Arcadia Bestsellers

Desire, Deceit and DebaucheryTombstone was a wild place during Arizona’s territorial era, with violence and criminal activity running rampant. It wasn’t just the Earp brothers’ iconic gunfight at the O.K. Corral that left behind a trail of death and destruction—lawlessness and vigilante justice reigned throughout the Old West era. Driven by tension between the sheriff’s office and the local Deputy Marshal, daily life for infamous outlaws, corrupt civil servants, and even ordinary customers of the saloons and brothels was apt to devolve into chaos at any moment.Join author Cody Polston as he brings to life the characters who walked the dusty streets and left their mark on Tombstone's bloody past.

This WWII true crime history reveals a shocking story of murder inside an Arizona POW camp—and the U.S. military’s controversial response.

Though Arizona was far from any theater of battle during World War II, the grim realities of combat were brought home with the construction of POW camps. Located outside Phoenix, Camp Papago Park became famous for its prisoners’ attempted escape through the Faustball Tunnel, but it also had a dark reputation of violence among its prisoners.

One casualty was Werner Drechsler, a prisoner who supplied German secrets to U.S. Navy authorities. Nazis held at Papago Park labeled him a traitor and hanged him from a bathroom rafter. Controversy erupted over whether the killing was an act of war or murder. Some also questioned the lack of protection Drechsler received for aiding in espionage. Ultimately, seven POWs were hanged for the crime.

Author Jane Eppinga examines the tangled details and implications of America’s last mass execution.

Exploring the people who shaped and survived the Grand Canyon.

Unlike appreciating America's other natural wonders such as waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, or prairies, one must struggle to absorb, assimilate, and comprehend the Grand Canyon's tremendous scale. Captured here in over 250 vintage images is the human drama of survival and coexistence in the canyon, from the native tribes who struggled with life on the rim, to the pioneers who came to foster and manipulate the early tourist industry in America's oldest natural resource. Covering the tribes that called the canyon home and the seekers who flocked to the area to find their fortune in gold and tourism, author Kenneth Shields exposes the human layers so often overlooked. Seen here are the native tribes who survived the harshest conditions of the canyon, including the Hopi, Havasupai, Navajo, and Paiute. Readers will recognize the images of popular tourist spots like the El Tovar Hotel and the Navajo Bridge, as well as the early conservationist faces of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft.

The founder of the Southwest Ghost Hunter’s Association guides readers through the supernatural history of the legendary Arizona town.

Once the rowdiest town in the Old West, Tombstone still holds echoes from those wild days of thieves, outlaws and gamblers.

The ghost of the Swamper is said to stalk Big Nose Kate's Saloon, afraid someone might find his stolen hoard of silver. The Brunckow Cabin played host to a string of mysterious murders in the late 1800s, and some say that a menacing specter remains. Pictures of cowboy Billy Clanton's headstone in the infamous Boot Hill Graveyard are frequently reported to have unexplainable apparitions.

From the ghosts of the O.K. Corral to the feuding prostitutes lingering in the Bird Cage Theatre, eerie wraiths live again in these stories.

Spectral miners and lingering spirits

Once Arizona's biggest economic base, mines and the towns that sprang up around them can be found scattered across the state. Stories of paranormal encounters in places like Jerome, Bisbee and Prescott persist, while ghost towns are rumored to host a multitude of lingering spirits. In Ajo, the dead are said to wander through the old Phelps Dodge Hospital, and legend has it that the shades of miners long gone still work the Vulture Mine, looking for the next big gold strike. Do the spirits of Geronimo and his warriors still roam the land they fought so hard to keep?

Join historian Parker Anderson and paranormal expert Darlene Wilson as they uncover the fascinating history and haunts of Arizona’s mining towns.

The spirits of the Old West are alive and kicking in Flagstaff.

