Camelback Mountain, Phoenix, AZ

I’ve had this photo (below, top photo) from the Library of Congress in my file for a while and thought I should post it to let you see what the area around Phoenix looked like in 1908. That is Camelback Mountain in the hazy background so using that as a bearing, you can pretty much figure out where the photographer may have been standing (click on photo for much better view). I would guess somewhere east of downtown Phoenix and in what there was of south Scottsdale or north Tempe at that early date.

In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt was still President, Barry Goldwater would not be born for another year, Carl Hayden was 31 years old, the canal built by William Murphy through Scottsdale was twenty-five years old, and the population of Phoenix was pushing 10,000. In 1911 the Roosevelt Dam was completed while in 1912 Arizona would become a state with its capitol Phoenix during the administration of William Howard Taft.

I wonder what those cowboys would have thought of all that happening so soon before and after this photo was taken. We have no documentation but some say the cowpoke on the horse in the foreground with the rope on the saddle is our own reader “TrailBoss”. He looks like he may have just had a cup of cowboy coffee while tending to the herd!

click on photo for better view of Camelback and TrailBoss. (Library of Congress)

Camelback Mountain, c. 1950 (DS Hinkle)