Amazing Discoveries of Yavapai Co. Ancients

Mummies, pygmies, and three separate accounts of giants are some of the amazing finds that were made in the early 20th century in the greater Yavapai County area. Back then, “Indian artifacts” were a commercial business where people would sweep up arrowheads and any other objects and sell them in stores or on the roadside.

Shamefully, much of this activity devolved into what could only be described as grave-robbing until the Antiquities Act made such behavior illegal. However, these relic hunters would occasionally come across some astonishing items…

Harrison Yarnell and the Mystery of Rich Hill

“It was a piteous scene and remarkable in the extreme,” the Journal-Miner observed. Harrison Yarnell (for whom Yarnell, Arizona, is named) stood before Judge Frank O Smith, a broken man. He was applying for admission to the Pioneers’ Home in Prescott—something reserved only for the destitute. “I’ve tried hard to keep from this,” he told the judge, “but I’ve fought my battle, and I’m through.”

At the very least, it was bitterly ironic. His namesake mine, which he founded, had yielded $12,000,000 worth of gold at that point. "All the money, however, went back into the ground in an attempt to find the big deposit of gold which he believed was to be found within a space of five miles square around the Yarnell mine,” the Hassayampa Miner described, but it was his attempt to solve one burning mystery that took his last dollars.

My Life as an Indian Scout (Albert Sieber)

Pleasure to meet you. 

My name is Albert Sieber, and I was considered one of the best Indian scouts in the Arizona Territory, if not the Southwest. I was born in Germany on February 19, 1844, and came to America as a young boy, the 13th of 14 children. 

Early in 1862, I enlisted in Company B, 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. I saw some terrible sights during the Peninsula Campaign in the Army of the Potomac as a Corporal and a sharpshooter. I thought I was a goner at Gettysburg when a piece of a shell hit me in the head. I sat lying on the battlefield until long after the fighting before they found me. 

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.

The Women Who Civilized Prescott

Despite being the Territorial Capital at the close of the 19th Century, Prescott still clung to many aspects of a rough mining town, and the educated wives of the politicians wanted to make it more civilized.

So in 1895, they formed a group dedicated to making Prescott a city where families could thrive. Originally, it was simply called the Prescott Women’s Club, but since many other groups with that title were solely focused on women’s suffrage, they soon changed the name to the Monday Club. It is still the oldest women’s organization in Arizona.

The Mysterious Figurine-Making Forest People

Were these 1000-year-old artifacts tokens of black magic?

Much mystery surrounds the small, clay figurines found in the forest south of Prescott, as well as the people who made them.