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Hard times, success and famous people in Williams

The history of Williams is filled with ups and downs as the wilderness community was built from scratch. A big 1893 drought, for instance, stopped the grass from growing and dried up water holes. Livestock starved and died of thirst.

Making things worse, the drought came at the start of an economic depression they called a ‘financial panic.’ Hundreds of thousands were out of work all over the country. Beef and wool prices collapsed, ranchers went broke, banks closed and factories stopped production.

And yet 1893 also was the year construction of a Williams sawmill began with many new jobs.

Good times and bad, it's the story of perseverance, hardheaded determination, hope for the future through thick and thin. Like building a new brick schoolhouse while that terrible depression continued. And businessmen, counting on increased tourist trade, funding the survey of a better Grand Canyon stagecoach road.

Once in a while the bad times were really awful because of fire burning out of control through tinder-dry wooden buildings. There was nothing anyone could do. Gunshots or the sawmill steam whistle were the only warning a blaze had started and water was thrown on the flames one desperate bucket at a time.

The biggest fire was 1901’s hour-long conflagration. Ten homes, two hotels, 36 stores and other business buildings were destroyed. Ashes and rubble replaced two decades of accomplishment.

But 1901 also saw the beginning of another job-creating enterprise called the Grand Canyon Railwa, replacing stagecoaches hauling canyon sightseers. A town government was created the same year as a way of providing a tax base necessary for adequate fire protection.

Things got really grim during the great 1918 worldwide flu epidemic. No vaccine existed and half a million Americans already were dead when the plague reached Williams that autumn. Doctors were helpless, there was a shortage of coffins in northern Arizona, schools closed, public meetings were canceled, and handkerchiefs and gauze masks were worn over mouths and noses as protection. Everything they tried was futile.

Eight years later Route 66 received its designation as a national highway and the golden age of the motel, gasoline station and souvenir shop began. Tourism became a growing part of the economy still dominated by ranching, timber cutting and lumber production, which were destined for decline.

Now let’s flashback to days long gone by when famous men — living history, if you will — were here.

Construction crews laying track for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad reached Williams Sept. 1, 1882 and shortly thereafter U.S. Army General George Crook arrived on a train from the East. His destination was Fort Whipple near Prescott. He rode a mule there from Williams and began the long, bloody process of ending Arizona’s Apache wars.

Another Army officer destined for fame stayed at a local hotel a few years after the turn of the century. He went hiking at the Grand Canyon, got lost and was rescued by Havasupai Indians. He was Captain John Pershing, World War I’s commander of American military forces.

Jack Dempsey, the 1919-1926 heavyweight boxing champion, visited Williams friends now and then. And an Oklahoma cowboy, trick roper, humorist, syndicated columnist and motion picture star made stops for gasoline and lunch as he motored across Arizona during the 1920s and early 1930s. He was Will Rogers and there are some examples of what he wrote for the newspapers and what Williams residents read:

"Scientists say they’ve figured out how to grow brain cells. Encourage your congressman to be first in line."

"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf."

"If a man wants to stand well socially he can’t afford to be seen with the Democrats or the Republicans."

Tom Mix, the first drugstore cowboy, occasionally dropped by during the last half of the 1930s. He’d made more than 300 movies wearing his big white hat and fancy boots, and riding a horse called Tony.

Composer-pianist Bobby Troup was here for ceremonies marking the end of Route 66 as a federal highway and completion of Interstate 40 bypassing Williams and replacing the Mother Road which had brought business through the middle of town since 1926. Pessimists thought the event signaled doomsday.

The year was 1984 and the ceremonies were held on I-40 at the overpass north of downtown. A thousand people attended and the Williams High School jazz band played.

Sitting at a piano under the clear October sky, Troup sang the 1946 song he’d written and Nat King Cole had introduced. The words are familiar to millions today who still hold the Main Street of America and of Williams close to their hearts and who travel from all over the United States and from foreign countries to see what remains of old 66 Chicago to L.A.:

"If you ever plan to motor west/Travel my way/Take the highway that’s the best/Get your kicks on Route 66."

(Jim Harvey is a Williams historian who contributes a monthly column on our town's early days.)


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