Once home to outlaws and pioneers, many former residents of this small mountain town never left. Read about the ghosts of the Weatherford Hotel, where strange sightings and disturbing events aren't just confined to the Zane Grey Ballroom. Step inside the Hotel Monte Vista, where locals swear that the Grizzly Meat Man still roams the hallways. Discover the historic train depot, an eternal home to those departed souls that once worked the rails, including a ghostly former train conductor.

Join author Susan Johnson as she uncovers the supernatural side of Flagstaff's fascinating history.

The vast mountains and deserts of Arizona hide a multitude of buried treasures and forgotten mines just waiting to be rediscovered.

The Aztecs reportedly hid gold and other valuables worth millions across the Southwest to keep it from the Spaniards hundreds of years ago, but nothing has ever been recovered. The famous Lost Dutchman mine has captured attention and claimed multiple lives since its discovery in the Superstition Mountains, and it’s just one of many mines lost to history and shifting landscapes. More recently, rumors spread that more than $1 million in cash from the 1977 robbery of Marjorie Jackson is still hidden somewhere north of Phoenix.

Author W. Craig Gaines maps out the potential paths leading to lost fortunes.

Pioneers in Broadcloth

In the 1800s, territorial Arizona offered excitement and adventure to new arrivals, including many Jewish families. Anna Solomon tended the family’s general store in the remote Gila River Valley while her husband, Isadore, cut timber and burned charcoal for the furnaces at Henry Lesinsky’s Clifton copper mines. In Phoenix, young Morris Goldwater sat at the telegraph in his father’s store, sending and receiving the messages that kept the town in touch with the outside world. To the west, Ike Levy navigated his barge around treacherous shoals and sand bars on the Colorado River.

Join author and historian Blaine Lamb as he reveals the unique characters and events that shaped the pioneer Jewish community of Arizona.

Home to the largest open pit copper mine in North America, Greenlee County boasts a colorful and fascinating history.

Mining, ranching, and farming have sustained generations of area families, including Blue River rancher Freddie Fritz, once the head of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, and Robert Hannagan, who lent his name to the popular Hannagan Meadow along the Coronado Trail. Discover the fate of Metcalf, a town no longer standing, and the devastating Clifton flood of 1906. Learn about the labor strike of 1903, one of the most violent conflicts in Greenlee's history.

Join area natives Robert A. Chilicky and Gerald D. Hunt as they explore the past of one of the most interesting places in Arizona.

The Grand Canyon is one of the most inspiring and accessible natural wonders in

the world. More than a century ago, visionaries developed it as a tourist destination, and today, it sees more than five million visitors per year to experience its geology, cultural history, and wildlife. Relying on historic images primarily from the Grand

Canyon Museum Collections, historian Kevin S. Schindler traces the development of the Grand Canyon as a bucket-list destination for people of all ages.

Comparing our present to our past is how we understand our history. Arcadia’s

Past & Present series makes such local comparisons available. Books in this series

offer a special view of American life by placing historical images side by side with

contemporary photographs.

The Yuma Proving Ground’s early history began in 1849 with the establishment of Army outposts in the region.

When the United States entered World War II in 1942, the Army established a large-scale training center that expanded from eastern California into western Arizona. Gen. George S.Patton Jr. was assigned to develop the Desert Training Center as a location to train personnel and test equipment in the harsh desert for the war effort. As part of the Desert Training Center, Camp Laguna and the Yuma Test Branch were founded to conduct specific training and testing in support of the war effort. In 1951, the Yuma Test Branch was renamed the Yuma Test Station, and by 1957, the Army began training personnel on military freefall.In 1963, the Army renamed the Yuma Test Station as the Yuma Proving Ground. Today, the Yuma Proving Ground stands near the original sites with the continued task of testing equipment and training personnel.

Lt. Col. Scott Laverty is a 29-year veteran of the US Army Reserves and holds a graduate degree in military history. He has drawn on the archives of the Yuma Proving Ground Heritage Center, the General Patton Memorial Museum, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot Historic Park, the Yuma County Library District’s Heritage Library, and various other museums and archives to provide this historical account of the fascinating history of the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground.

