our cable partners worked staff-span cities tour when we traveled to flagstaff arizona. , the name is derived from a flag raising ceremony held on july 4, 1876, when the u.s. flag was nailed to the top of a ponderosa pine. learn more about flagstaff all weekend here on american history tv. meg: -- meg: they did a flag raising ceremony in 1876. hence, flagstaff became the name and flagstaff as a city has been established for about 135 years. >> while in flagstaff, we took a driving tour of the city with flagstaff communications specialist meg roederer. meg: the flagstaff visitors

center is located at the historic train station. it's an active train station. we receive about about 80 to 100 trains passing through flagstaff daily. we can go on america's road, america's main street, to see the history of flagstaff. the early history started with settlers coming, and their industry was lumber, it was railroad and ranching. so with those three economic drivers, flagstaff really became a booming town in the early history. we have now pulled into the heart of flagstaff, the historic downtown. this is our san francisco street. and as you can see around us, it is also there he busy with visitors looking at all the

things to see and do, from the shopping to the dining, the great breweries that we have, and all the historic buildings. as we go downtown you notice the hotel monte vista, and this is where some of the movie "casablanca" was filmed, so this has a hollywood luer. some of the rooms are actually named after hollywood stars and it is reported to be haunted. so it is a great, fun place to go in and check out. and then we have our babbitt brothers building here, which is one of those early settlers and ranchers that helped establish flagstaff as a community. reporter: can you talk about the babbitt brothers and their impact? meg: the babbitt brothers is a family that started flagstaff by bringing that economic driver to

our community. that would've been in nearly 1900s. they are a working ranch still, active in the community, and really helped to bring flagstaff in its own, amongst other families. but we treasure the babbitt brothers and their contributions to the city of flagstaff. this is the historic orpheum hotel on your right. on the side of the building is arizona's largest real. 4500 feet. it is4500 feet. it is called "sound of flight." i recommend taking a long look at that mural. it is cool. this is our heritage square. we have free movies during the summer, a concert series, it's a great gathering spot. right in front of us you have two spots, this is a great place to have a tribute to our locomotive, railroad history. reporter: i'd like to ask you

real quick about the railroad history. what was its significance and when did it come here? meg: early 1900s, late 1890's, that is really what established flagstaff, the railroad because people could come and go and they could transport the lumber. history, it was lumber. majorw the flagstaff economic advisers are -- major economic drivers are tourism, science, technology, education and government. in science and technology we are known for space and astronomy, and we have observatories all over the city. lowell observatory discovered pluto in 1930. that put us on the map as one of the many things the observatories here in flagstaff

have been involved with, with usgs and the naval observatory, lowell observatory, the university observatory. we will continue down south side and enter into northern arizona university. we affectionately call this nau. nau was established as northern arizona normal school in 1899, and later known as northern arizona university as it is , today. this is a booming and vibrant student university. it has over 30,000 students. that includes the satellite campus and online students as well as students here in town. the university has done an amazing job of keeping the character of the university. we are on the north campus.

you can see this classic flagstaff architecture with the red rocks and the malachi stone, and that essence of the university that has really kept its presence. sell the university is a core component of flagstaff today. one of the iconic landmarks you see when you come to flagstaff is our beautiful mountain range, the san francisco peaks. the san francisco peaks are comprised of the humphreys peak, the fremont peak and the agassi , peak. the humphreys peak is the highest peak in arizona, 12,630 feet. so we are up here in elevation. reporter: how far is the grand canyon?

meg: we are in the backyard of the grand canyon. we are only 80 miles from the grand canyon. this is what we recommend. stay in flagstaff, have breakfast in flagstaff, drive to the grand canyon, have lunch at the grand canyon, enjoy hiking and biking and come back and have a wonderful dinner and star -- have a wonderful dinner in flagstaff and then go stargazing , at the lowell observatory. awesome day. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to flagstaff, arizona to learn about its rich history. learn more about flagstaff and other stops on our tour on c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. next on american history tv, emory university professor talks about her book, southern lack educators and se