By Sylvia Neely

A beautiful historic brick school building is clearly seen by Prescottonians traveling down East Gurley.  This is Washington School, built in 1903, and Yavapai County's oldest continuously used school and one of the oldest in the state.  Few people know that there was another beautiful brick school building on this same site.  It was known as the Prescott Free Academy, and was built in 1876.  It was Arizona Territory's first graded public school. 

By Kathryn Reisdorfer

Some come to see the rodeo, the parade, or the fair on the Square.  Some come from the Valley to get away from the heat.  Others are drawn by the blow-out on Whiskey Row.  And, of course, there are the high-tech water fights.  Now 111 years old, Prescott's Fourth of July celebration and Rodeo still draws them in-for various reason and via various conveyances.

By Dewey E. Born

At the beginning of this century a frequent visitor to Prescott was the Medicine Man.  He would set up shop on a street corner at night and, with flaming torches and some entertainment to draw a crowd, sell his cure-all elixir.  In 1906, one of these potion purveyors arrived with a different attraction.  He had a motion picture projector which he set up in the second story window of a building and used the wall of a building across the street for a screen.  When it was dark enough, he showed "The Great Train Robbery" which was just eight minutes long.  This was probably the first movie shown in Prescott.

By Dewey E. Born

The second photoplay was called "Neighbors".  The story involves two ranch families who do not get along at all well.  The girl of one family, played by Mary Ryan, falls in love with the boy of the other family, played by Robin Adair, which creates a host of problems.  The two elope by taking a train out of town.

By Sandra Lynch

Back around 1600, an English jurist shed some light on the relationship between humans and their houses.  "The house of everyone is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defense against injury and violence as for his repose," commented Sir Edward Coke.

By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

Just what is an Occultation of Venus?  About once every eight years, the path of our sister planet intersects the slightly tilting path of our moon.  Early in the morning of April 19, 1993, Prescott sky-watchers saw the moon move closer and closer to the bright disk of Venus until it disappeared as if the moon had suddenly swallowed it whole.  About 80 minutes later the watchers were rewarded by the reappearance of Venus on the other side of the moon.  And all was right with the world. 

By Richard Gorby

In 1863, a year before the birth of Prescott, a group of miners from the Walker diggings on Lynx Creek wandered into a steep canyon containing a creek which flowed out of the Bradshaw Mountains.  As they followed the creek downstream they noticed a great number of huge flying insects, and the stream suddenly had a name - "Big Bug Creek."

By Evan Sage

Tomorrow, June 14, is Flag Day.  Oftentimes questions arise as to whether Arizona had a territorial flag.  An examination of documents in both Sharlot Hall Museum and the State Capitol archives yielded little on the subject.  However, the story of flags over Arizona goes way back.

By Mick Woodcock

It has been said that one of the main functions of a museum is to tell good stories.  That is what we try to do at Sharlot Hall Museum.  More often than not, there are more stories than space to tell them.  When you can tell the story, there is generally not enough room to tell all of it.  Such is the case with Carrie Wilkins.

By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright

Does anybody out there know anything about Charles Tracy?  How about A. E. Ensign?  Ensign gave us a hint about Prescott's mystery artist, Tracy, but we need more information.  Mysteries create more mysteries, but sometimes there is serendipity, the happy finding of clues strictly by chance.