By Jean Cross

"The scenery was wild and grand; in fact, all that I had ever dreamed of; more than that, it seemed so untrod, so fresh somehow, and I do not suppose that even now, in the day of railroads and tourists, many people have had the view of the Tonto Basin which we had one day from the top of the Mogollon Range.  I remember thinking, as we alighted from our ambulances and stood looking over the Basin, 'surely I have never seen anything to compare with this' - but, Oh! would any sane human being voluntarily go through what I have endured on this journey to look upon this wonderful scene?"

By Mona Lange McCroskey and Curtis Ritter

W. Curtis Miller was born March 30, 1866 in Barrackville, West Virginia. He graduated from the University of Nashville, Tennessee and taught in rural schools in West Virginia for thirteen years. A shy, retiring man, Miller's life can only be traced through the memories of relatives and an occasional newspaper clipping.  He himself wrote, "I have always been as modest about appearing in print as I have been about appearing before an assembly to give a talk."  About 1900, Miller contracted tuberculosis and ventured to Arizona as a health seeker.  Described as a workaholic, he worked at a dairy in Phoenix during the day and also at a night job before suffering a serious relapse.

By Sandra Lynch

What is a Museum?  "Museums are about cannibals and glass boxes," writes University of British Columbia Museum Director Michael Ames.  For many, a place with "glass boxes" and "cannibal tours" might sound like an enticing place to go.  Ames, however, was not writing a side-bar for British Columbia's Office of Tourism.  "Museums," Ames claims, "are cannibalistic in appropriating other peoples' material for their own study and interpretation, and they confine their representations to glass box display cases."  We expect there should be more to a museum, but when the institution first came into the world, glass boxes were the drawing cards.

By William Bork

One Hundred Years 
U.S. Post Office 
Dewey, AZ 
1898 July 18 1998 

So reads the special "cachet" being applied upon request to letters mailed at the Dewey post office at the junction of Arizona highways 69 and 169 opposite Young's Farm until August 18, 1998. Here is the story behind the celebration.

By Anne Foster

He was a Yavapai County probate judge, sheriff and tax assessor, ex officio school superintendent, reporter, editor and publisher, court recorder, and mayor of Prescott. She, although few remember, was a legislator, suffragette, teacher, businesswoman, writer, community leader, presidential elector, clubwoman, volunteer, musician, artist, wife, and mother.  He was, of course, Prescott's hometown hero-Buckey O'Neill.  She was his wife- Pauline M. O'Neill.  A woman of talents as remarkable as her husband's, her story has too long been eclipsed.

By Richard Gorby

On Saturday night, July 14, 1900, fire swept through downtown Prescott with an uncontrollable fury, almost totally destroying the business district of the small mining town. 
 

Starting in the O.K. Lodging House, next door to the south of the newly built Scopel Hotel on South Montezuma at Goodwin, possibly when a miner left a lighted candle stuck in the wall of his room, the fire quickly spread to the Scopel.  At this point the fire could have been easily stopped with a few buckets of water...but Prescott had no water!

By Michael Wurtz

If it is not yet 9:00 am on Sunday morning then you still have time.  Time for what?  Time to get down to the Plaza and watch the hose cart races.  These races are at least as old, if not older, than our famous World's Oldest Rodeo, which began in 1888.

By Warren Miller

Nine years after Buckey O'Neill, the young mayor of Prescott who had led his compatriots to the Spanish-American War in Cuba, fell on the battlefield, Prescott honored him and the Rough Riders by erecting a monument on the Courthouse Plaza.  This heroic equestrian bronze was created by world-renowned sculptor Solon H. Borglum, brother of Gutzon Borglum who would later win fame for sculpting Mount Rushmore.

Edited by Anne L. Foster

One hundred years ago, on July 1, William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill was killed at Kettle Hill, Cuba.  Efforts to commemorate his memory and those of his comrades-in-arms, the Arizona Rough Riders, began soon after and finally resulted in the statue that stands on the Courthouse Plaza.  While the Rough Rider Monument is a powerful statement of Prescott's loss, it is this grief-stricken memorial written by Buckey's widow, Pauline, that is the most moving declaration of the personal sacrifices of war.

By Richard Gorby

On May 30, 1864, Prescott became the new capital of the new Territory of Arizona, with John Goodwin as Governor. 
 

The first Arizona Territorial Legislature was formed, with its first meeting on September 27, at "Old Fort Misery", the cabin now moved to the grounds of Sharlot Hall Museum.  William Claude Jones, previous Attorney General of New Mexico and a practicing lawyer in Tucson, was chosen as Speaker of the House.  The meetings, moved to the newly built Capitol Building on Gurley Street, were apparently a great success, with Speaker Jones commended for his leadership and especially for his acting as interpreter for two members from Tucson who spoke only Spanish.  "The Speaker was highly competent in both languages."