Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon

By Victoria L Clark

Most visitors travel to Sedona to view the towering red rock sandstone formations dotted with juniper pines and to hike and explore Oak Creek Canyon, along with other beautiful canyons that were once showcased by the Westerns filmed in Sedona. After the ancient peoples who farmed departed the area, the Homestead Act of the 1870s advertised free land and lured cattle ranchers and farmers, but by the 1960s, tourism reigned, and Sedona became a destination for outdoor activities, art, fine dining, unique shopping, relaxation, and luxury resorts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Mar 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781439669280

Victoria L Clark

Victoria L. Clark is from Tucson, but she retired and moved to Sedona 20 years ago. She began writing and blogging about Arizona's colorful history. She is a former state president of the Arizona Questers, whose members are dedicated to historic preservation and restoration in the United States and Canada. She currently serves on the board of the Sedona Heritage Museum. Collecting historic postcards of Arizona is her passion, and she is a former president of the Phoenix Postcard Club. She has written three books on Arizona's history and one book of short stories.

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INTRODUCTION

The history of Sedona is an amazing one, the story of how a tiny farming and ranching community became a travel destination for visitors from all over the world in a scant 100 years. If we could chart a time line, the prehistoric peoples discovered Verde Valley and settled to the south, west, and north of Sedona. Just like today, our first residents, the Native Americans, discovered four seasons of temperate weather and sources of abundant water and wildlife, which were their resources for survival. Necessity dictated that they create practical tools, clothing, and pottery, but from their petroglyphs, pottery designs, and other objects they created, they must have stood in awe of the giant red rock formations, the rushing water, and the variety of vegetation. They must have also appreciated the clear blue skies, the sunshine to grow their crops, and the dark skies to track the cycles of the moon and constellations at night.

Anglo pioneers began farming in the area in the late 1800s, and by 1902, T. Carl Schnebly applied for a post office. His first choice for a name for the settlement was Schnebly Station, but the story goes that the name was rejected as too long for a postal cancel. It was suggested that the community name should be Sedona in honor of T. Carl’s wife. Farmers grew peaches, apples, plums, pears, grapes, and other fruits to feed their families and to sell to the nearby mining town of Jerome and the lumber camps near Flagstaff. Ranchers found good grazing areas around Sedona and then drove their cattle to be sold in Flagstaff.

When Hollywood began filming Westerns in the 1940s in Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, film fans had a desire to see the area for themselves. The popularity of Western novels during this period also helped to create tourism. From those early tourists, word spread about the fantastic beauty of the red rock formations, the lush vegetation, the fishing, the hunting, and the horseback riding in Oak Creek Canyon. The former homesteads that had been settled by pioneer farmers and ranchers were purchased for cabins, motels, stores, restaurants, and service stations. Artists and writers began arriving, inspired by the beauty of the surroundings.

Sedona is governed by two counties, Coconino and Yavapai. The area along Arizona State Route 89A, called Uptown and adjacent to the entrance of lower Oak Creek Canyon, is an area of older houses, hotels, specialty shopping, galleries, restaurants, tourist activities, and views of Oak Creek. The area to the west of the junction of Route 89A and Arizona State Route 179 is called West Sedona and has a variety of housing areas, grocery stores, medical facilities, service stations, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and the general variety of shopping and other services necessary in towns everywhere. One quirk in West Sedona is that the McDonald’s there has the world’s only teal-colored arches, to meet the requirement of Sedona’s approved Southwestern paint scheme. To the south is the Village of Oak Creek on both sides of Route 179, which is a nice mix of housing, three golf courses, hotels, restaurants, service stations, and shopping.

Sedona is surrounded by 1.8 million acres of beautiful natural forestland, which serves to limit growth but has also meant higher prices for housing and the cost of living. The number of artists, writers, photographers, performers, and musicians living in Sedona continue to keep Sedona a vibrant community. The number of hiking trails and other outdoor activities range from strenuous to easy. The beauty of the red rocks still makes me catch my breath, even after living here full-time for the last 20 years, but other people must see what I see, since readers of the USA Today weekend edition once voted Sedona America’s Most Beautiful Place.

Since Sedona was primarily a farming and ranching community before the 1960s, postcards of the area were mainly limited to real-photo postcards credited to photographers and publishers outside Arizona. This changed during the 1950s when chrome color postcards became popular. After the 1950s, most of the Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon postcards were filmed and published by local area or other Arizona photographers. Many of Sedona’s postcards are credited to local photographer Bob Bradshaw, who lived and worked in Sedona as a photographer, as a location scout for Western films, and as a part-time actor. Most of the early postcards were listed as located in Oak Creek Canyon rather than Sedona because the actual town of Sedona was so small. When tourism began fueling Sedona’s growth during the 1960s, then postcard images were listed as being in Sedona. I hope you enjoy these beautiful postcards as much as I do.

One

SEDONA HAS FOUR SEASONS

SPRING—PEACH BLOSSOM TIME AT CALL OF THE CANYON RESORT LODGE, C. 1958. Apples and peaches were two crops of prime importance