Navajo

Navajo County was formed on March 21, 1895, as the final act of the Territorial Assembly before it adjourned at midnight.  What is now Navajo County was first included in Yavapai County, but in 1879, the area was added to the newly formed Apache County.

The county is divided into two distinct parts by the Mogollon Rim.  The high country in the northern part of the county is and and desert-like with empty mesas and smaller plateaus.  The southern part is a rugged mountain area, heavily wooded with pifion juniper and ponderosa pine.

Today, Navajo County's principal industries are tourism, coal mining, manufacturing, timber production and ranching.

Almost 66 percent of Navajo County's 9,949 square miles is Indian reservation land.  Individual and corporate ownership accounts for 18 percent; the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management together control 9 percent; and the state of Arizona owns 5.9 percent. All of Navajo County is an Enterprise Zone.