Show Low and the White Mountains have a few stories worth telling twice. 30 are here, each tied to a real place you can visit: a card game, a monster, a champion in a hangar, a grizzly on Escudilla, a courthouse ghost, a devil’s highway, a town that rode a train and a lost mine. Read one, vote, and see what is actually true.
Checked · Edited by Sam Ridley · Sources · How we check
Just for fun. The stories in the dark cards are legends, rumors and local lore: things people tell around Show Low and the White Mountains, not things that are proven. Each sits on the page for the place it belongs to, and one is a traditional account of the Navajo (Diné) that we tell with the source named. Everything outside the dark cards is fact, checked against the sources listed at the end on October 23, 2026.
Show Low Legends: Told on the Rim
You’ve collected 0 of 30 legends. Read one and it’s stamped into your collection on this device.
How Show Low Got Its Name: One Hand of Cards
What is actually true: The name and the main street are real: the city is Show Low and its main street is Deuce of Clubs. The card game is the story. The Arizona Memory Project, drawing on a 1933 Arizona Republic account and Will C. Barnes’s Arizona Place Names, names the partners as Corydon Cooley and Marion Clark and puts the game between 1875 and 1880. The City of Show Low and a Show Low Historical Society item name the card as the deuce of clubs and call the ranch “a reported” 100,000 acres. The Navajo County timeline has the partners arriving in 1872, and other tellings change the opponent or the date (one names Henry Huning in a 1910 Washington Post story; a Cooley descendant points to an earlier game around 1872 with Henry Dodd). No one has found a record of the game itself. Sources: City of Show Low: History
Arizona Memory Project: Show Low Historical Society Museum item
Navajo County Historical Society: Timeline
Wikipedia: Show Low, Arizona
True West: What’s the story behind the naming of Show Low?
Where to read more: Deuce of Clubs and downtown Show Low
The Fool of Fool Hollow
What is actually true: Arizona State Parks and Wikipedia tell it with a settler named Thomas Jefferson Adair, but they do not agree on the year: State Parks pages give both 1879 and 1885, and Wikipedia says only the 1880s. We found no record from the time that the joke was ever made. What is documented is the lake: Arizona Game and Fish built a dam where Show Low Creek meets Fool Hollow Wash in 1957, making a lake of about 149 surface acres (Arizona State Parks, park history). Sources: Arizona State Parks: Fool Hollow Lake, park history
Arizona State Parks: Fool Hollow Lake
Wikipedia: Fool Hollow Lake
Where to read more: Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area
When Muhammad Ali Trained in a Show Low Hangar
What is actually true: The White Mountain Independent (Sept. 30, 2022) reports that in the summer of 1976 Muhammad Ali flew to Phoenix, drove to Show Low and trained in a hangar at the Show Low airport, where the public could watch him on weekends, before beating Ken Norton at Yankee Stadium on September 28, 1976. Its account says he was in town several weeks, about three weeks of them after the media found him; another telling (Route Fifty, 2017) also puts his training in the airport hangar. Sources differ on how long he stayed, so we do not give a number. Sources: White Mountain Independent: Show Low shares memories of Muhammad Ali (Sept. 30, 2022)
Route Fifty: The Poetry of Small-Town Mythologies in Arizona (2017)
Where to read more: Show Low Regional Airport
The Mogollon Monster
What is actually true: The oldest report usually cited is a 1903 item in The Arizona Republican, in which I. W. Stevens described a hairy, unclothed wild man near the Grand Canyon, well north of the Rim, so it may not be this creature at all. Tellers disagree on the first sighting: another version dates it to the mid-1940s, when Don Davis said he saw one on a Boy Scout trip near Payson (a 2005 Arizona Republic column). Marjorie Grimes of Whiteriver said she saw it several times between 1982 and 2004, and the Arizona Daily Star reported other eyewitness claims on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in 2006. No body, bone or clear photograph has turned up. Stan Lindstedt, an emeritus biology professor at Northern Arizona University, calls it mythology rather than science. Black bears, mountain lions and elk may explain some sightings, and grizzly bears lived in Arizona’s forests until the early 1930s. The tales of where it came from lean on harmful stereotypes about Native people, so we do not repeat them. Sources: Wikipedia: Mogollon Monster (summarizing the Arizona Republican, Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star reports)
