PRESCOTT

The Iron King mine near Humboldt is one of many mining operations of Yavapai, feeding Prescott trading area. It was not the climate that caused Prescott to become the first Capital of the Arizona Territory in 1863, but rather it was its location in the center of the Territory, and its already flourishing cattle and mining development in the area. This was likewise true as to the establishment of Fort Whipple as a military post, to give protection to the settlement against the Apaches. However it should be recalled that Arizona Territory was organized by President Lincoln in 1863, partly because of the need for federal territory linking California to the rest of the Union, and the further fact that persons living in the southern part of the area had already allied Arizona with the Confederacy. The leaders who came in with that first Governor's party were Union men appointed from northern states and sent to Arizona to give aid in strengthening the Union cause. These facts coupled with the location of Fort Whipple established Prescott as the Capital, and it is conceivable that the streams of water winding through the pine clad hills was more inviting than miles of arid desert.

Arizona became a Territory upon official declaration by proclamation at Navajo Springs, but the first resident seat of government was at the site of the Del Rio Springs in Chino Valley (Spanish for the gramma grass that abounds there) but when Fort Whipple moved to the present site of the Veteran's Hospital in 1864 the Territorial Capital was moved to Prescott. In 1864 the first Governor's Mansion was built and soon at a public meeting the "SMOKIS DANCE IN AUGUST" BY RAY J. MANLEY. 4x5 Graphic View Camera, 8½" Commercial Ektar lens, 1/50th second at f6.3, with c 1/8 Harrison correction finder. The Smoki People of Prescott, business and professional residents of the city, stage their authentic dances each August. The dance shown here was first daylight performance staged after the war. Evening performances are also held.

Prescott enjoys the seasons' change. Usually very mild winters are the vogue, but sometimes heavy snows arrive.

Prescott is the center of a large and prosperous cattle producing region. Livestock is basic county industry. name of the new town was chosen upon the suggestion of Richard McCormick, Secretary of State, in honor of the historian, William Hickling Prescott.

In 1867, the Capital was moved to Tucson, but re-turned to Prescott in 1877. It was moved permanently to Phoenix in 1889. Those early days of Prescott were re-splendent in military decorum and governmental elegance.

Yes, along with all this, side by side, was a wide-open western town with all of the saloons, dance halls, gambling emporiums and cribs existed that gave the place a boisterousness that sometimes alone has been its lasting description. Many a romance blossomed in those surroundings that gave future strength to the area and leaders for its community, and it is a fact that no more generous philanthropists ever existed. Even some of the churches of the community owe their early financial security to the gamblers and bartenders off the Row. Two ways of life lived side by side, but today the one of stronger character dominates and Prescott is primarily a community of homes and good living.

Many names leap from the pages of history to form the galaxy of pioneers of Prescott's past. There was Pauline Weaver, its first citizen, famous mountain man and leader or guide to expeditions like the Walker Party that gave the area its mining development. Such men as King Woolsey, John N. Goodwin, Richard McCormick, Levi Bashford, General Crook, and John C. Fremont and many others belong in the long list of notables who helped to create in the yesteryears the Prescott that exists today.

Prescott is served by Highways 89 and 69, by the Santa Fe Railway (with direct connections with the Chief to Chicago), by TWA daily flights both east and west, and Frontier Days are festive days in Prescott. This famed rodeo is reputed to be the oldest cow show in existence.

by Santa Fe Trailways and Pacific Greyhound Lines. These are the facilities that make travel both easy and comfortable for the visitor. The drive from any direction to Prescott traverses beautiful country; mountains, plains, highlands, rich valleys, or great sweeps of cattle range.

This area is the point of journey in the summer for Arizona vacationers and many summer homes have been built by residents of the lower altitudinal climes of Arizona in the nearby Mountain Club and Iron Springs resort. This is the summer mecca for young people and many summer camps are maintained serving in 1947-8 more than 6,000 youngsters, giving them fine out-of-door camping experience under capable leadership.

Children find relief from asthmatic distress when coming to Prescott. This fact has been well established over a period of years. Whether it is alone the fine, dry, pine laden air or the lack of fungus in the decomposed granite soil is not determined, but many children suffering from asthma and other bronchial ailments find almost immediate relief and most recover sufficiently to return to their previous environments with apparent cures effected. The Children's Retreat is a home away from home for many children who come to Prescott.

Prescott is a center for considerable business. It is a trade center estimated to serve some 35,000 people. The population in 1948 was estimated as 15,000 for the city and immediate environs. Electric meters now in operation exceed 4,000 and telephone installations approximate 3,500. The city has an adequate water supply from deep wells and additional supplies in reservoirs. A natural gas line is expected to serve the city by 1951.

