{"id":23,"date":"2012-07-14T06:53:37","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T13:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2026-02-03T08:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:44:23","slug":"a-brief-history-of-chino-valley","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/?page_id=23","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Chino Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chino Valley’s history began on February 24, 1863, when President Lincoln signed the Organic Act creating the Territory of Arizona. \u00a0Fort Whipple, the first Seat of Government for Arizona Territory, was established near Del Rio Springs in Chino Valley on December 23, 1863. \u00a0In May 1864, it was moved closer to Prescott. Within months settlers homesteaded the land and the long story of farming and ranching in Chino Valley began.<\/p>\n

In 1909, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and the Fred Harvey organization continued the farming tradition when they purchased 3,250 acres of land at Del Rio to supply the dining cars and Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe RR with milk, eggs, meat, and fresh produce. The Harvey Farm was also the wintering ground for the Grand Canyon mules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The coming of the railroad in the 1880’s and 1890’s signaled a new era for Chino Valley. Jerome Junction was created to provide a transfer point between the United Verde & Pacific narrow gauge railroad coming over from the mines in Jerome, AZ and the Santa Fe railroad going from Prescott to the main line at Ash Fork. \u00a0 It became a major railroad junction complete with stockyards, Wells Fargo office, Post Office, school and a hotel. In May 1920, the railroad line from Jerome was moved further north.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jerome Junction remained a stop on the Santa Fe, renamed Copper, but most of the activity of the area moved a bit west to what became Highway 89.\u00a0 Many of the buildings were moved there too.\u00a0 From 1920’s through the late 1940’s most families were engaged in farming and ranching. Dairy farms took on a new impetus from the mid 1950’s through 1965. \u00a0Eventually, the increasing costs for electricity and water for irrigating soon made it unprofitable for farmers to farm their land.\u00a0 While the farm dollar decreased, the land values increased and many made the choice of selling their land for new homes and businesses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On September 21, 1970, Chino Valley became an incorporated Town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chino Valley’s history began on February 24, 1863, when President Lincoln signed the Organic Act creating the Territory of Arizona. \u00a0Fort Whipple, the first Seat of Government for Arizona Territory, was established near Del Rio Springs in Chino Valley on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cvazhs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}