Arizona Highways: Neither Hide Nor Hair
Where to read more: Mogollon Rim country
Who Was Mogollon? The Name Behind The Rim
What is actually true: The Sharlot Hall Museum offers two possible origins: Don Juan Ignacio Flores de Mogollon, who led colonial New Mexico from 1712 to 1715, or the Spanish word mogollon, which Will Barnes’s Arizona Place Names gives as meaning a hanger-on or parasite, perhaps echoing the mistletoe in the junipers. The name appears as “Sierra de Mogollon” in Father Garcés’s 1775 journal, so it was in use by then, but its origin is not settled. Wikipedia says the Mogollon Mountains in New Mexico were named for the governor and does not tie him to the Arizona Rim. Sources: Sharlot Hall Museum: Arizona place names can be real tongue twisters
Wikipedia: Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon
Where to read more: Mogollon Rim Visitor Center and the Rim Lake Vista Trail
Who Was “Pinetop”? Four Stories for One Name
What is actually true: The sources agree the name ties back to soldiers from Fort Apache, then split on the detail. The Town of Pinetop-Lakeside community profile says it comes from the nickname of a saloon keeper who served the soldiers. Wikipedia names the saloon owner as Walt Rigney and says the nickname came from the tall building that housed his saloon. Arizona Highways credits Johnny Phipps, described as Pinetop’s founder, with opening a saloon in 1885 that the soldiers called “Pinetop.” Arizona Handbook gives a version with no person at all: soldiers climbing the Rim in the 1870s rested at a spot they named Pinetop. The two towns merged in 1984. We treat the Rigney and Phipps question as unresolved. Sources: Town of Pinetop-Lakeside: Community profile
Wikipedia: Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona
Arizona Highways: Separate But One
Arizona Handbook: Pinetop
Where to read more: Pinetop-Lakeside
The Night The Dam Nearly Gave Way
What is actually true: Arizona Highways (August 2004) says Daggs Dam Reservoir was begun in 1906 to irrigate Shumway, Taylor and Snowflake and was dedicated in 1914, with Apache Railway tracks across the dam by 1917, and that in the 1960s it became a private lake for residents and was renamed White Mountain Lake. The same article says that in 1973 a train crew saw the top of the dam caving in and radioed a warning, crews worked through the night, low-lying areas downstream were evacuated, and repairs cost nearly $400,000 on a dam that originally cost $40,000. It is one travel writer’s telling with no official report behind it, so the dates and scale are not confirmed. The lake is private; see the page for who may use it. Sources: Arizona Highways: Back Road Adventure (August 2004)
Where to read more: White Mountain Lake
“Snow for Me, Flake for You”: How Snowflake Got Its Name
What is actually true: The two-surname origin is well supported: the Church News (2002) says the town honors William J. Flake, sent to settle the region, and Apostle Erastus Snow, who oversaw Arizona colonization, and that Flake bought a ranch on Silver Creek from James Stinson in 1878. The playful “Snow for me and Flake for you” exchange is the legend: Wikipedia gives it as the origin but cites a single 2002 newspaper article, and does not verify it. It is not named for the weather. Neighboring Taylor was named in 1881 for President John Taylor (Church News). Sources: The Church News: Built on faith (2002)
Wikipedia: William J. Flake
Wikipedia: Snowflake, Arizona
Where to read more: Snowflake
The Anvil That Stands in for a Cannon
What is actually true: The tradition is real. The Town of Taylor says a family tradition fires an anvil at 4:00 a.m. on July 4, followed by band music around town, that the custom dates to Taylor’s pioneers, and that it was revived in 1953. The town says the anvil was reportedly used by the Mormon Battalion in 1847 and brought to Taylor by Joseph S. Hancock for his blacksmith shop; “reportedly” is the town’s own hedge, so the Battalion link is unproven. Arizona Highways describes two anvils with powder between them, the top one rising more than three feet. Check the town for the current start time, and leave the firing to the people who do it. Sources: Town of Taylor: About Taylor
Arizona Highways: Taylor
Where to read more: Taylor
Old Bigfoot, The Grizzly of Escudilla
