Joseph City: Mormon Pioneers on the Little Colorado

Joseph City is among the oldest non-Native settlements in Arizona, established in eighteen seventy-six by Mormon colonists sent south from Utah by Brigham Young to settle the Little Colorado River valley. The settlers attempted to dam the unpredictable Little Colorado repeatedly, building dam after dam over several years, many of which washed out in floods. Despite the repeated failures, the community held together and eventually established a stable farming operation.

The town was originally called Allen's Camp, then Saint Joseph, and finally Joseph City in the twentieth century to avoid confusion with other Saint Josephs. The Jackrabbit Trading Post, which opened nearby in nineteen forty-nine and became famous for its bold yellow highway signs stretching hundreds of miles in both directions, has stood as a Route Sixty-Six landmark ever since. The trading post signs, with their simple black jackrabbit silhouette, are among the most recognizable roadside advertisements in the American West.