The first Anglo settler, John J. Thompson, moved to Oak Creek Canyon in 1876, an area well known for its peach and apple orchards. The early settlers were farmers and ranchers. In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were 55 residents. In the mid-1950s, the first telephone directory listed 155 names. Some parts of the Sedona area were not electrified until the 1960s.

Sedona began to develop as a tourist destination, vacation-home and retirement center in the 1950s. Most of the development seen today was constructed in the 1980s and 1990s. As of 2007, there are no large tracts of undeveloped land remaining.[1]

Important early settlers included the Steele family, originally of Scotland.

In 1956, construction of the Chapel of the Holy Cross was completed. The chapel rises 70 feet (21 m) out of a 1,000-foot (300 m) redrock cliff.[2] The most prominent feature of the chapel is the cross. Later a chapel was added. Inside the chapel there is a window and a cross with benches and pews.[3]

Sedona played host to more than sixty Hollywood productions from the first years of movies into the 1970s. Stretching as far back as 1923, Sedona's red rocks were a fixture in major Hollywood productions – including films such as Angel and the Badman, Desert Fury, Blood on the Moon, Johnny Guitar, The Last Wagon, and 3:10 to Yuma. However, the surroundings typically were identified to audiences as the terrain of Texas, California, Nevada, and even Canada–US border territory.[4] The town lent its name to the 2011 film Sedona, which is set in the community.

 

The Brins fire of 2006

On June 18, 2006, a wildfire, reportedly started by campers, began about one mile (1.61 km) north of Sedona.[5] The Brins Fire covered 4,317 acres (17 km2) on Brins Mesa, Wilson Mountain and in Oak Creek Canyon before the USDA Forest Service declared it 100 percent contained on June 28. Containment cost was estimated at $6.4 million.

On May 20, 2014, a wildfire started from an unknown cause began north of Sedona at Slide Rock State Park. The Slide Fire[6] spread across 21,227 acres in Oak Creek Canyon over nine days and prompted evacuations.[7] State Route 89A opened to Flagstaff in June, but all parking and canyon access was closed to the public until October 1, 2014.[8]