What is actually true: Arizona Highways describes Bigfoot as a ragged old grizzly of the Terry Flat and Escudilla high country who took about one cow a year; a federal trapper tried traps and poison, then set a gun in a narrow passage only the bear could use. Aldo Leopold recorded the death in A Sand County Almanac (1949). Sources disagree on the date and on “last grizzly”: Wikipedia says the last Arizona grizzly was killed on Escudilla in 1936, while Arizona Highways says Arizona Game and Fish records list a different grizzly, shot at Strayhorse about 40 miles south in 1935, as the last killed in the state, and notes cub tracks were found there. We say only “in the 1930s.” The trapper is unnamed in the sources. Sources: Arizona Highways: Back Road Adventure
Rewilding Earth: Escudilla, Aldo Leopold, and Restoring Grizzlies to the Southwest
Grizzly Times: On Escudilla, the Leopold Clan, and the Big White Bear
Wikipedia: Escudilla Mountain
Where to read more: Alpine
The End of an O.K. Corral Name Near Springerville
What is actually true: HistoryNet says Ike Clanton was killed on June 1, 1887, at a cabin on Eagle Creek south of Springerville, and that his grave has never been found. Wikipedia’s Springerville article says he was shot in Springerville by Detective Jonas V. Brighton while resisting arrest on cattle-rustling charges. The sources disagree on the place and the circumstances, and HistoryNet doubts the claim that he reached for a rifle. There is no site to visit: please do not look for a cabin or a grave. Sources: HistoryNet: Clanton’s reputations: rustling and running
Wikipedia: Springerville, Arizona
Wikipedia: Perry Owens
Where to read more: Springerville and Eagar
The Outlaws Who Fell Out Over Stolen Gold in Eagar
What is actually true: Arizona Highways’ roadside historical markers list gives a “Snyder-Cavanaugh Shootout” entry for 1878 at a marker in Eagar. By the marker’s account the gang robbed and killed a man for $12,000 in gold, could not agree on the split, and fought among themselves, with as many as seven dead in the first shootout; survivors rode to St. Johns and then Springerville and were killed there, with no exact totals. The marker says three unidentified gang members lie in a grave beside it. Wikipedia’s Eagar article says nine gang members died in a battle near the cemetery, so the counts and the place differ by source. The grave is a resting place: please be respectful. Sources: Arizona Highways: Roadside historical markers
Wikipedia: Eagar, Arizona
Where to read more: Springerville and Eagar
Was The Springerville Madonna Meant for Kingman?
What is actually true: The Arizona State Society DAR says the statue was dedicated September 29, 1928, where the National Old Trails Road met the Coronado Trail, moved from the post office property in 1987 and rededicated in 1988. The Clio says Springerville did not meet the usual site criteria because the nearest DAR chapter was about 150 miles away in Flagstaff, that the town got the statue partly because J. W. Becker, a national officer of the National Old Trails organization, lived there, and that some believe it was “stolen” from Kingman. The Clio presents that as a belief, not a fact, and it is the only source we found for it. Sources: Arizona State Society DAR: Madonna of the Trail
The Clio: Madonna of the Trail (Springerville, AZ)
Wikipedia: Springerville, Arizona
Where to read more: Madonna of the Trail
Presidents and a novelist at Molly Butler Lodge
What is actually true: Arizona Highways says the lodge opened in 1910 and that Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Zane Grey “bunked” with the Butler family, citing no dates. The Arizona Daily Star (January 2025) is softer: it says Roosevelt and Hoover occasionally stopped at the lodge and Grey stopped by, again with no dates. A second Arizona Highways profile says the Butler family guided backcountry trips for Grey and Roosevelt. Arizona Highways also says John Wayne slept there; the Star says only that he was sometimes seen in the area, so we do not repeat it. Treat the famous guests as “said to have”; none of the pages gives a date or a record. Sources: Arizona Highways: Molly Butler Lodge
Arizona Daily Star: Western Women series (Jan. 19, 2025)
Arizona Highways: X Diamond Ranch
Where to read more: Greer
Coronado’s Road to The Seven Cities of Gold
What is actually true: The road is real: its last link was dedicated in June 1926 as part of the first “Ocean to Ocean” highway (Route 666, now U.S. 191), and it was paved by 1962. Arizona Highways calls it the historic route of Coronado in 1540, but it states that without citing evidence, and we found no historical source that confirms his exact path, so treat it as a tradition. The “cities” were the Zuni towns of Cibola, which Coronado reached at Hawikuh; the golden cities came from an older folk tale that Arizona Highways retells, and none were found. Hawikuh was a Zuni town, so the story belongs to the Zuni first. Sources: Arizona Highways: Coronado Trail
Arizona Highways: The Coronado Trail (August 1963)
