Anita, Arizona
Anita was a mining town situated in Coconino County, Arizona on the Grand Canyon Railway.[1] It was named in 1897 after a railroad surveyor's daughter.[1]
History
The town was founded around 1899 and was initially called Anita Junction.[2]
The railroad was originally built to serve the Anita mines, just under three miles away on what became a spur of the line to Grand Canyon. The mines turned out to be worth little, which led to the continuation of the line to the canyon to serve tourists.[3]
At its peak, Anita contained a school, post office, telephone, and the headquarters of the Anita-Moqui forest service district. It also had several railroad sidings.[2]
The Anita section of the railroad was closed in 1942. By 1956, no structures remained at the site.[2]
The school at Anita, along with the neighboring one at the lumber town of Apex, were at one time the only racially integrated schools in Arizona.[4]
References
- Gerber, Rudy J. "History and Archaeology en Route". The Railroad and the Canyon. p. 118.
- "National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet (Grand Canyon Railway)". National Park Service.
- Al Richmond (1986). "The Grand Canyon Railway: A History". The Journal of Arizona History. 27 (4): 425–438. JSTOR 41859703.
- Michael F. Anderson (2005). A Gathering of Grand Canyon Historians: Ideas, Arguments, and First-person Accounts. Grand Canyon Association. ISBN 9780938216834.