By Tom Brodersen

 “My parents were immigrants,” Fiorello La Guardia wrote. “My mother was born in Trieste, and father was born in Foggia, Italy.” His mother, Irene Coen Luzzatto, was a descendant of a prominent family of Italian-Jewish scholars and rabbis. His father, Achille LaGuardia, was raised Catholic but declared his religion to be “none.” Achille had been an Italian army musician, a military band leader in India, an Austrian band leader, and a hotel entertainer in New York before returning to Trieste. Irene & Achille met in Trieste and were married in a civil ceremony. They sailed for America on their wedding day, in 1880.

Irene and Achille LaGuardia settled in Greenwich Village. Their daughter Gemma was born there in 1881 and Fiorello followed in 1882. In 1885 Achille enlisted in the Army and was stationed in South Dakota as a member of the 11^th U.S. Infantry Band & Orchestra. Their third child, Richard, was born in 1887. They were transferred to Fort Huachuca in Arizona Territory just 15 miles from the Mexican border, in 1890.  In 1892, the LaGuardia family was transferred to Whipple Barracks near Prescott where Achille was the bandmaster.

By E.L. Foxx

Yavapai County is no stranger to ghost towns. It made a gracious host to prospectors looking to strike it rich during the Arizona territory’s gold rush, resulting in thousands of mines being dug. If a mine was successful, a town would spring up around it. Mining towns lasted 30 years on average, while smaller camps lasted as little as four years.

Bigbug was a small mining town founded in 1862 when gold was discovered along Big Bug Creek by Theodore Boggs. The area got its name when prospectors made note of the especially large beetles along the creek where they were mining. Like many mining camps, Bigbug saw its fair share of name changes. The “Bigbug” post office officially opened in March of 1879. The name only lasted for a few months; in November it was renamed “Red Rock.” This lasted a few years before being renamed “Big Bug” in 1881 and eventually as “Bigbug” again in 1895. Bigbug was known for its smelter services in the Bradshaw Mountains. reaching its peak population in 1890 with 115 residents. As time went on, the ore started to run dry. Miners began moving away to more productive mines in the area, causing the collapse of Bigbug. The post office closed in 1910. 

By Andrew Somerville with assistance from E.L. Foxx

Recipes and cooking practices tell us something about the creativity and adaptability of frontier people in early Yavapai County. Before the late 1880s, when the railroad connected to Prescott, food resources were limited or expensive.

In the 1860s and 1870s, most goods were sold by merchants who had government contracts with military outposts like Fort Verde and Fort Whipple. An economic depression in the mid-1870s likely didn’t make purchasing food any easier. According to Scott Fritz’ Ph.D. paper, Yavapai County Merchants: The Center of Arizona's Early Territorial Economy, 1863-1881, merchants sold local products like corn, wheat, vegetables, beef, veal and mutton, as well as imported goods like flour, sugar and coffee to forts and civilians.

George Barnard created the Juniper House, apparently Prescott’s first restaurant, named because it originally had no building or stove, so cooking and serving food was done from a campfire under a juniper tree. Its menu for July 4, 1864, published in the July 6, 1864, Arizona Miner newspaper, may indicate meals sometimes eaten by frontier people.

By Bob Baker
In September 1874, Theodore W. Otis (locally known as T.W.), wife Pamela and daughter Mary arrived in Prescott, Arizona Territory, from California with a wagon load of household goods and merchandise. By December T.W., along with his partner, H.V. Cram opened the Variety Store on the Courthouse Plaza. T.W. and Pamela sold groceries, fruits, confectionery, cigars and tobacco. 

On September 7, 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed T.W. as Prescott’s Postmaster, based on his Civil War service and reputation for honesty. T.W. scrupulously followed postal regulations even when dealing with the 12th Territorial Legislature. For example, he refused to accept their warrant (a promise to pay) for $250 worth of postage stamps, insisting on cash. He served as Postmaster until April 5, 1884, earning on average $2100 annually. T.W. proudly noted that, “I was known all over Arizona as the Psalm singing Postmaster of Prescott.” in his later memoranda.

By Ember Foxx

Once there was a prosperous town that hundreds of people called home, now lost and forgotten.

In 1875 a prospector named Edmund Peck was walking through the Bradshaw Mountains when he bent down to drink from a spring. As he drank, he noticed a shining rock near the water. Suspicions led him to get it tested; it was silver ore. He later returned to the spring and founded The Great Peck Mine. He began a partnership with C.C Bean, William Cole and his father-in-law, Thomas Alexander. The mine was extremely successful, producing over $1.2 million in silver in its time.

The success of the mine attracted prospectors from all over the territory. and a thriving community formed around the mine. Peck named the town “Alexandra,” after his mother-in-law, who was the first woman to visit the town. Within a few months, the town had a blacksmith, a school, a church, a barber shop, a billiard hall, two mercantiles, three hotels, three boarding houses, two stables, two restaurants, four saloons and at least 50 homes. In 1874 the Spence family built the Palace Station to serve as a stage stop between Prescott and Alexandra. By 1876 more than 60 men worked at the mine. In 1878 the town opened a post office, officially putting Alexandra on the map.

By Andrew Somerville
Ancient, traditional, handmade, and personal are rare attributes of material objects today. Hopi and Hopi-Tewa pottery fits this description. One family is famous for carrying this tradition with great skill and imagination: the descendants of Nampeyo of Hano.

