By Eleanor Gilley

(Last week in part one, the author wrote about the first railway through Prescott from Seligman, and later Ash Fork, to Phoenix) 

Financiers, looking for more railroads in Central Arizona to invest in approached Frank Murphy, who was principally responsible for bringing the railroad to Prescott, to promote another railroad into the Aqua Fria Valley and the Bradshaw Range.

By Eleanor Gilley

As the railroad left Prescott on the west side, it began its slow ascent for nine miles to the summit of the Sierra Prieta Mountains at Prieta, elevation 6,108 feet.  The view from the top was breathtakingly beautiful with the black range of mountains, the Mogollan Rim and the surrounding scenery.  The line then descended for 14 miles past Iron Springs and Ramsgate Hill around twisting, winding 12 degree curves and challenging three percent grades to Skull Valley, elevation 4,240 feet.

By Nancy Burgess

On October 1, 1998, the building now known as the Kirkland Bar and Steakhouse, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the U. S. Department of the Interior.  The National Register is the nation's official list of important historic buildings.  The building is significant for its contribution to the social and economic history of the community of Kirkland.

By Pat Kilkenny

Since moving to Prescott, I have thought many times of my family's first time in Arizona in 1931, and the different events that we experienced then.  Starting in 1929, my father, James Nicholson, was employed by the "Radio Division" of the Bureau of Lighthouses and, surprisingly, this division had nothing to do with the sea or lighthouses, but was formed to handle aviation matters, specifically commercial aviation.

By Richard Gorby

On Prescott's Montezuma Street, in the years shortly before her 1900, fire, Chance Cob Web, located by today's The Bead Museum, was considered the best regulated, most orderly and genteel saloon on Whiskey Row. 

By Ken Edwards

For more than a decade after Arizona achieved territorial status, there were no banks closer than Santa Fe, New Mexico and the major cities of California. Gold and silver were the accepted currency; paper money was not always trusted. 

During the 1860s, merchants carried out many of the functions of banks. They would grubstake miners, extend credit, keep customers' valuables and a supply of cash in their safes, redeem government pay vouchers and advance money on future crops and freight.

By Nancy Burgess

This article first appeared in the Prescott Herald in 1903, and was later reprinted in the December 23, 1949, Prescott Evening Courier.

Christmas was celebrated by the people of Skull Valley and the Kirkland section Friday night by a big ball given in the school house two miles below the eating house at Skull Valley.  People were there from all over that section and the affair was one of the most pleasant we have ever attended. Our readers have doubtless heard of "hog-killing times" well, that was one, if there ever was one.

By Mick Woodcock

Ever wonder what Prescott was like in its early days, back before photographs were taken?  Many of us have, I'm sure, that is why it is a rare treat to discover a published account that opens the window to early days and times.

Such a window is provided by John G. Bourke in his classic On The Border With Crook, originally published in 1891.  Although twenty years after his first visit, Bourke's account is clear in its presentation and conjures up a mental image of "our town" one hundred and twenty-eight years ago.

By Ted Edmundson

This is a three-part article series. Part 2 was published November 28, 1998, and Part 3 published on December 6, 1998. However, all three parts have been combined into this article.

Part 1 - Published November 21, 1998

My first exposure to Arizona was in October, 1929.  My mother had ten kids, five girls and five boys, was quite frail, and about ready to go into TB.  Her doctor suggested that we take her to the Arizona desert.  Incidentally, she lived to be eighty-nine and dad died at the age of fifty-nine.  We should have come out here for dads health.

By William Bork

Harry Brisley, a native of London, England, came to Prescott and set up his drugstore on Whiskey Row in 1893.  He remained in business until the sale of the store to W.S. Bontag in 1925. From early on, he was a big booster of the climate, scenic beauties of the area, and of other attractions.  A native of London, where he had completed a rigorous apprenticeship, he was joined by a cousin, T. Ed Litt, a Canadian, born in Stratford, Ontario, who soon chose to move to Tucson, where he was in business at the corner of Congress and Stone in the downtown until 1949.  It appears that Brisley came to Arizona by way of Canada and many people thought both men were Canadians.  A true Canadian, E.A. Kastner, a grocer, who introduced the Piggly Wiggly Supermarket to Prescott, came here at about the same time.