Skull Valley's Heyday

Today, Skull Valley is a sleepy little burg, but there was a time when the town had several area mines, a quartz mill, a dairy, a number of saloons, and a 36-room hotel.

A Christmastime Murder in Bumble Bee

People living in the Bumble Bee district were concerned when Thomas Glasgow, a 60-year-old prospector, missed some appointments. 

“Glasgow…was arrested about two weeks [previous] on a charge filed by [Charles] Wagoner, who claimed [Glasgow] jumped his claims,” the Prescott Evening Courier explained. The case was dismissed, “but bad blood is said to have developed between the two men as a result.” Following the dismissal, Glasgow “told neighbors that if he ever was missing, to arrest Wagoner for murder.” 

The sheriff’s office was called to investigate his disappearance. It was Christmas Day, 1925.

The Embezzling Yavapai County Treasurer

Prescott was aghast when the Yavapai County Treasurer, James P Storm, was found bound and gagged in the county’s vault by his daughter, who heard him kicking the vault door when she arrived for work there on the morning of November 9, 1904.

The Ultra-Lavish Yavapai Club Building

“The object of the organizers [of the Yavapai Club] was to induce a healthful mingling of recreation, pleasure, and business, and the object has been most successfully attained to the advantage of the club and of Prescott,” the Weekly Journal-Miner declared. “Important business enterprises, many of them of a quasi-public character, have been launched after excellent dinners, or in the course of enjoyable smokers, [when marijuana was imbibed.] Millionaire capitalists, statesmen of worldwide reputation, railroad magnates, distinguished authors, and captains of industry have been pleased guests of the Yavapai Club.” Indeed, during the first quarter of the 20th century, the Yavapai Club was the heart and soul of the business and social community of the county which bore its name.

Let's Visit 1870 Prescott

Diana Saloon on the left, Gurley St. on the right,
(Thumb Butte in the Middle).

When the capital moved to Tucson in 1867, many scoffers believed Prescott would wither away. Instead, in just three years, the town would be in the midst of its first big growth spurt.

1897 Rail Trip to Jerome Vividly Described

It was autumn when a representative of the Arizona Miner made a railway trip from Jerome Junction (today a part of southern Chino Valley), along the narrow-gauge line to Jerome. His description of the journey, published in the October 20th edition of the Weekly Arizona Miner, was delightfully depictive.