C.H. Cook Memorial Church
Charles H. Cook arrived in Arizona in 1870. In February 1871, Cook began teaching at a school for Pima Indians in a small adobe building near Sacaton, where he taught until his resignation in 1879. For two years, Cook worked for Charles T. Hayden as a clerk and trader, before devoting himself as a Presbyterian Missionary in 1881. Cook began holding regular service in Sacaton and also traveled to the outlying fields and villages to speak. In 1885, Manuel Roberts of Blackwater was the first to be baptized and converted to Christianity.
In 1889, Cook was finally able to build the First Presbyterian Church in Sacaton. Over the next several years, a number of small churches and chapels were also established throughout the region. Cook died in 1917, by which time the congregation had grown enough that it was necessary to build a new church at Sacaton. The new church, named in Cook's honor, was dedicated in April 1918. This new church would serve the area for decades, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. In the 1980s, a new church was built and the 1918 structure closed except for special occasions (Presbyterian regulations require that when a new church is built, the old is to be demolished. A special exception was made for the Cook Memorial Church due to its sentimental ties with the community). Unfortunately, on March 25, 2019, the C.H. Cook Memorial Church was destroyed by arson.
