The Great AZ Road Trip

Governor Hunt’s Tomb

Photo Courtesy of City of Phoenix

Photo Courtesy of City of Phoenix

Located in Papago Park, next to the Phoenix Zoo is Gov. Hunt’s Tomb. A tall, white pyramid atop a small hill, nestled next to the red buttes of the park. Arizona Gov. George W.P. Hunt was dubbed “King George VII,” with an impressive track record of being Arizona’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, and 10th governor, which stands to show why he was considered “friend of the common man.”

When Hunt’s wife died in 1931 he had her buried on the hill in Papago Park, in a 20-foot-tall pyramid faced with solid white tile. When he died three years later he joined her, and was later joined in turn by his in-laws, his wife’s sister, and his daughter. Plaques on his pyramid declare that he was a descendant of an unnamed “Revolutionary War patriot,” that he allowed women to vote in his state eight years before the rest of the country, and that he was elected governor seven times, which “set a national record.”

The tomb was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, and can be seen from anywhere in Papago Park, offering a panoramic view of the eastern part of the Valley of the Sun