Mike's Pike / Mars Hill / Percival Lowell

Percival Lowell came from one of Boston's wealthiest families. Harvard-educated, well-traveled, and deeply eccentric, he arrived in Flagstaff in 1894 for one reason: he believed there was life on Mars, and he needed clear skies to prove it.

Lowell's presence gave Flagstaff national prestige. When the fight over Route 66's Arizona alignment came down to Flagstaff versus Phoenix, his observatory was part of the argument. Flagstaff was not just a lumber town. It was a place of science.

The connection between an astronomer searching for life on Mars and a highway running through downtown seems unlikely. But Lowell's story, and what happened at his observatory fourteen years after his death, changed Flagstaff's trajectory forever.

The rest of this story? You will hear it on the tour.