Navajo County Historical Museum

The Navajo County Courthouse was built in 1898 — just 16 years after Holbrook was founded and 14 years before Arizona achieved statehood in 1912. The substantial brick courthouse represented Navajo County's investment in permanent civic infrastructure during the territorial period and reflected the county seat's emerging stability after the wild frontier years of the 1880s.

Holbrook's frontier era was genuinely wild. The town was established in 1882 as a railroad town along the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad route, and it quickly became one of the more lawless frontier communities in Arizona Territory. The Hashknife outfit — one of the largest cattle operations in American history — was based in the area, employing hundreds of cowboys who frequented Holbrook's saloons.

The 1887 Hashknife War / Pleasant Valley War involved Holbrook and the broader area, producing significant violence. Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens's 1887 gunfight in Holbrook — when he killed multiple members of the Blevins family in a single shootout outside the now-demolished Blevins house — was one of the most consequential incidents of frontier-era Arizona violence. The courthouse was built in the aftermath of this turbulent period, representing the establishment of permanent law-and-order infrastructure.

The museum's collections cover the substantial Holbrook and Navajo County history. The Hashknife outfit — formally the Aztec Land and Cattle Company — was one of the largest cattle operations in American history at its peak, running cattle across enormous acreage in northeastern Arizona. The outfit's iron-shaped brand (the 'hashknife' used to chop meat for hash) gave the operation its enduring nickname.

Hashknife exhibits document the cattle operation's history, the cowboys who worked it, the conflicts the operation produced (the Pleasant Valley War, range disputes with sheep herders, and other frontier-era violence), and the outfit's decline. The Hashknife cattle drives — the annual movement of cattle across the range — were one of the great events of late-19th-century Arizona.

Beyond the Hashknife era, the museum covers the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad era that built Holbrook (the town was named for railroad civil engineer Henry Randolph Holbrook), the Route 66 commercial period that brought tourism and roadside commerce to the town, and the broader 20th-century history including the Wigwam Motel era and the town's contemporary identity as a Petrified Forest gateway.

The museum is open Monday-Friday 8am-5pm and Saturday 8am-4pm, closed Sundays. Admission is free with donations appreciated. Plan 60-90 minutes for a substantive visit covering both the historic building and the museum collections.

The downtown Holbrook location places the courthouse within walking distance of the various other Holbrook stops — the Wigwam Motel, the downtown Route 66 corridor, the Holbrook Visitor Center, and the various other attractions. A combined walking exploration of downtown Holbrook makes for a substantive half-day.

For Route 66 travelers, the courthouse museum is the natural anchor for understanding Holbrook's history. The combination of the historic building, the frontier-era content (Hashknife, the Pleasant Valley War, Sheriff Owens's gunfight), and the Route 66-era content makes the museum a substantively rewarding stop.