By Mona Lange McCroskey

Curtis Ritter passed away in the Cottonwood hospital on September 7, 2006, with his sons, Jake and Tom at his side. Curtis, at ninety, represented the third generation of ranching Ritters to live in Yavapai County, and those who knew and loved him will sorely miss his friendly, gentle presence. Curtis was a storyteller without equal. His passions included flying, radio, and his family. He was equally at home behind the controls of his airplane, driving a school bus, or at a Soil Conservation District meeting.

By Fred Veil

The common perception that the Arizona Territory of the 19th Century existed largely in a state of lawlessness is a myth promulgated primarily by 20th Century Hollywood, television, and dime novels. While the territory undoubtedly had its share of criminal activity and civil disputes common to the western frontier, it also had a functioning legal system that appears to have dealt quite adequately with the legal issues of the day.

By Parker Anderson

When the Elks Opera House opened its doors on February 20, 1905, the first show was a Spanish Catalan play called, "Marta of the Lowlands," by Angel Guimera. The subject matter of the play, the exploitation of a woman enslaved by a land baron, was strong stuff for 1905 - an era that was rife with more lightweight entertainment on the stage.

By Terry Stone

If you walk around downtown Prescott, you might have certainly taken notice of all the references there are to cowboy culture. A statue of a cowboy resting beneath his horse decorates the Courthouse Square. A statue of a broncobuster is in front of City Hall. Many restaurants and real estate offices have framed pictures of cowboys in their various establishments. On Whiskey Row you can buy cowboy hats and John Wayne toilet paper. If you were here during the Frontier Days Parade in July, you witnessed dozens of participants decked out in the over-ripe habiliments of cowboy couture. All of this affectation might lead the casual observer to believe that, historically, early Prescott had something to do with cattle, spurs, and pointy-toed boots.

By Elizabeth E. Freeman

John Skaggs arrived in the Arizona Territory about 1887, where he bought a ranch on Beaver Creek c.1892. His ranch was located next to that of Riley Casner, who had settled there in 1879. Louise Casner, a daughter oB Riley, was just five-years-old when Skaggs settled nearby. Some twelve years later, she would charge Skaggs with murder.

By Parker Anderson 

One of the most prominent and wealthy miners in 19th century Yavapai County was Barney Martin, who had mining claims on Rich Hill and all around the Weaver Mining District in the Antelope area of southern Yavapai. Martin's mining activities regularly made news in the newspapers of Prescott and all around northern Arizona.

By Mona Lange McCroskey

(This article is a continuation from last week's Days Past.)

Roy Hays shipped cattle from Congress and from Kirlkland where huge herds were gathered. A few in Peeples Valley and all the ranchers around Walnut Grove banded together, drove their cattle in to Kirkland and shipped them on the train to points in the east. Hays usually shipped to California.

By Mona Lange McCroskey

John Nathan Hays was born in Missouri and taken to California by his mother after his father, Upton, was killed in the Civil War. Upton had freighted on the Santa Fe Trail in the middle 1800s.

In 1912, John Nathan came to Arizona to look for a place to raise steers for shipment to his California ranch for fattening. He and his partners in the Hays Cattle Company came on the train to Kirkland, where he ran into his old friend, Charlie Rigden. Rigden steered John to the Akard Brothers Ranch in Peeples Valley, which he purchased along with several other small ranches in the area. Having acquired the land, the partners returned to California.

By Kathleen Stack Domitrovits

For three heartfelt days in early June, nearly 250 alumni, faculty and former students of St. Joseph's Academy, gathered in Prescott to reunite, reminisce, and celebrate an unforgettable era, spanning 88 years of Catholic education in our town.

Amidst a growing population of prospectors in the 1870s, a plea rang out from the Santa Fe Railroad for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet to open a hospital in the Prescott area. From the recently formed. . . .

By Garnette N. Coe

On January 16, 1877, a company of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) left St. George, Utah, being called by President Brigham Young, to travel south and establish a settlement. An explorer and returned-missionary to the Southwest and Mexico, Daniel Webster Jones, was chosen to lead this party of Saints. While in the office of President Young, and in the company with Brother Jones, Henry C. Rogers had a vision of the place they were to go. He described a place with a high bank, lined with cottonwood trees growing in a row, a flat-roof adobe house and a man riding a horse, then dismounting and gazing at them.