Mesa, AZ to Prescott, AZ (Hwy 101 to I-17N; Hwy 74 west to Hwy 93; Hwy 93 north to Hwy 89, Hwy 89 to Prescott)
Our route out of the Valley of the Sun skirts north around the metropolitan area following the base of the mountains west to intercept Hwy 93, then turning north on Hwy 93 to Wickenburg.
Gold strikes near Yuma in southwestern Arizona brought prospectors to Arizona and they quickly spread out across the interior. In 1862 Henry Wickenburg came to the Hassayampa River Valley and discovered gold in the hills west of the river. Settlers soon followed and a year later the town of Wickenburg was founded in the fertile river valley. The Yavapai Indians did not take this incursion into their lands well and the next the ten years unfolded in a series of hostile skirmishes. Finally, General Crook arrived and in 1872 the Yavapai were defeated and confined to a reservation, first north in the mountains and eventually banished to the desert in eastern Arizona under the harshest of conditions. The railroad arrived in 1895 and the construction of Highway 60 as the main route between Phoenix and California brought prosperity to the ranching community by bringing tourists. Wickenburg became the center of Arizona Dude Ranch country starting with the Garden of Allah and today remnants of the dude ranches continue in the area as Rancho de los Caballeros is now a golf resort and the Remuda is an eating disorder clinic (and the area’s largest employer). Downtown Wickenburg relishes its’ western heritage.
Wickenburg, AZ
The Hassayampa Building stands proudly across from the railroad tracks. Built in 1905 as the Vernetta Hotel by black businesswoman Elizabeth Smith as an overnight stop for train passengers, the building now is the headquarters for the Remuda Ranch.
Around town are a number of figures from Wickenburg’s past. Nearby each figure is a button that triggers an audio of the figure explaining their position in Wickenburg’s history.
Cowboys from the surrounding ranches would come to town for the winter and each spring would gather up their supplies and sometime around the middle of April leave town to go back to the land. Wickenburg remembers this tradition with the annual Desert Caballeros Ride, where local cowboys (and cowboy wanna-bees!) gather and leave town in memory of the old days. I just happened to be in Wickenburg to witness this year’s ride! Nearly 200 men gathered just south of the main street prior to the ride out of town.
Then, sharply at noon, the cowboys proudly left town.
The mass divides into various groups once out of town and they head for the hills, spending the next couple of days reliving the Old West.
Even young “caballeros-in-training” were there to celebrate the event…
Anchoring the corner of Wickenburg Way and Tegner is a 200 year old mesquite tree known as the “Jail Tree”. From 1863 to 1890 outlaws were chained to the tree in the absence of a jail. One of the historical figures is sitting in the shade chained to the tree, you can push the button and hear his tale of woe…
Leaving Wickenburg, we turn northeast on Hwy 89 towards Prescott. It’s only 60 miles but it takes me nearly three hours to drive! Why, you might ask? Well, the first half is a pretty easy drive as we approach the Bradshaw Mountains. The road is incredible, twisting and turning as it climbs the mountains in a series of hair-pin curves and switchbacks. The Lunch Box seldom gets above 20 mph.
The road climbs and falls until we turn a corner and enter the small canyon which is home to Prescott.
The juniper trees are in full bloom and the pollen is creating havoc with my allergies, but I soldier on!
Prescott, AZ
Fort Whipple was established on the banks of Granite Creek in 1864 to help pacify the hostile native population and make the area safer for prospectors who were flooding the area. Arizona had just become part of the United States as a territory and the town of Prescott was founded in 1864 as the first territorial capitol of Arizona. Prescott was chosen rather than Tucson because Tucson was the center of Confederate sympathy in the territory and so the federal government chose to make the seat of government in the north, safely in Union hands. Today Prescott is the center of the “Quad Cities”, four towns within ten miles that compose Arizona’s third largest population center. Prescott itself is somewhat confined by its’ position in a rather narrow canyon at the edge of the mountains and so recent development has spilled over into the broad Prescott Valley to the north and east.
Historic Prescott enters on Courthouse Square, which itself is anchored by the 1916 Yavapai County Courthouse. The picture on the left is taken from a block east (and up!) looking down the slope towards the western façade of the courthouse and the mountains beyond, the picture on the right is from street level on the north.
