The Thompsons with William Munds
Neighbors were few and far between in those earliest days of settlement. The Munds homesteaded in Spring Creek and he moved his cattle to the mountain in the summer. This rare chance for these...
View ArticleErwin Schuerman's honey label
Bees to pollinate a fruit orchard are a necessity. As the orchards in the area grew larger, the orchardists began to bring in bee colonies to ensure enough bees to do the job. With the bee hives came...
View ArticleThe Purtymun family with grandpa Bear Howard
The Purtymuns moved into Oak Creek Canyon (today Junipine) in the early 1880s. Again they cleared the land. They built a large log house and an irrigation ditch and planted a fruit orchard. In the...
View ArticleIrrigation ditch work was everyday
The Schuerman and Dumas families were close neighbors and friends. Being next door neighbors, Dumas and the Schuermans worked together to build and maintain an irrigation system. Erwin (left), Henry...
View ArticleThe Jim Thompson cabin, early 1880s
In 1912, Jim took another homestead of about 56 acres adjoining his original. As his children matured he helped some of them homestead near him. His daughter, Clara, married before she proved up and...
View ArticleEdith Smith harnesses a farm goat
Children were involved in the work and responsibilities of area homesteads. The Abraham Lincoln Smith family arrived in Sedona in 1915 to put their children in school. Edith was a Smith granddaughter,...
View ArticleOak Creek first families and friends picnic at Banjo Bill Springs
Picnics on the Fourth of July have long been a tradition for residents of Oak Creek Canyon. Times like these were for the scattered residents to get together and swap stories and socialize. For young...
View ArticleThe Hart children haul wood
L.E. 'Dad' Hart and family arrived about 1909-10, and bought land and cattle. Although Dad's store would be the first to have electricity in town, that was almost 25 years into the future, so the Hart...
View ArticleHeinrich and Dorette Schuerman
The Schuermans came to Oak Creek in 1884 to take possession of a 160 acre farm deeded to them in payment of a $500 debt. These two 'city kids' built an irrigation ditch, planted an orchard and a...
View ArticleJerome miners provided a ready market for Oak Creek fruit and wine
The Schuerman ranch on Oak Creek was at the base of Courthouse Rock (now known as Cathedral Rock). The family grew apples, peaches, apricots, and quince to name a few. They produced Zinfandel wine made...
View ArticlePendley barn
The area's earliest settlers were subsistence farmers, meaning they grew what they needed for their own use. Frank Pendley arrived in 1907. He came to fish in Oak Creek and ended up returning to...
View ArticlePendley fruit crate label
Pendley built over a mile of irrigation ditch that included sections of pipe and flume, some of it piercing rock in which he blasted holes to accommodate the gradual angle needed for gravity flow of...
View ArticleFrank Thompson
Jim & Maggie's first child was a boy named John Franklin, born in 1882. Little Frank had the distinction of being the first white child born in Oak Creek Canyon. As an adult, Frank homesteaded on a...
View ArticleThe Abraham James family
The Abraham James family moved to lower Oak Creek (Page Springs) in 1878 and then to Sedona in 1879. Land was not being surveyed yet, so they could only claim 'squatters rights' on the creekside site...
View ArticleErwin Schuerman takes fruit to market, 1912
Hauling produce and wine to market was an arduous task for Oak Creek farmers and orchardists. There was no railroad and only primitive roads for decades. A wagon and team would make the trip, sometimes...
View ArticleHenry Elmer Cook farming
Cook's 1912 homestead extended from the base of Table Mountain and spread across 160 acres of Grasshopper Flat. His son, Jay, homesteaded another 160 acres nearby that later become the Sedona West...
View ArticleThe James' place along Oak Creek, about 1890
The Jameses built cabins, a corral and a ditch on their land (today's Copper Cliffs). Unfortunately, Abraham did not live to enjoy the property, dying in 1881. His widow, Margaret, and son, Bill, lived...
View ArticleBear Howard's cabin
After breaking out of a California jail for shooting a sheep-herder, Bear Howard came to Arizona territory - Oak Creek Canyon. He lived near his daughter and son-in-law, the Steven Purtymuns, for years...
View ArticleErwin and Fred Schuerman, ca. 1928
Erwin was the Schuerman's eldest child. He homesteaded in 1908 and died in 1929. His widow, Mabel, married Albert Purtymun and they stayed on the place until her son, Fred, reached the age of majority...
View ArticleJoseph Farley farming
Farley homesteaded on Oak Creek along Schnebly Hill Road in 1908. A man named Eiberger had camped there and planted a garden but moved on before it matured. Joe and his wife, Sarah Jane, used picks and...
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