Anecdotes of Prescott History Brought to Life From the Pages of Old Newspapers and Other Sources.
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| Henry Wickenburg |
In 1870, Wickenburg was a young, booming town. Founded in 1863, it wasn’t officially incorporated until 1909. The boom was largely due to Henry Wickenburg's discovery of the Vulture Mine—“The biggest and richest gold mine yet discovered on this continent [the Vulture] is yielding plenty of ore,” the Weekly Arizona Miner stated. Two mills were running at this time, one of which had a whopping 40 stamps to crush the ore.
NS “Boston” Graves died January 12, 1911, at the age of 88. He was “one of the earliest arrivals in this section of the Territory and also one of the most popularly known miners,” the Weekly Journal Miner explained. “He was more familiarly known as Boston.” He took ill with the flu (or grippe as it was called back then) late in 1910, having spent that year searching for “a ‘pothole’ that contained a vast amount of free gold.”
It was the morning of February 1, 1895. A Mexican boy who was out hunting was traveling along the Copper Basin road when he came upon a ghastly scene. The night before, a man was brutally murdered.
“His appearance was a frightful one, the right side of his head being smashed so that the bones protruded, while all over his body and on his hands were many knife wounds to be seen,” the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner described. “The ground too, gave evidence of a struggle, and though losing his life, made a desperate fight to the last.”
“The stage for California left Prescott on the morning of Saturday, November 4, 1871, carrying the US Mail,” the Weekly Arizona Miner began. Aboard were a driver and six passengers. Three of the passengers were from Prescott: Frederick Sholom, William Kruger, and a “soiled dove” named Mollie Shepherd. The other three passengers were part of the Wheeler Expedition, a US Geological Survey mission to map the West that started the same year. Among these three was a popular, well-known 22-year-old writer named Frederick W. Loring- a native of Boston and a graduate of Harvard. The driver, John Lentz, was hired recently and was about to embark on his first return trip.
The first leg of the trip to Wickenburg “was almost a pleasure trip,” the same paper described. Loring told several people that he planned to write what he observed on his trip—that sentiment back East, believing the Indian Wars were nearly over, was fallacious, and he planned to redress the mistaken view.
But the following day would quickly become nationally infamous.
In 1870, Chino Valley had a handful of ranches, plenty of open space, and occasional visits from fearsome Native Americans.
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It is surprising that a hundred years ago, meteorite strikes received only a brief mention in newspapers. Today, one can imagine several local and national news media traveling to the site for live reports. After all, meteorites can be worth more than gold or platinum in the collector’s market. Although one might assume people went to these sites to collect the rare souvenirs, there were no follow-up articles for any of them, leaving one to wonder how extensive those searches were. Perhaps there are still some extra-terrestrial treasures waiting to be found.
