Part of our ongoing mission from our new home base is to continue supporting and inspiring fellow travelers by sharing destination insights about historic places like Show Low Arizona.
A Town in the White Mountains
SSituated amidst the stunning White Mountains is the uniquely named town of Show Low, Arizona.
Located in Navajo County, this area serves as a prime base camp near multiple outdoor recreational areas, including the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area, and the Petrified Forest National Park.
Show Low lies directly along the Mogollon Rim, an impressive geological escarpment that forms the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. Etched across northern Arizona and heavily forested with ponderosa pine, the edge of the Rim stretches 200 miles from the border of New Mexico all the way to the center of Arizona. The eastern portion of the Rim combines with the White Mountains, which is home to the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.
The Legendary Turn of a Card
While we have never personally visited Show Low ourselves, full-time RV life brings you into contact with people from all over the map.
Lyn Hawkins, a full-time RVer and former resident of Show Low, shared the fascinating story of how the town originally got its name:
“It was named by the turn of a card… two farmers were fighting over their ranch and they decided that they would play a poker game to decide who would get it.”
According to historical archives preserved by the Arizona Memory Project, Marion Clark and Corydon Cooley were the two business partners responsible for this legendary showdown around 1876.
The men had established a massive 100,000-acre ranch in a fertile valley with a natural creek. The property featured an ideal mixture of grassland and ponderosa pine forest—providing everything they needed to harvest timber, plant crops, and raise cattle. However, the partnership soon soured.
To settle the issue of ownership over the ranch once and for all, the two decided that the winner of a single game of “Seven Up” would gain sole control of all 100,000 acres.
How to Play “Seven Up”
Seven Up is a classic card game played with a standard deck by 2 to 4 players. For this game, Aces are designated as low, Kings are high, and the card suits are irrelevant.
The mechanics of the game are straightforward:
- The Setup: The dealer passes seven cards facedown to each player. These cards are lined up from left to right and numbered one to seven. The remaining undealt cards form a stockpile in the center.
- The Gameplay: The player to the left of the dealer draws a card. If the drawn card is an eight through a king, their turn instantly ends.
- Flipping the Cards: If the drawn card is an Ace through a Seven, the player keeps it and places it faceup above the corresponding numbered card in their row (an Ace goes above card one, a two above card two, etc.). The facedown card underneath is then turned over.
- Continuing the Chain: If the newly flipped card is also an Ace through Seven, the player can place it in its correct numerical spot and flip another facedown card. If it is an eight through king, or a duplicate number they already have, it is discarded and the turn ends.
- Winning the Game: Players take turns pulling from the stockpile or the discard pile. The cycle repeats until one player successfully reveals a complete faceup line of cards running from Ace through Seven.
Deuce of Clubs
As Clark and Cooley’s high-stakes game wore on long into the night, Clark eventually grew tired and told his partner, “Show low and you take the ranch.”
Cooley calmly turned over his next card—the deuce of clubs—winning the entire 100,000-acre property on the spot.
The modern city eventually grew directly around the borders of the original Show Low Ranch, and to this day, the town’s main downtown street is named “Deuce of Clubs” to honor Cooley’s winning card. Marion Clark, meanwhile, packed his bags and went off into history.