Apex, Arizona facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Apex, Arizona
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Ghost town
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 Apex, Arizona
Location in Arizona
Apex, Arizona
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | Arizona |
| County | Coconino |
| Elevation | 6,594 ft (2,010 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (Mountain (MST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (MST) |
| Area code(s) | 928 |
| FIPS code | 04-02970 |
| GNIS feature ID | 25248 |
Apex was a special kind of town called a company town. It was built for workers of a lumber company. This town was located in Coconino County, Arizona. It was right on the Grand Canyon Railway line. Apex was abandoned in 1936 when the lumber work stopped. Today, it is known as a ghost town.
Contents
Where Was Apex Located?
Apex was in Coconino County, Arizona. It was near where Forest Service Road 335 met the train tracks. This area is in the mountains of Arizona.
The Story of Apex
How Apex Started
Apex was a company town that began in the late 1920s. It was built by the Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company of Arizona. They set up their main office there. The town was located on a special side track of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.
What Apex Looked Like
When it first started, Apex had a main office building. There were also 14 houses for families. Seven houses were on the east side of a slope. The other seven, along with the school, were on the west side. The town also had large tanks for oil and water. These tanks were used to help the trains. There were also sheds and other buildings. These buildings helped support the lumber mill and the trains.
Life in the Lumber Town
The houses in Apex were not built to last forever. They rested on temporary foundations. The lumber company ran a store called a commissary. Workers who did not have families often lived in camps. These camps moved around with the logging work. Families, however, lived in the community at Apex station. The town had its own school. It also had telephone service. Many of the workers and their families came from Sweden and Norway.
The Apex School
The Apex School District #3 opened in the fall of 1929. The first school was a boxcar that was turned into a one-room schoolhouse. The school in Apex was special. It was one of the only schools in Arizona that had students of all races. The nearby mining town of Anita also had an integrated school. The Apex school never had more than 15 students. It closed in the spring of 1936.
Why Apex Became a Ghost Town
The Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company stopped its logging work in 1936. Because of this, the town of Apex was abandoned. In May 1936, the community was officially closed down. The houses were taken apart and moved away. Only their foundations were left behind. Small shacks that were on train cars were burned in big bonfires. The schoolhouse was one of the last buildings to be removed from Apex.
Apex Today
Today, Northern Arizona University has a project about Apex, Arizona. It is called the Apex, Arizona Archaeology Project. This project helps teach people about what life was like in Apex. It also shows how people lived during the Great Depression.
