1910: A Killing Near Thumb Butte

Miss Virginia Hite, a popular school teacher, arrived at the Plaza with her horse in a lather. She had come from the Sweeney and Anderson mining camp near Thumb Butte. The ride “of over seven long miles, on dangerous ground,” was made in a “record-breaking 30 minutes,” the newspaper reported. She had ridden her horse “at almost full speed the entire distance, never drawing rein until she reached the Courthouse Plaza.” 

There had been a shooting at the camp, and the sheriff and a doctor were needed immediately.

Story Behind the Place Name: The Bradshaws

Oro Belle Mine & Mill in the Bradshaw Mountains

It was Autumn, 1863. Prescott had not yet been founded. William Bradshaw and a group of men were standing atop a mountain in the “Silver Range” with nothing to see but wilderness from horizon to horizon. Seeking gold and silver, they happened to be walking upon the largest deposit Arizona would ever know.

Not only would the mountains he was standing in be named for him, but there are no less than 9 other locales that bear his name: Bradshaw City, Bradshaw’s Ferry, the Bradshaw mining district, Bradshaw Mountain High School, Bradshaw Mountain Middle School, the Bradshaw Mountain Railroad, the Bradshaw Ranger District, the Bradshaw Trail, and the Bradshaw Springs and Stream.

In 1879 No One Died of Old Age

If one were to think that the Arizona 1880 Mortality Schedule for deaths in 1879 was as dry a source as the Arizona desert just before the monsoons, he’d be right! But when one extracts the data for Yavapai County, the way of death in 1879 paints a poignant picture of a most difficult way of life.

Clever Young Forger Meets His Day of Reckoning

John Frye was a well-liked 20-year-old who came to Prescott and got a job as a correspondence clerk at the Prescott State Bank.

In mid-February 1918, he informed people that he had received a telegram notifying him "that his aunt, who had raised him, was seriously hurt in an automobile accident, requesting him to come to Seattle immediately."

In fact, this was a ruse. Frye was attempting to evade the police before an act of embezzlement in Seattle caught up with him. Additionally, he was planning another caper in New York City, where he would walk out of local banks with the equivalent of $500,000 today.

Jealousy Killed the Good-Time Girl

History lost her real name; she went by "Georgie Brown."

She was a "woman of the under world" who caught the eye of a naive young barber named Alexander Oaks when she blew into San Louis Obispo, CA.

Oaks would become completely infatuated with her to the point of losing common sense. He would follow her anywhere--even to the grave.

May 9, 1911: Two Capital Murders in One Afternoon

As the 20th century dawned, Prescott was much more of a "law and order" town than her early years. However, May 9th, 1911, would see two unrelated, shocking, cold-blooded murders on the same afternoon!

Both suspects would face the gallows as the newborn State of Arizona grappled with the question of the death penalty.

Mystery Man Entombed in Thumb Butte

It was Sunday, January 22, 1911. Two young men had made the risky climb to the summit of Thumb Butte. While enjoying the view and carefully moving about the top, one looked down into a deep crevice and was shocked to see a person!

"So stupefied and astounded were they, that after a few minutes observation...and satisfying themselves that life was extinct; [they] hurriedly left the scene and gave alarm in this city."