by Jay Cravath

This article is a summary of a presentation Jay Cravath will give at the Eleventh Annual Western History Symposium that will be held at the Hassayampa Inn on Saturday, August 2nd.  The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Prescott Corral of Westerners and the Sharlot Hall Museum and is open to the public free of charge.  For more details, visit the Corral’s website at www.prescottcorral.org or call Fred Veil at 928-443-5580.

An ancient set of Native American paths and the natural flow of the Gila River created a major artery through pioneer Arizona. Born from the rain and snow of the Gila wilderness, this waterway carved a channel through New Mexico and along the southern edges of our state.  Its route became known as the California Trail—the southernmost version to hold that moniker.

by Phil M. Blacet, Ph.D

The old Hillside Mine located deep in Boulder Creek Canyon, four miles northwest of Bagdad in far western Yavapai County, has been ghostly silent for many years.  Dating back to the 1880’s, this remote site quickly became a bustling mining camp with its own school and post office.  This bonanza gold-quartz vein system produced metals valued today at approximately $116 million, including $77 million in gold and $27 million in silver.  During its 61-year lifespan, the price of gold never exceeded $35 an ounce.

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial and the founding and establishment of Prescott as the Territory’s first capital.

With completion of the special territorial census in May 1864, the final impediment to the first territorial election was removed.  Details were set and the election date of July 18 was announced.  Up for grabs were seats in the bicameral legislature plus the big prize, selection of the territorial delegate to Congress.

By John P. Langellier, Ph.D.

(John Langellier is the Director of the Central Division of the Arizona Historical Society located in Tempe. This article is a summary of a presentation he will make at the Eleventh Annual Western History Symposium that will be held at the Hassayampa Inn on August 2, 2, 2014. The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Prescott Corral of Westerners and the Sharlot Hall Museum and is open to the public free of charge.  For more details, visit the Corral’s website atwww.precottscorral.org or call Fred Veil at 928-443-5580).

by Heidi Osselaer

On February 10, 1918, four men died in a gun battle between lawmen and the Power family living in Rattlesnake Canyon in the Galiuro Mountains of southeastern Arizona.  This was not only the deadliest single gunfight in Arizona; it was probably the deadliest slacker battle during World War One.  At the time the Bisbee Daily Review called it the “only armed resistance in Arizona to the military draft.”

By John P. Langellier, Ph.D.

During the Victorian era a publication called Outing: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Recreation exposed its many subscribers to the work of an up-and-coming new addition to the pictorial periodical scene.

By Al Bates

Prescott’s first railroad, the Bullock line from Seligman, with all its problems, was continuing to limp along when a new player appeared on the scene.

By Al Bates

In the late 1800s there were significant mineral deposits in Central Arizona and fortunes were waiting to be made.  But without any nearby navigable rivers, and given the rugged terrain, mine development was impeded.  Railroads—if they could be built—offered the solution.  So for a time there were two railways into Prescott but with only enough business to support one.

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial and the founding and establishment of Prescott as the Territory’s first capital.

April 1864 had been a quiet but windy month.  Once Governor Goodwin had left for an extended visit to southern Arizona, there was little going on politically except the tedious task of completing the first census and Indian Agent Poston’s travels in his search for votes as Territorial Delegate to Congress.

By Alexandra Piacenza 

The following is a continuation from the “Days Past” of March 30, 2014.

It is perhaps overly romantic to think that the lives of John C. Frémont, fifth Territorial Governor of Arizona, and Jessie Benton, once the belle of Washington D.C., were fated to become entwined.  But it is a notion hard to resist in light of one early escapade in the life of Jessie’s father, Thomas Hart Benton. At the outset of the War of 1812, Tom was appointed Andrew Jackson’s aide-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. However, he was subsequently demoted from the battlefield to a “desk job” in Washington. Still bitter from his demotion and enraged at an insult offered his brother Jesse, he quarreled bitterly with Jackson who publicly threatened to horsewhip him.