By Dick Bowerman

Several of my friends and I regularly ride horseback from the L-Bell Ranch at the end of Ferguson Valley Road up a very scenic trail that climbs to a lonely abandoned cabin in a mountain hollow.

We had heard that a family by the name of Brooks and three other families had homesteaded four separate adjoining sections of land there in the early 1930s. We often asked, "Who were these people and how did they live in this very remote location with no running water, no electricity, and no decent road?" Fred and Edna Patton knew who lived out this way and these are their recollections of the families.

By Vicky Kaye

(Pauline Weaver, "Prescott's First Citizen" was first buried in Camp Verde and then moved to San Francisco. In the 1920s, there was a movement to bring his body to back to Prescott. This is the second part of a two-part article.)

With the persistence of Favour, Wells, and Hall, the War Department was provided with the needed affidavits to show that Pauline Weaver had no surviving relatives from whom additional permission would have to be obtained, and that the future grave would be adequately cared for. An affidavit submitted on February 10th, 1928, was signed by none other than Judge Wells.

By Vicky Kaye

(This is the first part of a two-part article regarding bringing home Pauline Weaver's remains.)

The people of Prescott who know the history of Pauline Weaver may remember him for many things. He was a scout and trapper considered to be the first Anglo-American to make his home in the Prescott area. He was also the guide for the Peeple's expedition that discovered gold in the Rich Hill area near Yarnell. He traveled the West from the 1830's until his death at Camp Verde, then known as Fort Lincoln, on June 21, 1867.

By Parker Anderson

In downtown Prescott, at the corner of Cortez and Union Streets, stands a marker commemorating that at that site, now a basketball court, once stood the old Goldwater department store. It is rare for historic markers to commend structures that no longer exist, but it is proper to do so here. Prescott is still haunted by the demolition of the building in 1978. However, the destruction gave momentum to Prescott's historic preservation movement, which continues to this day.

By Ben Allen

The "Allens Of Prescott" dynasty began in 1918 when Warner Hoopes Allen moved his family from Mesa, Arizona to Chino Valley. There he farmed and started a wholesale milk business. One of the older sons, Merle, decided that farming was not for him. He decided that a retail business in Prescott was a better way of earning a living. 

In 1920 Merle purchased the West End Milk Depot at 324 West Gurley (where the Book Nook is today) and in time bought the larger building just west of the West End Milk Depot known as Richard's General store.

By Mary Leavitt

(This is the second part of a two part article on the history of Humboldt, Arizona.)

A company owned mining town, Humboldt experienced rapid growth and prosperity in earlier years when the ore producing mines in the area were shipping ore to the smelter. All too soon, unforeseen factors came into play rendering Humboldt vulnerable to economic fluctuation.

By Mary Leavitt

(This is the first part of a two-part article on the history of Humboldt, Arizona) 

Iron King, DeSoto, McCabe and Blue Bell are but a few of the mines old timers in Humboldt remember, and the important roll they once played in the Humboldt economy.  Many rich veins of ore were discovered in the mountain ranges of Arizona during the late 1800s. Yavapai County was a hot spot of minerals, particularly in the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains.

By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

This summer Fort Apache, located on the White Mountain Indian Reservation, two hundred miles or so east of Prescott, made headlines in newspapers across the country. Real news. Journalists interviewed experts in Washington D.C. and some reporters even traveled the rough and winding roads to the reservation to interview Apache tribal officials.

By Sylvia Neely

The first day of school is always an exciting time each fall for students, teachers, and parents, but think how excited the community of Prescott was in September of 1903. On this date the first elementary school building, Washington School, was opened to all of Prescott's students from kindergarten through eighth grade. In 1930, the school across the street on Gurley was made into a junior/senior high school and Washington School ended at grade six. The school still stands between Alarcon and Pleasant on Gurley Street looking just as beautiful as it did one hundred years ago.

By Mona Lange McCroskey

An important part of Yavapai County's agricultural history came to Prescott with the arrival of Swiss immigrant John William Bianconi. He arrived in Prescott in 1880 at age eighteen at the urging of a friend who said there was a job for him in the United States. He pulled in via stagecoach with fifty cents in his pocket, unable to speak a word of English.