In 1890, Walt Rigney ran a saloon on the Mogollon Rim. His hair stuck out like a pine bough, so the soldiers who frequented the saloon called him Ol’ Pinetop. When the Apache Wars came to a close, people began building cabins around Ol’ Pinetop’s saloon and eventually a town was born. Arizona State Historian Marshall Trimble says they named the town Pinetop, not because it was located amidst the largest stand of ponderosa pine in the world, but for a tall, bushy-headed bartender.
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