Anita, Arizona
Ghost town
Anita, Arizona is located in Arizona
Anita, Arizona
Anita, Arizona
Location of Anita in Arizona
Coordinates: 35°51′40″N 112°14′56″W / 35.861°N 112.249°W / 35.861; -112.249
CountryUnited States
StateArizona
CountyCoconino
Elevation
[1]
5,925 ft (1,806 m)
Time zoneUTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (MST)
Area code928
FIPS code04-02970
GNIS feature ID661

Anita was a mining town situated in Coconino County, Arizona on the Grand Canyon Railway.[2] It was named in 1897 after a railroad surveyor's daughter.[2]

History

The town was founded around 1899 and was initially called Anita Junction.[3]

The railroad was originally built to serve the Anita mines, just under three miles away on what became a spur of the line to Grand Canyon. The mines turned out to be worth little, which led to the continuation of the line to the canyon to serve tourists.[4]

At its peak, Anita contained a school, post office, telephone, and the headquarters of the Anita-Moqui forest service district. It also had several railroad sidings.[3]

The Anita section of the railroad was closed in 1942. By 1956, no structures remained at the site.[3]

The school at Anita, along with the neighboring one at the lumber town of Apex, were at one time the only racially integrated schools in Arizona.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Feature Detail Report for: Anita Station". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ a b Gerber, Rudy J. "History and Archaeology en Route". The Railroad and the Canyon. p. 118. ISBN 9781455610860.
  3. ^ a b c "National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet (Grand Canyon Railway)". National Park Service.
  4. ^ Al Richmond (1986). "The Grand Canyon Railway: A History". The Journal of Arizona History. 27 (4): 425–438. JSTOR 41859703.
  5. ^ Michael F. Anderson (2005). A Gathering of Grand Canyon Historians: Ideas, Arguments, and First-person Accounts. Grand Canyon Association. ISBN 978-0938216834.
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