Stinson Museum

The Stinson Museum is housed in the oldest permanent structures in Snowflake, consisting of two adobe buildings that date from approximately 1873. These Hispanic Colonial Adobe structures were originally erected by James Stinson, a cattleman who settled the Silver Creek valley around 1870. Stinson used the land to raise food, cattle, and horses for sale to the quartermasters at Fort Defiance and Fort Apache.

In July 1878, William Jordan Flake and a group of Mormon families entered the valley and purchased the ranch from Stinson for $12,000. The two adobe structures were joined together into one continuous structure — the building visitors see today. The Stinson Ranch House served multiple civic purposes in the early settlement: it hosted church meetings, school sessions, and court proceedings.

A couple of months after the Flakes’ arrival, LDS Apostle Erastus Snow visited the valley on September 24, 1878, and the settlement was named “Snowflake” in honor of both Snow and Flake. Today, the museum displays artifacts from Snowflake’s three foundational eras: its prehistoric past, its Hispanic heritage, and its Mormon Pioneer settlement. Highlights include the loom used by Lucy Hannah Flake to weave cloth and rag rugs.