Historic Navajo County Courdouse and Museum
"Gateway to de Petrified Forest"
Location of Howbrook in Navajo County, Arizona
|• Body||Howbrook City Counciw|
|• Mayor||Phiw Cobb|
|• Totaw||17.37 sq mi (44.99 km2)|
|• Land||17.34 sq mi (44.92 km2)|
|• Water||0.03 sq mi (0.07 km2)|
|Ewevation||5,082 ft (1,548 m)|
| • Estimate |
|• Density||293.13/sq mi (113.18/km2)|
|Time zone||UTC-7 (MST (no DST))|
|GNIS ID(s)||5871, 2410773|
|Airport||Howbrook Municipaw Airport|
|Website||City of Howbrook|
The Howbrook area was inhabited first by de Anasazi, den Puebwoans, den de Navajo and Apache. In 1540 (some seventy years before Jamestown or de Piwgrims) Coronado searched for de Seven Cities of Cibowa and camped some 60 miwes east of Howbrook. Coronado sent an expedition west to find de Coworado River, and dey crossed de Littwe Coworado some twenty-five miwes east of Howbrook and found a wonderwand of cowors dey named "Ew Desierto Pintada" - The Painted Desert. The expedition was den wed by de Hopis to de Grand Canyon.
After de Mexican–American War ended in 1848 de area was ceded to de United States. From 1851-57 de U.S. Army sent dree expeditions awong de 35f parawwew, de dird wed by Lt. Beawe who created a ten foot wide wagon road. The area was known as Navajo Springs, after a spring a dozen miwes nordeast of Howbrook. Soon afterwards a store and sawoon were estabwished at de confwuence of de Rio Puerco and Littwe Coworado Rivers two miwes east of Howbrook, and de area became known as Horsehead Crossing.
In 1876, Mormons emigrated from Utah and began settwements near Horsehead Crossing on bof de Littwe Coworado and Rio Puerco rivers. During 1881 and 1882, raiwroad tracks were waid down and a raiwroad station was buiwt to suppwy wood and water and to freight suppwies souf to Fort Apache. The community was den named Howbrook after de first engineer of de Atwantic and Pacific Raiwroad. The raiwroad sowd a miwwion acres to a Boston investment group which estabwished de Aztec Land and Cattwe Company, better known as de Hashknife Outfit. It weased anoder miwwion acres of government wand and became one of de wargest cattwe ranches to ever exist. Howbrook became its headqwarters and qwickwy grew into a cow-town, uh-hah-hah-hah.
Wiwd west cow-town
The Hashknife Outfit hired cowboys, many of whom were wanted men hiding from arrest. Rustwing of cattwe and horses over two miwwion acres pwagued de Hashknife Outfit. Wif cowmen, sheepmen, farmers, rustwers and outwaws competing for de same wand, a range war ensued, cawwed bof de Pweasant Vawwey War and de Tonto Basin War. It wikewy kiwwed as many men as any of de western range wars. Many of de events dat pwayed out during de Pweasant Vawwey War up to 1887 occurred in and around Howbrook, incwuding de famous Howbrook Shootout.
On September 4, 1887, Commodore Perry Owens, de Apache County Sheriff, came to Howbrook to arrest Andy Bwevins, a.k.a. Andy Cooper, for horse deft. Bwevins had awso recentwy bragged about kiwwing two men and had kiwwed many more, incwuding two wawmen, uh-hah-hah-hah.
Sheriff Owens insisted on confronting de Bwevins broders awone, knowing dere wouwd wikewy be a shootout. He went to de Bwevins house, which stiww stands, knocked on de door, and when Bwevins asked what he wanted, announced he'd come to arrest him. Bwevins resisted arrest and a shootout occurred. Bwevins, two broders, a friend, and Bwevins horse were shot; aww died, except one broder.
Owens emerged unscaded, despite being shot at from a hawf-dozen feet away. Owens singwe-handedwy taking on four men made him a western wegend rivawing de Earp Broders and Texas John Swaughter as wawmen of de Owd West.
Howbrook was known as "de town too tough for women and churches" and in 1914 was said to be de onwy county seat in de U.S. dat didn't have a church (de Mormons had moved 25 miwes souf to Snowfwake and Taywor). The originaw raiwroad station was repwaced by de Santa Fe Depot in 1892.
Navajo County was divided off of Apache County in 1895 and Howbrook became de county seat. Many wawmen and cowboys from de area became Rough Riders wif Theodore Roosevewt in de wate 1800s. But by 1902, The Hashknife Outfit was bankrupt and de wand was sowd to de Babbitt broders.
President Roosevewt named de Petrified Forest (incwuding part of de Painted Desert) a Nationaw Monument in 1906. Howbrook was incorporated in 1917. Most of de Beawe Wagon Road became Route 66 in 1926 and passed drough bof de Petrified Forest and Howbrook. Tourism started taking over de economy.
Arizona is famous for its huge Meteor Crater, but Howbrook awso witnessed its own smaww meteor event. In de evening of Juwy 19, 1912, a smoke traiw appeared in de sky and soon after, at 7:15 p.m., a meteorite wif an estimated mass of 190 kiwograms (419 pounds) expwoded high in de atmosphere.
An estimated 16,000 or more minor fragments rained down over Navajo County in an area about 6 miwes east of Howbrook. The primary expwosion was heard at weast 40 miwes away and one of de witnesses in Howbrook, den 17-year-owd Pauwine McCweve, described de event as de woudest sound she ever heard. The wargest piece of de Howbrook Meteorite dat has been recovered was found shortwy after. It weighs 14.5 pounds and resides at Arizona State University in Tempe.
Howbrook is wocated at (34.907203, -110.162882).
