Graham County, Arizona

Graham County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Safford
Year Organized: 1881
Square Miles: 4,630

Court House:

800 Main Street
County Courthouse
Safford, AZ 85546-2828
Phone: (928)428-3250
Fax: (928)428-5951

Named: Graham is named after Mount Graham.

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Graham County, Arizona

The history of the area has three key parts. This area was used by the Indians from prehistoric times up to the present day. Indian burial grounds, village sites, and sacred sites abound in this area. This is a rich archeological area. In more current history, this area was the last safe haven of Geronimo, and the severe effort of the U.S. Cavalry to imprison the Indian war leader and his band of fighters.

The second key part of the history of this area is the resolution of the land by early pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about 1850. The Saints brought their faith, their irrigation, and their respect for the land and the people, and made this place their home. Within twenty years after the arrival of the first pioneers many other religions were also welcoming a growing population.

A third key part of the earlier history included another major group of Spanish settlers, from neighboring New Mexico. They made their homes a few miles north and east of Safford in what is today, Sanchez, and San Jose, Arizona. The area known as Sanchez was named after Lorenzo Sanchez who arrived in the valley sometime in 1879.

Graham County was recognized in 1881. The largest city, Safford, was incorporated in 1881. Safford is the namesake of Anson Pacely Killen Safford, an early Territorial Governor. The city dates back to 1873 and owes its establishment to Joshua Bailey and Edward D. Tuttle, who entered Arizona in 1862. Bailey picked the name for the town, establish its first store. Tuttle was a member of the Territorial Legislature and taught the first Safford School, an adobe structure which stood at the site of the present post office.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Navajo County; Apache County
Northeast: Greenlee County
South: Cochise County
Southwest: Pima County
West: Pinal County
Northwest: Gila County

Cities:

Bylas
Central
Eden
Fort Thomas
Graham
Pima
Safford (County Seat)
Solomon
Thatcher

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Graham County, Arizona

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of our country!”

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.”

Penn Foster High School

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