By Anita Zeller

Memories are a big part of the Christmas season. They link the past with the present, preserving tradition in the heart, as well as the mind.

While memories may not always record history with pinpoint accuracy, they can offer an overall view of a time now gone, and give warm insight into the nature of the person who is recalling and translating the past.

By Sandra Lynch

Imagine what it would be like in a natural world, a world where your pantry was filled with wild seeds, wild animals and stone. In this pantry was everything you needed to live, if you had the resourcefulness to use it. Your livelihood depended on your skills to know the right plants to seek for calories and vitamins. If you were wily enough to trap and kill a few animals, you could get protein and fat to sustain your life.

By Richard Gorby 

At 7:50 a.m. in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Admiral of the Pacific Fleet Kimmel was putting on his white uniform in preparation for a pleasant Sunday when he heard explosions. Rushing outside, he saw airplanes overhead, the Japanese Rising Sun on their wings. They circled and began diving on the battleships in the harbor. Kimmel looked on in horror as a neighbor cried, "There goes the Arizona!"

By Bob and Candy Heath and Betty Correll 

While attending the Memorial Day Services at Citizen's Cemetery a year ago, Bob and Candy Heath along with Candy's mother, Betty Correll, were asked to adopt a gravesite. They willingly agreed, but asked if it could be a grave of a California veteran, as all their relatives were in California.

Edited by Michael Wurtz 

A Yavapai College class is currently studying the year of 1914 in an attempt to learn about history from a different perspective. The students have chosen different topics from prostitution to the status of Native Americans in Prescott.  The students will be looking to see what the town was like in 1914 in relation to these topics. 1914 is mostly known for The Great War era, which was beginning to show Europe, and the world, that battles were no longer going to be glorious as trenches lined the quiet farms of eastern France and western Russia. Although removed, for the time being, from the troubles of WWI, Prescott was celebrating its 50th anniversary of its founding in 1864.

By Michael Wurtz 

Each month the Sharlot Hall Museum LIbrary and Archives acquires documents, images, and oral histories which describe a Yavapai County that seems, to some, long gone. Other material shows us that we have not lost what makes this area a great place to live. Currently, we house over 500 feet of documents, 4000 maps, 300 oral histories, and 93,000 photographic images.

By Elisabeth Ruffner 

This is the second part of two articles regarding the City Recorder's Notes.  The first was titled, "City Recorder's Notes Provide Some Amusing Insights into Prescott History - Part 1," published September 20, 1997 and is in the SHM Days Past Archives.  The notes for these articles are about the Prescott City Council, 1876 to 1885. The unknown writer of these minutes kept his journal on the back of the Bashford-Burmister Company's invoice forms.

By Michael Wurtz 

Mollie Monroe has the unfortunate distinction of being the first woman in the Arizona Territory to be declared insane. Known at various times as Cowboy Mollie, Mary Sawyer, and the Amazon of Arizona, Mollie, born in New Hampshire in 1846, was christened Mary Elizabeth Sanger.

By Peggy Magee 

It looks out of place . . . that "Castle on the Creek" in the new Fain Park in Prescott Valley. The Gay Nineties' architecture, prevalent along Mount Vemon Street, just doesn't fit in with the surroundings along Lynx Creek. Old houses conjure up visions of families gathered together for holidays, the warmth of togetherness and memories of the happiness shared with loved ones. If the walls of the Castle could talk, you would expect to hear tales of joy and laughter.  However, these walls have a much different tale to tell.

By Mick Woodcock 

"What's in a name?," asked Shakespeare's Romeo. Twentieth century people ask a version of that when they visit Sharlot Hall Museum's Fort Misery. "Why is it called that?" they query. This brings out a fairly long response from the Musuem docent relating the history of one of its owners and his hospitality. Along with this is the fact that the building has nothing to do with military history at all. The truth about Fort Misery's name makes an interesting anecdote involving another the of the Museum's buildings, the Governor's Mansion.