By Linda Luddington

An ancient pole barn stands nobly in the cottonwood-shaded sunlight of the W-Dart Ranch headquarters.  Last summer's alfalfa hay welcomes visitors with a fragrance more heady to a rancher than the costliest French perfume.  The barn seems anxious to share a story, a story of a central Arizona valley watered throughout the year from a never-drying stream.  It's a story of copper-mining wages sustaining a ranching way of life.  It's a story of a tenacious young immigrant whose fierce love for the land founded a successful ranching family, now stretching into the fourth generation.  This is the story of the Verde Valley's W-Dart Ranch and the Groseta family.

By Harley G. Shaw

Fort Whipple.  Whipple Street.  The Whipple Stage.  Whipple is a common name around Prescott.  Go west to the Colorado River and you find the Whipple Mountains.  Obviously, someone named Whipple left his name scattered around Arizona, yet we seldom hear of Whipple the man.  Who was he?  What did he do to merit renown?

By Rob Bates

Deep within the archives of our regional history lies an itinerant pioneer soul named Albert Franklin Banta.  During a full and varied life, he came to Prescott, Arizona in 1863 from New Mexico territory, where he had joined the First California Volunteers under Major E. B. Willis, in Albuquerque, in the humble capacity of bullwhacker.  Arriving in central Arizona, they established Ft. Whipple near present-day Chino Valley.  In January 1864, Richard C. McCormick, Territorial Secretary, came to Ft. Whipple as part of Governor Goodwin's party, bringing with him a printing outfit which he had procured in Santa Fe.

By Terry Munderloh

(This is the second in a two part series) 

Not content to remain long in one place, William Bradshaw left the management of the ferry business to his older brother Isaac and gravitated to the Weaver mining district where the discoveries of fabulous gold strikes on Rich Hill were being reported.  Missing the opportunity to stake a claim on Rich Hill, he moved on to the unexplored southern portion of the Silver Mountains to prospect.

By Terry Munderloh

(This is the second part of a two part article regarding William Bradshaw.)

Not content to remain long in one place, William Bradshaw left the management of the ferry business to his older brother Isaac and gravitated to the Weaver mining district where the discoveries of fabulous gold strikes on Rich Hill were being reported.  Missing the opportunity to stake a claim on Rich Hill, he moved on to the unexplored southern portion of the Silver Mountains to prospect.

By Terry Munderloh

(This is the first of a two-part story of William Bradshaw) 

William David Bradshaw's exploits were well known in the mining districts of California long before he discovered the Arizona mountain, and later "mountains", which bear his name. 

By Parker Anderson

The murder trial of James Parker was one of the most notorious criminal cases in late 19th-century Prescott.  To this day, the story of Parker (no relation to the present author) is still told and retold, with varying degrees of accuracy, by old-timers and magazines devoted to Western lore.  James Parker, commonly referred to as Fleming Parker in more recent times, was born in 1865 in Visalia, California.  He had three sisters.  His mother died while he was still a child, and his father reportedly went insane a few years later.  Parker was then raised by his grandfather, who valiantly carried on the impossible task of keeping the wild young man out of trouble. 

By Anne Foster

Add one more to the list of Prescott's "World's Oldest" accomplishments.  Prescott may have held the World's Oldest Rodeo Queen contest!  Certainly, Prescott's Frontier Days was one of the first (if not the first) to include women in a rodeo event.

By Al Bates

Two men, one a Union Army General and the other a Confederate Army deserter, had critical roles in the decision to found Arizona Territory's first capital at Prescott.  The ex-rebel also started the events that lead to Prescott losing the capital permanently.

By William Bork

The "Balentine building" on the northwest corner of Montezuma and Gurley streets in downtown Prescott is currently occupied by the Christian Book Store and adjacent businesses.  However, from the mid-teens to the mid-1940s the "Owl Drugstore" perched on that corner and watched Prescott change.

By Richard Gorby

Early in 1863, the new Arizona Territory had been signed into law by President Lincoln.  By March of 1864, the territorial officers, headed by Governor John Goodwin, had arrived in the new territory and had picked this site for the first capital.  A few other young men, mostly seeking after mining wealth, were already there.  Joseph Reddeford Walker and his Walker Party had moved into the "Links" Creek area and were mining with some success.  Van C. Smith, a young adventurer from California, had built a small cabin and was accepting the stock on immigrants to graze and to care for at one dollar and fifty cents per head per month, and had been elected Recorder of the Walker Mining District.  And he spelled the name of the area "Lynx"