Head to Florence in Central Arizona for a glimpse of frontier life at the turn of the 20th century.
Ernest McFarland is on the short list of Arizona’s most dedicated public servants. During his career, McFarland was Arizona governor, state senator and chief justice of the Arizona supreme court. McFarland lived in nearby Casa Grande and worked at the courthouse in Florence early in his career. After retiring from public service, he purchased the historic courthouse in 1974 and gifted it to Arizona State Parks. Visitors today see exhibits that reveal how tiny Florence grew up along the Gila River and what life was like in territorial Arizona.
Tour the Museum
The original Pinal County Courthouse, built in 1878, is the oldest standing courthouse in Arizona. As the pride of burgeoning Florence, the sprawling building doubled as a dance hall and public gathering spot and over the years served as the town’s jail and hospital. Step back in time in this seven-room adobe structure that tells those stories with great exhibits that preserve the original courthouse plus displays of medical equipment from the period. Also learn how instrumental McFarland was in creating the Arizona State Parks System and implementing the Central Arizona Project canals during his decades of public service. A few blocks south on Main Street, Pinal County Historical Museum preserves more Gila River Valley history.
Visit Florence
Many of the homes in Florence’s historic district resemble the McFarland house with thick adobe walls and large covered patio spaces. That’s how early residents kept cool during the hot summer months in Central Arizona when the city’s adobe neighborhoods went up in the late 1800s. The entire historic district of Florence is on the National Register of Historic Places, with nearly 150 homes, businesses and churches built from the late 1800s through the mid 1900s. Today, those historic sites are marked by signs noting their significance to the origin of Florence.
Visit the Big House
Neighboring Coolidge preserves one of the largest and most impressive American Indian ruins in the United States. Take the 10-mile drive west of Florence to see Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, a magnificent reminder of the ingenuity and grit of indigenous people who lived in what would become Central Arizona. The region’s agricultural bounty today can be traced back to irrigation techniques born here centuries ago.