Most visitors travel to Sedona to view the towering red rock sandstone formations dotted with juniper pines and to hike and explore Oak Creek Canyon, along with other beautiful canyons that were once showcased by the Westerns filmed in Sedona.

After the ancient peoples who farmed departed the area, the Homestead Act of the 1870s advertised free land and lured cattle ranchers and farmers, but by the 1960s, tourism reigned, and Sedona became a destination for outdoor activities, art, fine dining, unique shopping, relaxation, and luxury resorts.

Decades of Duty

IIn 1881, the first Buffalo Soldiers arrived in Arizona pursuing elusive Apaches. Over the following decades, African Americans from the Tenth U.S. Cavalry and Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Infantry added to the laurels won by the Ninth U.S. Cavalrymen. For more than six decades, Black soldiers served with honor, from campaigns against determined Native Americans to facing dangers along the turbulent border as the Mexican Revolution raged. During the dark days of World War II, they prepared for combat against foes both abroad and at home. All the while, they faced an ever-present, persistent enemy: racism.

Author John P. Langellier brings to life the rich history of Buffalo Soldiers in the Copper State.

Wandering spirits, vengeful ghosts, and unexplained sightings in Tucson, Arizona.

The benign, candle-carrying ghost of Mayor Levi Manning is reported to roam the halls of Manning House, while a frightening presence is said to lurk in the projectionist room at the Fox Theatre. In Room 242 of the Hotel Congress, guests have described a woman in white sitting at the end of the bed, while other spirits have been spotted in the halls. From the Mission San Xavier del Bac, built in 1700, to the grounds of the University of Arizona, stories of paranormal encounters abound. 

Join author Daryl F. Mallett and discover the thrilling and bone-chilling history of the Old Pueblo.

How the Grand Canyon became America’s ultimate travel destination.

The Colorado River began carving a course to create the Grand Canyon some four to six million years ago, but organized tourism to the natural wonder is fairly young, geologically speaking. Getting to the view along and below the rim has not always been as convenient as packing up the family car and hitting the road. The El Tovar Hotel, celebrating its centennial in 2005, had just opened to lodgers when the Canyon was declared a National Monument in 1908. Between the 1890s and the 1920s, horses, mules, river rafts, stagecoaches, and later railroads and automobiles permitted increasing access to the area. Recreation areas, businesses catering to tourists, and federal preservation programs would eventually mark the Grand Canyon as the ultimate American travel destination.

Ghost stories from Arizona's Haunted Route 66 have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

Welcome to the spooky roads of Arizona's Haunted Route 66!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms. 

Did you know Arizona's famously haunted Route 66 is swarming with ghosts? On this spooky roadtrip, you'll meet the spirits of many travelers who tragically met their end along this legendary route, thanks to untimely accidents, mishaps . . . and even murder! Like aspiring actress, Leorena Shipley, whose career was cut short by tragedy. Or the ill-fated tourists who checked in at the Monte Vista Hotel, and never checked out! Just make sure, if you stop for lunch in the spooky town of Oatman, that you remember to tip your ghostly waitress . . . or else you, too, could wind up wandering these roads for all eternity!

Pulled right from history, these spooky tales will change the way you see Arizona's Haunted Route 66 forever, and have you sleeping with the light on! 

The New York Sunonce described Jerome as “the Wickedest Town in the West.

The area was once home to the largest copper mine in Northern Arizona, built on the steep terrain of Cleopatra Hill. The small town, population fifteen thousand at its peak, was shockingly nefarious. Diversions for the hardworking miners came by way of saloons, gambling and ladies of the evening. Shootouts and murders, violent accidents in the mines and smelters and fires and diseases scourged its denizens. Life was tough on the mountain—death came too soon for many. When the copper mine closed in 1953, Jerome was rendered a ghost town, and its spirits still lurk among the living. The stories in this book will convince you they are here for a reason.