Mining, cattle, lumbering and agriculture were and are the basic industries of the area. A wealth that has already added more than seven hundred million dollars in ore value to the productive strength of America has been taken from the mines of Yavapai County, and the annual value of ores extracted varies from eleven to fifteen million dollars. The Agricultural Census of 1945 (the latest available but known to be woefully low in relationship to current figures) shows a total value for all livestock products sold as amounting to $2,287,090.00 for the County. Eleven thousand acres were planted to crops in Yavapai County in 1949 but the estimated income is not available. All of the Prescott National Forest and parts of both Coconino, and Kaibab, Tonto National Forests are within the confines of Yavapai County.

Mining in Yavapai County is mostly copper with some gold, silver and other metals. Livestock is cattle, horses, sheep and goats. Agricultural crops include alfalfa, beans and some small grains and fruits. While Prescott is neither a mining camp nor cowtown, as the county seat it is a combination of both in the sense of trade area. The Stetson hat and cowboy boots are so common that only a newcomer notices them, and the old prospector with his burro is a familiar sight in the area. However, it is the transplanted midwestern business man and his family, the health seeker and the vacationer, combined with the earlier and continuing prototypes, that form the community pattern of today.

In 1947 the retail sales for Prescott amounted to $12,303,833. The monthly payroll is about $900,000. The payrolls include the Santa Fe Railway; the government agencies such as the Hospital at Whipple, Forest Service and other agencies, small industries, and retail and service outlets. The Royal Manufacturing Co. produces plastic products; Prescott Sportswear is manufacturing a line of clothing that is gaining recognition. A box factory and beverage manufacturer make up the remainder of the industrial establishments of the city. In addition there is a daily newspaper and a printing plant capable of producing all manner of printed books and pamphlets.

Strange as it may seem the emphasis in Prescott has seemed to have been throughout the years not so much to increase business and industry as it has been to make the city a desirable place in which to live. There is something wholesome in such a goal, and it is conceivable that it is the purpose that will attract more small industry as manufacturers increasingly become aware of such communities not only as sources for sales but pleasant places for manufacturing. Thus desiring to make the place a desirable one in which to live, Prescott has developed some unusual attractions for its visitors as well as home folks. The Frontier Days Rodeo, always held on the week-end of July 4, stems from the early days. It is the oldest cowboy festival in the United States. The Community Sings which are held one evening each week during the summer months are unique, made up of local entertainers presenting programs of artistic quality under the stars. The annual Smoki Ceremonial and Snake Dance given each August is now world-renowned. These ceremonials depicting the ancient rites and ceremonials of the American Indians are presented by a group of white business and professional men and women, whose concern is the perpetuation of these ancient rites and culture. There is probably not another community production comparable to this in the United States. Added to these special features of the summer are the Smoki and Sharlot Hall Museums, swimming pools, golf course, boating and fishing lakes, riding trails, movie theaters and excellent places for dining. All of these facilities together with the inviting mountain trails and picnicing sites, with the many places of interest throughout the county make this an ideal summer abode.

But not alone for summer are Prescott people pleased with their city. In the winter they bring the Community Concerts to Prescott, affording the community the best in musical entertainment. Too, speakers of note are regular events in the community. The schools are of the highest standard. The buildings are adequate, though new ones are being built to house the growing population, the staff is of excellent character and fine training. Graduates of the Prescott schools have no difficulty in gaining admission to accredited schools of higher learning. Just recently a Prescott graduate was named Rhodes scholar for the year 1949-50.

Prescott is a city of churches. There are 22 at present and almost all of the usual denominations are represented. Prescott is the home of Protestantism in Arizona. The Padres established churches throughout southern Arizona and the Mormon pioneers brought their places of worship into being as regularly as they established communities, it was in Prescott that the Protestant Churches were first firmly established as a part of the rich heritage of Arizona.

Thus the jewel of the mountains, Prescott, is the city with a year-round climate, steeped in an historic past, comfortable in a secure economy of the present, gracious in spirit, colorful in attire, pleasing in social grace, surrounded by a wealth of nature's resources.

Vanished Arizona

"If you want an intimate picture of frontier life in Arizona get a book by a woman," advised Peter Decker, one of the best known dealers in Western Americana in New York.

Surrounded by walls of books on the history of Western United States, Peter Decker pulled a small book from a shelf and laid it on the desk. It was Vanished Arizona by Martha Summerhayes published in 1908 at Philadelphia. "This little volume, with Bourke's On the Border with General Crook, gives the best picture of Old Arizona," he said.

Vanished Arizona is a literary and historical gem. Anyone reading Mrs. Summerhayes' biography will have frontier Arizona rise up from the pages, and they will live with the author the days she spent in Arizona in the 1870's when Arizona was a raw frontier.

Martha Dunham Summerhayes was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, October 21, 1846, and lived there until she went to Europe to study for two years. On her return, she married Lieutenant John W. Summerhayes, a native of her home town. After trapping in the Northwest and working as a sailor, the Lieutenant had entered the Civil War as an officer of the Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteers, and remained in the army to serve on the western frontier. Married early in the spring of 1874, they went to Fort Russell in Wyoming Territory where the Lieutenant was stationed.

