Columbine Work Station

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

From the record

“The Columbine Work Station in Coronado National Forest near Safford, Arizona was built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The complex is a representative example of a Depression-era Forest Service administrative center.”
Wikipedia article Columbine Work Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 31 National Register listings published here for Graham County · listed in 1993 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. AZ 366 SW of Safford, Coronado NF, Safford, 85643
When was it listed? June 1993
Category. building
Also known as. Depression-Era USDA Forest Service Administrative Complexes in Arizona MPS
Census division. Bonita-Klondyke
National Register reference number. 93000516 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

144 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 144 fires within 5 miles of Columbine Work Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 7,385 acres in total. 113 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	113
Recreation and ceremony	20
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Smoking	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2001	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	GUY FIRE
6 September 1993	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	GRAND
23 September 2000	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	CUNNINGHAM
22 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	MEADOW
2 September 2001	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	MOONSHINE CREEK FIRE
2 September 2001	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	LEE FIRE
17 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	SHINGLE
13 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	Coronado National Forest	ASH

Every fire recorded in Graham County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Columbine Work Station: 1 occurrence, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Beryllium, Mica. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Twilight and Grey Claims	Beryllium, Mica	Occurrence	Beryl, Mica
	Twilight and Grey Groups	Beryllium	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Graham County

Storms near this property

41 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Safford, the town this property stands in, in 41 storm reports between 1995 and 2021: 20 thunderstorm wind, 14 flash flood, 4 hail, 2 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
October 2016	Hail	Safford	$1,500,000	One inch diameter hail began around 2300 LST as a large thunderstorm moved through Safford. The storm eventually produced hail up to 2.5 inches in diameter. Homes, vehicles and property were damaged throughout Safford and Solomon. Copious amounts of smaller hail fell for 20 minutes in some locations, causing accumulations of up to 6. In many spots, the hail did not melt overnight and was still piled up on roads, sidewalks and yards the following morning. In addition, where hail broke windows, rain and additional hail entered buildings causing water damage. This caused some schools in Safford to remain closed for two weeks until repairs were completed. The hailstorm also wiped out around 4000 acres of cotton crop, with several million dollars of loss estimated. Graham County issued a disaster declaration in the wake of the storm.
October 2016	Flash Flood	Safford	$150,000	More than two inches of rain accompanied by large hail that piled up to six inches deep in some locations caused flash flooding in Safford. Runoff filled Freeman Wash which caused minor damage to several homes and a school, and washed out part of 12th Avenue. The flood waters temporarily displaced twenty five residents. The school was closed for two weeks until repairs were completed. Flood waters also blocked roadways in rural areas, stranding 8,000 county fair visitors until waters receded.
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$60,000	A severe thunderstorm that moved through Safford knocked down 6 power poles, blew part of a roof off a house , broke off several large tree limbs, and damaged several other structures.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$30,000	A trained spotter reported many trees were downed in the central part of Safford. ASOS measured a 63 mph thunderstorm wind gust at the Safford Regional Airport.\|Amateur radio operators reported numerous power poles down near Safford.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$25,000	Strong winds associated with a thunderstorm in the City of Safford, caused damage to two large observation towers, several trailers, and several vehicles as sheet metal was blown off a roof hitting the cars.
January 2010	Flood	Safford	$20,000	Graham County law enforcement performed two swift water rescues just south of Safford during the late evening hours of January 21st. Deputies responded at 10:15 PM to a truck caught in a wash on Chastain Lane, just north of Highway 366. Law enforcement rescued the motorist of the truck. There were no injuries, but the truck was fully engulfed by the water. At approximately the same time, law enforcement spotted a van stuck in Stockton Wash, along Stockton Road south of Roper Lake. The occupants of the van exited the vehicle and waded to safety, before the van was washed further down Stockton Wash.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down several power poles in Safford and the nearby towns of Thatcher and Pima.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$20,000	no account filed
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$15,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees and power poles in the east part of Safford.
August 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$15,000	Multiple power lines were blown down between Safford and Thatcher.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$15,000	A strong thunderstorm knocked down two power poles in Safford.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$15,000	no account filed
