About Wickenberg Arizona

History

While Wickenburg's main attraction remains the several guest ranches near town, a walk around downtown provides a glimpse of the Old West. Most of the buildings were built between 1890 and the 1920s (although a few are older), and although not all of them look their age, there is just enough Western character to make a stroll worthwhile (if it's not too hot).

The old Santa Fe train station is now the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce, where you can pick up a map that tells a bit about the history of the buildings. The brick post office, almost across the street from the train station, once had a ride-up window providing service to people on horseback. Frontier Street is preserved as it looked in the early 1900s.

The covered sidewalks and false fronts are characteristic of frontier architecture; the false fronts often disguised older adobe buildings that were considered "uncivilized" by settlers from back east.

The oldest building in town is the Etter General Store, adjacent to the Homestead Restaurant. The adobe-walled store was built in 1864 and has long since been disguised with a false wooden front.