By Dave Lewis

Previously:  The Coronado Expedition reached the Zuni village of Hawikuh in July 1540.  The Zuni tried to send the Spaniards on their way with assurances that they would find cities of gold if they just kept going.  Coronado would fall for this line just a few more times.

Hoping to find riches without having to go too much farther, Coronado remained at Hawikuh for three months while scouting parties searched for other villages.  He learned of multi-story pueblos to the northwest in a province called Tusayan — the Hopi lands of northern Arizona.  Pedro de Tovar went to investigate.  The Hopi had heard through the “moccasin telegraph” that unwelcome strangers were on the way, but they discovered resistance against the Spaniards was futile, as it had been for the Zuni at Hawikuh.  Futile, too, was the Spanish hope for easy wealth.

By Dr. Sandra Lynch, Adjunct Curator -- Sharlot Hall Museum

The concept of a museum originated more than two millennia ago with Ennigaldi, a Babylonian princess.  She lived in Ur, in today's Iraq, about 530 BCE (Before Common Era).   Her father, Nabonidus, was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.   He cared little about governance, which might explain why he was the "last king.”  Instead, his life-long pleasure was digging for artifacts from earlier kingdoms.  He might have been the world's first archaeologist.  

By Dave Lewis

The people of Hawikuh laid down a line of sacred corn meal and asked the strange men riding strange animals not to cross.  The Spaniards crossed and the battle was on.  Zuni bows and arrows were no match for armored men on horseback with swords and lances.  The proud but half-starved Spaniards swept into the village and feasted on the provisions the natives were laying by in the summer of 1540. 

The Grand Canyon (not to mention our own Granite Dells and Thumb Butte) used to be in New Mexico; much of New Mexico used to be in Texas; Texas used to be in Mexico.  All of the above used to be part of Spain.  And Arizona didn’t even exist until the 1860s.

Buckey O’Neill, Yavapai County Sheriff in 1889, led a four-man posse that same year into northern Arizona. It captured four cowhands who’d robbed a train near Diablo Canyon. One of the outlaws, J. J. Smith, escaped while en route to Salt Lake City. Eventually, Smith was recaptured and hauled to Prescott to stand trial. While Smith was loose, the other three outlaws were tried and convicted, but were needed to testify in Prescott and were thus carted up from Yuma.

By Brad Courtney

William “Buckey” O’Neill is perhaps Prescott’s most famous and revered historical figure. He was also one of Whiskey Row’s most devoted customers and had a knack for stepping smack-dab into the middle of historic events.O’Neill was a natural leader and a nervously energetic go-getter with an ambition that went beyond a run-of-the-mill quest for success.

By Anita Zeller

Memories are a big part of the Christmas season. They link the past with the present, preserving tradition in the heart, as well as the mind.

While memories may not always record history with pinpoint accuracy, they can offer an overall view of a time now gone, and give warm insight into the nature of the person who is recalling and translating the past.

By Karen Despain

A small world of Murphys will descend on Prescott next week to weave more threads into their family’s tapestry.

Progeny of Billy and Julia Murphy already have one ancestral saga upon which to add more, and it is the anniversary of the particular episode – a tragic one – that will unite 80 of the clan for its first-ever reunion Nov. 6, 7 and 8.

By Jay Treiber

On Jan. 19, 1922, my maternal grandmother was born in a cinder-rock building near the Arizona-New Mexico border, 25 miles northeast of Douglas. The place was then a general store: it has since been a post office, a barn, a general store again, and finally, someone’s house.
 

By Nancy Burgess

Last year, the Arizona State Savings and Credit Union purchased a church on East Gurley Street in Prescott.  On the same property as the church, which was built in 1961, is the J.M.W. Moore House, built in 1892.  This house was documented in 1978, as part of the Prescott Multiple Resource Area documentation of Territorial Architecture, but was not listed in the National Register.