Arizona Highways: On the Trail of Spanish Gold (October 1979)
Arizona Highways: Legends of the Lost (the Cibola folk tale)
Wikipedia: Cibola
Where to read more: The Coronado Trail
The Devil’s Highway: when the Coronado Trail was US 666
What is actually true: The road did carry the number 666. Wikipedia, citing the highway association’s minutes, says the extension of US 666 into Arizona was approved on December 4, 1938, replacing State Route 81, and, citing a Federal Highway Administration historian, that 666 simply marked the sixth branch of US 66 and was never meant as a biblical reference. The same article says the “number of the beast” association and constant theft of 666 signs led to the renumbering to US 191, which ADOT carried out on September 18, 1992. Arizona Highways says the road opened in 1926 as Route 666; the two sources differ on when the number began, and we did not resolve it. We print no curve count because we could not confirm one. Sources: Wikipedia: U.S. Route 191 in Arizona
Arizona Highways: Coronado Trail
Where to read more: The Coronado Trail
The rancher tied to a tree at Hannagan Meadow
What is actually true: Hannagan Meadow Lodge’s own history page tells both versions as local legend, the bounced-check man tied to a tree, possibly for several nights, and the coin toss, and dates neither. The same page documents the real history: the lodge dates to 1926, and a two-day celebration on June 19, 1926 dedicated the Clifton-to-Springerville highway at the meadow, with roughly 6,000 people including about 125 White Mountain Apache; Governor W. P. Hunt named it the “Coronado Trail” in his speech. Arizona Highways confirms the 1926 highway event but tells neither name story, so both tales rest on the lodge alone. Sources: Hannagan Meadow Lodge: History of the lodge
Arizona Highways: Hannagan Meadow Lodge
Where to read more: The Coronado Trail
Is John Wayne’s name behind the fireplace?
What is actually true: The lodge’s history page says some old-timers in Alpine claim his signature is behind the sitting-room mantel, and that a carved mantel now covers the wall, so the claim cannot be checked. Arizona Highways independently says the signature is “allegedly” behind the fireplace but that no one knows for sure. Neither source gives a year, a film or any record of a Wayne visit. It is a story people tell, and the lodge itself treats it as unverified. Sources: Hannagan Meadow Lodge: History of the lodge
Arizona Highways: Hannagan Meadow Lodge
Where to read more: The Coronado Trail
The Lost Adams Diggings
What is actually true: A U.S. Forest Service history, Men Who Matched the Mountains, treats it as lore: Adams found nuggets but could not find his way back, searchers have looked since the 1870s, and the gold may lie in the Gila or Apache forests, or even the Cibola. Ranger Henry Woodrow searched near the head of Mogollon Creek on the Gila and wrote after he retired in 1942 that the mine “can stay lost now.” Much of the story is set across the line in New Mexico, so it is a tale of the whole Mogollon country, not of Show Low. No mine has ever been found. Sources: U.S. Forest Service: Men Who Matched the Mountains, chapter 19
Where to read more: The Lost Adams Diggings
Arizona’s record cold: minus 40 at Hawley Lake
What is actually true: It is true. The National Weather Service in Flagstaff says an official station at Hawley Lake recorded −40°F on January 7, 1971, the all-time record low for Arizona. azfamily (2024) gives the same figure and date and an elevation of 8,200 feet, and reports that the station was abandoned in 1988, so the record cannot be re-measured there. The same pages do not support “Show Low is the coldest town”: the Weather Service lists Springerville, Eagar, Show Low, Pinetop-Lakeside, Nutrioso and Alpine only as places where well-below-freezing nights can occur. Hawley Lake is on White Mountain Apache land; see the tribal permits page before you go. Sources: National Weather Service Flagstaff: Cold
azfamily: What they don’t tell you about Arizona’s temperature extremes (2024)
Where to read more: Hawley Lake and the White Mountain Apache lakes
The whole town that rode a train from Louisiana
What is actually true: It is documented. The Forest History Society says the Cady Lumber Corporation, owned by William Cady and James McNary, had cut nearly all the yellow pine around McNary, Louisiana by 1922 and bought the holdings of the defunct Apache Lumber Company in Arizona; the Arizona town, then called Cooley, was renamed McNary. The Forest History Society and the Louisiana Forestry Association both say the last log was cut in Louisiana on February 7, 1924 and employees boarded special trains three days later, about 800 people in all. Both say a fire destroyed the Arizona mill in 1979 and operations shifted to Flagstaff. The Apache Railway, which reached McNary in 1920, closed 37 miles of line in 1982. McNary is on White Mountain Apache land; we use only the sources’ facts. Sources: Forest History Society: McNary, Arizona, a town on the move
