The native people of the Colorado Plateau have been living in the Flagstaff area for thousands of years, long before European settlers began to enjoy the resources of its abundant forests and rich meadows, and before Phoenix residents began building summer homes to escape the Valley of the Sun's blistering heat. (At 7,000 feet above sea level, summer temperatures in Flagstaff are regularly 25 degrees cooler than those in Phoenix.) While the previous commerce conduits of the railroad and Route 66 still criss-cross the town, Northern Arizona University, with about 18,000 students, is the main economic engine in Flagstaff today.
Looming over the town is the serrated profile of the San Francisco Peaks, with Humphrey's Peak at the highest point of 12,643 feet. These mountains are sacred to the Navajo and the Hopi people, long regarded as a source of physical and spiritual medicine and as the place where the world of man and the gods intersect. The Hopi's Kachinas, spirit-beings who are said to intercede in nearly every aspect of man's life, reside among the Peaks for half the year, then descend to maintain the natural order of the world.
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