b'To give you a sense of place, Valentine is located off of famed Route 66 less than an hours drive from Kingman and just 100 miles from both Lake Mead and Grand Canyon National Park. But the tiny towns claim to fame is its big heart.A fter the U.S. took this territory from Mexico,When the school closed in 1937 the post the government commissioned Captainoffice moved to the township located to the Lorenzo Sitgreaves to explore what is nowsouth, along Route 66. At the same time, the Valentine. He was followed by Lt. Edward "Ned"government school closed and the Oasis Fitzgerald Beale, who surveyed a wagon trail in 1857,became the new location for the Valentine post office.to link Arkansas with California. Truxton Canyon Training SchoolTraffic on Route 66 increased every year after WorldThe Massachusetts Indian Association founded The canyon and the spring had been named by BealeWar II until the new Interstate-40 freeway bypassedHackberry Day School in 1894 on the railroad along after his son Truxtun Beale (18561936); named159 miles of Route 66 from Ash Fork to Kingman.Truxton Wash. Hualapai families had objected to after his grandfather, Commodore Thomas Truxtun.The freeway bypass opened September 22, 1978sending their children far away for education. The day Later Truxtun became Truxton.leading to the immediate decline of business alongschool soon moved four miles east of Hackberry, to the the old alignment of Route 66. US Highway 66 wasGeorge Aitken (1844-1912) ranch on the railroad.TOWNSHIP OF VALENTINE decommissioned as a federal highway in 1985. In In 1910, the township near the school and the school1990, Congress began the process toPresident McKinley site was renamed Valentine, after Robert G. Valentine,designate Route 66 remnants part of established the who had been the Commissioner of Indian Affairsa historical transportation corridorHualapai Indian from 1909 to 1912. with US Park Service interpretation. School Reserve in 1898. The Truxton The first building at "Valentine" was a stop namedThe Post Office Canyon Training "Oasis Store" as it was located beside a spring on theThe post office used a postmark withschool was then 1940 - 1979 alignment of Route 66. Route 66 was aCupid\'s arrow, despite the fact that itestablished by the slow and winding road back then, subject to closurewas not named after Saint Valentine. federal government. during a flood or heavy snowfall. There was also aThey also created a Texaco station in addition to cabins for spending theValentine\'s post office used toreserve of 795 acres night. The school was located almost two miles westreceive mail which was postmarkednext to the railroad, of there on the highway. and re-mailed as "A Valentineto provide easy from Valentine, Arizona." Soon,access for teachers bundles of valentines from allTruxton Canyon Training School and supplies.across the country would arrive at the remote post office, spreading fame for the Arizona place name. ForThe school itself opened in 1901 and the schoolhouse a time, Valentine, Arizona became associated withwas built in 1903. It was a boarding house for boys happy thoughts.and girls. Sleeping porches for health and comfort were added in 1912 at each end of the building since On August 15, 1990, Mrs. Jacqueline Ann Grigg, thethere was no air conditioning in those days. Students postmistress was murdered by a teenager who robbedlived at the school from September to May, wrestling ($40 in cash and $800 in postal money orders) thewith disease, culture shock and homesickness. post office and stole her car. He was later sentenced toSpanish influenza took the lives of 22 children and life. After the crime, the post office, which was next toadults between October 1918 and January 1919. It the Union 76 service station operated by Mr. and Mrs.was expanded in 1924 and again in 1927 and 1929. Grigg, was closed. The Kingman Post Office still hasIts bricks were manufactured on-site by the Hualapai the old Valentine AZ, postmark and uses it to stampstudents. Over the 36 years of its existence, it mail upon special request.educated around 750 students. Non-Indian children 28 February 2020'