Louisiana Forestry Association: From LA to Ariz., a sawmill town moves (2019)
Apache Railway: company history
Where to read more: Whiteriver
“General Crook’s Cabin” at Fort Apache
What is actually true: Arizona Highways (1969) lists “a log building said to have been General Crook’s headquarters” among the things to see, and Legends of America calls a log building one of the oldest on the site and “reputedly” his residence. Neither page confirms which building he used or that he lived in it, so this is tradition, not record. Legends of America reports that Crook first visited Fort Apache in August 1871 and recruited about fifty Apache Scouts there, and that the scouts served until the last three retired in 1947. Ask the park which building, if any, it interprets as Crook’s. Sources: Arizona Highways: The Land of the White Mountain Apaches (1969)
Legends of America: Fort Apache, Arizona
Where to read more: Fort Apache Historic Park
The movie “Fort Apache” was not shot at Fort Apache
What is actually true: It was not. Turner Classic Movies says principal location shooting ran in Monument Valley starting in late July 1947, with battle scenes on the Arizona side, while a fort set was built in California, where all the interiors were shot. The AFI Catalog adds that the parade-ground exteriors were filmed at Corriganville in Simi Valley, California, and that the story came from a 1947 Saturday Evening Post story by James Warner Bellah. AFI also notes the film’s commander is seen as inspired by Custer, who fought the Sioux, not the Apache, and that it puts Geronimo on Cochise’s council when he was captured much later. So the film is not a record of this fort or of its history. TCM adds that about 200 Navajo men were cast as Apache warriors. Sources: Turner Classic Movies: Behind the Camera, Fort Apache (1948)
AFI Catalog: Fort Apache
Where to read more: Fort Apache Historic Park
The Wigwam Motel That Is Not Made of Wigwams
What is actually true: The National Park Service says builder Chester E. Lewis saw architect Frank Redford’s original Wigwam Village in Cave City, Kentucky, in 1938, then bought the plans and the right to the name, and finished the Holbrook village in 1950 as the sixth of seven, hence “#6.” The buildings are modeled on tepees, not wigwams; the NPS says Redford disliked the word “teepee” and used “wigwam” anyway, a historic misnomer. The motel struggled after Interstate 40 bypassed downtown Holbrook, the family reopened it in 1988, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Sources differ on when the bypass hurt, so we give no year. Sources: National Park Service: Wigwam Village Motel #6
The Clio: Wigwam Motel
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
The Courthouse Hanging Invitation, and The Ghost on The Stairs
What is actually true: The history is documented; the ghost is not. Legends of America says the county built the courthouse in 1898, used it until 1976, and listed it on the National Register in 1978; it now holds a visitor center and the Navajo County Historical Museum, with a tour of the basement jail. George Smiley, convicted of killing a railroad section foreman, was hanged on January 8, 1900, the only execution at the courthouse, and Sheriff Frank Wattron’s printed invitation to the hanging was reprinted by newspapers nationwide, drawing a 30-day stay and a reprimand from the governor (Legends of America; KOLD News confirms the invitation and the reprieve). The haunting rests on one page that calls it local lore, with no firsthand accounts. Check the museum for hours before you go. Sources: Legends of America: History & Haunting of the Navajo County Courthouse
KOLD News: Holbrook gives visitors glimpse into Arizona’s bloody, outlaw past
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
“Too Tough for Women or Churches”: Holbrook and The Hash Knife
What is actually true: Legends of America says the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad built a station in 1882 and named the town for its first chief engineer, H. R. Holbrook, and that the Hashknife Outfit (the Aztec Land and Cattle Company) began there in 1884 with a rough reputation. Its headline claim, that by 1914 Holbrook was the only U.S. county seat without a church, comes from that one page, so we call it “said to be.” The Sharlot Hall Museum says much of the outfit’s wild reputation is exaggerated. KOLD News says that on September 4, 1887 Apache County Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens killed three outlaws in a five-minute gunfight; both outlets agree on the date. The Holbrook Historical Society confirms the Hashknife brought a large Texas herd and made Holbrook a cow town. Sources: Legends of America: Holbrook, Arizona: Too Tough For Women or Churches
