St. Michaels’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of St. Michaels. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The St. Michaels area is referred to as Ts'ithootso in the Navajo language and translates to "area that extends out in yellow and green." The microclimate was originally referred to by its Spanish translation Ciénega Amarilla (Spanish: "yellow meadow") describing the late summer yellow flowers and grass. The area was first noted by the U.S. military in 1850 when Lt. James Harvey Simpson named it Sieneguilla de Maria, its Spanish name misheard by a non-native speaker.
In the 1850s a planned ambush against local Navajos was thwarted by a man who went on to become a signatory to the Navajo Treaty of 1868. Delgadito (Chách'oshnééz ((“Tall Syphilis”)) successfully alerted Navajos preparing for a prisoner exchange with Mexican slave-holders.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start St. Michaels’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Michaels’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo2 archive items have no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewArch Rock and Valley, St. Michael…: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from St. Michaels
See all 2 →
St. Michaels, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in St. Michaels is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean St. Michaels has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is St. Michael's Mission in Window Rock, 1 miles away.
St. Michaels and the nearest listed places
Closest to St. Michaels
St. Michael's MissionWindow Rock · Building1mi
Navajo Nation Council ChamberWindow Rock · Navajo Vernacular Revival · Built 19352.9miState Maintained Route 66-Manuelito to the Arizona BorderManuelito · Structure18.1mi
El Morro TheaterGallup · Building21.2miCotton, C. N., WarehouseGallup · Built 188021.7miHow a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Arch Rock and Valley, St. Michaels, Arizona. Fred Harvey series. (NBY 22558) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.