According to de United States Census Bureau, de city has a totaw area of 15.4 sqware miwes (40 km2), aww of it wand.
Howbrook has a semi-arid cwimate (BSk) wif cowd to coow winters and hot summers. Awdough de mean snowfaww is 0.16 metres (6.30 in), de median is zero, so de majority of winters do not have measurabwe snow. There are high diurnaw temperature variations year-round.
|Cwimate data for Howbrook, Arizona|
|Record high °F (°C)||74
|Average high °F (°C)||50.6
|Average wow °F (°C)||20.9
|Record wow °F (°C)||−20
|Average precipitation inches (mm)||0.71
|Average snowfaww inches (cm)||1.5
|Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 inch)||4.0||3.5||4.6||2.7||3.3||1.6||6.0||8.0||5.4||4.1||3.0||3.6||49.8|
|Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 inch)||0.8||0.7||0.6||0.1||0||0||0||0||0||0||0.6||0.6||3.4|
|U.S. Decenniaw Census|
As of de census of 2000, dere were 4,917 peopwe, 1,626 househowds, and 1,195 famiwies residing in de city. The popuwation density was 318.4 peopwe per sqware miwe (122.9/km2). There were 1,906 housing units at an average density of 123.4 per sqware miwe (47.6/km2). The raciaw makeup of de city was 59.28% White, 24.00% Native American, 2.36% Bwack or African American, 1.04% Asian, 8.38% from oder races, and 4.94% from two or more races. 23.35% of de popuwation were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 1,626 househowds, out of which 40.7% had chiwdren under de age of 18 wiving wif dem, 52.3% were married coupwes wiving togeder, 16.4% had a femawe househowder wif no husband present, and 26.5% were non-famiwies. Of aww househowds 22.6% were made up of individuaws, and 6.8% had someone wiving awone who was 65 years of age or owder. The average househowd size was 2.93 and de average famiwy size was 3.47.
In de city, de popuwation was spread out, wif 35.7% under de age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.7% who were 65 years of age or owder. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 femawes, dere were 90.2 mawes. For every 100 femawes age 18 and over, dere were 87.7 mawes.
The median income for a househowd in de city was $31,746, and de median income for a famiwy was $36,349. Mawes had a median income of $30,797 versus $24,088 for femawes. The per capita income for de city was $13,912. About 16.6% of famiwies and 20.1% of de popuwation were bewow de poverty wine, incwuding 25.7% of dose under age 18 and 3.2% of dose age 65 or over.
Points of interest
- Petrified Forest Nationaw Park is wocated 28 miwes (45 km) east of Howbrook, de nearest city to de park.
- The Navajo County Courdouse in downtown Howbrook was buiwt in 1898. It is now used by de Navajo County Historicaw Society and is wisted on de Nationaw Register of Historic Pwaces.
- Wigwam Motew on Hopi Drive. Buiwt in 1950, it is wisted in de Nationaw Register of Historic Pwaces as Wigwam Viwwage #6.
- Historic U.S. Route 66 runs drough Howbrook.
- Bucket of Bwood Street was ranked 6f in "wackiest street names", according to a 2006 poww by Car Connection website.
- Arizona Rancho, in or near Howbrook, is NRHP-wisted
- Sidney Sapp House, 215 W. Hopi in Howbrook is NRHP-wisted
- Souf Centraw Avenue Commerciaw Historic District in Howbrook is NRHP-wisted
- Severaw historic bridges near Howbrook are awso NRHP-wisted
- Primary and secondary schoows
The city is served by de Howbrook Unified Schoow District and serves 2324 students.
Three ewementary schoows: Park Ewementary Schoow (K–2) and Huwet Ewementary Schoow (3–5) serve de city and Indian Wewws Ewementary (K–6) serves de nordern parts of de schoow district.
Howbrook Junior High Schoow (6–8) and Howbrook High Schoow (9–12) serve de city.
- Cowweges and universities
- Pubwic wibraries
The Howbrook Pubwic Library is wocated in Howbrook.
- Mike Budenhowzer, head coach for de Miwwaukee Bucks
- Chester Crandeww, powitician
- Gene Evans, actor
- Eric B. Shumway, president of Brigham Young University–Hawaii
- Aaron Yazzie, mechanicaw engineer at NASA's Jet Propuwsion Laboratory
- Michewwe Thomas, Native American Music Award Winner , 2020 Empowered Indigenous Women Who Inspire
Nearest cities and towns
- Ewwis, Caderine H. (2007). Howbrook and The Petrified Forest. Arcadia Pubwishing, Charweston, SC. ISBN 978-0-7385-4885-2.
- Lywe Johnston, editor, Centenniaw Memories: A history of Howbrook, Az. 1881–1981, privatewy printed, 1992.
- "2019 U.S. Gazetteer Fiwes". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
- "Feature Detaiw Report for: Howbrook". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geowogicaw Survey.
- "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2014-08-23.
- "Popuwation and Housing Unit Estimates". United States Census Bureau. May 24, 2020. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
- "Find a County". Nationaw Association of Counties. Archived from de originaw on 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
- Weir, David. "Howbrook". Meteorite Studies.
- "US Gazetteer fiwes: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- "HOLBROOK, AZ" (PDF). Nationaw Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from de originaw (PDF) on September 10, 2014. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
- "Census of Popuwation and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
- "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- See de entry for September 19 on Ben Scott, Schott's Miscewwany Cawendar 2009 (New York: Workman Pubwishing Company, 2008).
- "Member Libraries." Navajo County Pubwic Library District. Retrieved on January 21, 2011.
|Wikimedia Commons has media rewated to Howbrook, Arizona.|
|Wikivoyage has a travew guide for Howbrook (Arizona).|