Eagar, Arizona

Eagar is located in the Round Valley, just below the White Mountains of Arizona, in the largest stand of Ponderosa pines on Earth. The ski slopes at Sunrise Park Resort are about half-an-hour away. Eagar is famous these days for the Eagar Ensphere: the only domed high school football stadium in the US. The Ensphere reaches 104 feet high and covers about 120,000 square feet of ground.

The Robertson family and Joel, William and John Thomas Eagar all claimed homesteads in the Round Valley in 1878. The 3 brothers donated land for the surveying and platting of the town of Union in 1888. Union became Eagarville shortly thereafter, and then the "ville" part of the name was dropped in 1892 when the school district was renamed. The Eagar Post Office opened on February 4, 1898. Somewhere back in those early days the town was set upon by the Snider Gang, a bunch of gun-slinging outlaws. The townspeople were prepared and started the shooting from on top of the hill behind what is now Eagar Cemetery. When the smoke finally cleared, 9 of the Snider gang were dead (probably why that hill is now the cemetery).

Springerville is maybe one mile to the north.