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Eight-year-old Royce Kardinal, née Coxswell, and the family dog, Brenda, stand in front of the motel in Wickenburg where Royce grew up. | Courtesy Best Western Hotels

Best Western Turns 80

Royce Kardinal was named for her father, and while she’s proud of that, she has also spent her life correcting people who think her name is “Joyce.” Her father, Roy…

White Hills Ghost Town, 35 miles southeast of Hoover Dam, as it appeared in the 1940s. | Carlos Elmer, Arizona Highways Archive

White Hills Ghost Town

As a kid, Carlos Elmer, a photographer enshrined in the Arizona Highways Hall of Fame, liked to explore the ruins of White Hills, a small ghost town about 35 miles…

Tex Earnhardt (left) delivers a new 1952 Ford Mainline police car to the Chandler Police Department at the original Earnhardt Ford location in downtown Chandler. | Courtesy of Earnhardt Ford

Earnhardt Turns 75

Seventy-five years ago, on a stretch of Arizona highway in Chandler, a dream took root. Today, Earnhardt Auto Centers is a household name — with 17 dealerships across the…

The Portage Lake Mine, near Bisbee, is shown in the early 1900s, around the time of Robert Warner’s rescue of two miners there. | Graeme Collectione

Robert Warner, Hero of Bisbee

Mining has never been for the fainthearted, but these days, it’s safer than it was in the early 1900s, when errant blasts and cave-ins ended many workers’ lives. Bravery…

This 1966 postcard shows Buffalo Park as it was originally intended — as a theme park and tourist attraction. | NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY CLINE LIBRARY

Buffalo Park

Today, Flagstaff’s Buffalo Park is a scenic gateway for casual hikers seeking views of Mount Elden and Humphreys Peak. But beneath the soft crunch of the gravel paths lies…

Barney Oldfield in his car at Steinfeld’s Race Track in Tucson in 1915. | Arizona Historical Society

Barney Oldfield

Sure, the drivers in this month’s Indianapolis 500 are the best of the best, but more than a hundred years ago, Barney Oldfield was the man in racing — so much so…

Three members of the Arizona National Guard fill their canteens with Colorado River water during a 1934 showdown with California over the construction of Parker Dam. | UCLA CHARLES E. YOUNG RESEARCH LIBRARY

The Parker Dam War

Arizona and California, its neighbor to the west, have an ongoing, mostly friendly rivalry. In 1934, though, a dispute over water rights led to a heated showdown between…

From left, Columbus and Mary Adeline Norris Gray, an unidentified servant and Mary Green are shown outside the Grays’ home in Phoenix. Courtesy Greater Arizona Collection, Arizona State University Library

Mary Adeline Norris Gray

In 1929, Mary Adeline Norris Gray took to the sky over Phoenix at the invitation of local aviators. It was the 83-year-old’s first plane flight, but she wasn’t intimidated…

Bert Goodrich (left) greets another “Mr. America,” Alan Stephan, in Los Angeles in 1946. | UCLA CHARLES E. YOUNG RESEARCH LIBRARY

Bert Goodrich

In 1953, an admirer recalled that watching Bert Goodrich run the 100-yard dash in college was “a horrible sight.” Perhaps because he stood 6 feet tall and weighed about…