McNary's Business District: General Store, Offices and Theater

Descriptive

CreatorCurro, SallyBrowse TopicBusiness and IndustryLaborSociety and CultureSubjectCommunication Artifact: Documentary Artifact: Print, PhotographicDescriptionB & W Photograph of McNary, AZ Business District ca. 1950s McNary was a transplanted and segregated "company town" about 4 mles south of Pinetop, AZ on Highway 260, 1923-1980. Before it was McNary, it was called Cooley, Arizona as it had been part of the old Corydon Cooley Ranch on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. James McNary and partner William Cady of the Cady Lumber Company of McNary, Louisiana purchased the Pollock Lumber Enterprises of Arizona December 1923. Two trains moved 500 skilled African-American employees and all their household goods from McNary, Louisiana to McNary, Arizona to run the sawmill. The Apache Railway was built to haul lumber from McNary to Holbrook. The Great Depression dried up the lumber market during the 1930s. But after some company reorganization and the post WWII building boom, McNary's economy revived and prospered during the mid-late 1940s. In 1948 a fire destroyed the planing mill, box factory, molding factory and dry storage sheds. McNary sold out his properties in 1952 and retired. In the 1970s the tribe built the Fort Apache Timber Company (FATCO) and stopped selling logs to Southwest Forest Industries, which ran the mill. After another fire damaged the sawmill in 1979, the mill shut down in 1980.Date Original1950~Date Range1950s (1950-1959)1960s (1960-1969)TypeStill ImageOriginal FormatBlack-and-white photographsContributing InstitutionShow Low Historical Society MuseumCollectionShow Low Historical Society Collection HighlightsSubcollectionShow Low Historical Society Photo ArchivesRights StatementU.S. and international copyright laws protect this digital image. Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Please contact the Show Low Museum for permission to use the digital image.

Geographic

City or TownShow LowCountyNavajo CountyStateArizonaCountryUnited States

PlaceShow Low

Administrative

Call Number02.50dIdentifierMcNary Downtown 2.jpgDate Digitized2007-01-30Digital FormatJPEG

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McNary's Business District: General Store, Offices and Theater

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