Coconino County, Arizona

Coconino County, Arizona
Old Coconino County Courthouse in Flagstaff
Seal
Location in the U.S. state of Arizona
Arizona's location in the U.S.
Founded	February 18, 1891
Seat	Flagstaff
Largest city	Flagstaff
Area
• Total	18,661 sq mi (48,332 km2)
• Land	18,619 sq mi (48,223 km2)
• Water	43 sq mi (111 km2), 0.2%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	139,097
• Density	7.4/sq mi (3/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Mountain: UTC-7
Website	coconino.az.gov

Coconino County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. The population was 134,421 at the 2010 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from Cohonino, a name applied to the Havasupai. It is the second-largest county by area in the contiguous United States, behind San Bernardino County, California, with its 18,661 square miles (48,300 km²) making it larger than each of the nine smallest states.

Coconino County comprises the Flagstaff, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Coconino County contains Grand Canyon National Park, the Havasupai Nation, and parts of the Navajo Nation, Hualapai Nation, and Hopi Nation. It has a relatively large Native American population at nearly 30% of the county's total population, being mostly Navajo with smaller numbers of Havasupai, Hopi, and others.

The county was the setting for George Herriman's early-20th-century Krazy Kat comic strip.

After the building of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1883 the region of northern Yavapai County began experiencing rapid growth. The people of the northern reaches had tired of the rigors of travelling all the way to Prescott for county business. They also believed that they were a significant enough entity that they should have their own county jurisdiction. Therefore, they decided in 1887 to petition for secession from Yavapai and the creation of a new Frisco County. They remained part of Yavapai, however, until 1891 when Coconino County was formed and its seat declared to be Flagstaff.