Sharlot Hall Museum: Hash Knife left its brand on Arizona history
KOLD News: Holbrook gives visitors glimpse into Arizona’s bloody, outlaw past
Holbrook Historical Society museum: highlights
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
Why Holbrook has a Bucket of Blood Street
What is actually true: The Navajo County Historical Society says the saloon was first the Cottage and was renamed after a shooting recalled in a later memoir: a card dispute that ended in two shootings, with enough blood on the floor to fill a bucket. Wikipedia lists three competing versions of how it got the name (an 1886 card-game fight among rustlers, that memoir, or a two-death fight at the Cottage Saloon), so the story is told more than one way. The historical society dates the town’s first church to 1912, while Wikipedia, citing a 1952 article, puts it in 1913. The building is not a visitor stop: please do not go inside. Sources: Navajo County Historical Society: Holbrook, the town too rough for women and churches
Wikipedia: Bucket of Blood Street
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
The Hashknife Pony Express: real mail on horseback
What is actually true: The ride is real. The U.S. Postal Service (2015) says the Navajo County sheriff began using Pony Express riders to carry invitations to the governor for Holbrook’s annual Hashknife Stampede around 1958, that the riders later got a Postal Service contract to carry mail (more than 20,000 pieces on about 200 miles), and that the Holbrook postmaster swears them in. The ride’s own site calls the 2026 ride the 68th annual, led by the Navajo County Hashknife Posse and ending at a ceremony in Scottsdale. The sources do not state a founding year outright, so we say “since the late 1950s.” The Navajo County Historical Society says the Hashknife name came from the Aztec Land and Cattle Company brand, which resembled a hash knife. Check the ride’s site for current dates. Sources: U.S. Postal Service: Pony Express ride (2015)
Hashknife Pony Express
Navajo County Historical Society: Holbrook
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
The Giant’s Bones at Petrified Forest
What the sources record: This is a traditional account of living peoples, not a rumor, so we tell it as they tell it and do not grade it. The National Park Service article “The Intersecting Crossroads of Paleontology and Archeology” (Santucci, Weeks and Thornburg, Intermountain Park Science, 2021) records that the Navajo saw the petrified logs as the remains of Yietso, a giant monster their ancestors had killed, and called them Yietso-bitsin, “the giant’s bones.” It adds that the Paiute saw the same logs as spent arrow shafts shot by the thunder god Shinauav. In Diné tradition Yeitso is one of the monsters defeated by the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born for Water. Spellings of the name vary. Taking wood from the park is illegal (see the next legend). Sources: National Park Service: The Intersecting Crossroads of Paleontology and Archeology (2021)
National Park Service: Stories in Stone, chapter 5
Wikipedia: Yei Tso
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
The Curse of The Stolen Petrified Wood
What is actually true: The letters are real; the curse is not documented. Collector’s Weekly reports that the park has more than 1,200 “conscience letters” in its archive, kept since 1934 (inconsistently), many blaming misfortune on wood the writer took, and that where the curse tale started is hard to trace for certain. There is no record that people who take wood suffer more than anyone else. Removing petrified wood from the park is against the law, and the National Park Service says the wood sold in gift shops comes from private land outside the park boundaries. The 2014 book Bad Luck, Hot Rocks collects the letters. Sources: Collector’s Weekly: Letters of the Damned
National Park Service: Petrified Forest, Frequently Asked Questions
Where to read more: Day trips from Show Low: Holbrook and Petrified Forest
Questions People Ask
Are these stories true?
They are stories people tell. Each card is followed by what the sources record, so you can see which parts are documented and which are not.
Why is one story told differently?
The giant’s bones at Petrified Forest is a traditional account of the Navajo (Diné) people. We tell it with the source named and without a vote.
