The Forgotten Pioneer & His Lost Gold

Nathaniel S “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.”

The Forgotten Mining Town of White Horse City

The genesis of White Horse City was the locating of three mines in the Walker district in the Spring of 1899. The original owners, GM Wright, CW VonWolfe, and R Horsecroft, founded the Lone Pine, Hammer, and White Horse mines. “The property is located only seven miles from [Prescott] in the mountains just east of Lynx creek and to the right of the McCabe road,” the Weekly Journal Miner described. These mines were located between the highly successful McCabe and Mudhole mines in the Walker district. 

$7 Million in Gold Awaits to be Found

Initially, one might dismiss an account of over 230 pounds of placer gold just waiting to be found, but the Catholic Church had enough faith in the story that they employed fifteen men to try to locate it. Still, it remains hidden to this day.

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.

Prescott 1933: A Story in Pictures

Gurley Street, 1933

It was the poorest of times. It was the richest of times. Despite being in the depths of the Great Depression, Prescott would rise above its trials.

Here now are 24 more images that will give the reader a taste of what it was like to live in Prescott in 1933...

Before Prescott Valley, There Was Massicks, AZ

The Barlow Massicks' "Castle on the Creek"

Thomas Gibson Barlow Massicks had just visited his Catoctin Mine and was riding back to Prescott in his buckboard, May 17, 1898. Although the road was especially rugged, Massicks made haste, bouncing about abruptly as the buckboard wheels dropped into a rut or launched off a bump. As he endured the ride, his six-shooter slowly made its way out of its scabbard and fell to the wagon floor. With the sheerest of bad luck, the gun landed on its hammer and fired, barely missing Massicks’ right kidney and coming to rest on his right lung.

Despite excruciating pain, Massicks drove his team even harder in hopes of reaching Bates’ Station, 4 miles away. When he arrived at the house, he “was so far gone from the loss of blood and from the shock, that he was almost in a state of collapse, and had to be assisted into the house,” the paper reported.

Mr. Bates immediately took Massicks’ buckboard and completed the trip to Prescott to summon a doctor who undoubtedly saved his life. However, the wound would slowly prove mortal both for Massicks the man and for the town of the same name, which was located in the Prescott Valley area on lower Lynx Creek.

Wild Wagoner AZ: Founded 1864

Wagoner, Arizona, was the kind of town that Hollywood loves portraying. There were outlaws, gold, guns, fights , and killings.  Like desert grass, Wagoner bloomed in the monsoon of its gold rush and quickly perished soon after.

A Union Spy in the Joseph Walker Camp

Joseph Rutherford Walker, circa 1860

It is well understood that Fort Whipple was established to protect Anglos around the Prescott area. However, there is evidence that initially the federal government was not so much interested in protecting the miners as it was in protecting the minerals.

1864: Prescott's First Christmas

Winter began early in 1864, "and by the middle of December the trails were mostly snowed under and lost--all but those often traveled which led to the placer gold mines on Lynx Creek, or to Walnut Grove and the camps on the Hassayampa."

In what would be a rare "white" Christmas, "the snow lay white over the hills; the tops of the high peaks were crystal white and cold; and the pine and cedar and juniper trees were sparkling like trees on a Christmas card."

There were roughly 200-300 anglos around the Prescott area and the few houses that did exist in the tiny burg happily opened their doors to all that arrived.

The Complete "Lost History" of the Yavapai County Courthouse

The reasons why Yavapai County needed a new, third, (and current) courthouse seemed endless. First, the Old Courthouse had become too small for the growing county. Added to that was this stunning list of deficiencies:

1890: The Dam, The Drunk, & The Disaster

Walnut Grove Dam

The Dam:

"Besides being the largest piece of solid masonry in the United States, [the Walnut Grove Dam] also drains [ed] the largest watershed in the world, being upwards of 400 miles of territory." (*1)

But in the dark, early hours of February 22, 1890, heavy rains would cause the dam to "literally explode."

"The disastrous breach of Arizona's first major dam poured 4 billion gallons of water into a canyon above Wickenburg and killed approximately 100-150 people, although no one will really ever know how many people drowned." (*2)

1875-86: The Murderous Stanton Syndicate

Charles P Stanton in front of his hotel.

