By Mick Woodcock

Murder was never an everyday occurrence in territorial Arizona, despite what one might gather from the violence during the Pleasant Valley War and the shootings in Tombstone during its heyday.  Thus, the headline of an article in the July 30, 1887, Globe (Arizona) newspaper, the Arizona Silver Belt, announcing “A HOMICIDE AT BAKER’S BUTTE” is worthy of note as it resulted in a murder trial in the Yavapai County Courthouse in Prescott.  It also may have been the first time a crime scene was ever photographed in Arizona.

By Cynthia Palcich and Members of the Sharlot Hall Museum Staff

A tired and disgusted Apache said to the Army officer receiving his surrender, “Your Apache Scouts track us even when we leave no tracks.”  Such was the skill of the Apache warriors who enlisted in the Army during Arizona Territory’s Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s.

Mick Woodcock and other members of the Sharlot Hall staff contributed to this article.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Apache warriors enlisted in the United States Army to serve as scouts while the Army was at war with the Apache people.  Why would Apache warriors do something that appears contrary to the interests of their own people?   What was the role of Apache scouts?  Could Army commanders trust Apache scouts?  Was the use of Apache scouts effective?  The answers to these questions are probably as varied as the individual scouts and their personal relationships with the Army.  In broad terms, this article will provide some answers.

By Tom Collins

With the petite body of a soubrette and the care-worn face of a matronly character actress, Ethel Tucker (1860-1926) lacked the physical qualities of a leading lady; and yet she persistently played romantic leads in the Ethel Tucker Stock Company, which toured the Arizona Territory between 1905 and 1907.  From November 27 to December 2, 1905, she delighted Prescott audiences at the Elks Theatre in her formidable repertoire: The Embezzler, Carmen, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Across the Desert, Sapho, Faust, Foxy Grandpa, and The James Boys in Missouri.

By Fred Veil

The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for bravery, was first authorized by the U.S. Congress in the early years of the Civil War. Initially, the Army balked at the concept of such a medal, as its commanding general thought that it smacked of “European monarchy.” He nevertheless reconsidered when the Navy adopted it in 1861 “to be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and Marines as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry and other seamanlike qualities during the present war.” The authorization for an Army Medal of Honor was enacted into law in July, 1862.

By Barbara Patton

In last week’s “Days Past” article, we followed Martha and her husband Lt. Jack Summerhayes on part of an arduous two-month trip.  The year was 1874 and they were relocating from Wyoming to Fort Apache in the wilds of Arizona Territory.  As we begin this week’s story, their ambulance wagon has brought them to Fort Whipple for a short recuperation before continuing on their way.

By Barbara Patton

This is the first installment of a two-part article on Martha Dunham, who married Army Lt. Jack Summerhayes in 1874.  Part Two will appear next Sunday.

Jack’s career brought them to Arizona Territory shortly after they married.  Some of Martha’s travels and experiences must have been frustrating, frightening and dangerous at the time, but in 1908, with memories softened by the years, Martha compiled her reminiscences into a delightful book:  Vanished Arizona — Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman.  These articles are based on her book.

By Dave Lewis

When Lewis and Clark made their epic 1804 – 1806 journey across the country, they did not have an artist with them.  They encountered Native people, plants and animals, breathtaking scenery and fantastic geologic features beyond anything they could have imagined.  They did a decent job of sketching some of what they found, but still struggled to convey the uniqueness of the American West.  Subsequent explorers beginning around 1830 made sure to include an artist.  And artists – from the Eastern United States and Europe — were eager to take up the challenge.

By Gretchen Hough Eastman

Amateur theater was a popular and important pastime at remote Army camps in the late 1800s.  Ft. Whipple, founded in Prescott in 1864, did not have a theater troupe in its first several years, a void lamented by the editor of the local newspaper, the Arizona Miner:  Theater, he suggested, would be “. . . much better than the sort of amusement indulged in by a great many of the Fort Whipple boys, i.e., getting drunk and shooting one another. . . “

By Amy Hale Auker

So history’s mostly a horseback song

And set to the thud of the hoofs.

~~~from Horseback Men, by Charles Badger Clark

The horseback man has long been revered worldwide. From Genghis Khan who kept showing up where he wasn’t expected to the Argentinian gaucho to the Guardians in the South of France, the romantic figure of a man on a horse has become part of the folklore of many cultures. The cowboy, relatively new on the scene, has become the most recognized symbol of our once-wild American West. He is our shiniest hero. And here in Yavapai County, he is a huge piece of our present as well as our past.