Picket Post Heliograph

Pinal County · At turnout on highway opposite mountain · location approximate

PICKET POST MOUNTAIN A landmark and lookout point during Indian Wars; site of outpost of Camp Pinal which was located at head of Stoneman Grade to the east. Soldiers protected Pinal City and the Silver King Mine from Apache raiders. It was the home of Col. William Boyce Thompson, mining magnate and founder of the Southwest Arboretum at the foot of the mountain.

Named in the Arizona Department of Transportation's 1997 list of markers standing in its right of way. That 1997 list covers only state highway right of way, so it does not reach markers on city streets, on tribal land, or in state and national parks.

1958 text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The book proposed 100 markers for Arizona's highways and records 14 as cast when it went to press.

Arizona still marks its history under the same law: the State Historical Advisory Commission approves a marker, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records certifies that its text is authentic and historically correct, and the Arizona Department of Transportation erects and maintains the markers on state highway right-of-way. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records ↗

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Marker data: Historical Markers in Arizona, Vols. I-II (Arizona Development Board, 1958), text by Bert Fireman

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