Out Of The Past

One-hundred years ago, Williams was a bustling community whose economic vitality was based on agriculture, logging and the railroad.

The fire also damaged adjacent businesses.

CHINO VALLEY - It’s the aging, run-down but still-standing little stone building that every Chino Valley resident sees while traveling down Highway 89.

Out of the past: Road cave-in Route 66 between Ash Fork and Williams

Upon impact all the locomotives derailed in addition to a passenger car and ten baggage cars.

The presentation will feature information about Chino Valley's Fred Harvey Farm (1909-1956).

Out of the past: Children at Elephant Rocks in Williams circa 1926

Out of the past: Train wreck east of Williams 1926

Out of the past: Winter in Williams 1926

Out of the past: Christmas in Williams 1925

A group of skiers on the San Francisco Peaks. The first ski routes were blazed on the San Fransico Peaks in the late 1930s. Photo circa 1950.

WILLIAMS, Ariz. — At the intersection of Third Street and Bill Williams Avenue, a pressed concrete structure was erected in 1912 and has held its place as cornerstone of Williams, Arizona.

For thousands of years the Native Americans of northern Arizona have known the 1.6 million acres that is now Kaibab National Forest to be fertile hunting grounds for deer, elk and pronghorn.

Myrtle Smart, Aileen Klass, Fred Udine and Norman Campbell ride in the 1950s Williams Labor Day Parade.

Out of the past: Williams High School Thespians, 1966

Train cars sit next to the railroad tracks after a 1940s train crash near Williams.

Williams residents prepare for the annual Labor Day Parade.

The Bill Williams Mountain Men circa 1950s featured on the front of a post card outside of the Sultana Bar in downtown Williams.

Williams Labor Day Parade 1950, from Brad Massey family collection.

The Thunderbird Inn in Williams, circa 1950s.

Eddie January competes in the Williams Rodeo in 1950.

Ranchers bring in cattle in Williams in 1925.

Children play in a large pile of snow in the empty lot next to the Williams News building in 1948.

I worked with all of these people as a soda jerk one summer and weekends.

A fire breaks out at the Williams Motor Company on Second Street in June 1945.