By Worcester P. Bong
Between 1931 and 1950, the Veterans Administration (VA) built and renovated numerous rural hospitals, and in 1931, it acquired the old hospital/sanatorium complex on the former Fort Whipple grounds in Prescott as part of that effort. Until then, the complex served as a U.S. Army hospital and U.S. Veterans Bureau hospital.
By Susan Cypert
In songs, speeches and stories, Katie became one of the early environmental movement’s loudest and fiercest voices, along with people like Edward Abbey and his Monkey Wrench Gang and David Brower, Sierra Club founder. Her anger at the federal government, especially the “Wreck-the-Nation Bureau” (Bureau of Reclamation) fueled her music and made her a magnet for filmmakers. Many people know Katie Lee from her cameo appearance in the documentary DamNation, where she shared photos from her last trip through Glen Canyon.
By Susan Cypert
From 1954, when she first ran Glen Canyon, Katie Lee stayed on the road for the next ten years, crisscrossing America in a 1950’s Thunderbird coupe, singing in popular nightclubs and returning fifteen times to Glen Canyon, often paying her way on the trips by singing folk songs for tourists.
By Susan Cypert
She was called many things in her lifetime: blunt, foul-mouthed, blissfully profane, eloquent, free-spirited, joyful raconteur, badass, the Goddess of Glen Canyon, Kickass Katie, Grand Dame of Dam busting. A woman with grit, grace and humor. A woman who took no “s…,” liked saying “f…,” who once rode naked through Jerome on a bicycle.
By Mick Woodcock
In early Prescott, New Year’s was a minor celebration. The first mention in the Arizona Miner was December 29, 1866: “New Years Balls – Two fashionable dancing parties are to come off next Tuesday night – one at the Osborn House, and the other at the new (word unintelligible), lately fitted up at the east end of the Capitol Building.” These had an admission charge and featured food, beverages and dancing.
By Barbara Patton
In December 1864, Prescott, the fledgling capital of the Arizona Territory, was barely a town, laid out with a few dirt streets and trails leading into the forest and mining camps. There were probably a few hundred miners and soldiers within reach of the town, plus a few families who had moved into the settlement. Read MoreBy Mick Woodcock
In 1918, the war raging in Europe was not the only place to see the death of a Prescott man, when Robert J. Miller was shot to death by Harry Earl “Bud” Stephens at Oscar W. Bruchman’s store in Prescott on April 2, 1918. This was the conclusion of the coroner’s jury summoned by Yavapai County coroner Charles H. McLane.
By Bradley G. Courtney
The Juniper House, Prescott’s first restaurant, was founded by a multifaceted pioneer named George Barnard. A native Michigander, Barnard was one of several original Prescottonians who initially made his way west after hearing of the discovery of gold on Sutter’s Creek in California. Like several other 1849 Argonauts, he later moved to Arizona after learning of mineral strikes there.
Read MoreBy Jenny Pederson
[Article continues from the Days Past article published January 19, 2019]
In Prescott, Arizona, a community already home to “Whiskey Row”, there was no shortage of individuals who enjoyed partaking in alcoholic beverages.
For those who opposed temperance, arguments pointed to the joyful and social nature of drinking alcohol. As an anonymous writer of an opinion piece wrote in The Courier on December 15, 1883, “we never did believe in going without a friendly canteen, filled with something moist, not necessarily for the benefit of the canteen, but for our own comfort and delight. It is a pleasure to drink moderately when you are thirsty…. There are very few people in this world who do not like the taste of some beverage that is stronger than water.”
Read MoreBy Mick Woodcock
Thanksgiving, as a holiday in Prescott, has its roots in 1866, when the Arizona Miner, reported: “Thanksgiving. – The President has issued a proclamation, recommending Thursday, the 29th of November, to be observed as a day of thanksgiving and praise to God for all his mercies and benefits, and also recommending that the people humbly and devoutly implore him to grant to our national councils, and the whole population, that Divine wisdom which can alone lead the nation into ways of all good. The Governor has issued a proclamation which will be found in another column, recommending the observance of the day in Arizona, and we learn that Rev. C. M. Blake will preach in Prescott at 11 a. m. This is the first time a day of thanksgiving has been set apart in the Territory, but we trust it will be only respected. While as a people we have much to contend with, we certainly have much to be thankful for, and we should be glad to introduce here a custom so pleasant and proper as that of annually acknowledging the blessings we have received, and imploring a continuation of the Divine favor.”
