Chino Valley in 1870

In 1870, Chino Valley had a handful of ranches, plenty of open space, and occasional visits from fearsome Native Americans.

King Woolsey's 1864 Campaign for Revenge

King Woolsey was away from his Agua Fria ranch, which was located around present-day Dewey. Instead, he was with Governor John Goodwin along the Verde when a messenger came with disturbing news. Fifty Native Americans “made a descent on [his] herd at mid-day, and before the herders could alarm the men at the ranch, they succeeded in driving off all the animals but one or two, which they killed,” the Arizona Miner described. Except for three yoke of oxen that were actively plowing the land, 30 head of livestock were lost.

This was not the first large loss Woolsey experienced, and he vowed to wreak revenge. “He will organize a company to hunt and punish the thieves, and if it is as successful as the party he headed [previously], which slaughtered twenty or more of them, he will have a good revenge,” the paper continued. “He is one of our most daring and skilled Indian fighters, and believes fully…in the extermination policy. And in view of the importance of the expedition, the Governor has made Mr. Woolsey an aide upon his staff, with the rank of Lt. Colonel.” The chance of capturing the 50 Natives who actually made the raid was so slight, it was never even considered, so revenge it was.

The Birth of Clarkdale, Arizona

The town of Clarkdale was a pet project for Senator William A Clark, owner of the United Verde mine in Jerome. It was the first planned community in Arizona and included all the makings of a modern town. It provided telephone, telegraph, electrical, sewer, and spring water services for its residents. Situated at the bottom of Cleopatra Mountain, it would be the smelter town for the mines of Jerome and the surrounding area. “To build a perfect town [was] to be the aim and ambition of former Sen. Clark,” the Mohave County Miner wrote, “and money will be lavishly spent to make it as near [perfect] as possible.”

Payson's 'Oldest Continuous Rodeo' Claim Proven False

Payson, Arizona, claims their rodeo is the "World's Oldest Continuous Rodeo since 1884." It's a contention that relies largely on oral legends. However, a review of the historical newspaper records refutes the assertion.

1921 Rodeo Had Several More Attractions

In anticipation of the great 1921 event, Grace Sparkes wrote: “Oh boy!  Can’t you hear the grinding of the old chute doors, the smell of clean horse flesh and the general atmosphere of the town just percolating with Frontier Days?"

However, just the year before, it was thought that the World’s Oldest Rodeo had run its course. There wasn’t enough profit in 1920 to hold the show in '21, but a group of businessmen and townspeople started a new fraternal organization which would be called the Smoki (Smoke-eye) People. They held a fundraising fair called the Way Out West Show May 26, 1921 to raise money for the rodeo.

Not only did the rodeo go on, but it was able to upgrade. This was the first rodeo to utilize a public address system. The “electric announcer…carried [one’s voice] to every part of the grounds,” the Weekly Journal-Miner revealed. It involved the latest technology of the day costing “several hundred dollars,” and the same style was being utilized by US President Wilson.

Constant Indian Raids, Spring 1870

1870 dawned with the usual optimism of a new year in Prescott, but underneath lay a sense of anxiety. The first edition of the 1870 Weekly Arizona Miner wrote: “Our inveterate foes—the Indians— have been on their good behavior for a number of weeks past, and have not recommenced hostilities, hereabouts. But judging from the fact that they have commenced swarming around many settlements, we fear that, ere long, they will commence their business of killing and plundering, and we advise our people to be on the lookout for them.”

The newspaper would have done well to tell its readers not to travel alone and double their herders. For it was the Indians' strategy to begin a campaign of ambushing lone travelers and lightly guarded stock.

Deep Well Ranch Hosted Annual Cowboy Camp Meetings

Before becoming a subdivision, Deep Well was a working ranch. It was also the site for Yavapai County’s cowboy camp meeting starting in 1945 and stretching into three decades.

Preacher’s Son Shoots Bully

It was all over some disparaging remarks made about a young Mayer woman “whose name none of the witnesses were able to pronounce or spell,” the paper reported. She confronted Louis Price, age 20, about the “sliding remarks” purportedly made by him at the Mayer mercantile. Price became embarrassed, and later, angry. When Price asked her where she heard the rumor, she evidently replied that it was Ned Cagle, age 18, and son of Prescott Methodist Pastor CM Cagle.

Now it was Price’s turn to confront Cagle.

1866: Indians Scare Off Pioneer Merchant

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.

Deadly Revenge Over $78

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.

Story Behind the Place Name: Poland Mine, Creek & Junction

His name was Davis Robert Poland, and he was a true frontier placer miner. He came to Yavapai County early, when one could walk down a creek bed trail and find large gold veins, embedded in quartz ledges, glittering in the sun. Indeed, this happened to Poland several times.

The Indian Uprising of 1872

The ruins of Camp Date Creek

From February through June 1872, Native Americans launched raiding attacks around and surprisingly close to Prescott. The newspapers were filled with accounts of Indian depredations during this time, and the citizenry was both frightened and filled with consternation.

Orders came from Washington to change the practice of largely shooting Indians on sight to one of feeding and educating them instead. Initially, however,  the Indians, many of whom were starving, became emboldened and started to attack.

The Indian Offensive of 1868

Although Indian attacks were a constant fear in the 1860s, they were not a constant occurrence. However, in the last third of 1868, the Native Americans definitely took the offensive.

1863: The Indian Raid on Peeples Valley

Abraham Harlow Peeples was one of the true early settlers of Central Arizona. He first arrived at Ft. Yuma in 1863 to prospect in the virgin wilderness of what would become Yavapai County. 

Peeples not only made mining claims, but he also quickly made a homesteading claim in a valley, 35 miles southwest of Prescott, which now bears his name. However, that winter, the Peeples’ ranch would suffer the crippling theft of 29 horses and mules.

Horsethief Basin: Heart of a Rustlin' Racket

The first use of the name “Horsethief Basin” in an Arizona newspaper was on November 1st, 1911, but its history as the heart of a criminal syndicate stretched back 30 years prior.

In the end, the illegal activities there would continue for decades until a road to the site was finally built. 

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.

Indian Wars Dispirited Early Thanksgiving Celebrations

The first Thanksgiving Day, November 9th, 1866, was a solemn one in Prescott. Some were thankful that the Union had been preserved, while others that the killing and destruction had finally ceased.

It was “the first time a day of Thanksgiving [had] been set apart in this territory,” the newspaper reported, and was “duly respected” with a community remembrance. However, the annual festivity would soon slip into neglect in Prescott and elsewhere in Arizona.

The Great Tungsten Rush of 1915-16

At the height of the rush, a mere 20 pounds of 65% tungsten ore would net its owner the equivalent of $1300 today. In Yavapai County, this was serious enough lucre to wheedle cowboys into leaving their saddles and commence digging!

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.

Will Rogers Visits the 1933 Frontier Days

The Courier's editor needed to pinch himself. "Will Rogers of Claremore, OK--yes, indeed, THE Will Rogers, gum-chewing humorist whose quips go straight to the mark and have made many a personage in high places flinch--well, he's in town."

"Rogers, who flew to Phoenix [on the 3rd] and drove up yesterday morning [the 4th], spent the day at the grounds, squatting on his heels at the end of the arena for the most part and surrounded almost all the time by a group of contestants,...gals of the range, and young cow waddies: a big gang of admiring small boys."

It was hoped that Rogers might present the rodeo awards that night, or ride in the closing parade, but he had something else in mind for his surprise visit "to see the final events at the fairgrounds of Frontier Days."