By Pauline O'Neill and edited by Parker Anderson

The following composition by Pauline O'Neill, the widow of Prescott's famed William Own "Buckey" O'Neill, first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in 1898, shortly after Buckey's death in the Spanish American War as one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. The exact date it appeared is not currently known, although the data undoubtedly exists somewhere.

By Linda Ludington

The country is not a gentle land. Huge boulders strewn about like a naughty child's toys appear to have catapulted one another to balance themselves capriciously on sheer ledges. Rocks trap and concentrate precious moisture in clefts to nourish Saguaro and desert grasses. Above the Santa Maria River, steep ridges reveal still higher crests to the north. The elevation climbs from 2,000 to over 5,000 feet. The desert gives way to vast mesas covered with pinon, oak, and mountain grasses.

By Linda Ludington

In Part I, we learned that Ed Kellis dreamed of owning a cattle ranch, and that as a toddler, he received his first heifer calf. During the Depression, the Kellis family sold their Blackwell, Texas, windmill business and blacksmith shop and moved to Bagdad, Arizona. Having purchased a herd of goats and cattle, the family met with financial disaster due to a severe winter, during which most of the livestock perished, unfortunately. Hence, Ed Kellis started work at the mine in Bagdad.

By Ed T. Nesdill

Last week, Part I dealt with the 1884 homestead claim of Frederich Barth, (today known as Ponderosa Park) and some of the many owners of the divided property down through the years. Part II, presented here, tells the geology and some of the mining history of the area.

By William Peck

The Hillside Store and Bar has passed through several owners over the years and history shows that eventually they all resorted to the sale of liquor to stay in business, which just as regularly brought them down since they invariably ended up as a bar. 

Are you old enough to remember when you could enter any bar and other establishments in Yavapai County and play the slots? It was about 1946, (don't hold me to the exact date), when Jerry Butler was Sheriff.

By Ed T. Nesdill

The first European contact in what is now Arizona is believed to be by the Spanish explorer, Coronado, in 1541. Another Spanish explorer, Espajo, has been credited to be the first European in what is now known as Yavapai County in 1581. About 300 years later, in 1848, travel across northern Arizona and southern Arizona was frequent with traffic to California because of the gold rush and the end of the Mexican War. The ceding of the Arizona territory north of the Gila River by Mexico and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 brought all of present Arizona into the United States, with Statehood coming 59 years later, in 1912.

By Stan Brown

This is Part 3 of a three part article.  Part 1 was published on June 21, 2008 and Part 2 was published June 28, 2008 and all are in the SHM L&A Days Past Archives.

In Part 2 last week, we ended with the establishment of the Lone Star Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church) by the Rev. Romulus Windes, a Baptist Missionary who had arrived in Prescott in 1879. Soon after his arrival, he was teaching school in the Mosher cabin at the present day Las Fuentes location and was instrumental in having a new schoolhouse built the following year on Iron Springs Road. Part 3 concludes this series.

By Arizona Cowboy Poets Assocation Committee 

Whoever named the Las Vegas Ranch knew what they were talking about. In Spanish, Las Vegas means "the meadows." At one time, the ranch extended from Williamson Valley west to Camp Wood and was known as the Otis and York Cattle Company. It covered many sections of the most beautiful land in northern Arizona.

By Stan Brown

 This is Part 2 of a three part article.  Part 1 was published on June 21, 2008 and Part 3 was published July 12, 2008 and all are in the SHM L&A Days Past Archives.

We left off last time with Tom Sanders returning from a trip to California to help settle his sister there. Soon after returning to Prescott, Tom married Cynthia Miller, thus further uniting two of the original settler families of Miller Valley.

By Stan Brown

 This is Part 1 of a three part article.  Part 2 was published on June 28, 2008 and Part 3 was published July 12, 2008 and all are in the SHM L&A Days Past Archives.

The Las Fuentes Resort Village in Prescott, off Ruth Street, comes by its name naturally, which is Spanish for "springs" or "fountains." It is situated on the site of several artesian springs that bubble out of their granite prisons at the northern end of Miller Valley. The area was originally called "West Prescott." The springs form headwaters for the North Fork of Granite Creek, the primary drainage for the Prescott area and the uppermost tributary of the Verde River.