Prescott's Airport is Dedicated to Ernest Love (1928)

It was a far-sighted Dan Fain who offered a square mile of land north of Prescott for use as an airport under a ten-year lease. Previously, “aeroplanes” would have to search for a suitable, level place to land, sometimes using Prescott’s target range. But in its earliest days, Prescott’s airport was little more than a cow range littered with prairie dog holes.

So when an Army airplane circled Prescott unable to locate the airport, it was obvious that improvements were needed. This prompted the Kiwanis club to appoint an aviation committee for this purpose, which the Chamber of Commerce adopted as its aviation committee as well, and improvements started quickly.

1933-41: Army of Young Men Save & Improve the Prescott National Forest

One of Franklin Roosevelt's most popular Depression programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The CCC enrolled unskilled and unemployed men between the ages of 18 and 25. The men primarily came from families on government assistance.

Each worker received $30 per month (that's $600 today) plus room and board at a work camp. However, the men were only allowed to keep $5 of their pay. They were required to send the rest back home to help support their needy families.

The Prescott National Forest had many of these work camps, and the legacy of their work is still with us today.

Famous Harvey Houses Supplied by Del Rio Ranch

"Fred Harvey civilized the west with his '3000 Miles of Hospitality' that consisted of an extensive chain of hotels, shops, and restaurants along the Santa Fe Railway, staffed by a professional, customer service army which included the famous Harvey Girls."

To supply his hotels and restaurants with milk and cream, he had a dairy farm, the Territory's first, in Peach Springs. However, the water supply was problematic at that location, and in 1912, Harvey moved the entire operation to Del Rio Springs, north of Chino Valley.

Prescott Used to Have Countless Prairie Dogs

For a rodent, they are undeniably cute. But to farmers and ranchers, they're a horrible pest. Where there are prairie dogs, agricultural output decreases 25-85%. (*1)

Yavapai County once had 1.5 million acres "infested" with prairie dogs. (*2) When Prescott's airport was first being laid out, workers "went up and down both runways with shovels leveling the mounds and filling up the holes made by the hundreds of prairie dogs that infested the field."(*3)

So, what happened to them?