her other books include "brown girl dreaming." "miracles boys." 15 books for children and young adults. today live from noon-3:00 p.m. and watch next month with geraldine brooke. belcher will be the guest in december on book tv. on c-span 2. >> this weekend, american history tv joins our cable partners to showcase the history of flagstaff. to learn more about the cities on our current tour, visit the city tour. we continue now with the history of flagstaff.

>> there was a group of people traveling here through california. they stopped anywhere they could find water. water was very scarce along the way. andwhere we stand today is spins -- antelope springs. here.n see this down it was a natural campsite for the pioneers heading west. so they were camped here on july 4, 1876. and in the baggage they had a flag and they stripped the layings -- stripped the limbs off the tree and had a fourth of

july celebration. and so this town that came quite a few years later adopted the name flagstaff. and that is what the monument commemorates. and four of his brothers were grocers in cincinnati. evening, a guy came in the store who had just come back from here. and he told great tales about this wonderful country, how cattle alland for over the place and lots of opportunity to get rich. so my grandfather and his brother thought that sounded ready good. and they hopped on the train and they came with. and their desire was to be ranchers. cattlemen. so they came scouting to look for a place to acquire a cattle link.

they rolled into flagstaff on in april 1886. just after a big fire had marched down virtually all of the town. so they got off the railroad and surveyed the smoldering ash and they think, boy. i don't know if we came to the place. but they did by a herd of cattle. and they invented their own homeland for the new heard. that was after their old home town of cincinnati. so they establish the cattle ranch. very largeto be a ranch. one of the biggest in the west. it was a time for entrepreneurs. they established in mercantile store. they diversified into a lot of

different businesses. though i am third-generation. at least in the past 40 years. people who have come from other places. not nativeborn. so they don't really know what came before them here. and they don't realize the architecture and the people and the history. so i wanted to -- if you will, codify that. so people could really understand not only where we are today but where we've come from.

we are in the historic polka meno county courthouse. 1894,derful building from built soon after coconino county was split away. and flagstaff was chosen. and they set about immediately building this romanesque style courthouse. quarried sansone. which was quarried two miles up the road here. and then hauled down here and built. the courthouse was added to. because the community was growing rapidly. 30 years after it was first built. withwas match perfectly

our cut sandstone and details. but then came sin 1950's. and people decided to build in public buildings out of a modern look to them. they covered the beautiful front entrance and stairs leading into the courthouse with glass and aluminum enclosure. ruining the effect of the beautiful courthouse. so around 1995 or so, the county allocated money and decided they a big restoration that took off the non-historic additions and brought it back to the beautiful structure you see today. and wanted to talk a little bit about the founding of flagstaff. liesaphically, flagstaff along the 36 parallel of latitude.

that parallel from albuquerque to los angeles, was chosen for the route of the second transcontinental railroad. in 1880. building west it reached flagstaff in 1882 and is the reason why flagstaff is here. once a railroad depot was established and transportation along the railroad line -- the atlantic and pacific railroad, that is the reason for the founding of the town in 1882. soon after that, a chicago industrialist realized the forest alln the huge around flagstaff. for timber production. out, brought a lumber mill

established it. right after the railroad got here. and began cutting trees and milling lumber. and that went on for a very long time as the city's principal interest. by far and away the major employer. and by 1912 or so, they were producing millions of high lumber to be shipped all over the country. and so that was the founding along with the railroad. the other thing the railroad provided an opportunity for was the shipment of livestock to mark in kansas or texas or california. my family, as i mentioned before, was in the livestock bills this early on. so the three founding industries were the railroad, the lumber

industry and the livestock industry. see the railroads busier than ever. upwards of 120 freight trains through flagstaff every day. the ranching industry still exists and produces cattle. not so the timber industry. you will be hard-pressed to find any evidence of the once huge and thriving industry here. the ponderosa pine forest, they cut the best and biggest trees down early on. and as they continue to cut the trees, they finally ran out of good trees to cut. the 1970's, the industry was out.

at one time there were three large lumber yards producing a huge amount of lumber. may seek the campsite group on the way to the grand canyon. so that is nothing new. it started out as soon as people could get there. torres them is fundamental to flagstaff economy. the biggest economy. have,ll the parks that we sunset crater -- one that can in. yes. torres them is very important. and in the wintertime, skiers come to enjoy the snow. ofit is a really big part

the economy. today, it is a much different story. thestaff grew slowly during first century of its existence. by 1950, the community consisted of somewhere around 7000. and here we are in 2018 and not counting the 25,000 students at the university, we are approaching 70,000. so it is a very fast growth rate. and things are changing fast. arehe major employer now the universities. wl gore has a major presence here. is flagstaff medical center a very big employer. as our the united states

geological survey. and the various government entities. so it is a much different place today. for some people it has grown too big, too fast. but it is a wonderful place. we are very unique in our weather here. we sit at 7000 feet. we have a good winter, or be did until recent years. somewhere around 110 inches of snow or year. but it would snow hard and the sun would come out so it was wonderful. things do seem to be changing. we are in the midst of quite a drought right now. and the winters have not been anything like they were when i was young. so we are a gap inc..

and trying to manage our way through it. gem which i hope your viewers will appreciate. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to flagstaff arizona to learn about the rich history. learn more about other stops on the tour. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. q and a, charles calhoun talks about his biography on the 23rd president of regiment harrison. >> when he was nominated he was in indianapolis. he gave for speeches that day. and his campaign people said this is the thing to do. let people come to you. so over the next four or five , that until the election

is what happened. delegations from around the country. they would be cotton farmers or whatever. they would come and he would give a short speech. mostly attuned to their own interests but something that would resonate with people generally. he had his own stenographer takedown what was said. and then he would make sure it was what he wanted people to read. and then the it would be in the newspapers all over the country. >> devils den is a section of the gettysburg battlefield dominated by large boulders that experienced infantry and

artillery during the second day of battle. the evolution of the site from battlefield to tourist attraction. centertysburg heritage hosted this one-hour talk. >> without further introduction i'm going to bring up our next speaker. delman has his own fan club. how many of you have never heard of them before? [laughter] >> gary, i like to tell people, is kind of the rockstar of civil war history. if you did not know, gary is the michigan state university graduate. shippensburg university of pennsylvania graduate. award-winning author and co-author and editor of 20 plus civil war and related books and 40 related articles.