Ash Fork developed near the 35th Parallel, where in the 1850's the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers surveyed a future railroad route and camels were used as beasts of burden. A wagon road there later became Route 66. In the early 1880's, freighters hauling supplies and ore between Williams and Jerome traveled along Ash Creek, and in 1882, when the Atlantic and Pacific (Santa Fe) Railroad reached present-day Ash Fork, freighting companies pressed for a depot at a more convenient location. That October, a new siding was built near the meeting of the three forks of Ash Creek, a town grew along the tracks, and it was named Ash Fork. Thomas Cooper Lewis arrived that same year and opened the town's first business. A post office was established on April 2, 1883, Wells Fargo opened an office two years later, and ten years later a town site was developed south of the tracks. The railroad also opened the area to cattle and sheep ranching. In 1895, the railroad line from Ash Fork to Prescott to Phoenix was completed, linking the capital city with the Santa Fe's main line; because it twisted through mountains and canyons, the route became known as the Peavine. Ash Fork had no source of water until a well was dug in 1976; before that, a train hauled water daily from Del Rio Springs in Chino Valley. Water for steam engines was stored behind Stone and Steel Dams, built around 1900 on Johnson Creek 5 miles east of town, and carried by pipeline to the round house at Ash Fork. In March 1907, the Harvey House called the Escalante was completed near this site, and the hotel, restaurant, and curio store remained open until 1951. The Interstate Highway System, begun in 1953, eventually replaced Route 66 with Interstate 40 and bypassed the town, and in 1960 the Santa Fe moved the main line 10 miles north, bringing decline to Ash Fork. A 1975 fire in the old business district destroyed many old landmarks. Flagstone is mined in quarries near Ash Fork, shipped around the world, and gave the town its slogan, "Flagstone Capital of USA."