The pelota game, played by hand with hard-rubber balls, has its origins in ancient Rome. The court is called a Pilotaleku in the Basque language.
Mostly sheepherders, Basques would descend on Flagstaff to stay in a boarding house while moving their flocks from summer locations in the San Francisco Peaks to winter locations farther south. And in the New World, the court was always built near a boarding house or hotel to attract customers and give Basque herders a cultural focus and something fun to do. The ball court, made of 40-foot Moenkopi sandstone walls, still stands next to the Tourist Home, which was a former Basque boarding house.
The ball court, built in 1926 by a widow Isabelle Garcia and her son Jesus, has been listed in the Arizona Preservation Foundation’s list of endangered historic properties. The ball court was actually the second court in town, but the first one, built by another Basque in 1911 on West Benton Avenue, was removed in the 1920s.
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