By Parker Anderson

Ralph Henry Cameron had been elected to the U. S. Congress from the Territory of Arizona in 1908 and became involved in the battle in Washington for Arizona statehood.  By August 1911, President Taft signed the bill for statehood and the territorial politicians scrambled to write a proposed state constitution and elect its first official state officeholders.  Cameron, realizing his term as Congressman would be over, decided to run for U. S. Senate instead, hoping to be the first senator from the new State of Arizona. . . .

By Jim Byrkit and edited by Kathy Krause

The following article was originally written by Jim Byrkit and titled, "Early Spanish Street Names Reflect New England Influence," published on August 2, 2003 in teh SHM Days Past Archives.  Days Past Editor, Kathy Krause condensed and edited the original article for reprint here.

In February 1863, at the height of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill making Arizona a separate territory from New Mexico.  Three months later, renowned frontiersman Joseph R. Walker wrote a letter to Gen. James Carleton in Santa Fe, whose Army command included both New Mexico and Arizona Territories.

By Parker Anderson

By the 1920s and 1930s, rodeos had become very popular nationwide and had advanced from mere feats of bronc riding and calf tying to include halftime entertainment shows. During this period, one of the most popular of the entertainers and singing cowboys on the rodeo circuit was "Powder River" Jack Lee and his wife, Kitty. Interestingly, they are mostly forgotten today and are seldom talked about, even by rodeo historians. There is a reason for this.

By Randi Wise

As apathy towards the upcoming General Election in November escalates as the weeks go by, the struggles it took for one minority group in particular to go to the polls needs to be retold. Women’s suffrage in the United States, the right of women to vote and run for public office, was over a seventy-year struggle, ending in 1920 by passage of the 19^th Amendment, eight years after the State of Arizona took that step.

Compiled by Kathy Krause from various Days Past articles written by Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

The following article is a compilaiton that has been revised and updated by Kathy Krause.  All articles were originally written by Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright.

Eight years ago, on Tuesday morning, June 8, 2004, the bright planet Venus moved in front of our sun - a transit of Venus - and millions watched through strong filters as a small black dot moved across the sun.

By Kathy Krause

The following article was compiled and edited by Kathy Krause and taken from various articles originally written by Richard Gorby published in the SHM Day Past Arcihves.

Most people in the Prescott area are familiar with Groom Creek and even Groom City, but know nothing about Robert Groom. But we can all be thankful for something he gave us 148 years ago: downtown Prescott.

Chosen by the governor of the newly established Arizona Territory to lay out the town in the spring of 1864 was Groom, the only available surveyor at the time. He was apparently given carte blanche in planning "his town," possibly because he had been overruled in his choice of location; Groom wanted the capital built at the beautiful Point of Rocks in Granite Dells.

By Mary Dahl

Since the rough early days of Prescott when the population was mainly miners and cowboys, whiskey has been a standard characteristic of the city. It's difficult to talk about nearly any event in the city's history without mention of liquor.

By Stan Brown

By 1864, the local native population had mixed feelings about the growing intrusion of miners and ranchers onto the Yavapai and Apache hunting grounds. They were glad to have livestock brought into their territory so they would not have to travel so far to the south in their raids, but they also recognized the threat to their freedom and life style from this growing alien population. The newly settled town of Prescott and the surrounding mining camps felt somewhat secure from Indian attack because of nearby Fort Whipple and its company of troops. But, tensions continued to rise as each side held to its own point of view.

By Kathy Krause

Sharlot Mabridth Hall died on April 9, 1943 and accolades about her life achievements rolled in from across the state.  Dwight B. Heard, co-founder of the Heard Museum in Phoenix said, “In Sharlot Hall this country found the unusual combination of the sturdiness of the pioneer with the beautiful spirit of the poet.  She will be long remembered for both characteristics.”  For the previous 16 years she exhibited those traits in the museum she founded.

By Parker Anderson

As one of the first pioneer settlers on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in the 1890s, Ralph Henry Cameron, in addition to his mining interests in the canyon, decided money could be made by catering to the new tourism trade as well. He constructed the Bright Angel Trail, charging a toll for its use and built a hotel on the rim. But he was soon under siege from two entities: the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad. They wanted a share in the tourist dollars as well. In addition, the U. S. government was looking into turning the Grand Canyon into a national monument, which would negatively impact his mining claims and tourist business.