By Shannon Williams & Updated by Candice Lewis

The term Downwinder is well known in Yavapai County. Downwind radiation exposure is cited in cancer diagnoses and blamed for the deaths of long-term residents of the county.
 

During the Cold War, the U.S. built a huge nuclear arsenal. Above-ground testing began in 1951 in Nevada where over 100 nuclear bombs were detonated.  In 1958 the U.S., U.K. and USSR agreed to stop all nuclear testing. However, the U.S. detonated several above-ground nuclear devices in 1962. January 21, 1951, to October 31, 1958, and June 30, 1962, to July 31, 1962, when above-ground testing was conducted, were later designated as Downwind time periods.

By Marjory J. Sente

When Miss Agnes B. Todd opened her millinery shop in Prescott in 1910, she had a wealth of experience in the trade.  Born in Missouri in 1872 to Scottish immigrants Robert V. and Jessie N. Todd, she moved with her family sometime after 1880 to southern California. Agnes visited the Grand Canyon on August 25, 1898 and by 1900 she resided in Flagstaff and worked as a milliner. In 1902 she sold her millinery stock and went to work for Babbitt Brothers Dry Goods Store. Her tenure with Babbitt Brothers was punctuated with buying trips for the store, as well as visits to Los Angeles to see her family. In 1908 she left Flagstaff, returning to California. However, the June 25, 1909 Coconino Sun noted that Agnes had spent the past year in Boston and was passing through Flagstaff, visiting friends, on her way home to Los Angeles.

By Worcester P. Bong

Since the 1863 discovery of gold and other ores in the Bradshaw Mountains, the history of mining in central Arizona has been well-documented. Near the present-day town of Dewey-Humboldt, 18 miles southeast of Prescott, the Humboldt Smelter and two earlier smelters (Agua Fria and Val Verde) were built to crush and smelt ore. The smelting process extracts metals, such as gold, silver and copper, from ore by heating it beyond its melting point.

By Kristen Kauffman

Sixty years later the children of 1930s Prescott still remembered the elephants on Mount Vernon.

In the early 1990s, Sharlot Hall Museum interviewed several town residents about what they remembered from Prescott’s early history. Mittie Cobey, Leslie Eckhert, A.L. Favour, and Augustine “Gus” Rodarte Jr. all fondly remembered the circus. They didn’t always remember the names of the troupes that came, but all remembered the animals walking from where they were unloaded at the train depot to the circus performance grounds, the place they called “the ball park” that we now call Ken Lindley Field.

By Marjory J. Sente

On January 1, 1887, the citizens of Prescott and its leaders were jubilant. The iron horse on that New Year’s Day connected the once-isolated Arizona town with the outside world. Although the Prescott and Arizona Central Railroad (PACR) had a rocky beginning and an even rougher demise, it arrived on time.

By Mick Woodcock

Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday in 1873 in Prescott; the day dawned clear and cool. The snow of the previous week remained only on the hills, and the Weekly Arizona Miner reported that the streets were drying and navigable.

The previous weeks had seen the pages of the Weekly Arizona Miner carrying news of proposed events and advocating for others. As examples: “Prescott Sabbath School people are talking of making a Christmas tree, for the children. Go ahead. We will assist.” and “Christmas Eve would be a good time for a big dance and supper, to which the managers might summons Gen. Crook, who, owing to a retiring disposition, has never yet been in Prescott four hours, or seen one-fourth of its people. Let us be jovial, as the year is kicking the bucket.” Both were in the December 5, 1873, edition of the newspaper.

By Marjory J. Sente

Born in 1862 in New Mexico on the Maxwell Land Grant, Rose Abell Traux lived there with her parents James and Polinah Traux and five siblings until the family moved to Denver in 1867.

Born in 1854 in Cornwall, England, William John “Jack” Martin immigrated to the United States in 1879, working first in Michigan and then living with an uncle in Pennsylvania. He came west to Nevada in 1882. Five years later, Jack arrived in Prescott by way of San Francisco. His move to Arizona initiated a long association with Frank M. Murphy and the local mining industry. He worked initially at the Congress Mine and then Crown King. 

By Worcester P. Bong

In September 1864, when the First Legislature of the new Arizona Territory convened in Prescott, the legislators created Yavapai County, as well as Mohave, Pima and Yuma. These counties were named after prominent Native American tribes in the region. Yavapai (pronounced Yav-uh-pie) was named for a group of Upland Yuman-speaking people. The name derives from Enyaeva meaning “sun” and Pai meaning “people” or “The Sun People”.

By Andrew Somerville

James S. Acker lived when Prescott was, maybe, a little wilder and mysterious. Case in point —someone once threw dynamite at his home. The culprit is unknown to this day. However, Acker’s legacy isn’t as combustible, even if you count the bang he made in the retail world. It’s the support of youth music education and the convivial atmosphere in Prescott each Christmas season during the Acker Night Musical Showcase for which he’s known, but it took the dedication of a different generation to make his legacy real.

By Parker Anderson

Since Prescott was established as the capital of Arizona Territory in 1864, it has observed and celebrated the Christmas season. In the early 20^th century, Sharlot Hall (founder of the museum that bears her name) sought out the last pioneer citizens of territorial Arizona who had been there at the beginning in order to record their memories of what it was like. Some of their recollections touched on the first Christmas celebrations in the newly formed little village of Prescott.