By Kathryn Reisdorfer 

As those who frequent Sharlot Hall Museum know its founder was an interesting lady, quite unique for her era. Born in Kansas in 1870, Sharlot Hall came west with her family in 1881, ending up in the Prescott area in 1882. Although she had little formal schooling, Sharlot become a literary figure of note, regionally as well as nationally. The person who placed her in the spotlight was Charles Fletcher Lummis, another colorful character who made his own trek west shortly after the Halls. In 1884, he set out from Cincinnati after being offered a job as a reporter for the Lost Angeles Times.

Although closely related in time, the two personal migrations could scarcely be less similar. Whereas Sharlot, who looks decidedly dour on a picture taken at the time of her trip, stoically endured the hardships common among struggling emigrants as they trudged westward, Lummis, a self-described "trained athlete," had the time of his life on his odyssey. At twenty-five he was out for fun, trying to learn about the United States in the only way he thought it possible to learn - on foot. He later dubbed his 3,507-mile trip "joy on legs." 

While Sharlot grew to womanhood in Yavapai County, the energetic Lummis was working ungodly hours at the LA Times; he worked so hard that he became dangerously ill and went to recuperate in New Mexico, a place he'd come to love during his tramp across the country. After several years there, living primarily among Native and Spanish Americans, Lummis returned to Los Angeles. By that time he had published several books and many articles with top-notch periodicals, but he needed a steady income. In 1894, when he learned that the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce needed an editor for its magazine extolling the wonders of Southern California, he jumped at the chance. 

Under Lummis, 'Land of Sunshine', later renamed 'Out West', became far more than a promotional organ; it was a noteworthy vehicle for writers, such as Jack London and Joaquin Miller, as well as a voice admonishing its national audience to discover the authentic Southwest and to work to preserve its history, landmarks and native peoples. 

Sharlot Hall meanwhile was gaining notoriety as a poet, and seeing the impressive new magazine, she offered them a few poems late in 1895. Encouraged by their quick acceptance, Hall continued sending material to Lummis, who did not print everything she submitted but felt he had discovered a unique young poet with a voice well worth broadcasting. He was so impressed that in 1899, he sent Maynard Dixon, another young artist whose work he'd recently begun promoting, to check her out. Dixon spent a week near Orchard Ranch, Sharlot's home, and reported to Lummis that this hard-working ranch woman was "well worth knowing." 

Bolstered by Dixon's estimate of Hall, Lummis not only continued to publish her work but also highlighted her personal life by including her condensed biography in the journal, which brought Sharlot, as a personality, to the attention of important national publishers. Hall was on her way. Lummis even asked her to join his editorial staff in 1903. 

We do not know everything about the relationship between Hall and Lummis, but we do know each of them well enough to guess that it probably wasn't always tranquil. They were not birds of a feather. Although she may have had one or two "true loves," Hall preferred friendships to emotional entanglements with men; Lummis liked entanglements. He generally had multiple intimate relationships with women. A real ladies' man, he jumped from relationship to relationship. An affair with another woman ended his first marriage, just as subsequent affairs ended his second and his third. 

Socially they also had their differences. Whereas the Hall ranch would occasionally welcome visitors, Lummis' house, El Alisal, was always open to guests. It was as though he couldn't live without them. 

Sharlot frequently stayed at Lummis' home when she was in Los Angles, but, despite his unquenchable interest in females, it seems unlikely that there were romantic sparks between the two. This is evident when, as his second marriage and his relationship with 'Out West' were crumbling in 1910, Lummis wrote to Sharlot asking her outright whether she'd ever told anyone that she once slept with a gun under her pillow, fearing that Lummis would come into her room. Although we don't have her reply to Lummis, his response to it indicates that she told him it was best to forget the past. 

It wasn't the last time they discussed male/female issues. Later in 1910, Sharlot wrote Lummis railing about the man who'd replaced him as editor of 'Out West' and ended up in a tirade against all men. Complaining about "tobacco-sodden, whiskey-soaked men," she condemned males who sidestepped their family duties, men who were not merely shiftless but also rude and despotic at home. Then she launched into other aspects of men's depravity. "My observation," she wrote, "has compelled me to believe that no man was ever true to any woman [and] that no man is worth any woman's being true to." 

Although Sharlot was not shy about noting the hazards of marriage and did so publicly and in print, this appears to be the first time that she stated her case so blatantly to Lummis. Although famously accused of being faithful to no woman, he fired back that if "whisky-soaked men" were bad, "tea sodden and society sodden women" were just as deplorable. 

Although Lummis had prefaced his statement with the comment that we should not judge people according to gender, the exchange indicates that both Hall and Lummis had set ideas about the opposite sex - and they were sticking to them. Circumstances undoubtedly played their part in this; Lummis was reeling from the stormy breakup with his second wife, and Sharlot may have been suffering disappointment in her personal life as well. 

Despite their differences, however, the relationship between the two seems to have held; each owed much to the other. Hall, especially, had gained invaluable examples and advice about preserving history from Lummis. 

(Kathryn Reisdorfer is a professor of history at Yavapai College.) 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1089pc)
Reuse only by permission.
Charles Fletcher Lummis, aged 35 years. 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1089pa)
Reuse only by permission.
Charles Lummis (year unknown) 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1089pb). Reuse only by permission.
Charles Lummis (year unknown)