By Stuart Rosebrook

In 1961 MGM’s film company for How the West was Won came to Yavapai County to film a major railroad sequence at Perkinsville’s historic train depot. Director Henry Hathaway’s production crew renamed the station “Gold City,” where stars Debbie Reynolds, Karl Malden, George Peppard and Caroll Baker acted in “The Outlaws” chapter of the 164- minute Technicolor, Cinerama-style film. Hathaway, well known as a director of Westerns, was one of four to helm the ambitious picture: John Ford, George Marshall and Richard Thorpe, uncredited for his direction of transitional historical sequences. Producer Bernard Smith received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, one of eight nominations for the blockbuster Western. Screenwriter James R. Webb, Editor Harold F. Kress and Sound Manager Franklin Milton all received Academy Awards, making it one of the most nominated and award-winning Westerns to date.

Just 49 years before Hathaway’s film company rolled into central Arizona, the fledgling Lubin Motion Picture Company chose Prescott to make the first movie, The Cringer, in Yavapai County. Forty-five-year-old Romaine Fielding directed himself as the Sheepherder. The Cringer received national distribution, and the mild, four-season climate and beautiful Yavapai County locations inspired filmmakers to make Prescott the first film capital of Arizona. True, Tucson is recorded as the first location for the production of a fictional film (In Old Arizona, 1909) and was a popular choice for early filmmakers in the Grand Canyon State, but more movies were made in Prescott between 1911 and 1920 than anywhere else in Arizona, with many, if not most, starring cowboy hero Tom Mix.

By Kristen Kauffman

Books were important to the people of Prescott from its genesis. In 1864 the first territorial government arrived. Territorial Secretary Richard McCormick brought 300 volumes with which to start the Arizona Territorial Library and a printing press on which the Arizona Miner newspaper would begin.

The books would go on to establish the first library in the area. They were initially only intended for territorial officials; however, while these men were still the only ones permitted to check out the books, it became administration policy to allow anyone in Prescott to come and read them.

By Andrew Somerville

As early as 1881, Arizona had an Immigration Commission tasked with encouraging people from across the country to settle in the territory. This task was later the responsibility of individual counties. In 1914 the Yavapai Chamber of Commerce acquired funds to publish a magazine for “the purpose of advertising,” and Yavapai Magazine was born. Each magazine issue contained statements like one in the March 1914 publication proclaiming, “Published… in the interests of Northern Arizona and the Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce.”

By Richard Montague

Basket weaving across central Arizona’s high deserts and valleys remains a foundational art form and living cultural archive. Among the Yavapai, baskets have long served as essential vessels for daily use and profound markers of meaning. Each intricately coiled piece—crafted from willow, devil’s claw, cottonwood, sumac, or cattail—tells a story of place, ancestry, and communal ingenuity. Within the Arizona Highlands, especially Prescott and the Verde Valley, the Yavape' (Northwestern Yavapai) established an outstanding tradition, providing the primary source of historic baskets in regional collections and at the Sharlot Hall Museum.

More than a utilitarian skill, basketmaking is a living expression of worldview, spirituality, and family heritage. Patterns such as the celebrated six-pointed star and dynamic figurative motifs are not mere decoration, but symbolic links to cosmology and memory. Baskets have functioned as tools for gathering, gifts for ceremony, and valued trade items exchanged within and beyond tribal boundaries. Historic images and museum holdings—including the “Baskets Keep Talking” exhibit at Sharlot Hall—offer lasting proof of the artistry and complexity that define these woven forms.

By Worcester P. Bong

On December 23, 1863, when Fort Whipple was temporarily established at Del Rio Springs, north of Chino Valley, a monthly newspaper called the Arizona Miner began publication at this U.S. Army post. The first issue, published on March 9, 1864, informed people about the new Territory of Arizona. Topics included proclamations, government activities and the establishment of a territorial capital. Later in May 1864, Fort Whipple was moved south to a location along Granite Creek and east of the soon-to-be-named town and territorial capital of Prescott. The last issue published at the fort was on May 25, 1864. Thereafter, the Arizona Miner was published in Prescott. But newspaper publishing at the post would return.

By Robin LaCorte

Eighty years ago, the world was at a crossroads. For Americans—many from small towns like Prescott—the global conflict felt distant yet deeply personal. Young men and women stepped forward to serve, becoming what journalist Tom Brokaw called “the greatest generation any society ever produced.”

North Africa marked the first real shift in Allied fortunes. In his book, The End of the Beginning, Winston Churchill observed, “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.” From Prescott, men like Albert Crawford and Arch McCabe were among those serving in the Allied effort that opened the way for the invasions of Sicily and then Italy. Their service paved the path to European victory.

By Lily Blackwell

Since 1997 Chino Valley FFA has sponsored the Chino Valley Corn Dinner. However, the roots of this event date back to 1950 when the women's fellowship of Chino Valley Community Church hosted the first gathering. Called “Corn Roast,” funds raised were used to support the church's mission trips and projects. The dinner typically consisted of beef, a vegetable, dessert and all the corn you could eat. During the first “Corn Roast” the corn was cooked in the church basement or outside over an open fire. Over time, volunteers and attendees increased, and moving to an elementary school cafeteria allowed for steady growth.

By Kristen Kauffman

Bob Parsons was a twenty-seven-year-old English teamster with three fingers that didn’t close and a reputation for disorderly conduct. In June of 1894, he was fined fifty dollars and given fifty days in jail for bludgeoning someone with a beer bottle. He had no address and rotated living in hotels between Jerome and Prescott.

His girlfriend was Bohemia–or at least that’s what she told everyone her name was. Her real name was Birjina Valasquez, and not much is known about her except that she was twenty-three and a well-known prostitute working in Jerome. She and Parsons had been dating for two years.

By Norm Tessman. Updated by Bailey Cacciatore

Mastodons were on the brink of extinction when one died in a shallow watering hole 15 miles southwest of today's Prescott. The last major ice age had ended, and the climate was similar to today’s. There have been many questions about this creature’s passing,, including the cause of death and the possibility it was killed by human hunters.

A research project in spring of 1999 by Sharlot Hall Museum hoped to answer some of these questions. A team of professional paleontologists, anthropologists and volunteers reopened and extended a site near a prehistoric water hole where a mastodon died. They searched for more of its bones and those of other animals, for evidence of who or what killed them and for clues about prehistoric Arizona’s environment.
 

By Parker Anderson

In 1957, a former ASU English professor named Richard Kenneth Snodgrass formed a new business called Counterpoint Productions, with which he hoped to foster arts and humanities in Arizona and Yavapai County in particular. Among his partners were area photographers Art Clark and John Ludwig. After publishing two historical booklets, “The Prescott, Arizona Story” and “Ballad of a Laughing Mountain”, Snodgrass and Counterpoint set their sights on independent filmmaking.

Snodgrass was influenced by European “New Wave” cinema, which was starting to make its way into American art house theatres in the 1960s. He envisioned a multi-part film he would name LEGACY, to be filmed entirely in Prescott. It is no longer known who his investors were, but it is presumed they were local residents excited about a home-grown movie being filmed in Prescott. The actors were all locals who volunteered their services, and it is believed the Prescott city government volunteered to shut off city streets without charge so scenes could be filmed. Everyone was excited about the new movie!