August 2004	Flash Flood	Safford	$10,000	Arizona Department of Transportation reported that due to flooding portions of Highway 191 had been damaged and were closed.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$7,500	A power pole was knocked down at 2nd Ave. and Thatcher St. in Safford.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$7,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a tree that fell on a house on 7th Street in Safford and downed a power pole in Thatcher. In Eden, a power line a downed tree pulled down a power line, which set a tree on fire.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$5,000	A strong thunderstorm produced wind gusts up to 61 knots (70 mph) as is moved from the northeast toward the Safford area. The first severe wind gust occurred at 1605 MST and was 53 knots (61 mph), these strong winds continued being reported by the ASOS at the Safford Airport until 1645 MST. The last severe gust reported at the airport was 52 knots (60 mph). The storms then moved into the city of Safford and downed several power poles, and one large tree by 1648 MST.
October 2000	Flood	Safford	$5,000	Road closures due to flooding on Sally Bryce Road in Tally wash area. Heavy rain damaged cotton crops and pinto bean fields.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$3,000	A cinder block wall was knocked down at a residence in Safford due to strong winds. In addition, debris covered much of Highway 191 from just south of Safford to near Artesia.
October 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$2,000	A power pole was snapped off at the base. In another area, power lines were snapped and were dangling from their poles.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$1,000	Thunderstorm winds picked up a storage container and blew it into a gas main.
April 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$1,000	An isolated thunderstorm moving east produced a 56 mph wind gust and knocked down a power pole in Safford. Also the Safford Agricultural Station reported wind gusts up to 57 mph.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$1,000	Power lines were downed by strong winds.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	$500	no account filed
September 2021	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Nearly 1.5 of rain in about 30 minutes caused flash flooding of streets in Safford.
August 2018	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Heavy rain of 1.5 to 2.5 inches caused Peterson Wash to overflow Safford Bryce Road, north of the Gila River in Safford.
July 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Safford	-	A dust devil was stretched into a small landspout tornado by a passing thunderstorm near Safford. No damage was reported.
August 2008	Flash Flood	Safford	-	A trained spotter reported 1.5 feet of water flowing over Cholla Street.
July 2007	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Flooding and debris occurred along 8th street in Safford due to Flash Flooding. In addition, Klondyke Wash west of Safford was impassible.
July 2007	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Low water crossings were flooded at Watson Canal, Kelley Canal and north of the Gila River/Pima Bridge.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	-	The ASOS (automated surface observing system) at the Safford International Airport recorded a severe thunderstorm wind gust of 56 knots (64 mph).
August 2006	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Heavy rainfall over Mount Graham, just southwest of the City of Safford, caused roadway flooding along Highway 366. The Arizona Department of Transportation reported water, rocks and debris over the highway at mile post 121 (Noon Creek) and again at mile post 123 (Wet Canyon).
August 2005	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Heavy rain over Mount Graham caused flooding and closure of several roads including: Aravapia Road, Bookerson Road, and Ash Creek Road.
August 2005	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Noon Creek overtopped Highway 366, the road was reported to be impassable due to flood waters and was closed. Also a rockslide was reported at the intersection of Noon Creek and Highway 366.
August 2004	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Significant rainfall on the Nuttal burn area caused Noon Creek to flood and overtop highway 366. Debris and large logs blocked the road making it impassable.
August 2004	Hail	Safford	-	About 106 pounds of cotton crops were damaged by hail near Safford. These 106 pounds were reported to be worth about 4000 dollars.
August 2004	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Significant rainfall on the Nuttall burn area caused Noon Creek to flood and overtop highway 366. Large logs and debris covered the road causing it to be impassable.
September 2004	Hail	Safford	-	Significant hail damage was reported in the Safford area. The hail fell for about 30 minutes and stripped apples off of trees in a local orchard.
August 1997	Flash Flood	Safford	-	Flooding was reported across state highway 191.
August 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Safford	-	Power lines knocked down.
September 2021	Hail	Safford	-	no account filed
September 2003	Flash Flood	Safford	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Graham County

Newspapers printed here

5,632 digitised pages

2 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1,314 issues, 5,632 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Newspaper	Published
Safford Rattler	1896 to 189?
Graham Guardian	1895 to 1923

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Webb Peak Lookout Tower	0.8 miles	1988
Heliograph Lookout Complex	5.2 miles	1988
West Peak Lookout Tower	7.6 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 93000516 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Graham County	All 31 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.