Williams, Arizona

Williams grew up where the railroad met the pines. A cowboy laid out a town site here in 1879; when the Atlantic and Pacific rails arrived a year later, the camp swelled enough to earn a post office, and in 1881 the settlers named it for Old Bill Williams, the trapper long dead by then whose mountain rose to the south. Lumber and the Santa Fe kept it alive, but its real fortune became the Grand Canyon: sixty miles north, and Williams made itself the gateway town for everyone headed there.

What the plaque says

Williams, Arizona. . The area around what now is Williams, Arizona, was first explored by a Mountain Man who came to this area in 1876, William Shirley Williams, who was called "Old Bill". , The town site was created by a cowboy named C.T. Rogers in 1879. Railroad workers put their camp on the map when they began construction on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1880. By 1881 this camp had enough inhabitants to qualify for a post office, requiring them to pick a name. They decided on Williams, to honor old Bill. , The railroad reached Williams in 1882. In 1883 the Saginaw Lumber Company (later Saginaw and Manistee) moved to town. This tamed Williams as they employed hundreds of men who brought their families.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williams — 0.3 mi
  The last town on Route 66 to lose its traffic to the interstate — a rail gateway to the Grand Canyon since 1901, bypassed only in 1984 after a court fight, and revived twice over.
• Oak Creek Canyon — 31 mi
  The switchback drive from red rock to ponderosa on State Route 89A

More markers nearby

• DelSue Motor Inn — steps away
• Grand Canyon Hotel — 0.3 mi
• Santa Fe Railway Freight Depot — 0.4 mi
• Last Town Bypassed by I-40 — 0.4 mi