By Bob Baker

In the early 1800s, Yavapai and Apache Indians inhabited the wilderness that became the Arizona Territory. Only a few frontiersmen dared travel there to trap beaver, hunt game and explore the area. Perhaps the earliest of them was Pauline Weaver.

When Weaver arrived in Arizona in 1830 from California, he had traveled all over California trapping beaver and trading with Indian tribes. While he was primarily a trapper, he was also a prospector who recognized “pay dirt” (gold deposits), having discovered several placer gold deposits in California.

By Eric Jacobsen

The Millers had ongoing struggles with Kels Nickell, a sheep farmer accused by the Millers of letting his sheep graze on their Wyoming land. On July 18, 1901, Willie Nickell, the fourteen-year-old son of Kels, was found murdered on the Nickell land. An investigation followed while the range violence continued.

In August 1901, Kels Nickell was shot and nearly eighty of his sheep were killed. Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe LeFors arrested Jim Miller and his sons for the crime, although bail freed them the next day.

By Eric Jacobson

Much has been written and filmed about a complex and colorful cowboy named Tom Horn. Was he the upstanding citizen he claimed to be, or was he the criminal portrayed in print and film? Even today, people either admire him as part of a declining American frontier (like Butch Cassidy) or despise him as a hired killer of at least four men and a fourteen-year-old boy.

By Kay Lauster

Fred Harvey became a restaurant entrepreneur as a young man, beginning with his arrival in New York City from London in 1853. In New York he worked in a variety of restaurant jobs. Moving west, he opened the first of his own restaurants in St. Louis, MO. He developed his connection with the Santa Fe Railroad through various entrepreneurial ventures, with the railroad building restaurants and hotels and Fred supplying the furnishings and food service and running them and managing their operations, along with the railroad dining cars, along the Santa Fe line from Chicago to Los Angeles. As the Santa Fe Railroad moved west, so did Harvey’s ideas.
 

By Marjory J. Sente

Mary Page Kendrick traveled many miles during her life to get to Middleton, Arizona Territory. Born in Louth, England in 1854, she was the eldest of ten children. As an adult she moved to New Zealand to teach English. There she met and married an American, Fredrick P. Kendrick, on New Year’s Day, 1880. Born in New York, Fred was a ship carpenter who worked in the Far East, South America and the South Seas. After having three children in New Zealand, the Kendricks moved to Massachusetts in 1884. During their eleven years there, four more children were born. Two more were added to the family after coming to Arizona in 1895.

By Worcester P. Bong

Lights, camera, action! Imagine a plane coming over the horizon and landing on a highway. On April 2, 1993 cameras were rolling as a biplane landed on Arizona Highway 69 just south of Mayer’s iconic smokestack. This scene was one of many filmed for the television series “Harts of the West” starring Beau Bridges, his father Lloyd Bridges and Harley Jane Kozak.

By Bob Baker

The Chinese were among the many immigrant groups that migrated west during the 1860s -70s seeking work on the railroads or in the gold fields. Some of these Chinese, along with others journeying from the west coast, sought jobs in the Prescott area.  

Joe Ah Jew arrived in Prescott in 1870 when he was just 17 years old. He became a highly successful caterer, culinary manager, and restaurant proprietor over the next 40 years. During those years, he learned English, became a Christian and largely adopted American ways. While he generally wore western clothing, he did keep his queue, a unique hair knot, recognizing his Chinese heritage.       

By Susan Cypert

Ranching traditions in central Arizona run deep.

When Marion Perkins, family patriarch, arrived in central Arizona from Texas with his family and stock in November of 1900, his oldest son Rob recalled the challenges of traveling to Springerville and Holbrook. Lightning caused cattle to stampede. Wranglers spent days looking for horses and cattle that wandered off. The few watering holes they came across were filled with alkali, and a mule was almost lost to quicksand. Feed was in short supply.

By Susan Cypert

Before long, the chuckwagon was adopted all over the West. The heyday for trail drives and roundups lasted about twenty years, from the end of the Civil War to the 1880’s, but during those years, millions of cattle were driven thousands of miles with “Cookie” in his chuckwagon following along.

Cowboys respected the cook and called him affectionate nicknames like Coosie or Cookie, Belly Cheater, Biscuit Roller or Gut Robber. They never touched his tools or utensils, or helped themselves to a taste before dinner, or used his worktable or cooking fire for any reason.

By Susan Cypert

Besides cowboys, there is probably no more quintessential symbol of the Old West than the chuckwagon.

Some pioneers drove versions of mobile kitchens across the plains on their way West, but the chuckwagon as we know it was specifically invented for Texas cowboys who were driving herds thousands of miles to market or the nearest railroad, or for roundups that might last for months. Before the chuckwagon, each cowboy was responsible for his own food and had to make do with what little he could carry.