US 89 Stories: Hunt's Tomb

George W.P. Hunt was a Big Man physically and politically but he started out small in stature and penniless. Hunt arrived in Globe, Arizona, in 1881 with little more than the clothes on his back to call his own. He lived in a cave and and worked odd jobs around the rowdy mining town before becoming a delivery boy. Pretty soon, Hunt owned the company he worked for and rocketed to the top of Gila County's social heap. In a wink of history's eye, Hunt quickly became the most powerful politician in all of Arizona. No one has or probably ever will equal or exceed Hunt's illustrious life and career.

So it was only fitting that Hunt would be forever entombed in his very own pyramid atop a visibly prominent knoll in Far East Phoenix over looking The Salt River's Mill Avenue Bridge and Tempe beyond. The bright, shining white tiled pyramid could be seen for miles in both direction on old US 89. Westbound travelers from the East Valley knew they were in Phoenix when they passed by Hunt's Tomb. Eastbound drivers could easily gauge their distance to the city limits by eyeing that glistening white marker.

Hunt's Tomb began to fade from view as vegetation grew in the adjacent Phoenix Zoo. Today there are only a few short stretches where the Tomb is visible from either Van Buren Street or Mill Avenue.
Luckily, keen-eyed drivers who know where and when to look can still see the iconic structure perched proudly atop a 30-million-year-old butte.