Apex Archaeology Project

Learn more about the history of the Apex Logging Camp through efforts from Northern Arizona University and the Kaibab National Forest

From 1901 to 1968, the Grand Canyon Railway carried tourists, goods, and resources along the 64 miles between Williams, Arizona, and the Grand Canyon.

The original plan for the railway was envisioned by Bucky O'Neil in 1893, designed to transport lucrative copper ore from nearby copper deposits. When it was finally completed in 1901, the main functions of the railroad was to supply ranching, mining, and logging camps and move the extracted resources to larger towns for use or sale.

Many features and artifacts were associated with the process of railroad logging, including the various rail lines. By the late 1920s, the Tusayan Line was created when the Saginaw and Manistee harvested nearly all the timber near the Williams mill and were forced to delve into more remote areas.

The remote area The Saginaw and Manistee Logging Company had established a new headquarters at was known as Apex, Arizona which was 52 miles north of Williams and along the Grand Canyon Railway in the middle of Arizona’s largest Ponderosa pine forests. Here, timber would be harvested for railroad ties, building materials, and other wood goods. In operation from 1928 to 1936, Apex was host to railroad siding, logging spurs, maintenance buildings, homes, and a schoolhouse.

Apex was home to the companies' mostly first and second generation Swedish lumberjacks and their families. The camp itself contained worker dorms, family housing, as well as a schoolhouse. However, overtime Apex became a cultural melting pot with Mexicans, Native Americans, Norwegians and Finns. Their children would attend the schoolhouse, which was known to be one of the few unsegregated schools in Arizona, at the time.

Based out of Michigan, the Saginaw Logging Company began operating in Northern Arizona in 1983. By June of that year, the first mill was up and running in Williams, Arizona. This mill is what brought life to Williams—providing the town with power and water throughout the initial decades of the twentieth century (Saginaw-Manistee Lumber Company Records,).

Starting in 1898, Saginaw had begin to construct a railroad as means to haul logs to the mill. To further expand operations and purchase additional timber rights, the Saginaw Lumber Company had merged with the Manistee Lumber Company in October of 1899; forming the Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company. This company soon became the largest logging operation in the Southwest. The company expanded its railroad lines and opened a box factory the following year, collecting lumber in the Ponderosa Pine forests of Williams, in the Chalender and Garland Prairie districts of the Kaibab National Forests', as well as in the Bellemont district of the Coconino National Forest.

Supplying to the Santa Fe and Grand Canyon Railway, Anita mines, and the Grand Canyon Village, the Saginaw and Manistee Logging Company was making way for itself, especially in the midst of the Great Depression.

The archaeological field school has conducted multiple analyses such as survey, excavation, ground-penetrating radar, mapping, photography, artifact analysis, and historical research of the features at the site. The field school continues to build off the information the USFS recorded in 2006. The features found at the Apex site are assigned to designated Locuses from A through J.

The artifacts discovered at this site are essential for preserving the integrity of Apex's history. Therefore, we request that no artifacts be removed from the location.

Food & Beverage

Cans- Sardine cans and sardine can keys were incredibly common at the site and found at every Locus. It is possible that the company stocked Norwegian sardines specifically to cater to the cultural tastes of their workers. Other common food can items included Calmet Baking Powder, Hershey's, Ovaltine, and Walter Baker & Co. baking chocolate (Dale as cited in Parra, 2022).

Alcohol - Despite the Prohibition that took place from 1920-1933, Apex had large amounts of alcohol-related disposal, especially malt extract cans used to brew beer. It is noted that there was alcohol consumption present at each Locus, besides for Locus I. Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, there was more variety of alcohol found including cone-top and pull-tab beer cans especially. There were cans of "Non-Fattening Refreshments," Pabst Tapa, as well as whiskey bottles and pumpkin flasks (Dale as cited in Parra, 2022).

Non-Alcoholic Beverages - Much broken glass was found at the site from Orange Crush, Coca-Cola, and Delaware Punch bottles. Other non-alcoholic beverages discovered at the site were Hershey's Cocoa can lids, a Lipton's Tea lid, a Tea Tree can lid, and Maxwell House Coffee lids. Many intact bottles left behind by Apex residents are believed to have been collected by looters, so the exact identification of some bottles is unknown.

Food Preparation - There was much evidence for canning done at Apex including canning jars, jar caps, and lids. Ceramic vases, bowls, plates, and cups were also abundant and frequently decorated with hand-crafted floral patterns. Metal trays were found -- likely used for serving food in a bunkhouse.

Personal Items

Clothing - Many shoe fragments and buttons were found, especially at Locus C, D, and E. There were also miscellaneous items such as a pocket watch, suspenders, and a belt buckle.

Music - There were minimal artifacts for music other than broken pieces of recovered vinyl records and parts of harmonica and radio.

Toys - Toys suggest that children have entertainment outside of the everyday learning done at the schoolhouse. Toys included many 'transportation' toys such as cars, tractors, and train figurines. Other toys noted are parts of tea cup sets, a Cracker Jack “Screamer Whistle” prize, a toy gun (Dale as cited in Parra, 2022) fragments of a porcelain doll, and a toy horse.

Hygiene - According to reports done by Emily Dale, there were quite a few bottles of laxatives indicating that constipation was a common issue amongst the laborers. Additionally, numerous accounts of cosmetics including cold cream jars and make-up compacts. Other hygienic artifacts included ointments used for common colds, coughs, cuts, bruises, burns congestion, hay fever, and even aftershave (Dale and Levesque, 2022). There were also accounts of various household cleaners such as Lysol, Clorox Bleach, and Sani-Clor.

Tools - Tools found at the site include pieces of small coping, fret, pull or hacksaw blades, combination pliers, and bastard files. This indicates that workers were bringing their own tools to Apex, likely to "maintain their residence" (Dale and Levesque, 2023). A flashlight and part of a nickel-plated lantern were found which Dale and Levesque suggest that workers operated in the dark.

Tobacco - Tobacco was a popular item amongst Apex workers for there were "nearly 50 Copenhagen flat oval cans recorded" across multiple Loci. Many were recorded at the can dumps. However, according to Dale and Levesque, there "may have been a preference for management for cigarettes and a laborer preference for chewing tobacco, possibly to free up their hands as they worked."

Part of Dale's field school process is identifying structural remains. These images, located at Locus E and the school house, reveal the structural remains that consist of limestone cobble walls and milled lumber. It is noted that there were seven houses on the east side of the rail line, seven more, and the schoolhouse on the west side. Since Apex was designed to be moveable, many of the structures consist of reused boxcars as a way to be placed on flatcars and relocated (Dale, 2023, as cited in Richmond, 1988).

Some structures had more permanence and had a kitchen, living room, and one bedroom. This type of family housing was still portable but was placed on wood or stone foundations, typically in an "L" or "T" shaped foundation. Since the structures were portable boxcars, few of these structures survived. The two intact structure foundations are located at Locus E and the schoolhouse. The approximate size of these structures was 350 square feet while the schoolhouse was around 700 square feet since it consisted of two boxcars.

The Apex, Arizona Archaeological Project continues to build its knowledge in the history of Apex by understanding the backgrounds of its residents and the relationships with the industries during the American Depression-- for understanding people is understanding history.

Much research of the Grand Canyon Railway and Apex has been conducted by Williams' historian, Al Richmond, historical archeologist and professor at Northern Arizona University, Emily Dale and her students of the field school.

Help preserve Arizona's heritage and history by joining the  Arizona Site Steward Program  or signing up for a  Project Passport in Time Project !