Flagstaff, Arizona in the context of "Black Hills (Yavapai County)"

Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the United States. At a length of 2,556.61 miles (4,114.46 km), it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to east, it passes through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Its western terminus is at I-15 in Barstow, California, while its eastern terminus is at a concurrency with U.S. Route 117 (US 117) and North Carolina Highway 132 (NC 132) in Wilmington, North Carolina. Major cities served by the Interstate include Flagstaff, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Amarillo, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Fort Smith and Little Rock in Arkansas; Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville in Tennessee; and Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh, and Wilmington in North Carolina.

I-40 begins in the Mojave Desert in California, and then proceeds through the Colorado Plateau in Arizona and the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico. It then traverses the Great Plains through the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma, and passes south of the Ozarks in Arkansas. The freeway crosses the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, before terminating in the Atlantic Coastal Plain near the Atlantic Ocean.

Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is an impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite, after the adjacent Canyon Diablo.

Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of 5,640 ft (1,719 m) above sea level. It is about 3,900 ft (1,200 m) in diameter, some 560 ft (170 m) deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 148 ft (45 m) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 690–790 ft (210–240 m) of rubble lying above crater bedrock. One of the features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1899, it was the third and final university established in the Arizona Territory. The university is divided into seven academic colleges offering about 130 undergraduate and graduate programs, and various academic certificates. Students can take classes and conduct research in Flagstaff, online, and at more than 20 statewide locations, including the Phoenix Biomedical Core research campus. As of fall 2023, 28,194 students were enrolled with 21,550 at the Flagstaff campus.

Northern Arizona University is one of the three universities governed by the Arizona Board of Regents and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". NAU is ranked No. 192 in the National Science Foundation (NSF) national research rankings for fiscal year 2023. NAU's astronomy faculty led the observations of the NASA DART planetary defense mission, co-discovered several astronomical bodies such as Eris and Sedna, and are major participants in the search for the hypothetical Planet Nine. The university is a primary institution of the local Lowell Observatory. Alumni include 4 Truman Scholars, 11 Goldwater Scholars, and 3 Udall Scholars.

Williams is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of Historic Route 66 and Interstate 40. It is also the southern terminus of the Grand Canyon Railway, which takes visitors to Grand Canyon Village.

Also known as the "Gateway to the Grand Canyon", Williams was the last city on Historic Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40.

Kendrick Peak or Kendrick Mountain is one of the highest peaks in the San Francisco volcanic field north of the city of Flagstaff in the U.S. state of Arizona and is located on the Coconino Plateau in Coconino County.

Kendrick Peak rises to a height of 10,425 feet (3,178 m), which makes it the 11th or 12th tallest summit (depending on the source) in Arizona. Kendrick Peak is a lava dome between 2.7 and 1.4 million years old consisting primarily of dacite and rhyolite flows that were partly buried by andesite according to the USGS.

The United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS), is an astronomical observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, US. It is the national dark-sky observing facility under the United States Naval Observatory (USNO). NOFS and USNO combine as the Celestial Reference Frame manager for the U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. In 2011, the Observatory was named one of "The World's 100 Most Important Places" by Time magazine. It was at the Lowell Observatory that the dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.

The observatory was founded by astronomer Percival Lowell of Boston's Lowell family and is overseen by a sole trustee, a position historically handed down through the family. The first trustee was Lowell's third cousin Guy Lowell (1916–1927). Percival's nephew Roger Putnam served from 1927 to 1967, followed by Roger's son Michael (1967–1987), Michael's brother William Lowell Putnam III (1987–2013), and current trustee W. Lowell Putnam.

Richard W. Sprang (July 28, 1915 – May 10, 2000) was an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on the superhero Batman during the period fans and historians call Golden Age of Comic Books. Sprang was responsible for the 1950 redesign of the Batmobile and the original design of the Riddler, who has appeared in film, television and other media adaptations. Sprang's Batman was notable for his square chin, expressive face and barrel chest.

Sprang was also a notable explorer in Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, whose discoveries included "Defiance House", a previously unrecorded ancestral Puebloan structure. Sprang's voluminous correspondence, journals, and thousands of photographs are archived at Northern Arizona Universities Cline Library Special Collections in Flagstaff, Arizona. A small amount of material is at the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah.

State Route 89A (SR 89A) is an 83.85-mile (134.94 km) state highway that runs from Prescott north to Flagstaff in the U.S. state of Arizona. The highway begins at SR 89 in Yavapai County and heads northward from Prescott Valley, entering Jerome. From Jerome, the route then heads to Cottonwood and Clarkdale. The road then continues out to Sedona. The highway is notable for its scenic value as it winds over and through Mingus Mountain as well as passing through Sedona and the Oak Creek Canyon. The route then enters Coconino County soon after leaving Sedona. The highway proceeds to Flagstaff, where it crosses Interstate 17 (I-17) and I-40. The highway ends at I-40 Business in Flagstaff. What is now SR 89A became a state highway in the late 1920s as SR 79. The highway was extended and improved several times through 1938. SR 79 was renumbered to U.S. Route 89A (US 89A) in 1941 and then to SR 89A in the early 1990s.