By Elisabeth Ruffner

(Note: Jonne Markham did a great deal of research on tunnels and first published an article about them in the former weekly newspaper called THE PAPER on October 23, 1975, which is available at the Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives.  The following story is an updated version of the 1975, publication.)

The tunnels under Prescott?  Of course, everybody knows about the tunnels!  Lots of people have seen them...just ask some of the old timers!  So I asked some of the old timers: I asked Gail Gardner, poet and rancher, 1892-1988, who graduated from Prescott High School in 1909, I asked Budge Ruffner and I asked Dewey Born.  They all said they didn't know anything about tunnels and Gail was more definite: he said there weren't any. 

By Sylvia Neely

At the turn of the century many schools throughout the United States were named after some of our better know presidents.  Prescott was no exception with Washington School built in 1903, on Gurley Street, Lincoln School built in 1909, on Park Avenue, and Jefferson School at the end of Marina Street built in 1924.  Washington School still exists as the oldest continuously used school in Yavapai County.  Jefferson School was closed in 1938.

By Eleanor Gilley

(Last week in part one, the author wrote about the first railway through Prescott from Seligman, and later Ash Fork, to Phoenix) 

Financiers, looking for more railroads in Central Arizona to invest in approached Frank Murphy, who was principally responsible for bringing the railroad to Prescott, to promote another railroad into the Aqua Fria Valley and the Bradshaw Range.

By Eleanor Gilley

As the railroad left Prescott on the west side, it began its slow ascent for nine miles to the summit of the Sierra Prieta Mountains at Prieta, elevation 6,108 feet.  The view from the top was breathtakingly beautiful with the black range of mountains, the Mogollan Rim and the surrounding scenery.  The line then descended for 14 miles past Iron Springs and Ramsgate Hill around twisting, winding 12 degree curves and challenging three percent grades to Skull Valley, elevation 4,240 feet.

By Nancy Burgess

On October 1, 1998, the building now known as the Kirkland Bar and Steakhouse, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the U. S. Department of the Interior.  The National Register is the nation's official list of important historic buildings.  The building is significant for its contribution to the social and economic history of the community of Kirkland.

By Richard Gorby

On Prescott's Montezuma Street, in the years shortly before her 1900, fire, Chance Cob Web, located by today's The Bead Museum, was considered the best regulated, most orderly and genteel saloon on Whiskey Row. 

By Pat Kilkenny

Since moving to Prescott, I have thought many times of my family's first time in Arizona in 1931, and the different events that we experienced then.  Starting in 1929, my father, James Nicholson, was employed by the "Radio Division" of the Bureau of Lighthouses and, surprisingly, this division had nothing to do with the sea or lighthouses, but was formed to handle aviation matters, specifically commercial aviation.

By Mick Woodcock

Ever wonder what Prescott was like in its early days, back before photographs were taken?  Many of us have, I'm sure, that is why it is a rare treat to discover a published account that opens the window to early days and times.

Such a window is provided by John G. Bourke in his classic On The Border With Crook, originally published in 1891.  Although twenty years after his first visit, Bourke's account is clear in its presentation and conjures up a mental image of "our town" one hundred and twenty-eight years ago.

By Ken Edwards

For more than a decade after Arizona achieved territorial status, there were no banks closer than Santa Fe, New Mexico and the major cities of California. Gold and silver were the accepted currency; paper money was not always trusted. 

During the 1860s, merchants carried out many of the functions of banks. They would grubstake miners, extend credit, keep customers' valuables and a supply of cash in their safes, redeem government pay vouchers and advance money on future crops and freight.

By Ted Edmundson

This is a three-part article series. Part 2 was published November 28, 1998, and Part 3 published on December 6, 1998. However, all three parts have been combined into this article.

Part 1 - Published November 21, 1998

My first exposure to Arizona was in October, 1929.  My mother had ten kids, five girls and five boys, was quite frail, and about ready to go into TB.  Her doctor suggested that we take her to the Arizona desert.  Incidentally, she lived to be eighty-nine and dad died at the age of fifty-nine.  We should have come out here for dads health.