it ever so well there isn't a person in the world who would believe it meant anything real--so why imagine the artists attempting it?"

I hope you enjoyed this little snippet from George Wharton James, published in 1917 and digitized in 2007. If you'd like to read more or download the entire book it's available here.