Who'd Buy a Town?	< 1906-1925 . 1925-1936 . 1936-1938 >
1925 to 1936 - Mathis & Matilda Johnson / Tootie & Joe O'Conner

According to letters and a visit in 1993 from their granddaughter, Mathis and Matilda Johnson were the managers of Tortilla Flat in the early 1920s, the same ones to have had the zoo. Their granddaughter, Ruth Mitchell Coble, was born in 1921 and attended sixth grade at Tortilla Flat. Ruth said the schoolhouse, then, was not in town, but nearby. Her aunt and uncle-in-law, Tootie and Joe O'Conner, were partners with the Johnsons. Ruth remembered cattle drives coming through at night, and Flossie, the bear, was a big tourist attraction. Ruth's visit in 1993 was the first time she'd been back to Tortilla Flat since her childhood. Today, Ruth and her husband, George Coble, live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In the autumn of 1924, Bill Goforth and his wife, Ruth, arrived in Tortilla Flat driving a two-horse wagon and towing a Thoroughbred mare and her colt. Traveling from Gallup, New Mexico they stopped at Tortilla Flat. Bill heard about a job opening in one of the stores and service stations used by the stage company out of Globe/Miami. Bill went to work for Jack Morrison, who ran the stage stop, and the road construction equipment building. Morrison originally owned the bear named Flossie which he sold to Mathis Johnson.

In 1994 contact was made with Mr. Goforth, who lives in Dove Creek, Colorado. At the age of 93 years he still has fond memories of Tortilla Flat.

Bill worked the stage stop for two years, Ruth worked in the store until the buildings burned down in 1926. While at Tortilla Flat the Goforths lived in a boxed-in tent but spent most nights in the store. Bill had an old red hound dog, which he discovered was stealing food from campers in the area, and hiding his bounty under the Goforths bed. Bill hunted mountain goats in the Superstitions for fresh meat, and remembers it being mighty tasty.

There were several "pets" kept at Tortilla Flat which was part of Ruth's job at the store to feed. One was a pet javelina who was kept in a cage, one night a mountain lion got to close and the javelina ripped off a section of the lions hide. Needless to say, everyone was a lot more respectful of the javelina.

The Goforths moved to Horse Mesa in 1926 where he worked as a carpenter during construction of Horse Mesa Dam's power plant. Bill worked with Jack Morrison at Canyon Lake (formerly called Mormon Lake) where they rented fishing boats to tourists. There were two tour boats on Canyon Lake back then. One was at the First Water bridge and was called Miss America; the second was at the second bridge over Boulder Creek, and it was called Geronimo. Bill said that the tour boat Geronimo was an impressive sight to see.

In 1928, the Goforths moved to Colorado, where Bill still resides today.

Mr. Goforth also told about some characters who used to hang around the store at Tortilla Flat. Kaiser Bill was one such fellow who used to live with the Indians who frequented the area. He was of German extraction, but used to paint himself and dress like the Indians. His main occupation was hunting for the Lost Dutchman Mine (one of the earliest in a long line of Dutchman hunters).

George Wright was another fellow who was a regular in those days. George supposedly killed a man and was sent to the notorious Yuma Territorial Prison in Southwest Arizona. In prison he carved a gun out of charcoal retrieved from a heat stove and reportedly escaped to the Superstition Mountains where he camped for 20 years. Then believing that his notoriety had died down, he came to Tortilla Flat and lived a gentle if rugged life thereafter. Bill Goforth sold his horses to George in 1924.

Goforth states that a lot of Indians came and went back then, camped around the grounds charging tourists to take their picture, and living off the land. Apparently there was once a sizable encampment in the location of the present day Tortilla Flat campground.

Bill and Ruth had friends at Tortilla Flat, a young couple by the name of Dean and Alice Bushong, (later Alice Christiansen). The Bushongs had been married in March 1925 and almost immediately came to live in Tortilla Flat. Dean got a job working on the road crews, which constantly maintained the Apache Trail and attempted to widen it in places. The Bushongs also lived in an army tent with a wood floor and four wooden sides. It was located about midway between the present country store and where the school house sits today.

The man who owned Tortilla Flat when Bill Goforth lived there was Mathis (Mat) Johnson, who bought the Tortilla Flat in 1925.

According to correspondence with Alice Christiansen, Mathis Johnson stayed until about 1931 and then traded management of the town to his daughter and son-in-law Hilda (Tootie) and Joe O'Conner for a home in Maywood, California. The 0' Conners came with their children Joe Jr., and Ann, and the clothes on their back. The O'Conner children were among the first students in the new Tortilla Flat school.

In the summer of 1932 a new school district was created at Tortilla Flat and shortly thereafter construction of the frame, one­room schoolhouse was started. Alta B. Dingle was still in her teens when she began her stint as its first instructor.

The Arizona Business Directory, and the U.S. Forest Service say a United States Post Office was established in Tortilla Flat, September 8, 1927. The Arizona Place Names book, published by the University of Arizona Press, says the post office was established February 15, 1928, which is also corroborated by historians. Both sources agree that Mathis Johnson was Tortilla Flat's first postmaster. Sometimes, but not in every case, being postmaster also coincided with being owner, or co-owner. Unfortunately, because of the lack of documentation at this time period, we can, at best, guess ownership.