By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.

Before arrival of the Walker Exploratory Party to the Prescott Basin in the spring of 1863, Central Arizona was unknown territory, thus all maps of the time show just an empty space where the Prescott area now is.  In fact, an important reason for Captain Walker to come here was a desire to see, in his words, “the only unknown section of the United States and its territories.”

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.

On May 10, 1863, the first recorded event in Prescott history occurred. At a spot some six miles south of today’s courthouse plaza, a band of 25 men approved a document that created the first mining district in the Central Arizona Highlands.

By Nancy Burgess

Once the Bashfords had remodeled the house to their tastes and to reflect their status in the community, the Bashford House became a meeting place for the well-to-do high society of Prescott’s business and professional elite.  Wealthy businessmen, financiers, mine owners, soldiers and politicians met at the Bashford’s elegant house.   Mrs. Bashford’s soirees, to which the ladies of society wore their elegant outfits, were a popular pastime for the wives and daughters of the prominent men of the community. These elaborate dresses, with bows and layers of flounces and pleats and “princess trains” were only worn once, as being seen in the same dress twice would shatter the important statement made by the wearer that the family was wealthy enough to afford such opulent costumes.  Mrs. Bashford’s gracious hospitality helped take the edge off the raw frontier that was just beyond the borders of the city.

By Nancy Burgess

Prescott was established as the capital of the newly created Arizona Territory in the spring of 1864.  At the time, it could not even be characterized as a settlement, just a few camps of miners and the beginnings of Fort Whipple a few miles from town. Prescott’s earliest buildings consisted of tents or brush shelters.  However, with a plentiful source of timber, log buildings soon began to appear and, by 1865, Prescott was described as a town built entirely of wood.

By Al Bates

(Note: This is an expansion of the original Days Past King S. Woolsey article printed February 4, 2006).

The first part of this article told of the rescue of a young Mexican woman from Apache captors and how she became the wife of King S. Woolsey and the mother of his children and how financial problems forced them to move to a ranch just north of the Gila River.

By Al Bates

(Note: This is an expansion of the original Days Past King S. Woolsey article printed February 4, 2006).

Love stories are supposed to have happy endings.  This one from Yavapai County’s territorial days did not.

By Fred Veil

It is not unusual for bits and pieces of Western lore to find their way into the historical record of the Old West. The story of Kissin’ Jenny, a Prescott prostitute, and the role she purportedly played in influencing the decision of the Fifteenth Legislature of the Arizona Territory to relocate the territorial capital from Prescott to Phoenix in 1889 is a case in point.

By John P. Langellier, Ph.D.

In last Sunday’s article Dr. Langellier told of a young Yavapai boy captured by U.S. Army soldiers, his adoption and education, and the beginnings of his efforts to tell the Indian side of events during the settling of Arizona Territory.

While Burns’s primary objective was to tell the Yavapai version of a history so dominated by white accounts, he broadened his scope to include traditional Indian oral history and ethnological information. Furthermore, he served as a principal informant for scholars who studied the Southeastern Yavapai and the Northeastern and Western Yavapai.

By John P. Langellier, Ph.D.

In December 1872 a young Yavapai named Hoomothya was present as his father, siblings, grandparents, and other members of his extended family were killed by U.S. Army troops with the support of Indian scouts. There, in a remote cave that even today is isolated and difficult to locate, he was orphaned.

By Russ Sherwin

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, one of the best power sources the small farmer had, or could readily obtain, was horses. If he didn’t have his own, he could borrow or rent some for a short period of time. A horse just requires a little water and some hay for fuel and he’s good to go. And it’s generally scalable: Need more power? Get more horses. Then, because of advances in crop processing machinery, a need developed for stationary rotary power. The problem is, how do you turn a walking horse into a rotating shaft?