Flagstaff: Past & Present [Hardcover]

Richard Mangum (Author), Sherry Mangum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

A history of Flagstaff, Arizona in photos.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Publishing Llc (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873588290
• ISBN-13: 978-0873588294
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flagstaff, an honest and colorful western town., March 2, 2004

By 

Dari B. Wayne (Lawrenceville, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flagstaff: Past & Present (Paperback)

Having moved 18 times and had the good fortune to have lived a few years in this marvelous community, I was delighted to see local authors, Richard and Sherry Mangum, produce this loving tribute to one of my favorite places in the United States. Flagstaff is a community rich in history, diverse cultures, unforgetable color, and home to some of the most endearing people I have met. This offering is truly a love story about this town and all it has and continues to offer. Filled with historical and present day photography and narrative rich in history that you often feel like you are walking the dirt streets of yesterday. If you live or have lived in Flag, you will appreciate the richness of Flagstaff on every page. If you long to know what makes up a real western town and its peoples, than this book will tempt you into visiting her...this, of course, will be a journey well taken.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the American story, August 6, 2007

By 

Don R. Lago (Flagstaff, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flagstaff: Past & Present (Paperback)

Flagstaff is a microcosm of the American adventure. It started as a Wild West town, with a colorful cast of characters and incidents. It was a Santa Fe railroad town, a link of Manifest Destiny. It was a Rt. 66 town for generations seeking adventure and a better life in the West. It was a training ground for the astronauts heading for the moon.

Along with the Wild West quest for wealth, Flagstaff offered larger perspectives. Surrounded by ruins and by living, culturally vibrant tribes, it reminds us that the Wild West is a thin slice of human experience. Surrounded by the Grand Canyon and other canyons, it reminds us of nature's power. As the site of Lowell Observatory, it turns our attention to the sky.

For fifteen years Richard and Sherry Mangum, dressed in period costumes, have been leading very popular historic walks in downtown Flagstaff, sharing its architecture and its stories. This book contains much of the content of those walks, and much more. It tells the basic town history, along with stories full of quirky characters and events. The photos alone tell much of the story, and the then-and-now format allows us to recoginze today's landmarks as they once were.

Every town should have a book like this, and have historians so devoted to its history. Yet as someone who has done quite a bit of historical research, I've found that local history writing is very uneven. Some towns with important histories have never had books written about them, while tiny towns where little ever happened have exhaustive tomes about every tiny aspect. This book is a perfect balance. Flagstaff's story holds interest for anyone interested in American history, and out of their extensive research the Mangums have selected just the right amount of material to tell that story in an entertaining way.