Florence

In 1866, Florence rose on the banks of the Gila River in south central Arizona. People came from near and far to this early settlement in the Arizona Territory, joining the Native Americans and Mexican farmers already established there. The town boomed with the discovery of a silver mine nearby. Politicians and lawyers followed when Florence became the seat of Pinal County in 1875, and when the Territorial Prison arrived in 1909, the community's future no longer depended upon the fickle min...