By Lorri Carlson

(This is the second part of a two part article that was published last week.)

Maie Bartlett Heard, co-founder of the Heard Museum and a friend of Sharlot's, admonished her, "How, in the name of wonder, do you mange to do so many things? Mrs. [Alice] Hewins has a better right than I to scold, but I do beg of you to save yourself as much as you can, for the sake of the state. We need you and your varied talents for many years to come! I am very much interested in your plan for reclaiming the old Capitol. Will the Prescott people help? There should be a general interest in this work, for it is related to the entire state."

The people of Prescott did help in many ways as previously mentioned. According to local historian and the 2003 Sharlot Hall Award recipient Melissa Ruffner, Lester Lee Ruffner helped Sharlot numerous times throughout her years at the museum. He and his friends provided the funds for Sharlot to stay at the Hotel St. Michael during one particularly frigid winter. He also helped to direct the WPA funds toward Sharlot's museum work in the 1930's. Still, with all the generosity, the fervor to establish the Museum belonged solely to Sharlot Mabridth Hall. 

During the years of 1927-1943, Sharlot modeled the futuristic position of Resident Director. She managed the restoration of the Governor's Mansion, leading by example with the sweat of her own brow as she literally hauled dirt out by the wheelbarrow, "for no house was ever dirtier." She also designed the landscape for the museum, alternating elements of natural history and Victorian rose gardens. 

Not one to be daunted by controversy and criticism, Sharlot had a stockade fence constructed around the museum grounds as one might find on a ranch. Her neighbors did not appreciate her desire to authentically replicate the pioneer homestead. According to Sharlot, bootlegging deliveries had long been made over the museum land. The irate bootleggers apparently stormed the city council with loud demands that she be removed, in addition to her fence. Most likely, it was the lack of an aesthetic consistency with Prescott proper that got the local folks riled up. Nevertheless, Sharlot pursued her work with passion.

In addition to the supervision of the grounds and buildings, Sharlot directed many other museum services. She established policies for maintaining the collections. For instance, no materials were to be taken from the museum, a policy not always enforced by her successors. All material could be examined for study, whereby Sharlot eagerly offered her assistance and knowledge. Sharlot routinely received and answered research requests. Will C. Barnes frequently consulted Sharlot for information. Sharlot diligently collected, preserved and made available the information of the past. 

Sharlot served as museum docent, local lecturer, exhibits designer, author, and publisher. She provided consistent outreach to the community and tourists through radio interviews and local history publications. She was dedicated to working with Boy Scouts, Camp Fire and Girl Scouts in addition to visits to local schools. Miss Hall made the most of every educational opportunity. 

Sharlot's accomplishments are noteworthy, yet they came with trials. It seems that hardship preceded, accompanied, or followed each achievement. Sharlot was in a position to dedicate herself to this work primarily due to her personal circumstances. She was the sole survivor of her immediate family. 

Prior to the death of her mother, father, and brother Sharlot was estranged from her only sibling, Ted. Just after the death of Sharlot's father James in 1925, Sharlot referred to herself as the last of her family even though her brother was still alive, residing in Tucson with his wife and children. 

Sharlot often suffered great physical pain due to a back injury when she was a child, no doubt aggravated by the demands of hard work during her fifty years of ranch life. Sharlot also began to experience heart problems around 1933. These chronic flare-ups would keep her down for weeks and even months at a time. 

Inclimate weather presented more challenges. More than once Sharlot had to retreat to the Hotel St. Michael for warmth. In the summer of 1932, Sharlot described the previous winter as having had the most snow she could remember culminating with a late storm of ice, sleet and snow in June. She often experienced the extremes of Prescott weather minus basic creature comforts. 

Sharlot witnessed the effects of the Depression. She wrote of the long bread lines in Tucson while on a trip there in 1931; the thousands of miners who were out of work; and the highways and railroads lined with people heading to California. She describes the scene of migrants begging for food and gasoline. Many had spread out into the hills during the warm weather to placer mine with hopes of finding some speck of metal to trade for food. Economic hardships challenged many a family. 

By the later 1930s, following some economic recovery, Sharlot lived her final years during the fear and apprehension of World War II. Due to "army preparations everywhere and roads filled with trucks and travel," Sharlot wrote of the shift of tourism from the coast to the interior, a bittersweet boon. Sharlot's dear friend, Alice Hewins, wrote from California in January 1942, only one month after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, of her own plans to return to Arizona, due in large part to war conditions and the possibility of enemy raids. 

On Friday, April 9, 1943, Sharlot Mabridth Hall died, her heart failing to recover. Hopefully, Sharlot knew peace at the end of her life. We can only speculate about her personal life. However, Sharlot did accomplish what was most important to her. As she had expressed fifteen years earlier to Timothy Riordan, "Even though a Spanish bullet did get 'Buckey' I have exactly his spirit of defiance toward work - I simply refuse to die until this job is done so well nobody can ever spoil it." 

(Lorri Carlson is an Archivist at the Sharlot Hall Museum) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (po0142pf). Reuse only by permission.
By 1931, when this photo was apparently taken, Sharlot M. Hall had created a museum in the old governors mansion to show the materials she had collected about Arizona History. The Museum is approaching its 75th anniversary in June of this year and will be celebrating her legacy throughout 2003.