By Al Bates
This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.
Before arrival of the Walker Exploratory Party to the Prescott Basin in the spring of 1863, Central Arizona was unknown territory, thus all maps of the time show just an empty space where the Prescott area now is. In fact, an important reason for Captain Walker to come here was a desire to see, in his words, “the only unknown section of the United States and its territories.”
No news spread more quickly in 19th century America than word of a gold strike and when news of the 1863 Walker and Weaver Party finds spread to the other American states and territories—and to Mexico—fortune seekers began to arrive from all directions.
When General Carleton, military commander for both Arizona and New Mexico Territories, heard of the discovery of gold in central Arizona he dispatched Surveyor General John A. Clark, from Santa Fe to check things out. The most impressive gold find that Clark saw was near present day Yarnell where he recorded in his personal journal his observation of miners picking gold nuggets from the ground at the top of Rich Hill. “The placer has already yielded over 20,000 dollars and not half of the ground has yet been worked over,” he wrote. At today’s gold prices, that totals to well over a million dollars.
Not bad. Just pick gold off the ground or pry it loose with a knife. No wonder the non-Indian population of Yavapai County jumped from zero to eleven hundred in less than a year.
Clark’s favorable report was essential to two important decisions. The first was to establish a military outpost near the diggings—to be called Fort Whipple—to protect the Union’s interests in the gold. The second was to convince Governor Goodwin to divert his party of Territorial officials to the diggings, with the result that an unknown spot on an unknown river became Arizona’s first territorial capital.
Today, some members of the Walker and Weaver exploratory parties are immortalized in Prescott street names and, more prominently, in settlement names such as Wickenburg, Peeples Valley, Miller Valley, and the ghost town of Weaverville. Other early arrivals left their names at Kirkland and Groom Creek.
This plaque commemorating the Walker Party’s contribution to Prescott history stands at the midblock Montezuma St. pedestrian crosswalk across from the county courthouse.
Some members of the Walker party left their imprint on Yavapai County history, others quickly disappeared. The almost-blind Captain Walker soon retired to the family ranch in California. Daniel Conner stayed a bit longer but moved to California after famously trading his ownership of a valuable ranch for a pistol. Jack Swilling’s best-known accomplishment was the introduction of modern agriculture to the Salt River Valley resulting in the founding of Phoenix.
Another member of the Walker Party, John Dickson (sometimes spelled Dixon) went into farming in a partnership with King S. Woolsey. He married Mary Ehle of the early-arrived Ehle family (Governor Goodwin presided over the marriage ceremony) and was an early settler at Skull Valley.
The Miller brothers, Sam and Jake, tired of the stoop labor involved in placer mining, switched to freighting into the isolated area, first with mule trains and then with wagon trains. George Lount, who had left the Walker Party somewhere between New Mexico and the Hassayampa River, soon arrived at the diggings. Over time he established Arizona firsts as a partner in Prescott’s first sawmill, and in the first ice plant in Phoenix.
A very early arrival was the colorful and controversial Woolsey who followed the Walker Party up the Hassayampa after their second visit to the Pima/Maricopa villages. He partnered with John Dickson in establishing a farm on the Agua Fria River at today’s Dewey-Humboldt. He was a noted Indian fighter and later a power in the Territorial Legislature.
One final early arrival of note was Jacob Waltz who established a placer claim in the Pioneer District with four others on September 21, 1863. Waltz later made statements that would lead to disappointment and sometimes death when others tried to discover his legendary “Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.”
Captain Walker announced the official disbandment of his exploratory expedition late in 1863, making this statement: “We have opened the area to civilization, now it is up to civilization to do the rest.”
(Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners, International (www.prescottcorral.org). The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact Assistant Archivist, Scott Anderson, at SHM Archives 928-445-3122 or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.)