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

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 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 comm...

Payson, Arizona, claims their rodeo is the "World's Oldest Continuous Rodeo since 1884." It's a contention that relies lar...

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 cle...

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 A...

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...

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,” ...

William Harrison Hardy had a good gig going. He owned businesses in a town named for him: Hardyville (present-day Bullhead City). He also ow...

The Arizona Republican wrote in 1890: “The murder was one of the most cold-blooded ever committed in this territory, and is universally cond...

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 cr...

The ruins of Camp Date Creek From February through June 1872, Native Americans launched raiding attacks around and surprisingly close t...

Although Indian attacks were a constant fear in the 1860s, they were not a constant occurrence. However, in the last third of 1868, the Na...

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 vir...

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 crimina...

Wagoner, Arizona, was the kind of town that Hollywood loves portraying. There were outlaws, gold, guns, fights ,  and killings.   Like...

The first Thanksgiving Day, November 9th, 1866, was a solemn one in Prescott. Some were thankful that the Union had been preserved, whi...

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, thi...

One of Franklin Roosevelt's most popular Depression programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC enrolled unskilled and une...

The Courier's editor needed to pinch himself. "Will Rogers of Claremore, OK--yes, indeed, THE Will Rogers, gum-chewing humorist ...