Prescott is a favorite destinations for people fleeing the heat from desert to the south and is a bustling tourist destination. The blocks around the courthouse are full of bars, restaurants and stores catering to the tourists. The block south of the courthouse is the famed “Whiskey Row”, so named because historically it was lined with saloons and brothels. The block burned in 1900 but was quickly rebuilt. All of the buildings on the block date from the years 1900-1905.
The other blocks facing the courthouse square are a combination of retail, commercial offices and the US Post Office.
Side streets contain substantial buildings to the north and residential streets to the east, up the hill.
High on the hillside above the courthouse is the landmark Hassavampa Hotel built in 1927.
The lobby displays the elegance of the “Roaring Twenties.”
Two blocks south of the courthouse is the Sharlot Hall Museum, a four acre complex that is the legacy of Sharlot Hall, one of the most influential woman in the early history of Arizona.
Sharlot Hall Museum
Sharlot Hall was born in Kansas in 1870 and came to the Prescott area in 1882 where her father first worked in the gold fields and then later founded a ranch where Sharlot lived until 1927. She was passionate about the history of Arizona and helped lobby for the separation of Arizona from New Mexico in the early 1900’s. Sharlot was the first paid woman in Arizona government, serving as the territorial historian from 1909 to 1912 and was the elector chosen to deliver Arizona’s three electoral votes to Washington D.C. after the election of Calvin Coolidge in 1924. The Arizona Industrial Congress commissioned an overdress for her to wear on the trip. The overdress looks like leather in the picture but really is made of thousands of little copper links in homage to Arizona’s copper industry.
In 1928 Sharlot founded the Sharlot Hall Museum just two blocks west of Whiskey Row on the grounds of the very first governor of Arizona’s home. The museum now encompasses four acres with a number of historic buildings on site, including the home built in 1864 for the first governor of the Arizona Territory, John Goodwin. The log home was called a mansion because in comparison to the tents and temporary shelters that the miners and their followers lived in it was a palace. Governor Goodwin shortly became the territorial delegate from Arizona to the federal government in Washington D.C. and was succeeded by the second governor of the territory, Richard McCormick, who brought his wife Margaret to live in Prescott. In 1865 she planted the French Boursault roses along the porch in front of the house that are still growing today.
Early photographs show that the mansion has not changed much from its’ original design. On the left is a photograph from 1880 and on the right a photo from 1929.
The mansion basically consists of six rooms. For a brief time the two governors shared the house as a duplex, with Goodwin living on the south side and the McCormick’s on the north. When Governor Goodwin left for Washington the south end was used as offices for the governor and his staff.
The two rooms in the middle are the parlor (with a welcoming gift of a braided carpet made by the ladies of Prescott and Fort Whipple similar to the one displayed today) and a dining room (the kitchen was separate from the house as a precaution against fires.)
The two rooms on the north end were used as a bedroom and a storage room by the McCormicks.
Behind the Governor’s Mansion is the oldest cabin, in Arizona, dubbed Fort Misery, built just before the Governor’s Mansion in 1864 a half mile away. It was moved onto the grounds of the museum in 1934. In the early years the cabin saw a number of uses: the first law office in Arizona, the first general store in Central Arizona, the first courthouse in Arizona, and the first boarding house in Central Arizona. All this in a two room cabin!
Mary DeCrow came to Arizona in 1861 and to Prescott in 1864. Known as “Virgin Mary”, she used the two room cabin as a boarding house and married Cornelius Ramos in 1865 as the first marriage performed in Prescott. In 1982 the cabin was used by Judge Allyn as his office, courtroom, parlor and bedroom.
A replica of the first schoolhouse in Prescott is also on the grounds (1867).
Most ranch houses of the early years only had one large room in which all functions of the family took place. Sharlot Hall had a replica of an early ranch house built on the museum grounds in 1936.
In 1878 John C. Fremont, the fifth territorial governor rented a house built in Prescott in 1875 by Zac Wilson, who milled the planks at his own sawmill. It’s obviously a step up from the original 1864 Governor’s Mansion! The house (below left) was acquired by the museum, moved to the museum grounds and restored in 1972. The other Victorian home on museum grounds is the 1877 Bashford House (below right). William Coles Bashford was a leading merchant of the Prescott community in the late 1880’s. The home has been restored and is now the museum gift shop.
My path now is going to wend its way in a circle around east-central Arizona.
Next stop: The Verde Valley
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