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.

By the time it became Navajo County, the railroad had
crossed the county for more than a decade, and North
America's third largest ranch, the Aztec Land and Cattle
Company near Holbrook, had been established. Backed by
Easterners, Aztec bought 1 million acres of land from
the railroad at 50 cents an acre. A company, known as
the Hashknife Outfit because of its brand, brought 33,000
longhorn cattle and 2,200 horses into northern Arizona
from Texas. The county seat, Holbrook, was founded in 1881.

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.

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