By Parker Anderson

The famed and admired Elks Opera House in Prescott marks its 100th anniversary today. Many long-term Prescottonians have fond memories of movies and events in the auditorium, and it has played an important role in local entertainment throughout its history. Those familiar with its history know that it has been rocky at times, but the Elks Theater has proven itself to be a survivor, and it is still with us when many other theater of its age around the country have long closed their doors and/or met with the wrecking ball.

By Claudette Simpson

It is interesting to thumb through old newspapers, noting the time that this town "rose to the occasion."  There were many such times, but one stands out head and shoulders above the rest. It was an occasion that united the people of Prescott and Yavapai County into one voice, one purpose, one ideal.  It was the time that the President of the United States came to town. The date was Wednesday, October 13, 1909. The President was William Howard Taft.

By Ann Hibner Koblitz

If we judge by most of the accounts available in bookstores, women in early territorial Arizona had precisely two occupations-- ranch/farm wife and prostitute. Some further reflection might expand the list of women's jobs to include schoolmarm and possibly maid servant or laundress, but after that most of us would draw a blank. Probably we would excuse our inability to come up with a longer list with some facile remark about how restricted women's lives were in Victorian America, and how 19th-century Arizonan women could not be expected to have had the myriad ambitions and opportunities of their 21st Century descendants.

By Ken Edwards

Rancher, entrepreneur, truck driver, farmer, and builder. All of these terms apply to John Benton 'Jack' Jones, builder of Prescott's historic Hotel Vendome. Often confused with a miner of the same name, the "real" (for our purposes) Jack Jones was never involved in mining activity. Born in a small ranching community in central Texas in 1881, Jack left home at an early age because he couldn't get along with the rest of his family.

By Evelyn B. Baldwin and edited by Parker Anderson

(This article first appeared in the Prescott Evening Courier on October 27, 1936. It was submitted to the paper by the Courier's Jerome correspondent, Madge Whitford. It was written by her father's cousin, Arctic explorer, Mr. Evelyn Baldwin. The article has been long forgotten, and is presented here, re-discovered at last.) 

The following true narrative of the first Masonic burial in Arizona, as related to me by my old friend, Col. W. M. Williams, of Cairo, Illinois, will doubtless interest your readers. I give it, as nearly as possible, in his own words:

By Linda Ludington

In Part 1, we learned that Ed Kellis dreamed of owning a cattle ranch, and that as a toddler, he received his first heifer calf. During the Depression, the Kellis family sold their Blackwell, Texas windmill business and blacksmith shop, and moved to Arizona. Having purchased a herd of goats and cattle in Bagdad, the family met witih financial disaster due to a severe winter, during which most of the livestock perished. Ed Kellis started work at the mine in Bagdad. In 1961, he finally purchased the ranch of which he had dreamed.

By Anne Foster

Modern Prescottonians embrace the image of the town as a Wild West icon, complete with a notorious street of saloons and a tumultuous history. For some residents in the late 19th century, however, the goal was to promote a civilized, well-to-do persona in keeping with the prosperity and optimism of the age. In keeping with this ideal, the town's leading ladies formed the Prescott Chautauqua Reading Circle.

By Goodwin "Goodie" Berquist

In 1863 when gold was first discovered in the Prescott area, all a miner needed was a pick axe, a strong back, determination, and a little bit of luck. Up to October 1, 1876, of 11, 605 mines located and recorded in the Arizona Territory, 7,298 were in the county of Yavapai. Area mines yielded silver, copper, iron, and lead, as well as gold. Rich deposits of gold nuggets were discovered and mined in these early years.

By Bill Peck

From the 1900's until about 1960, livestock shipping corrals stood beside the railroad tracks at most small towns in Arizona. Made of creosoted timbers and plank fences, one could get a good look at all of the local cowboy gentry at shipping time They sat on the top board of the fence which was laid flat for walking purposes.

By Parker Anderson

One of Prescott's most enduring legends is the brief history of the Ku Klux Klan in Prescott. The famed white supremacist group had existed in various forms throughout the nation since Southern Reconstruction. By the 1920s, the Klan was the subject of public debate, with state legislatures conducting investigations into allegations of killings, vandalism, and general terror tactics attributed to the Klan.