McNary began as the Cooley ranch. The old ranch house used to sit where Hondah Casino now is. Cooley was quite the landholder and was married to an Apache women. Hunning (?) and Cooley were partners. Something happened, which escapes me at the moment, and they got into a big fight over who owned the land where present day Show Low is. They decided to end their feud diplomatically--with a card game, where the lowest card would win. Henning drew a four and told Cooley "Show Low" and he did--with a deuce of clubs. Present day Show Low was once a part of the Cooley ranch. The Cooley homestead always straddled the Navajo/Apache County line. Enter John McNary--

John McNary was the owner of a sawmill that was located in McNary LA. The forest around that area had pretty much been felled, so McNary moved a whole town (primarily made up of African Americans) to Arizona.

Navajo and apache counties fought over where the mill would be placed and Apache county won--with a bribe. Actually, the county told McNary that it would forgive his taxes (which is illegal) if McNary put the mill on the apache county side. so, that's what was done and McNary became the largest, most prosperous town in Apache County, a title it held until the 60's, at which time the Apache people decided they wanted their land back (it's on the Apache reservation).

Instead of the non-apaches leaving the town as it was--they went and torched it. You'd never believe by driving through McNary today that it was once "the place" in Apache county.

Cameron