By Jim Byrkit

In February 1863, at the height of the United States' Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill making Arizona a territory separate from New Mexico. Three months later, renowned frontiersman Joseph R. Walker wrote a letter to Gen. James Carleton, whose U.S. Army command, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, included the new Arizona Territory. Walker told how he with a party of other men had found gold on the Hassayampa River about six miles south of today's Prescott. Carleton immediately decided to send an army detail to the diggings to protect Americans there from Indian attacks. He chose Robert Groom to guide the army expedition to the gold fields.

By Dr. Ted Finkelston

(This is the second part of a two-part article written by Ted Finkelston to honor Sharlot Hall Museum volunteer Art Park.  The first part is titled, "Transportation Building is a Colorful and Utilitarian Place.")

In March 1974 the Historical Society began its renovation of the new Sharlot Hall Museum's Transportation Building. At that time the rather grandiose plans for renovation were set aside because of budget restraints. Instead, the Board decided to have the lower half of the side windows blocked up for security reasons, repair the roof, and paint the outside of the building.

By Dr. Ted Finkelston

(Recently, one of the most active volunteers at the Sharlot Hall Museum, Art Park, passed away. Art was the foremost expert on the Transportation Building. In tribute to his fine work over the years at the Museum we are publishing this two-part article by Ted Finkelston)

The campus of the Sharlot Hall Museum contains some of the most interesting early architectural styles found in Central Arizona. A visitor to the museum can visit the log-hewed Governor's Mansion, a frontier schoolhouse, an early trading post, and a representative ranch house.

By Parker Anderson

Followers of Yavapai County history already have heard how famed historian and poetess Sharlot M. Hall was chosen to deliver Arizona's electoral votes for Calvin Coolidge to Washington following Coolidge's election as President of the United States in 1924. Much has also been said about how Prescott's two newspapers, the Courier and Journal Miner, seemed not to think the event very important, as coverage was sparse at best. True, nothing appeared in the papers on the day Sharlot arrived in Washington, but there were articles before she left, and several after she returned. These articles, as well as Sharlot's own words, form a pretty complete picture of this significant event in the life of the mother of our history.

By Dana Sharp

(This is the second part of a two-part article that was first published in its entirety in the courier in 1975) 

A walk through Mint Valley on a quiet autumn day gives you the feeling of going back in time, of almost being with the people who once lived and worked there. People with hopes and dreams, people who built homes, planted orchards and raised children and left remnants of their living for us to find. Shards of purple glass that once were whole, gracing the Sunday table, a few pieces of old silverware, broken crocks, steps barely showing through the grass leading to nowhere, but must have once lead into a warm kitchen filled with the smell of rising bread and the sound of laughter.

By Dana Sharp

(This two part article was first run in the Courier supplement called "Westward" on October 31, 1975 - a long time before the recent development of the area) 

To the northwest of Prescott sprawls a giant of earth and granite boulders, holding the roots of pine trees, oak brush, manzanita, prickly pear and pinon. Tall pines march like sentinels across the rocky crest. Almost a last frontier for wildlife in an area becoming more heavily populated every day, Granite Mountain stands a monument to a vanished time.

By Ronald E. Bromley

(In September of 2003, there appeared Days Past article about Humboldt, which inspired this author to send in these reminiscences to the Sharlot Hall Museum)

It was 1945, but my first visit to Humboldt, Arizona is quite vivid. We left Los Angeles early one morning in our 1941 Studebaker Champion with suitcases neatly packed into the trunk to save room for all five passengers on the long, hot, and often dusty ride. Most of the time dad drove and mom (Vivian) sat in the front with Bob Jr. or me. Grandma Wahlater sat in the back with one of us grandchildren. Read More

By Samantha Abraham, Heather Snyder, Holly Blassingame, Nick DeVaney, Jennifer Martin, April Fabozzi, and Kayla Marston

I had a little bird, 
Its name was Enza, 
I opened the window, 
And in-flu-enza. 

-1918 Child Jump Rope Rhyme

It was the fall of 1918 and a new fashion statement was spreading throughout our state by order of the Public Health Officers. Gauze masks were covering the nose and mouth of all. This order was not just to protect the public from seasonal allergies, but rather from the devastating influenza virus that was consuming the world.

By Pat Atchison

A number of words are used to name these items; headstones, tombstones, and/or gravestones. No matter what they are called, they are usually the most eye-catching structures in a cemetery.

A number of different kinds of rocks were used to make the headstones in Citizens Cemetery. There are many fine examples made from granite which was quarried locally. The military stones and many others are cut marble. Various types of local sedimentary rocks were used to mark other gravesites. Gravel mixed with cement was used to make concrete markers (which primarily compose the Potters Field.) These examples make it quite clear why the words headstone, tombstone and gravestone are used.

By William "Bill" Peck

Burro Creek glides down from the high plateaus of the Baca Grant into the Big Sandy River where together with the Santa Maria River; they combine to form the Bill Williams River. History has had a habit of confusing these streams, the names of which are reversed and interchanged on older maps.

I first became acquainted with Burro Creek in 1943 when Louie Schmidt took me there. Louie lived in small house in Hillside beside Darnal's Store. A single bed occupied the north wall that was also a lounge, storage area and took up a good part of the 12' by 15' floor space of the building.