By Barbara Patton

Last week’s article left Joseph Walker with his tired and weary men high in the Sierra Mountains facing the formidable Yosemite Valley.  Although they tried, they couldn’t find a way to descend to the valley floor, so they followed the western ridge until they found an Indian path leading down the western side of the mountains.  Now able to find game to fuel their famished bodies and with Walker’s assurances the Pacific Ocean was not far away, the men’s spirits lifted.   

By Barbara Patton

Most Prescott residents know there is a Walker Road named after the man who in 1863 led an expedition up the Hassayampa River in search of gold —  the discovery of which contributed to the founding of Prescott in May 1864.  However, Joseph Rutherford Walker was known for many other accomplishments before he led that last expedition of his career. Most importantly he was a man who garnered great respect from his fellow mountaineers, some of whom became much more famous than the quiet unassuming Joe Walker; although those who knew him proclaimed him one of the best.

By Erik Berg

In popular culture, beer and whiskey are the traditional drinks of the Old West.  I have yet to see a western movie where the grizzled cowboy bellies up to the bar and asks the barkeep to recommend a nice bottle of wine – perhaps something French – that would pair well with venison and biscuits.  But wine was popular too on the western frontier and often promoted by establishments as a mark of quality and distinction.

By Mick Woodcock

When Congress passed the Selective Service Act of 1917, it was in response to an enlistment of 73,000 men when the need was for ten times that amount. The low enlistment rate might have provided a clue as to the popularity of President Wilson’s war, but once the law was enacted, many men enlisted in the branch of their choice rather than waiting to be called up.

By Brad Courtney

“Prescott has five churches and two school buildings, 18 saloons, two breweries, a City Marshal, is the Capital of the Territory, county seat of Yavapai, and is soon to be lighted with gas,” read the Miner on March 10, 1882. The “City Marshal” listed here as one of Prescott’s sources of pride was James Dodson.

By David Higgs

The story has been retold many times.  It has been depicted in books and motion pictures to reveal the events that led to the end of the Apache Wars. They tell of the surrender of Geronimo’s band of Chiricahua Apaches to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, September 4, 1886, and the deportation of all Apaches associated with Geronimo to imprisonment in Florida, Alabama, and eventually Oklahoma.  However, the story does not end there.  For these Apache Prisoners of War, it meant a new life of constant change and acculturation as many of these people lived well into the twentieth century.  The world they knew ceased to exist.  As parents, Apache families tried to pass along wisdom and life-skills to their children, only to be contradicted by modern education.  Concepts of legal structure, religion, even the measurement of time proved to be obstacles for the next generation of Apaches.  Their children developed into people alien to the original life-ways of Apache culture.

By Janolyn Lo Vecchio

In 1912 Arizona women won the right to vote; two years later they elected Francis Willard Munds and Rachel Berry to the state legislature.  Yet while women began voting and serving as state legislators, they were barred from serving on juries until 1945.  In 1914 Maricopa County attorney Frank Lyman refused to seat nine women as jurors in Mesa because the state constitution specified only men could serve on juries.  From 1921-1933, women’s jury service bills were introduced and died in legislative committee hearings.

By Heidi M. Thomas

“…Rearing, bucking, fighting, a frenzied bronco tears at the burden on its back. Claimed by a thousand devils, he kicks and plunges with the fury of the damned. The rider, a woman, is buffeted and tossed like dust in a storm…”

By Ed Kabotie

Fred Kabotie is among the first artists of the modern Native American Arts & Crafts movement.  Born on Second Mesa, Arizona, in 1900 to the Hopi Bluebird Clan, Kabotie was originally named “Nakavoma” (Day After Day) by his paternal aunts of the Sun Clan.  His traditional upbringing was disrupted in 1906 by the arrest of his father, Lolomayaoma, and other Hopi leaders who refused to send their children to school.  At the age of 15, Nakavoma was sent to the Santa Fe Indian School where his name was “officially” changed to Fred Kabotie.

By Nancy Hans

This year marks 140 years of preservation for the historic Victorian house on the campus of the Sharlot Hall Museum at the corner of Gurley and McCormick Streets.