Sedona, Arizona is a famous tourist attraction for for good reason. A Sedona vacation is memorable due to the stunning array of red sandstone formations, the Red Rocks of Sedona appear to glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun.  The ever changing light makes for a photographer or artist’s paradise.  The famous Red Rocks of Sedona  form a breathtaking backdrop for just about everything from spiritual pursuits (which in Sedona are many!) to the hundreds of hiking and mountain biking trails. For those less hardy tourists, the Red Rocks can be easily toured in jeeps and vans which can be found on the main strip called “Uptown”.

Many assume Sedona is a Native American word, but actually Sedona is named after Sedona Miller Schnebly (1877 1950), the wife of the city’s first postmaster. A strong pioneer woman, a beautiful bronze statue of Sedona Schnebly was donated to the new Sedona Public Library.

Sedona is located in the Upper Sonoran Desert of northern Arizona  about 3000 feet below Flagstaff. At an elevation of 4,500 feet (1,372 m), Sedona has mild winters and summers and a brief monsoon in July or August. The city has a total area of 18.6 square miles (48.2 km²), all of it land.

Land of the “Turquoise Arches”

The McDonald’s in Sedona, Arizona is the only one in the world with turquoise arches. The city has strict building codes in order to preserve the Red Rock views, limiting colors that can be used as well as height of buildings.

Anglo History of Sedona

The first non Native American settler was  John J. Thompson, who settled into Oak Creek Canyon in 1876. Sedona’s early settlers were farmers and ranchers. Oak Creek Canyon was well-known for its peach and apple orchards and the farmers would drag their produce up the steep mountains to Flagstaff’s markets. From Flagstaff, you can continue on to the Grand Canyon National Park.

In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were only 55 residents. By  the mid-1950s, the first telephone directory listed 155 names. Parts of the Sedona area weren’t electrified until the 1960s and right up until 1999 the city only had two traffic lights.

Sedona began to develop as a tourist destination, vacation-home and retirement center in the 1950s mostly due to so many western movies being shot against the Red Rock backdrop. Many of Hollywood’s classic westerns were filmed in or near Sedona. The red rock buttes and desert landscape provided a striking setting for these films, most notably Broken Arrow (1950) , starring James Stewart. A number of the movie’s shooting locations can still be visited via off-road trails. Many famous movie personalities had, and still have, second homes in Sedona as it is a short flight from California straight into Sedona’s mesa-top airport (private planes only). Most of the development seen today was constructed in the 1980s and 1990s. As of 2007, there are no large tracts of undeveloped land remaining.

From Sedona to Oak Creek Village

The Village of Oak Creek, despite its location seven miles (11 km) to the south and outside Sedona city limits, is a significant part of the community and it is hard to tell where Sedona ends and the Village begins looking only at housing developments.

The Brins Fire  of 2006

On June 18, 2006, a wildfire, reportedly started by campers, began about one mile (1.6 km) north of Sedona. The so-called “Brins Fire” covered 4,317 acres (17 km 2 ) on Brins Mesa, Wilson Mountain and in Oak Creek Canyon before the USDA Forest Service declared it 100% contained as of 6 p.m. on June 28. Containment cost was estimated at $6,400,000.  In this photo, Sedona residents circumambulate a Buddhist Stupa, the Amitabha Stupa, making prayers that the fire would not spread to the town.