Sources
- AFI Catalog: Fort Apache
- Apache Railway: company history
- Arizona Daily Star: Western Women series (Jan. 19, 2025)
- Arizona Handbook: Pinetop
- Arizona Highways: Back Road Adventure
- Arizona Highways: Back Road Adventure (August 2004)
- Arizona Highways: Coronado Trail
- Arizona Highways: Coronado Trail
- Arizona Highways: Hannagan Meadow Lodge
- Arizona Highways: Legends of the Lost (the Cibola folk tale)
- Arizona Highways: Molly Butler Lodge
- Arizona Highways: Neither Hide Nor Hair
- Arizona Highways: On the Trail of Spanish Gold (October 1979)
- Arizona Highways: Roadside historical markers
- Arizona Highways: Separate But One
- Arizona Highways: Taylor
- Arizona Highways: The Coronado Trail (August 1963)
- Arizona Highways: The Land of the White Mountain Apaches (1969)
- Arizona Highways: X Diamond Ranch
- Arizona Memory Project: Show Low Historical Society Museum item
- Arizona State Parks: Fool Hollow Lake
- Arizona State Parks: Fool Hollow Lake, park history
- Arizona State Society DAR: Madonna of the Trail
- City of Show Low: History
- Collector’s Weekly: Letters of the Damned
- Forest History Society: McNary, Arizona, a town on the move
- Grizzly Times: On Escudilla, the Leopold Clan, and the Big White Bear
- Hannagan Meadow Lodge: History of the lodge
- Hashknife Pony Express
- HistoryNet: Clanton’s reputations: rustling and running
- Holbrook Historical Society museum: highlights
- KOLD News: Holbrook gives visitors glimpse into Arizona’s bloody, outlaw past
- Legends of America: Fort Apache, Arizona
- Legends of America: History & Haunting of the Navajo County Courthouse
- Legends of America: Holbrook, Arizona: Too Tough For Women or Churches
- Louisiana Forestry Association: From LA to Ariz., a sawmill town moves (2019)
- National Park Service: Petrified Forest, Frequently Asked Questions
- National Park Service: Stories in Stone, chapter 5
- National Park Service: The Intersecting Crossroads of Paleontology and Archeology (2021)
- National Park Service: Wigwam Village Motel #6
- National Weather Service Flagstaff: Cold
- Navajo County Historical Society: Holbrook
- Navajo County Historical Society: Holbrook, the town too rough for women and churches
- Navajo County Historical Society: Timeline
- Rewilding Earth: Escudilla, Aldo Leopold, and Restoring Grizzlies to the Southwest
- Route Fifty: The Poetry of Small-Town Mythologies in Arizona (2017)
- Sharlot Hall Museum: Arizona place names can be real tongue twisters
- Sharlot Hall Museum: Hash Knife left its brand on Arizona history
- The Church News: Built on faith (2002)
- The Clio: Madonna of the Trail (Springerville, AZ)
- The Clio: Wigwam Motel
- Town of Pinetop-Lakeside: Community profile
- Town of Taylor: About Taylor
- True West: What’s the story behind the naming of Show Low?
- Turner Classic Movies: Behind the Camera, Fort Apache (1948)
- U.S. Forest Service: Men Who Matched the Mountains, chapter 19
- U.S. Postal Service: Pony Express ride (2015)
- White Mountain Independent: Show Low shares memories of Muhammad Ali (Sept. 30, 2022)
- Wikipedia: Bucket of Blood Street
- Wikipedia: Cibola
- Wikipedia: Eagar, Arizona
- Wikipedia: Escudilla Mountain
- Wikipedia: Fool Hollow Lake
- Wikipedia: Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon
- Wikipedia: Mogollon Monster (summarizing the Arizona Republican, Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star reports)
- Wikipedia: Perry Owens
- Wikipedia: Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona
- Wikipedia: Show Low, Arizona
- Wikipedia: Snowflake, Arizona
- Wikipedia: Springerville, Arizona
- Wikipedia: U.S. Route 191 in Arizona
- Wikipedia: William J. Flake
- Wikipedia: Yei Tso
- azfamily: What they don’t tell you about Arizona’s temperature extremes (2024)
Checked October 23, 2026 by It’s Show Low. Cite this page: It’s Show Low (itsshowlow.com), checked October 23, 2026. Free to quote with a link.