The communities that once surrounded the infamous Wild West town of Tombstone, including Dos Cabezas, Fairbank, Gleeson, Pearce, Courtland, Charleston, and Milltown, are now mostly ghosts of their former selves.

These rich mining towns had promising futures when they were first established, but many experienced only fleeting boom times, like Courtland, a promising copper camp that survived only 12 years. During its short existence, the town of Charleston, founded in 1879 as a milling site for ore from Tombstone's silver mines, was every bit as wild and rowdy as its neighbor. There was corruption in the region too. Dos Cabezas's Mascot Mine became part one of the largest stock scandals of the time when it was exposed around 1900. Today this fascinating, rough-and-tumble history lives on primarily in faded memories, crumbling remnants on the outskirts of Tombstone, and in vintage photographs gathered together in this volume.

Founded in 1876, Globe was once a wild and wooly mining camp, and its robberies, murders and mayhem left a dark impression.

Tucked at the base of the Pinal Mountains, this historic landmark is a quintessential old western town. Make a stop at the Globe Train Depot and discover why so many spirits have made it their last whistle-stop along the rails. Explore the courthouse and the Old Gila County Jail, where sinister spirit Kingsley Olds is said to still be doing time. Visit the Globe Cemetery where bandits, cowboys and upstanding citizens mingle.

Tag along with author and paranormal historian Debe Branning as she digs through some of Globe's deepest secrets and reveals wicked tales.

Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez is a Nuevomexicana with roots in northwestern New Mexico and has family connections in Concho. Angela Perea Murphy grew up in Concho and resides across the street from her childhood home. They are both proud to share more than 150 photographs showcasing Concho life from the early 1910s though the 1970s, provided by private collections and now archived as part of the Voces Oral History Center at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection as well as photographs from photographer Russell Lee that can be found at the Library of Congress.

Settled in 1861 by Manuel Antonio “M.A.” Candelaria, the town of Concho, or Old Concho, is situated in northeastern Arizona in what is now Apache County. Many New Mexican Hispano Catholic families migrated to Concho from the central and western New Mexico Territory, establishing a sheepherding community that continued into the early 20th century. The valley had a natural spring that enabled orchards, farms, and ranches to thrive. The town saw the establishment of important businesses in Concho, including the first bank in Apache County. One of the most beloved buildings, the San Rafael Catholic Church, was established in 1925 and is still standing today. Many of the founding families—Ortega, Padilla, Sandoval, Martínez, Romero, García, Durán, Candelaria, Baca, Saiz, Chávez, Archuleta, and others—were part of this lively village community and are proud to carry on its legacy. Though Concho is now classified as a ghost town, the photographs and stories contained in this book share a different narrative. 

Founded by the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1880, Winslow evolved from a company boomtown into a small city whose historic character is defined primarily by its location along US Route 66 since the highway’s designation in 1926. Now Historic Route 66, it runs the length of Winslow on Second and Third Streets, which are lined with renovated early- to mid-20th-century buildings.

As director of the Winslow Historical Society’s Old Trails Museum, author Ann-Mary J. Lutzick researches and writes about how Winslow’s rich history is reflected in its buildings and sites along Route 66 and beyond, many of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Terror in the Tri-Cities

Built along the 33rd Parallel, rumor has it that the cities of Chandler, Mesa, and Tempe are magnets for the unexplained. Mysterious tales of a cursed Ouija Board, restless pioneer spirits, and specters lurking in underground tunnels are just a few of the unsettling stories attributed to this phenomenon. Whispers about the accidental death of Santa Claus haunt Mesa, while in Chandler, spirits continue to celebrate in their favorite bars and lurk in the San Marcos Hotel. At the university campus in Tempe, ghosts of former staff and students are said to appear in the library and dorms. 

Author Debe Branning explores the spooky side of the Tri-Cities.

