By Terry Munderloh

From Prescott's founding in 1864 until 1881, the city's water supply came from wells and a few erratically producing springs.  A community water system didn't exist until workers sunk wells, one on each corner of the Courthouse Plaza, in 1881.

By Michael Wurtz

(Editor's note: This article was published in advance of April Fool's Day in 2001. It should not be taken seriously at all.)

The year 1866 was a particularly wet one in the Arizona Territory. The miners and territorial officials who called the “Wilderness Capital” home quickly learned that El Niño (unnamed at the time) could punctuate and create the unexpected in our otherwise dry climate.

By Rob Bates

The Arizona Miner, the Weekly Arizonian, the Yuma Sentinel, the Tucson Citizen and many other Arizona territorial newspapers were the voice and opinion of the new land opening and stretching along reaches of the far Southwest.

By Anne Foster

You've found the perfect wedding gown, long-sleeved and high-necked, maybe even bustled.  The high-heeled, button boots are ordered.  You even manage to talk your future husband into wearing a cutaway tux and brocade vest.  What else could you possibly need for the perfect Victorian wedding?

By Parker Anderson

It has been no secret that Prescott once had a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.  The photos of a Klan funeral march through downtown have been published many times.  But back in the early 20th century, the racial makeup of Prescott was not very different than it is today.  There were not many African-Americans in the area, so Prescott Klan No. 14 had to vent its rage at other targets.

By Lorri Carlson

The month of March has always been associated with my grandma's and my celebration of the aging process together, our birthdays being only one week apart. A few years ago March also became the month that stirs the dormant gardener in my soul.  I had the privilege of working at Watters Garden Center for one growing season.

By Dorothy Chafin

(Editor's note: This is part of a continuing reminisces of the author about her "hometown".)

During the war, my employment with the Harmon Audit Company (offices in Prescott, Phoenix and Santa Barbara) was one of the most wonderful things that ever happened to me.  It kept me busy during a time when I might have spent all my days and nights worrying about my husband whom I cared for deeply.  It gave me a satisfactory amount of income and it introduced me to some of the most interesting people I have ever known.

By Al Bates

Many of the American men who moved west inthe mid-19th centiry had episodes in their past they wished forgotten.  A common solution to this problem was to change names, a practice followed by two of Prescott;s earliest pioneers.  Both men became well known in Arizona Territory long before they felt secure enough to resume use of their real names.  Both served in the Territorial Legislature while using aliases, and both made significant contributions to the written record of territorial Prescott. 

By William Peck

The Hillside Mine was the legendary silver mine located in 1510 by a member of the Farfan Party as they passed down the Santa Maria River en route from the Hopi Villages to the Gulf of Baja California.

Hillside Station received its name from that mine when a road was constructed connecting the mine to the railroad that had been recently completed. The road shorted the wagon haul that went across Bozarth Mesa through Walnut Creek, a difficult winter route.

By Terry Munderloh

Gold and silver were not the only mineral deposits which Arizona pioneers discovered.

In 1879 George Puntenney and his wife Lucy arrived in Arizona, located an abundance of limestone on the south rim of Hell Canyon (Highway 89 crosses Hell Canyon about 40 miles north of Prescott) and built the territory's first lime kiln. Lime was an important commodity in the developing West. It is not only used in making mortar and plaster but also in the manufacturing of glass and castings, the refining of sugar, and the tanning of leather. Lime water, a solution of slaked lime, was used in a myriad of medicinal applications.