By Linda Chase

December 1941 is the first time that I remember seeing a Christmas lighting in Prescott.

I was in the first grade at Miller Valley School, and we were barely learning to read about Dick, Jane and Baby Sally. Reading Christmas carols was beyond us, but somehow we were taught both verses of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” so that we could sing them from the steps of the courthouse.

By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

Have you seen any sun dogs recently?  Sun dogs or mock suns are rainbow-like spots of light and color which appear about 22 degrees to the left or right of the sun on days when whispy, cirrus clouds float near the sun at sun set or sun rise.  Ice crystals, too light to fall to the ground, work like prisms, reflecting and refracting the sunlight to produce glowing halos or arches of color.  When we see them, we usually experience small spasms of delight and a feeling of serendipity, along with a desire to share the experience with someone.

By Zach Hirsch

As audiences sit to view a play or listen to a concert at the Prescott Fine Arts Association theatre at 208 North Marina, they little realize the structure has a 104 year history.  It is a prime example of the renovation of an historically significant building with adaption for re-use for the benefit of the community.

By Erik Berg

That's right... oil boom.  Many people know about the rich gold discoveries that brought waves of early prospectors to Yavapai County, but few realize that the area was also the scene of a brief, but intensive, oil boom during the First World War.  For a couple years, the rolling hills of the Chino Valley were dotted with the wooden derricks of oil wells and the pages of local newspapers were filled with the advertisements of would-be oil barons.  Now largely forgotten, the Chino Valley oil boom remains as one of the more unusual stories from Arizona's mining history.

By Kate Robinson

The Depression settled more slowly and quietly into the West than the urban, industrial areas east of the Mississippi.  Folks were used to living at survival levels.  Arizona paid little attention to the crash of 1929, despite a significant decline in the mining industry.

By Mona Lange McCroskey

It took three health-seeking trips to Prescott to convert Will "Gib" Gibson into a permanent resident.  In 1902, at age sixteen Will traveled to Arizona from Morgantown, Indiana, seeking relief from "bronchitis."  He rode the narrow gauge railway to Poland where he worked for a summer in the Bashford-Burmister store for James A. Whetstine, later mayor of Prescott from 1943-1947.

By Al Bates

As important as Fort Whipple, the VA now sits were the old fort was situated, was to the area, relations between the civilians and the military were sometimes strained.  Two particular incidents could have escalated into serious conflict between the miners and the military but for the timely intervention of Governor McCormick. 

By Richard Gorby

Prescott in l891, was twenty-four years old and the County Seat of Yavapai County, with a population of nearly 3,000 people.  According to Jules Baumann, Prescott bandmaster, photographer and artist, on his 1891, lithograph of the city.

By Kathryn Reisdorfer

Sharlot M. Hall was the first woman to hold office in the Territory of Arizona.  The appointment as Territorial Historian helped her earn a place of honor among American historians.  She has also served as a model to future historians-especially those in Prescott. 

By Juti A. Winchester

In May of 1876, the United States was gearing up to celebrate its centennial.  On the Plains, Indians struggled with the frontier Army for control of their hunting rights and their homelands, and George Armstrong Custer's demise at the Little Big Horn battle was still months in the unknown future.  William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody had just begun his stage career.