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Pauline O'Neill remembers Buckey: In her own words August 27, 2008 
(Note: The following composition by the widow of Prescott's famed Buckey O'Neill first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in 1898, shortly after Buckey's death in the Spanish-American War as one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. The exact date it appeared is not currently known, although the data undoubtedly exists somewhere. -Ed.) "When the Maine was blown up and the whole nation was discussing the question of the war that might follow, Mr. O'Neill felt that his country would demand his services. A meeting was held here in the Court House on the evening following receipt of the news. Mr. O'Neill again declared that he was ready and willing to shed his heart's last drop for his flag, his country. He was then, as always, entirely devoid of fear. When the audience applauded his words, my heart sank, for I knew that in case of war, his honor would demand that he keep the promise so solemnly made to his fellowmen. more Ranch History: The Las Vegas Ranch July 31, 2008 
Whoever named the Las Vegas Ranch knew what they were talking about. In Spanish, Las Vegas means "the meadows." At one time, the ranch extended from Williamson Valley west to Camp Wood and was known as the Otis and York Cattle Company. It covered many sections of the most beautiful land in northern Arizona. Located 17 miles northwest of Prescott, at an elevation of 4,600 to 5,100 feet, the Las Vegas sits at the very heart of Williamson Valley, in a sub-irrigated bottom with shallow and artesian wells. Water and grass are abundant with a wide variety of flora and fauna. more An Annotated History of the area of the Ponderosa Park Subdivision: Part II July 29, 2008 
Last week, Part I dealt with the 1884 homestead claim of Frederich Barth, (today known as Ponderosa Park) and some of the many owners of the divided property down through the years. Part II, presented here, tells the geology and some of the mining history of the area. The Geology of the Ponderosa Park area is very interesting and complex. In summary, the Ponderosa Park area is composed of Proterozoic (Precambrian) "undifferentiated granites and schists". Located between the Chaparral Shear Zone on the south and the Mesa Butte Shear Zone on the north, there are light-colored granites (aplite to granidorite), diorite, gabbro, gneiss, schist, metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. On one tributary to Indian Creek to the east, over 15 different types of granite and metamorphic rocks can be found. These rocks were metamorphosed (altered by heat under tremendous pressure) about 1.75 to 1.8 billion years ago. The rocks themselves are older, in the order of 2.0 billion years. Considerable detail of the geology of the area is available in hard-to-find books by Waldemar Lingren and Charles Dunning. more An Annotated History of the area of the Ponderosa Park Subdivision: Part I July 24, 2008 
(A development of the Frederich Barth homestead) by Ed T. Nesdill The first European contact in what is now Arizona is believed to be by the Spanish explorer, Coronado, in 1541. Another Spanish explorer, Espajo, has been credited to be the first European in what is now known as Yavapai County in 1581. About 300 years later, in 1848, travel across northern Arizona and southern Arizona was frequent with traffic to California because of the gold rush and the end of the Mexican War. The ceding of the Arizona territory north of the Gila River by Mexico and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 brought all of present Arizona into the United States, with Statehood coming 59 years later, in 1912. more Memories of 1940s Hillside, AZ July 10, 2008 
The Hillside Store and Bar has passed through several owners over the years and history shows that eventually they all resorted to the sale of liquor to stay in business, which just as regularly brought them down since they invariably ended up as a bar. Are you old enough to remember when you could enter any bar and other establishments in Yavapai County and play the slots? It was about 1946, (don't hold me to the exact date), when Jerry Butler was Sheriff. more History of the location of present day Las Fuentes Resort Village: Part III July 03, 2008 
Note: In Part II last week, we ended with the establishment of the Lone Star Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church) by the Rev. Romulus Windes, a Baptist Missionary who had arrived in Prescott in 1879. Soon after his arrival, he was teaching school in the Mosher cabin at the present day Las Fuentes location and was instrumental in having a new schoolhouse built the following year on Iron Springs Road. Part III concludes this series.
moreHistory of the location of present day Las Fuentes Resort Village: Part II June 22, 2008 
Note: This is Part two of a three-part article, with Part I appearing last week. We left off last time with Tom Sanders returning from a trip to California to help settle his sister there. Soon after returning to Prescott, Tom married Cynthia Miller, thus further uniting two of the original settler families of Miller Valley. On October 1, 1873, Tom Sanders purchased the part of his father's farm that encompasses the Las Fuentes campus today and he built a rough-hewn log cabin for his new family on the hillside where the Las Fuentes Care Center is today. Tom and Cynthia were married in that month; he was 28 and she was 16. However, that family's sense of wanderlust gripped Tom, and he writes, "After our marriage, I thought we would go over to Orange, where I had located sister, and that we might like to live there rather than in Prescott." He and Cynthia bought a house and lot there, and rented ten acres on which they planted beans. In order to make a living he worked building irrigation ditches and helping with harvesting, but in the process he failed to give his bean crop enough water and it failed. They sold the house and lot, and returned "to a country I was more familiar with." He admitted California was getting "too thickly settled to suit me," and "the same span of sorrel mares that took Cynthia and me over there brought us back again to the old home in Miller Valley." more History of the location of present day Las Fuentes Resort Village: Part I June 18, 2008 
The Las Fuentes Resort Village in Prescott, off Ruth Street, comes by its name naturally, which is Spanish for "springs" or "fountains." It is situated on the site of several artesian springs that bubble out of their granite prisons at the northern end of Miller Valley. The area was originally called "West Prescott." The springs form headwaters for the North Fork of Granite Creek, the primary drainage for the Prescott area and the uppermost tributary of the Verde River. Here settlers established Prescott's earliest farms at the foot of hills that rise abruptly to the heights of current Rosser Road and the Yavapai Indian Reservation. The first Anglo family to settle in the Prescott area, Julius and Celia Sanders with several of their children, arrived at this place in March of 1864. They were grateful to find abundant water, luxurious grass and proximity to Fort Whipple's protection from Indian raiders.
moreThe lawman and the outlaw June 08, 2008 
On the night of May 29, 1897, officers of Yavapai County were returning to Prescott by rail from Flagstaff with two outlaw prisoners, James Fleming Parker and Louis Clair Miller. A large mob had gathered at the Prescott depot awaiting the train and there was great fear that they would do bodily harm to the prisoners, carrying out their threats to lynch the two. The mob, with cries of "hang them," was restrained by the County Sheriff and five or six deputies well armed with Winchester rifles and six-shooters. But the train stopped outside of Prescott, well away from the depot, and the prisoners were taken off the train and transported to the county jail by carriage, avoiding any confrontation at the depot.
moreMuseum’'s Memorial Rose Garden: a tribute to pioneer women of Arizona June 04, 2008 
For many years, visitors to the Sharlot Hall Museum have admired the Territorial Rose Garden as one of the most colorful areas on the museum grounds. It is especially colorful during the summer when the roses are in full bloom. The rose garden is a tribute to the pioneer women of Arizona and all they accomplished, much of which is too-often forgotten in the popular male-dominated histories of yore. Originally, the plan was for one rose bush in memory of each woman inducted into the rose garden memorial roster. With the passing of time, the number of women inducted surpassed the area available for planting. Now the garden, as a whole, is in tribute to these courageous women in our history whose indomitable spirit lives on. more |