Phoenix Disliked from the Start

If you read Unbreakable Dolls: True Stories of Courageous Women Who Helped Settle Northern Arizona you will learn that Arizona’s capital city has been criticized and ridiculed from the start. In the book, an essay by Verner G. Benson entitled “The Arizona Saloons Helped Win the West” explains why.

“Too little credit has been given the saloon in the winning of the west. Certainly Flagstaff owes much to this enterprise. The first business house in Flagstaff was a saloon…Even as a frontier post (Prescott) had 10 saloons and gambling halls…Compare this with Phoenix where the first building was Hancock’s Store. Hancock’s contained a store, courthouse, justice office, even a butcher’s shop, but was dry as a bone. It was only after Hancock’s was finished that Mike’s Brewery was built. Phoenix was widely criticized throughout the territory for not putting first things first.”