Williams, Arizona

With a long history linked to famous travel routes from the Old Spanish Trail to Route 66, Williams is named for one of the many colorful characters that called it home, trapper Bill Williams. Today, the town is now best known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon.

Northern Arizona, a land of pine-covered hills and volcanic mountains, has been home to many Native American tribes for over a thousand years. Early Spanish explorers searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola, around 1540, discovered the Grand Canyon and these local tribes. The Hopi pueblos to the north of Williams became part of the Mission system of the Spanish during their quest to bring Christianity to the Southwest.

In the early 1800's the American fur trade extended into Arizona by trappers known as "Mountain Men". One of the most experienced of these early visitors was William Sherley Williams. "Old Bill" trapped all over the western states but enjoyed retreating to this area that was later named after him.

In June, 1882 the 250 residents of the brand new town where there was no electricity or indoor plumbing waited for construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad west toward them from New Mexico through northern Arizona and on to California. The rails would connect Arizona's last frontier with national markets for beef and wool.

The Atlantic and Pacific was the reason Williams existed, and all the Arizona towns along the tracks on today's Interstate 40.

Williams already was surrounded by cattle and sheep ranches where people lived in wilderness isolation. They had to trail drive their cattle at roundup time to another railroad crossing the southern Arizona desert 170 miles away. Wool was hauled that distance in wagons traveling no faster than the speed of horses, mules and oxen.

A railroad through Williams in Grand Canyon country north of the desert not only would make it much easier to transport cattle and wool to market, but would bring manufactured goods from eastern industrial centers at unheard of speed with lower transportation costs: Furniture, carpet, window glass and screens, kitchen utensils, dinnerware, fashionable clothes, processed food and, eventually, fresh fruits and vegetables from California.

Discovery of gold in New Mexico in 1928 caused the exploration of the mountainous areas of Arizona.