Arizona Territorial Check at Soldier Tanks, Az Terr. , Tonto Basin Wagon Road, Prescott, Arizona, 1883

Prescott, AZ: Gosham A. Bray Treasurer Tonto Basin Wagon Road, 1883. The check is issued to one Henry Burns under the authority of Gorham A. Bray, who was the Treasurer for the Tonto Basin Wagon Road Commissioners. Henry Burns worked nine days for $10. From an oral history by five of the living Arizona Rangers made at Northern Arizona University, we learn of the initial roads that were built around the Grand Canyon to haul lumber from which were built ferry boats on the Colorado River. A ferry operated until 1882, then the Babbitt family hired Indian help and built a road for people coming from Nevada and Utah. This Tonto Basin Road was being built in 1883. Eventually, these roads connected Prescott, Kingman and went all the way to Flagstaff as well as Strawberry and Pine. The Sharlot Hall Museum has a nice picture of Gorham Bray, the Treasurer for the Tonto Basin Road operation who later became Mayor of Flagstaff. Though the Soldier Tanks are not in Bryd Howell Granger or Will C. Barnes, they were still places of training in the 1890's as reported in R.H. Slezinger's diary noted in the Arizona Weekly Journal Miner of October 30, 1895. A very nice copy of a unique item.