Anecdotes of Prescott History Brought to Life From the Pages of Old Newspapers and Other Sources.
The Petrified Forest was never a secret, but initially, it was not widely known outside of Arizona (except among geologists, among whom news of the remarkable site spread quickly). North of the first known deposits, adjacent to the Santa Fe Atlantic-Pacific railroad, was Adam Hanna’s cattle ranch. It was at this point that he would found the town of Adamana—the old gateway to the Petrified Forest.
The first bridge to conquer Hell Canyon was a railroad cut-off that took the entirety of 1901 to complete. The new route would shorten the trip by only three miles, but more significantly, it would bypass “about 34 bridges and some very steep grades,” the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner described. The project was under consideration for over two years, "but [was] deferred for various reasons, but there is no doubt now, but the work will be done and that at once.”
Its name could be confusing to modern readers. It was a large hall in the city, so the owner, George W Curtis, named it “City Hall”. However, make no mistake, Prescott’s municipal government had nothing to do with it and never used it.
From its beginning and for the better part of a century, Prescott desired to be a modern city in stark contrast to the surrounding wilderness. Come 1922, people had grown weary of streets that were either dusty or muddy, and the desire was strong to dust off Prescott’s cowtown image and replace it with a modern, 20th-century city. As a result, 1922 would see the biggest infrastructure improvements the city would ever experience, as well as Prescott’s first big growth spurt.
Due to their over-the-top, Mardi Gras-quality costumes, pictures of “The Horribles” often appear around Halloween in Prescott. However, their activities actually surrounded the Fourth of July as a comedic alternative to Independence Day with hints of Confederate sympathy and mourning.
If newspaper reviews are any indication, “The Power of Silence” (the sixth movie made in Prescott) was the best one Lubin produced there in 1912. After reading the glowing critiques and lively descriptions, one is left only to lament its loss.
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| The only surviving image from "The Cringer" |
There are no known surviving copies of the first movie filmed in Yavapai County. However, a nationwide search of movie reviews and newspaper accounts for “The Cringer” offers a reasonable, albeit general, recapitulation of the film and some of its background.
The Christmas of 1897 was a bright one for Prescott. “It is only two days until Christmas, yet the very air breathes of the coming event,” the Journal-Miner noted.
After a nationwide economic slowdown, the economy was finally rebounding. The Postal Service reported that money orders “evidently intended as Christmas presents, [indicated] a tremendous increase… These conditions are accepted as a pronounced indication of the return of better times and improved financial affairs,” the paper reported.
Yet, there was something else that had recently transformed the downtown business district into a virtual box of consumer eye candy.
William Harrison Hardy had a good gig going. He owned businesses in a town named for him: Hardyville (present-day Bullhead City). He also owned an important and well-used ferry service at that point and a toll road that led to Prescott. Soon, he started opening businesses there that were successful, but in late 1866, he abruptly started to sell off all his interests in the Mile High City.
In 1901, at age 77, he revealed why to the Journal-Miner newspaper.
The Arizona Republican wrote in 1890: “The murder was one of the most cold-blooded ever committed in this territory, and is universally condemned.”
In January of that year, George Johnson, a respected cowboy, sued John Chart, who used to be a rancher in Thompson Valley, for $78 in unpaid back wages. Nine months later, it cost Johnson his life.
Dud Clark had been contracted to build a road from Prescott to Ash Fork when Lee Burhans called out to him. “Burhans was a member of a picnic party and was going through a large cave that had been well known for years, when he found a small opening that he had never before perceived,” the paper described. Peering through the hole with a match, he noticed that this opening was just below the roof of a large cavity. Lee got Dud, who then lowered a rope and descended to the cave floor with an “automobile lamp.” When he turned it on, his jaw went slack.
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| Oro Belle Mine & Mill in the Bradshaw Mountains |
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| The Congress Hotel was located on Gurley St. on the western lot of today's Hassayampa Inn. |
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| Prescott's first ice cream ad. |