Some of the most notorious characters in American history once called Cochise County home.

From the well-known shootout at the OK Corral to the Greenway Manor, Southeastern Arizona is haunted by the shades of its violent past. Go beyond the tales of the restless spirits buried at Boothill, and discover an abandoned train tunnel plagued by a tragic death. In Douglas, the ghost of young Mabel haunts the halls of the Avenue Hotel, hoping someone will solve her murder, while the spirit of a Bisbee fireman still works tirelessly to save lives.

Join author and paranormal historian Francine Powers as she uncovers the stories behind the hauntings, banshees and apparitions of Cochise County.

Arizona has stories as peculiar as its stunning landscapes, full of colorful characters, peculiar places and eccentric events.

The Lost Dutchman's rumored cache of gold sparked a legendary feud. Kidnapping victim Larcena Pennington Page survived two weeks alone in the wilderness, and her first request upon rescue was for a chaw of tobacco. Discover how the town of Why got its name, how the government built a lake that needed mowing and how wild camels ended up in North America. Author Marshall Trimble unearths these and other amusing anomalies, outstanding obscurities and compelling curiosities in the state's history.

Established in 1863 as an important US Army post and ordered to protect the area of newly discovered gold in central Arizona, Fort Whipple became a key post during the Indian Wars. Photographs and text present the transition of this National Register of Historic Places landmark, including its people, events, and buildings.

It was named in honor of Brig. Gen. Amiel Weeks Whipple, military officer and topographical engineer. Protecting Prescott, the first capital of the Arizona Territory, the post served many roles, from a military headquarters to a large tuberculosis treatment facility to today's medical center complex serving veterans.

The Old Pueblo's history is full of colorful characters and fascinating folktales!.

Tucson was originally settled in 1775, and the Gadsden Purchase brought the tiny settlement on the Santa Cruz River into the United States in 1854. In the decades leading up to Arizona's statehood in 1912, the territory's largest city was rife with excitement. A seven-headed, four-hundred-foot-long sea serpent prophesied to the townsfolk. Lady bicyclists caused an uproar with their "divided skirts.'? The new railroad brought three presidents to town. From the city's brief time in the Confederacy to its crusades against drinking and gambling, from bullfighting rings to sanitariums, author Dave Devine relates stories of the little-known, sometimes lighthearted and often unusual events and personalities of Tucson.

Does Charles P. Stanton deserve the title of Arizona’s Most Notorious Villain?

For generations, Arizonans have been fascinated with the story of Charles P. Stanton. The alleged crime boss and mass murderer oversaw a reign of terror in the small mining town that bore his name. Driven by greed, he stole ore, swindled mines away from their owners and bribed his way out of justice. Those who crossed him usually ended up dead. But are the legends actually true? Relying on original source material, including court documents and newspapers, Arizona historian Parker Anderson reveals the true story of Stanton for the first time and broaches the possibility that the mysterious Irish Lord may not have been guilty of the terrible crimes that folklore has attributed to him.

Built on top of ancient burial grounds or over forgotten cemeteries, schools like the Lee Williams High School seem to attract spirits who wander the halls long after the final bell. In Ruby and Vulture City, the old wooden schoolhouses where the town’s children used to gather are said to be haunted by the shades of those unaware their lessons have ended. Even Old Main at the University of Arizona, with its beautiful stone facades, is plagued by whispers of ghostly professors gliding across the marble floors.

Join author and paranormal historian Debe Branning as she explores the spooky side of Arizona’s schools.

Ghost stories from America’s Old Wild West have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

Welcome to the spooky streets of Tombstone, Arizona!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms. 

Did you know that Tombstone is home to the most infamous shootout in Wild West history? Or that those rowdy outlaws are now gunslinging ghosts? Can you believe there’s a secret tunnel below Tombstone’s streets and saloons…that just might lead to a haunted silver mine?  

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Tombstone, and have you sleeping with the light on!