By Mick Woodcock
The year 2017 commemorates the 100th anniversary of the United States' involvement in what is known as World War I. Arizona had only been a state for five years when the European conflict became more than headlines in the newspaper. It touched the lives of everyone residing in the state, whether a citizen or a sojourner. For the first time since it was created as a separate territory in 1863, Arizona was about to take full part in a very national experience. Read MoreBy Al Bates
On the evening of March 13, 1997, widely scattered reports came in from across Arizona—including Prescott, Prescott Valley and Dewey-Humboldt—of mysterious lights crossing the sky. This phenomenon, now popularly called “The Phoenix Lights,” is still a topic of controversy.
Read MoreFerdinand Scopel: Pioneer Entrepreneur of Prescott
Mar 25, 2017
By Ken Edwards
Before the “Great Fire” of 1900 in downtown Prescott, a three-story stone and brick hotel stood on the southwest corner of Montezuma and Goodwin streets. Generally known as the Scopel Hotel, it was officially the Grand View House.
Read MoreA Capital School for the New (Old) Capital
Mar 18, 2017
By Ray Carlson
Moving the Territorial capital back to Prescott in 1877 increased exposure for the Prescott Free Academy. That school had been built a year earlier to replace the town’s one room schoolhouse. A good-sized two story multi-room brick building with a bell tower, it was the most impressive building in town. As a result, offices for the Governor, Territorial Secretary and Chief Justice were created on the Academy’s second floor.
Read MorePrescott vs. Tucson: A Capital Battle
Mar 11, 2017
By Ray Carlson
According to the newspaper, 1876 was a good year for Prescott. There were “about two hundred” attractive new buildings including the impressive school. Stores and saloons were busy, and prostitutes and robbers who followed wealth were plentiful.
Read MoreJohn R. Baylor, First Governor of Arizona Territory
Mar 04, 2017
For many Americans today, the name “Baylor” brings to mind a major college in Texas known for sports and scholarship. Founded in 1845, it’s the oldest university in Texas and one of the oldest in the west, named for Judge Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor. In Arizona, the name Baylor is remembered because of Judge Baylor’s nephew, John R. Baylor, who created the Confederate Territory of Arizona in August 1861, setting off a chain reaction leading to the establishment of the United States’ Territory of Arizona.
Read MoreGrandmother Ehle
Feb 25, 2017
By Barbara Patton
On a hot July day in 1864, a group of settlers rolled into the frontier town of Prescott. The wagon train in the company of soldiers bound for Fort Whipple and under the leadership of Joseph Ehle had traveled down from Denver through Indian country. Three of the wagons carried the household goods of the Ehle family, and Mrs. Margaret Ehle and their five daughters rode in a repurposed hearse.
Read MoreThe Smoki Museum’s “Mystery at the Museum”
Feb 18, 2017
By Cindy Gresser
The year was 1935. At the Fair Grounds there was a giant pile of stone and debris that would make excellent base fill for roadways and foundations around the growing City of Prescott.
Read MoreHydraulicking on Lynx Creek
Feb 11, 2017
By Mick Woodcock
The hydraulic method of mining was developed in California in 1853 to better exploit gold-bearing gravel deposits. It used a canvas hose with a metal nozzle to direct a high-pressure stream of water to erode dirt along rivers and stream beds. The resulting slurry, gold-bearing mud and water, was then directed through a sluice box where the gold settled out and the rest was deposited at the edge of the river.
Read MoreBy Brad Courtney
Daniel Connor “D. C.” Thorne may have been early Whiskey Row’s most influential figure, and its most colorful. He was a story himself, and stories swirled around him. Thorne founded the Cabinet Saloon in 1874, which became the heartbeat of pre-1900 Whiskey Row.
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