Nampeyo of Hano was born in Hano village on the First Mesa. Her mother was White Corn (Qӧtsaqa ̉ӧ), a Tewa person of the Corn Clan, from the Hano village.  Her father, Qotsvema, a Hopi person of the Snake Clan, came from Walpi village on the First Mesa. According to Northern Arizona University's “Indigenous Voices of the Colorado Plateau” exhibit, First Mesa is one of several southward mesa projections protruding from one larger, finger-like geologic formation. Nampeyo was born during an unstable time for the Hopi mesa area. Disruptive visits from outsiders increased dramatically, the United States government was attempting forced assimilation of the Hopi, and commercial tourism reached into Hopi land via a Grand Canyon rail line and automobile routes.

According to Mary Ellen and Laurence Blair’s book, “The Legacy of a Master Potter — Nampeyo and Her Descendants,” it is likely that Nampeyo learned to make pottery from her Hopi grandmother, observing ceramics skills from an early age. The Blairs also state it is likely she didn’t begin to work seriously in pottery until 1883, after the birth of her child, Kwetcawe or Qotsawe, also known as Annie. But her most artistically prolific period was from about 1879 to 1912. Nampeyo is most known for her bold designs inspired by those on pottery or shards at abandoned prehistoric settlements around the Hopi mesas. Her husband, Lesou or Lesso, was very supportive of her work, copying prehistoric designs he found onto paper for her to study and helping her with obtaining raw materials. Her ornamentation combined the prehistoric with her own active imagination, full of fluid, energetic designs, and internationally recognized and re-popularized ancient themes or motifs. Nampeyo had glaucoma and continued to make incredible pottery while losing her eyesight, concentrating on the forms of her pottery rather than the painted designs. Eventually she became completely blind.

By Kristen Kauffman

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists coordinated attacks on civilians in the United States in three different locations–Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington D.C. The terrorists were members of al-Qaeda, motivated to (as they thought) force the U.S. out of the Middle East. More than 6,000 people were injured in the attacks, 265 people died in the planes (including some of the terrorists), 2,606 people died at the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area in Manhattan, and 125 people died at the Pentagon. As the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were involved in so much international business, these losses were felt by almost 90 countries, not just the United States, as was the terrorists’ intention. While all of the attacks were horrific, the most poignant images which persist are of one plane hitting one of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, shortly followed by another. Seeing the planes fly into the towers was so overwhelming that, for five years after the event, television networks restricted or banned the use of these traumatizing images.

By Adrienne Logan

What was life like for a child in early Prescott? There were no televisions, computers, cellphones or other types of electronics available for their entertainment, unlike today’s counterparts.

Dolls repeatedly appear in Prescott-area family histories. Ina Muzik Brinkmeyer, who settled in Prescott in 1890 and raised children there during the territorial period (1863 to 1912), made hats, shoes and clothing for her daughters’ dolls. This shows that commercially obtained dolls could be supplemented with homemade accessories.

A Camp Verde oral history records a community Christmas tree in 1915 at which a rancher’s young daughter received a cowboy doll. Although this is three years after statehood, it reflects customs formed during the late territorial period: communal Christmas celebrations, individually distributed gifts and toys reflecting western life.

By Andrew Somerville

Colorful characters and odd circumstances converged to produce the unique O RO ranch and its magnificent horses. This story connects an ill-fated explorer, the claim of a sheep ranching family, one ranching family ruined by lack of water and another determined to will the ranch into existence.

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca apparently treated his Indigenous American hosts well and learned from them during his wandering on the continent after his Spanish expedition’s 1542 shipwreck. He appears to have developed the reputation of being a faith healer to tribes he met along his journey. Later, he was appointed governor of Rio de la Plata (Paraguay), attempted to treat the Indigenous peoples there fairly, angered Spanish settlers and was charged with misrule. He died in poverty in Spain, c.1560.

Don Luis María Cabeza de Baca, seemed very different from the celebrated Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca he claimed as his ancestor. He was a wealthy sheep herder with a family hacienda in Peña Blanca, in what is now New Mexico, where the Indigenous Puebloans accused him of intimidation and fraud. He was likely killed in 1827 by a Mexican soldier over refusing to surrender contraband pelts belonging to an American. The Americans, among various other foreigners, often hunted pelts illegally in what was then Mexican territory in the 1820s.

By Kristen Kauffman
The tragedy occurred on the night of Sunday, July 13, 2025. The Dragon Bravo Fire was ignited by lightning on July 4, 2025, on the Kaibab Plateau within the Grand Canyon National Park, and that fire burned 149,399 acres, including 71,129 acres of Grand Canyon National Park-managed lands. The blaze swallowed 24 buildings (11 of which were historic), including 16 Deluxe cabins, 64 Budget cabins and an historic linen cabin (a cabin for storage of household fabric goods), along with damage to 73 miles of trail. While none of these losses were insignificant, we remember the most poignant loss on the one-year anniversary of the fire: The Grand Canyon Lodge, of which only 15% survives. 

The original Grand Canyon Lodge was built in late 1928 by Gilbert Stanley Underwood at the direction of Steven Mather, Director of the National Park Service. The 8,000 square-foot building featured a Spanish façade, much like Mission Revival style buildings in California, and was meant  as luxury on the frontier, hosting travelers riding the Union Pacific Railroad. This Northern Arizona monument also burned down in 1932. Starting from a kitchen fire, the only inhabitants (the manager, his wife and the maids) were able to escape in the early morning. They watched in horror as it burned down, along with many surrounding cabins. With 100 rangers and volunteer firefighters, the fire was put out before it could turn into the kind of wildfire we saw in 2025.