By Mick Woodcock

What would a person do if they were transported back in time to 1867-1868 in Prescott, Arizona? A great many things would be very strange, with no cell phones, internet or Netflix. Worse than that, there would be no electricity. In fact, there would be no electricity anywhere in town and there would not be until the 1890s.

Culture shock would be in full effect. What to do? Back then, people talked and read books, periodicals and newspapers for a way to pass the time and keep up on what was going on. Those who wanted actual “entertainment” would have to wait for something to happen, or join a local club.

By Ricky Erway

Cleator lies at 3,501 feet in the Bradshaw Mountain foothills between Crown King and Mayer, seven miles southwest of Cordes on Forest Road 259 (formerly Prescott & Eastern Railroad line). The town depot, Turkey Siding, was along Turkey Creek.
 

By Brad Courtney

Like the modern day “big one,” when the San Andreas Fault finally makes that dreaded big slip and wreaks its long-predicted devastation, a fire of frightening magnitude was not a question of “if” but “when” in young nineteenth-century Prescott.

In April 1888, a Prescott Courier editorial described the unrelenting danger: “The people of Prescott can look back and thank the gods that fire has not ‘devoured’ a great deal of their property. We now tell our people that the hot, dry season which may last until next July is upon us; that there will be windy days and nights when, should a fire get a good start, it would be hard to check.” So it was that hot, dry night of July 14, 1900.

By Bob Harner

Charlie Meadows toured Europe with Buffalo Bill Cody’s wild west show from August through mid-October, 1892, during which Cody reportedly gave him his new nickname, Arizona Charlie. Returning to Vancouver, Charlie discovered that his wife, Marion, had made good her threat to disappear, along with their unborn child.
 

Undeterred, Charlie returned to Arizona and used the money earned on his Asian and European tours to form his own wild west troupe, Arizona Charlie’s Historical Wild West. The show opened March 25, 1893 at the Phoenix racetrack, where 2500 spectators saw bronc riding, trick riding and roping, steer roping, bull riding, trick bicycle riding, bola throwing and either a stage coach robbery or an Indian attack on a settler’s cabin (depending on the show time).
 

By Bob Harner

While Buffalo Bill Cody’s wild west show remains famous, in his time Cody faced competing western showmen. One largely forgotten today is Arizona Charlie Meadows.
 

Born Abraham Henson Meadows, March 10, 1860 in Visalia, California, his father (a Confederate sympathizer) changed his name to Charles when Lincoln was elected. In 1877, the family moved north of Payson to Diamond Valley. In 1882, Charlie (then 22) was asked to guide an army detachment to the Mogollon Rim. In his absence, Apaches attacked his homestead, killing his father and wounding two of his brothers, one of whom later died.
 

By Worcester P. Bong

Between 1931 and 1950, the Veterans Administration (VA) built and renovated numerous rural hospitals, and in 1931, it acquired the old hospital/sanatorium complex on the former Fort Whipple grounds in Prescott as part of that effort. Until then, the complex served as a U.S. Army hospital and U.S. Veterans Bureau hospital.
 

By Susan Cypert

In songs, speeches and stories, Katie became one of the early environmental movement’s loudest and fiercest voices, along with people like Edward Abbey and his Monkey Wrench Gang and David Brower, Sierra Club founder. Her anger at the federal government, especially the “Wreck-the-Nation Bureau” (Bureau of Reclamation) fueled her music and made her a magnet for filmmakers. Many people know Katie Lee from her cameo appearance in the documentary DamNation, where she shared photos from her last trip through Glen Canyon.
 

By Susan Cypert

From 1954, when she first ran Glen Canyon, Katie Lee stayed on the road for the next ten years, crisscrossing America in a 1950’s Thunderbird coupe, singing in popular nightclubs and returning fifteen times to Glen Canyon, often paying her way on the trips by singing folk songs for tourists.
 

By Susan Cypert

She was called many things in her lifetime: blunt, foul-mouthed, blissfully profane, eloquent, free-spirited, joyful raconteur, badass, the Goddess of Glen Canyon, Kickass Katie, Grand Dame of Dam busting. A woman with grit, grace and humor. A woman who took no “s…,” liked saying “f…,” who once rode naked through Jerome on a bicycle.
 

By Mick Woodcock

In early Prescott, New Year’s was a minor celebration. The first mention in the Arizona Miner was December 29, 1866: “New Years Balls – Two fashionable dancing parties are to come off next Tuesday night – one at the Osborn House, and the other at the new (word unintelligible), lately fitted up at the east end of the Capitol Building.” These had an admission charge and featured food, beverages and dancing.