Historical Sedona Arizona

The picture below was installed 1999, located on SR 179 25 chapel road. 

Artist Was Sam Adamov.

The first documented human presence in Sedona area dates to between 11,500 and 9000 B.C. Around 9000 B.C., the pre-historic Archaic people appeared in the Verde Valley.  Around 650 A.D., the Sinaqua people entered the Verde Valley. Their culture is known for its art such as pottery, basketry and their masonry.  The Yavapai came from the west when the Sinaqua were still there in the Verde Valley around 1300 A.D.

It’s not a pretty part of history but it was a harsh reality shared by most tribes throughout the 1800s in the United States.  The Yavapai and Apache tribes were forcibly removed from the Verde Valley in 1876 to the  San Carlos Indian Reservation, 180 miles southeast. 

About 1,500 people were marched in midwinter to San Carlos, reminiscent of the forced Trail of Tears from the Eastern States to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) almost 30 years before. My Great, Great Cherokee Grandmother, Mariah Ross Mulkey, died on the Trail of Tears, where 4,000 Cherokees perished.

Several hundred Yavapai and Apache lost their lives. The survivors were interned for 25 years. About 200 Yavapai and Apache people returned to the Verde Valley in 1900 and have since intermingled as a single political entity although culturally distinct residing in the Yavapai-Apache Nation.

The first Anglo settler, John J. Thompson, moved to Oak Creek Canyon in 1876. The early settlers were farmers and ranchers. Oak Creek Canyon was well known for its peach and apple orchards.  In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were 55 residents.