Pioneers By Robert DeMayo One hundred years ago there were only a handful of families in this area. If you visited then you would have seen rows of apple trees along Oak Creek, and a few small farms, and that was it—but the rocks would have been the same. The first people to live in the area were determined and independent. JJ Thompson became the first settler in Sedona in 1876. Other families followed, and by 1905 there was a wagon road up Schnebly Hill to Flagstaff.
In those early days there were still brown bear in the area and one of the early residents, Richard Wilson, got himself killed when he went after one with a small rifle. The town’s children all had their tales of being harassed by bears, as well as mountain lions, on their way to the one schoolhouse.
The towns’ namesake, Sedona Schnebly, was married to the first postmaster, and became immortalized when her husband named the town after her. Thankfully he was denied his first request for a name, which was, “Schneblyville.”
