"Certain Flies in the Ointment": Mulford Winsor and the Development of Arizona's Archives

An Archives in Name Only In 1862 the creation of the "Confederate Territory of Arizona" by the Confederate States of America, and their occupation of Tucson for a few months prior to fleeing before General James Henry Carleton's California Column, caused much concern in Washington, D.C. United States officials were vitally interested in maintaining southwestern lands, and especially their gold and silver resources, under Union control.5 Thus, at the height of the Civil War conflict, President Abraham Lincoln signed the long-stalled bill establishing the Territory of Arizona separate from the Territory of New Mexico on February 24, 1863. Included in their baggage of 66 mule-drawn wagons as they slowly lumbered westward across the plains were 300 books purchased by Richard C. McCormick, secretary of the Territory, and blank leather-bound journals and ledgers and reams of paper that would soon become the first of the Territory's records.6 Just on the other side of the New Mexico border the group stopped at Navajo Springs to officially issue a proclamation on December 29, 1863, establishing the Territory of Arizona.