2.22.2024 McFarland State Historic Park, Florence AZ

 

McFarland State Historic Park, Florence AZ

In 1974 the first Pinal County Courthouse was named as a State Historic Park. It was opened, dedicated and named after the former Governor who purchased and donated the property and funds to restore. The first Pinal County Courthouse in Florence was built in 1878 and is one of the first courthouses constructed in Arizona. It was constructed of locally made adobe blocks. The wood for the building was brought from northern Arizona by wagon. The Courthouse was enlarged in 1882 to provide additional offices and an upstairs for the sheriff’s quarters. The second courthouse, in Florence, was completed in 1891 and the county offices were moved. The first courthouse building was then converted into a hospital that served the County for almost 50 years. When the hospital moved, the old building was converted into a public health and welfare center. From 1968 to 1970 the building housed the Pinal County Historical Society Museum. The building was vacant until it sold to Governor McFarland at public auction in 1974.

Founded in 1866, Florence is the 6th oldest non-Native American settlement in Arizona. With its location just south of the Gila River, early citizens re-dug the abandoned prehistoric canals of the ancient Sonoran Desert People and used them to irrigate their fields. That, combined with its situation on fertile flood plains, established Florence as an agricultural center.

In 1875, when the Territory of Arizona formed Pinal County, Florence became the county seat. That same year, the Silver King stake was claimed about 30 miles away. Florence soon became the boom town for a very productive silver mine, bringing both prosperity and trouble.

Florence had a POW Camp during WWII. Thirteen thousand Italian and German prisoners from the Afrika Korps were sent to Florence for the duration of the war. The prisoners picked cotton fields since our local men had all gone to war. 

In 1908, eighteen inmates in the company of two or three guards got off a train at the Florence Depot north of town and walked across the desert and Gila River to build the 2^nd Territorial Prison. This new prison was to replace the territorial prison in Yuma. The convicts lived in tents while constructing the prison. The new prison featured a death chamber. The state of Arizona had the money for materials but not labor, so Warden Thomas Rynning established a policy called “two for one” in which an inmate worked for two days building the prison and then received time of their sentence. During this time the administration believed in self-sufficiency; so the inmates farmed crops, dairy, and hogs, all of which fed the inmates. Excess food went to other institutions such as the Pinal County General Hospital and many school districts. Today the Arizona State Prison continues to contribute to the community.

Bought earrings and a glass plate in the gift shop. Most of the items in the giftshop were made by local artisans. Donna Breunig...these were made like the necklace you made me with the glass stone.

Marely thinks he's a lion sometimes!

In the 1880’s Florence earned it’s reputation as a true, wild west town built on mining and cattle ranching. Cowboys and Silver King miners traveled to Florence on Saturday night for one of it’s many saloons on Main Street. Florence had it’s share of shootouts! One shootout took place at the Tunnel Saloon (named for it’s underground drinking room), and was between two former lawmen.

While drinking and gambling in the Tunnel Saloon, Sheriff Pete Gabriel was on edge as he heard his Deputy, Joe Phy was looing for him. Each time someone entered the saloon, Gabriel reached for his gun. Phy was sitting on a bench across the street waiting for Gabriel to leave the saloon. But Phy’s temper got the best of him as he grew tired of waiting and entered the saloon. Some say Gabriel fired first while others believe Phy fired first. The two men fell out into the street and continued shooting until both were seriously wounded. Phy fell to the ground and Gabriel staggered on down the street. Gabriel and Phy refused to share a doctor, so a second doctor was brought to Florence from Gila River Indian Reservation! Ultimately Phy died and Gabriel survived to live out his life plagued by nightmares of the incident.