By Edna Ballew Patton

In Skull Valley, people used to get together and help each other. Thirty or more people gathered at Bill and Martha Overton's one Sunday and built a room onto their house. We built a tennis court at the school, shoveling sand by hand. It took several Sundays and a lot of beer! We got together and poured the cement for Barney and Annie's house (where Charlie and Diana Taylor live now).

By Marjory J. Sente

On Oct. 27, 1948, the Prescott Post Office opened to a very special day of business. The issuance of the Rough Riders Commemorative Stamp made the post office look like a land office during a gold rush. While the local public bought the new commemorative stamp at the counter, more than 50 special employees worked behind the scenes to process the requests for first-day covers.

By Katherine Krieger Pessin

Medora had finally achieved her longtime goal of becoming a field geologist with the USGS and was assigned to Prescott, Ariz., in 1947. She spent the next 35 years mapping in the State of Arizona, a total of 12 quadrangles, including those of Prescott and Paulden. She has to her credit many professional papers for publication with the USGS as well as other scientific organizations.

By Richard Cunningham McCormick

(Edited by Parker Anderson)

I was at Washington at the first inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and saw much of him. It was difficult, even in view of the Baltimore plot, to make him think that anyone sought to injure him, or that his life was in danger. The intention of that plot, by the by, suggests a correction of the common impression that Mr. Lincoln passed through Baltimore in disguise.

By Darla Anderson

Darla Anderson moved to Yarnell in the early 1960s with her parents. As a young lady, the old mining tales fascinated her, and living so close to one of Arizona’s premium mines was just too much to just sit by and look at it from afar. Rich Hill was a short distance from their home and, one sunny afternoon, she and her mother decided to take a closer look.

By James F. Vivian

In 1864, the town of Prescott was named in honor of Massachusetts-based historian William Hickling Prescott, who was already deceased at the time and had never set foot in the west. Even in the 19th century it was unusual for towns to bear the names of people who were not involved with their founding, and thus the question has been raised as to which of our earliest territorial pioneers suggested the honor for Mr. Prescott.

By Linda Ludington

The country is not a gentle land. Huge boulders strewn about like a naughty child's toys appear to have catapulted one another to balance themselves capriciously on sheer ledges. Rocks trap and concentrate precious moisture in clefts to nourish Saguaro and desert grasses. Above the Santa Maria River, steep ridges reveal still higher crests to the north. The elevation climbs from 2,000 to over 5,000 feet. The desert gives way to vast mesas covered with pinon, oak, and mountain grasses.

By Judy Stoycheff

In response to the Depression that hung over the nation in the early 1930s, newly-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt created many programs designed to put Americans back to work. One of those programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was designed to bring together the nation’s young men and the land in an effort to save them both.

By Sandra Lynch

(Note: This is a reprint of the original Days Past Indian Art Market article printed October 18, 1998).

Today marks the final day of Sharlot Hall Museum’s Tenth Prescott Indian Art Market featuring over 100 American Indian artists. The idea of Indian art, as a market commodity, evolved within a history both Native and American. Long before Spain’s galleons put to shore in the Caribbean, American Indians had established art markets. Pacific shell pendants, etched by acid and wax, crossed Arizona deserts in human caravans.

By Mick Woodcock

Arizona was a violent place in 1870.  The November 19, 1870, Weekly Arizona Miner detailed seventeen killings around the territory.  One headline, “Out On Bail,” referred to a shooting reported in the previous week’s paper.