President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War William Howard Taft are revolutionizing the U.S. Army with a sweeping reorganization plan hammered out at Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill estate on Long Island. Meeting for just two hours on July 7th, they decided to consolidate America's scattered military posts into seven massive "brigade posts" commanded by brigadier generals — at Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Fort Robinson in Nebraska, Fort L.A. Russell in Wyoming, Fort Sill in Oklahoma, and Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. Roosevelt wants the army trained "to act in a mass" rather than maintaining small company garrisons, with $800,000 allocated for post creation and $3 million more for barracks. Meanwhile, international tensions simmer as a Denver grand jury prepares to investigate massive election fraud, and there's growing concern that Arctic explorer Robert Peary may have perished in his quest for the North Pole — the Roosevelt expedition that departed July 1905 hasn't been heard from despite plans to return by October. Closer to home, Phoenix real estate is booming with E.E. Pascoe advertising a 5-room cottage with electric lights and gas for $2,500.

This army reorganization reflects Roosevelt's growing concern about America's military preparedness as the nation steps onto the world stage. Just three years after acquiring the Panama Canal Zone and with tensions rising globally, TR is modernizing a military still organized for frontier warfare into a force capable of projecting power abroad. The consolidation into larger posts signals the end of the old Indian Wars era and the beginning of America's transformation into a global military power. Meanwhile, the corruption investigations in Denver and concerns about democratic processes reflect the Progressive Era's battle against political machines and corporate influence — themes that would define American politics for the next decade.

• That $2,500 Phoenix cottage with electric lights, gas, barn, and lawn on North 2nd Avenue would cost about $90,000 in today's money — quite the bargain for a fully modern home
• Secretary Taft plans to take a two-month vacation at Murray Bay, 80 miles below Quebec on the St. Lawrence River, after giving just one more speech to the Ohio bar association
• Sweet Marie, a California-bred mare, just won $7,500 plus 6% of gate receipts in a harness race at Readville, Massachusetts, beating a horse named Wentworth in two heats with a time of 2:07 3-5
• Venezuelan President Castro marked Independence Day by releasing political prisoners from the dungeons of San Carlos island fort and returning their confiscated property
• Phone number for real estate loans in Phoenix: Red 1492 — a delightfully simple numbering system compared to today

• William Howard Taft, meeting with Roosevelt about army reform, would himself become president in 1909 — but this July 1906 visit was actually his first trip to Roosevelt's famous Oyster Bay estate
• Fort Oglethorpe, chosen as one of the new consolidated army posts, sits next to Chickamauga National Military Park — the site of one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles just 43 years earlier
• The Navy is soliciting plans for a 20,000-ton battleship — these would become the 'dreadnought' class that sparked a global naval arms race, making every existing warship obsolete overnight
• John D. Rockefeller, being summoned in an Ohio anti-trust case, was vacationing in Europe — by 1906 he was already the world's first billionaire but still fighting legal battles over Standard Oil
• King Edward VII is expected to visit Germany for his grand-nephew's christening, part of the complex web of royal family relationships that would make World War I a truly family affair