NOTICE:

This article is effectively retired. 

Four years after this article was published, historian Parker Anderson researched the subject for his book "Arizona Gold Gangster Charles P Stanton." Nearly all of the folklore was proven to be untrue or highly unlikely...

When Charles P Stanton first set his eyes on the town of Antelope Station, he coveted to make it his own personal empire. Eventually, he would name the town in honor of himself and rule it with a murderous tyranny that would even make Al Capone blush.

"While Stanton, Arizona, never had the glamor of Tombstone, in the days of Charles Stanton, no town in the West could equal the murderous, evil environment predominating life in this (otherwise) thriving gold-mining community." (*1)

In fact, Stanton gained such a heinous reputation that travelers in the area steered clear of the town. (*1)

Story Behind the Name: "Wilhoit" "Woodchute" "Bumble Bee" "Big Bug"

Arizona has some interesting and colorful place names. Here are four from around the greater Prescott National Forest area:

Wilhoit, Arizona

Wilhoit:
First, the charming story of Wilhoit, Arizona.

The Forgotten Ghost Town of Placerita

Old Stone Cabin at Placerita, AZ.
Since this picture was taken, the roof reportedly has collapsed.

There are different types of ghost towns in Arizona, depending largely on the ease of access to them. Ghost towns located on well-travelled roads, like Jerome, really only used to be ghost towns and are now vibrant tourist stops.

Then there are the ghost towns located on dirt roads that still might have a ranching community or even a bar, like Cleator.

Finally, there are the true ghost towns that sit in the middle of the wilderness and are only accessible by foot trail.

Placerita, Arizona, is one such "true" ghost town and offers a colorful history of gold, goats and several killings.

1863: Hot-Head Miners Murder 20 Yavapai

The earliest episodes of Indian conflicts in Yavapai Country were not recorded in newspapers at first. Quite simply, there weren't enough readers around to publish one.

When newsmen did arrive, however, they were keen to make a record of these early events through accounts of oral history, while these "early birds" were still alive.

"Some of the tales told...seem almost incredible, but they are substantiated by fact and require no 'affidavit;' they are epitomized from the general tone of the many who relate such."

This particular tale includes one of the most gut-wrenching twists in the history of the county...

Remembering the Mayer Smokestack

Cynics say it was a memorial to a boondoggle. Locals say it was a memorial to Mayer's mining history. Unwittingly, it was also a memorial to the end of World War I.

Whatever one wants to call it, the old smokestack celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017.

For commuters, it used to mark that one is 17 miles away from Prescott Valley. To tourists, it was an oddity. But the 129.5-foot-high tower, which sat as a silent sentry over the town of Mayer, had an interesting history.

It was meant to carry smoke into the sky from the smelting of precious metals mined around Mayer. It was never used for that. In fact, it was never even finished!

The Devastating Raids on the Bully Bueno Mine

The strategy of Native Americans during the Indian Wars was more nuanced than simply "collecting scalps."

Their preferred method was to utilize a strategy this author would describe as "guerrilla attrition."  Instead of starving out their opponent with a siege by surrounding them, Native Americans would uniquely use guerrilla raids to attack the provisions, animals, and supplies necessary for the survival of their foes.

One of the most successful and best examples of guerrilla attrition by the Native Americans was their raids on the Bully Bueno Mine.

The Miller Bros. Saved Prescott From Starvation

Sam and Jake Miller were two of the very first whites to lay eyes on the Prescott area when they arrived with the Walker Party in 1863.  But unlike the other members of that party, the Miller brothers stayed.  Had they not, the history of Prescott would have been much different and much shorter.

Imagine if "Prescott" was remembered only as an attempt to settle the area, an experiment that failed after only one year due to starvation and an Apache blockade of the town.

This could have very well been the case had it not been for the Miller brothers' nerves and the business they started in Prescott's earliest days.

22 Undiscovered Buried Treasures Near Prescott *UPDATED*

There are at least 22 lost treasures of cash and gold waiting to be found in the Prescott area in Yavapai County.

These could be categorized by four motives: treasure buried by miners for safekeeping; gold reburied by the Indians to keep it away from the whites; the ill-gotten gain of thieves; and those who did not trust banks.

Gold Hidden by Miners: