Thatcher, Graham County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Thatcher, Ariz., December 31, 1909. In 1881, John Moody bought the Conley Ranch and the following year was joined by four Mormon families. Christopher Layton decided...
View ArticleSolomonville, Graham County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Solomonville, Ariz., February 4, 1890. The town was first called Munsonville, when William Munson built an adobe house and store here in 1873. In 1876 Isadore Solomon...
View ArticleSafford, Graham County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Safford, Arizona, July 12, 1881. A group of farmers found the first American Colony in the Gila Valley in 1874. They settled the site of Safford, naming it for Gov. Anson...
View ArticleKlondyke, Graham County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Klondyke, Ariz., July 16, 1909. Prospectors returning from Alaska settled at this point and named it to commemorate their experiences in the Klondike. The post office was...
View ArticleGeronimo, Graham County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Geronimo, Ariz., September 5, 1909. This community on the Arizona Eastern Railroad was named for Geronimo who led Apache warriors in fights against the...
View ArticleFort Thomas, Graham County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Fort Thomas, Ariz., October 5, 1896. The name Camp Thomas derives from that of Brig. Fen. Lorenzo Thomas. The name was changed to Fort Apache in 1871 and...
View ArticleTonto, Gila County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Tonto, Gila Co, Arizona, December 4, 1885. The post office at Tonto was established on the Howell Ranch at the foot of a trail called Jump-off. It served...
View ArticleStrawberry, Gila County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Strawberry, AT (Arizona Territory). February 2, 1889. The stamps are pen cancelled, and the post office name and date are handwritten. In 1886, the first settlers in the...
View ArticleSan Carlos, Gila County
Cancelled postal stationery entire used on Dec 30 in San Carlos, Ariz. There is no year date in the cancel. San Carlos Indian Reservation was established on Nov. 9, 1871 and suffered a reduction in...
View ArticleRoosevelt, Gila County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Roosevelt, Ariz., July 15, 1909. This location was originally the post office for the construction crew of the Roosevelt dam. When water covered the...
View ArticleFlagstaff, Coconino County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Flagstaff, Ariz. on January 18, 1889, although the cancel date is not completely legible. F.F. McMillian arrived in 1876 and built a corral and shack near the present...
View ArticleFort Huachuca, Cochise County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Fort Huachuca. Ariz., December 19, 1909. Originally established as a military post under the name of Camp Huachuca. This last specimen of an Arizona territorial...
View ArticleDragoon, Cochise County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Dragoon, Arizona, April 19, 1882. The post office was established on June 20, 1881. This is the earliest known cover bearing a Dragoon postmark, although the post office...
View ArticleCourtland, Cochise County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Courtland, Ariz., November 3, 1909. Courtland Young was one of the owners of the Great Western Mining Company established in 1909, by his brother, W. J. Young. The...
View ArticleBenson, Cochise County
Cancelled stamp on an envelope dated in Benson, Ariz., April 22, 1895, addressed in Chinese and English to Los Angeles, Cal. Benson was a stagecoach station in the early days. In March 1871 a...
View ArticleCochise, Cochise County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Cochise, Ariz., January 25, 1912. The settlement of Cochise was established around 1886 and named for the Chiricahua Apache Chief. The post office, established in...
View ArticleBisbee, Cochise County
Cancelled postal stationery entire with a Bisbee, Ariz., flag cancel dated November 14, 1904. The letter was addressed to Willcox, Ariz. In 1880 a small eastern mining firm known as Phelps Dodge and...
View ArticleSpringerville, Apache County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Springerville, Ariz., August 28, 1909. Merchant Harry Springer set up a store here in 1875. He sold to and trusted outlaws with seed and feed on credit and soon went...
View ArticleNutrioso, Apache County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Nutrioso, Ariz., September 24, 1894. The name Nutrioso so named because early settlers killed a beaver, (Spanish word “Nurtia”) and a bear, (Spanish word...
View ArticleAdamana, Apache County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Adamana, Ariz., March 31, 1909. Adamana is a contraction of the name "Adam Hanna", who with Jim Cart, raised cattle in the area. A post office was located at the ranch...
View ArticleAsh Fork, Yavapai County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Ashfork (Ash Fork), Ariz., Oct 4, 1910. The town is spelled with one word in the canceller. Freight carried to Jerome traveled part way along Ash Creek. It was so...
View ArticleApache, Yavapai County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Apache, Ariz., September 12, 1910. The return address is Chiricahua, Ariz. The post office was established on Jan. 7, 1873 with John A. Meredith as postmaster. The office...
View ArticleNogales, Santa Cruz County
Cancelled postal stationery entire with Wells, Fargo and Co's Express franking, mailed from Wells, Fargo in Nogales on May 7, 1894. The blue cancellation is not clearly legible on the blue stamp, so...
View ArticleNogales, Santa Cruz County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Nogales, Ariz., January 20, 1905. The name Nogales is an old one, found on maps from 1859 to the present. Jacob Isaacson, an itinerant peddler who had been in Arizona...
View ArticleCalabasas, Santa Cruz County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Calabasa, Ariz., March 7, 1886. The canceller appears to have no final "S" in the town name. The area of Calabasas had been inhabited since the late 1600’s, under various...
View ArticleSacaton, Pinal County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Sacaton, Ariz., Pinal Co. November 8, 1883. The post office was established in January 1871. The origin of the name "Sacaton" is in doubt. The Pima Indian village may...
View ArticleRedrock, Pinal County
Cancelled post card mailed from Redrock (Red Rock), Ariz., August 7, 1908. The town spelling varied from one word to two words over the years. The community was developed to service the Silver Bell...
View ArticlePinal, Pinal County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Pinal, Ariz., October, 1889. The date is not legible in the cancellation. The developing community of Pinal was an important stage station on the road to Globe. When...
View ArticleOracle, Pinal County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Oracle, Ariz., July 17, 1902. The letter is addressed to the Gold Coast, West Africa. Oracle, a small ranching and mining community, established its post office December...
View ArticleMaricopa, Pinal County
Cancelled post office form mailed from Maricopa, Pinal County, Arizona, March 17, 1885. The cancellation is octagonal. This was originally the junction for the main transcontinental railroad with the...
View ArticleCasa Grande, Pinal County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Casa Grande, Arizona. January 26, 1889. The cancellation is in blue ink, and has an accompanying star canceller. The thriving and prosperous town of Casa Grande was so...
View ArticleAmerican Flag, Pinal County
Cancelled postal stationery mailed from American Flag, July 7. The cancel is done with pen and ink, and there is a notation that the year is 1881. A cattle ranch known as the American Flag Ranch was...
View ArticleTucson, Pima County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Tucson, Ariz., June 23, 1881. Electric streetcars began operating in Tucson on June 1, 1906 as a replacement for the horse and mule drawn streetcars. For...
View ArticleTucson, Pima County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Tucson, Ariz., August 30, 1890. Street cars drawn by mules, when the mules felt like it, were still in use in Tucson in 1901. Note the name “Meyer Street...
View ArticleShultz, Pima County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Shultz, Ariz., March 28, 1898. The small mining camp on the hill above the San Pedro River was developed by Frank Shultz around the end of 1872. He built a small grocery...
View ArticleWhite River, Navajo County
Cancelled envelope mailed from White River, Ariz., November 11, 1904. An early name for the White River was the Sierra Blanca River. The settlement is the current headquarters for the Apache Indian...
View ArticleSnowflake, Navajo County
Cancelled postcard mailed from Snowflake, Ariz., August 19, 1906. A transit cancel from Holbrook, Ariz. also appears. James Stinson, a rancher, sold property in July 1878 to William Flake. Erastus Snow...
View ArticleShow Low, Navajo County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Showlow (Show Low), Ariz., July 18, 1888. The cancellation spells the town name in one word. In 1875, Corydon B. Cooley settled on Show Low Creek with his wife who was...
View ArticlePinedale, Navajo County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Pinedale, Ariz., December 31, 1908. Niels Mortenson began a Mormon settlement here in 1879. Although it was first known as Mortenson, it was also referred to a...
View ArticleMineral Park, Mohave County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Mineral Park, Arizona, April 11, 1882. The rich abundance of metals in the area gave Mineral Park its name in 1870. Mineral Park was the county seat for a short time in...
View ArticleKingman, Mohave County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Kingman, Arizona, June 11, 1890. The town was named for the locating engineer, Lewis Kingman. This photo is of the first post office building in Kingman,...
View ArticleHardyville, Mohave County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Hardyville, A.T. (Arizona Territory), April 18, 1867. The envelope is cancelled by pen and ink, and the town and date are written by hand. Hardyville...
View ArticleAubrey, Mohave County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Aubrey, Ariz., February 10. The year is not shown in the cancellation, but probably is from the 1880s. Aubrey, an important Colorado River steamer landing, established a...
View ArticleTempe, Maricopa County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Tempe, Ariz., November 1, 1898. In 1871, Charles Trumbull Hayden , left Tucson where he lived since his arrival in 1857 on the first Butterfield Overland Mail coach. He...
View ArticlePhoenix, Maricopa County
Cancelled postal stationery entire mailed from Phoenix, Arizona, September 5, 1881. The cancellation is hexagonal, and the "OE" in Phoenix are conjoined. In 1867, Jack Swilling organized the Swilling...
View ArticleGila Bend, Maricopa County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Gila Bend, Ariz., August 8, 1904. Fr. Garces found a Native American Rancheria in 1774. Years later a settlement began where grain was raised. This colony became known as...
View ArticleApache, Cochise County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Apache, Ariz., September 12, 1910. The return address is Chiricahua, Ariz. Little remains of the community called "Apache", which was named in remembrance of the days of...
View ArticleBuckeye, Maricopa County
Cancelled postal card mailed from Buckeye, Ariz., April 8, 1906. Buckeye was named for the Buckeye Canal built by M.M. Jackson in honor of his home state in Ohio. Thomas Newton Clanton donated a...
View ArticleGuthrie, Greenlee County
Cancelled envelope mailed from Guthrie, Ariz., December 21, 1910. This point on the Arizona and New Mexico railroad was named for Guthrie Smith who with J. Duncan Smith sold land to the Arizona Copper...
View ArticleClifton, Greenlee County
Envelope cancelled in pen and ink in Clifton, A. T., on December 13, 1875. Rich deposits of copper were discovered in the area by Lt. John G. Bourke in 1869 while he was on army duty. In 1872, a group...
View Article