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. Holbrook, the county seat, was founded in 1871.

By the time it became Navajo County, the area was developed – 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. The company – known as the Hashknife Outfit because of its brand – brought 33,000 longhorn cattle and 2,200 horses into northern Arizona from Texas. Holbrook, the county seat, was founded in 1871.

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

In the north is Kayenta, founded in 1909 as a trading post, and now the gateway to the Navajo Tribal Park at Monument Valley and a thriving Navajo community. Farther south is the Hopi Indian Reservation, which is completely surrounded by the Navajo Reservation. The Hopi Pueblo of Oraibi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the United States.

Today, Navajo County’s principal industries are tourism, manufacturing, timber production and ranching.

Almost 55 percent of Navajo County’s 9,959 square miles is Indian reservation land. Individual and corporate ownership accounts for 30 percent; the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management together control 9 percent; and the state of Arizona owns 6 percent.