By Mona Lange McCroskey

Olaf Andrew (O.A.) and Louis Edward (L.E.) Hesla, sons of a Norwegian immigrant in Iowa, arrived in Prescott by different means, but their business endured for fifty years. Young Olaf contracted "consumption" (tuberculosis) in Chicago and came to Tucson in 1897 seeking relief. His condition worsened and in less than a week he was sent on the train to Phoenix, not expected to live. When Olaf didn't improve within a few days he was sent on to Prescott, where he became one of its earliest health seekers. He always claimed that he began to feel better as soon as the train got to Iron Springs, and he lived to be eighty-nine.

By Sylvia Neely

Thirteen hundred girls and adults will be celebrating a birthday in the tri-city area this week. Every year since 1912, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. celebrate that day with parties and special ceremonies or service projects.

The first Girl Guide Company was organized on this date in Savannah, Georgia. In 1913 the name was changed to Girl Scouts, this was also the year the first camp was held.

By Anita Nordbrock and Juti A. Winchester

In their book, FAILING AT FAIRNESS: HOW AMERICA'S SCHOOLS CHEAT GIRLS, Myra and David Sadker write, "Every time a girl reads a womanless history, she learns she is worth less."  There have always been intelligent, capable, and influential American women, but before the 1960s, history books seldom mentioned them, except perhaps as they appeared in the background behind their husbands.  Few avenues of activity outside marriage and the home were open to upper- and middle-class women, while lower-class and minority women worked for most of their lives, whether they were married or not.  Resourceful women of every class took advantage of whatever opportunities were available to them to make a positive impact on their surroundings.  They left behind a wonderful legacy that reflects their love of beauty, harmony and knowledge, as well as their desire for justice and a better world for succeeding generations. 

By Al Bates

By 1874, a single regiment of cavalry at Whipple handled routine patrols, Indian chases and police duty on the reservations.  The Army in the next decade was a combination of a constabulary keeping order on the Indian reservations, and a corps of laborers engaged in building military posts and roads, and stringing telegraph wire.

By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

In 1998, the Sharlot Hall Museum's San Juan River float trip enjoyed the adventures and the stunning scenery of Southeastern Utah.  Several adventuresome travelers gathered at Bluff and journeyed down to Mexican Hat.  Some continued on through the stratified wonders of the Goosenecks to Clay Hills.  It was an easy-going trip on that User Friendly River.  No heart-stopping cataracts, no boat-dunking rapids.  Rich colorful high desert scenery and gentle river meanders led them, with just enough white water here and there to add a bit of excitement.

By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

Mark your calendar for June 8, 2004, just four years from now.  That's when our sister planet, Venus, will dance across the face of the sun for all the world to see. 

By Richard Gorby

William Owen (Buckey) O'Neill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 2, 1860.  He was a brilliant pupil in college and in law school and developed special gifts and interests in newspaper work, resulting in a job as a law court reporter and stenographer.  This led him to Prescott in 1881, as court reporter for Judge DeForest Porter.

By James H. Riddle

There is a lot we now know about the heliograph stations that were established at Fort Whipple and Bald Mountain (Glassford Hill).  In May of 1890, the signal officer in charge of the Whipple station, 1st Lieut. L. D. Tyson, 9th Infantry, wrote that for the first three days of the heliograph practice he had a detachment of three corporals and five privates from a signal class at Whipple who helped in manning his station.  Their equipment included two heliographs, later reduced to one, a telescope and "the necessary" signal flags.

By James H. Riddle

The date was May 15th, 1890, and the Army's Department of Arizona had just completed a major heliograph practice; it was, in fact, the largest the world had ever seen.  I call it the "Volkmar Practice", after the man responsible for it, Col. Wm. J. Volkmar, the Assistant Adjutant General and Chief Signal Officer for the Department of Arizona.  Although the practice lasted only sixteen days, preparations for it took months of reconnaissance and preparation.

By Nancy Burgess

Official Census Day is April 1, 2000, about the time when every resident in the nation is to be counted.  Among the reasons for the head count is to ensure fair federal, state, and county government representation.  The population information gathered is also important in ensuring that our local communities receive their fair allocation of state-shared revenues and funding for programs that benefit Yavapai County citizens.