Arizona in 1909 - Phoenix, Tucson, Prescott, Flagstaff

This map of Arizona was published in 1909 by George F. Cram and Ellis Arthur Davis as part of a state atlas issued from Berkeley, California, just three years before Arizona achieved statehood in 1912. Rendered in full color with relief shown by hachures, the map lays out counties, settlements, railroads, and Indian reservations with the thoroughness expected of a commercial atlas built for a rapidly modernizing territory. By 1909 Arizona's rail network had matured considerably from the sparse lines of earlier decades, and this sheet documents a territory on the immediate cusp of joining the Union. Davis, based in Berkeley, issued the atlas primarily for a West Coast audience eager for reliable, up-to-date coverage of the rapidly developing Southwest.

Phoenix, the territorial capital since 1889, had grown into a genuine agricultural center thanks to Salt River Valley irrigation projects then reaching completion. Tucson remained the territory's commercial and educational anchor, home to the University of Arizona since 1885, while Prescott held its place as the historic mining-era capital in the central highlands. Flagstaff, in the northern pine country near the San Francisco Peaks, had grown around lumber and the Santa Fe railroad's northern route. Prescott's mining-era origins and Flagstaff's growing lumber trade round out a territory still defined by resource extraction even as statehood approached.

This 1909 sheet complements the 1925 Cram atlas map of Arizona also in this collection, issued sixteen years later once statehood, further rail expansion, and the automobile had reshaped the state again; seen together, the pair traces Arizona's final push from territory to modern state. This print makes a fitting gift for an Arizona native or transplant, a Phoenix or Tucson collector, or anyone drawn to the last years of America's territorial West. It is available unframed in a range of sizes.