Before Mrs. Summerhayes was fully settled at Fort Russell, Lieutenant Summerhayes was ordered to the Department of Arizona as an officer of Company K of the Eighth Infantry. A wearied passenger on the old steamer Newbern, Mrs. Summerhayes reached the mouth of the Colorado River on the nineteenth of August.

Arizona did not look inviting. The wind was like a breath from a furnace and beat the waves into angry foam. It was four days before the wind quieted, and the sea was calm enough to permit the passengers of the Newbern to be transferred to the waiting Colorado River ship.

BY JEAN PROVENCE

The two hundred mile trip up the Colorado River to Fort Mohave was made with the August sun beating down on the steamer Gila. Captain Jack Mellen did his best to make the young bride comfortable, but with no results. Of the experience Mrs. Summerhayes wrote in VanishedArizona. "We wandered around the boat, first forward, and then aft, to find a cool spot. We hung up our canteens covered with flannel and dipped in water, where they would swing in the shade, thereby obtaining water that was a trifle cooler than the air. There was no ice and consequently no fresh provisions. A Chinaman served as steward and cook, and at the ringing of a bell we all went into a small salon back of the pilot house where meals were served. The fare was meager, of course, fresh biscuit without butter, very salt boiled beef, and some canned vegetables. Pies made from preserved peaches or plums generally followed this delectable course. China-men can make pies under conditions that would stagger most chefs. They may have no marble pastry slab, and the lard may run like oil, still they can make pies that taste good to the traveler.

"At sundown the boat put her nose to the bank and tied up for the night. At twilight soldiers laid our mattresses side by side on the after deck. Pajamas and loose gowns were soon in evidence, but nothing mattered as there was no electric lights to disturb us with their glare. But even this short respite from the glare of the sun was soon ended; for before the crack of dawn, or, as it seemed to us, shortly after midnight, came such a clatter with the fires and the high pressure engine and sparks further rest was impossible. We betook ourselves with our mattresses to the staterooms for another attempt at sleep, which, however meant only failure, as the sun arose incredibly early on the river. We were glad to take a hasty sponge from a basin of thick looking river water, and go again out on deck where we could get a cup of black coffee from the Chinaman."

Eleven days up the river from Yuma on September 8 the Gila reached Fort Mohave, the end of the steamer journey. Baggage was transferred to giant blue army freight wagons and Mrs. Summerhayes was put in a Dougherty wagon, or ambulance, and the journey continued.

At the end of the first day of traveling in the Mohave Desert Lieutenant Summerhayes brought a six foot soldier to Mrs. Summerhayes. Blithely he said, "Mattie, this is Bowen, our striker, now. I want you to tell him what he shall cook for our supper. Don't you think it would be nice if you could show him how to make those good New England doughnuts." Mrs. Summerhayes met the situation with an inward struggle and asked, "Where are the eggs?" "Oh," said the Lieutenant, "you don't need eggs. You're on the frontier now. You must learn to do without eggs."

The soldier cook turned back the cover of the mess chest and brought Mrs. Summerhayes a tin basin, some condensed milk, sugar, and a rolling pin. Digging her hands into the mixture Mrs. Summerhayes dreaded the prospects of certain failure under such impossible conditions. At the last minute she was saved. A terrific sandstorm came up without warning and in its fury filled everything with sand including Mrs. Summerhayes' doughnut mix.

The wife of the senior officer, Colonel John D. Wilkins, volunteered some advice. "I am an old army woman and I have made many campaigns with the Colonel. You have just joined the army. You must never try to do any cooking at the camp fire. When you reach your post you can show what you can do in that line."

For the next decade Mrs. Summerhayes continued her education as an army wife, and in time she grew to accept the inconveniences of frontier life. But then as she rode towards Fort Whipple at Prescott she abused the desert to her heart's content.

"The desert was new to me then," Mrs. Summerhayes wrote. "I had not read Pierre Loti's wonderful book Le Desert, and I did not see much to admire in the desolate waste land through which we were traveling. I did not dream of the power of the desert, nor that I should ever long to see it again."

At Fort Whipple, Lieutenant Summerhayes was ordered on to Camp Apache in the White Mountains where the troublesome Chiricahua Apaches had been put on a reservation by General George Crook. From Camp Verde they were the first to travel with wagons the newly marked Crook's Trail along the Mogollon Rim.

Much impressed by the grandeur of the country Mrs Summerhayes described it in Vanished Arizona Ever dreamed of; more than that, it seemed so untrod, so fresh I remember thinking as we alighted from our ambulances and stood there looking over into the (Tonto) basin 'Surely I have never seen anything to compare with this but oh! would any sane human being voluntarily go through what I have endured on this journey, in order to look on this wonderful scene'!

The crest of the Mogollon Rim above Payson is not on Arizona's transcontinental highways but Mrs. Summerhayes' view may be seen by following state highways from Flagstaff, Winslow or Globe.

After two months of the roughest kind of travel Mrs. Summerhayes and the Lieutenant reached Camp Apache which was to be their home.

At that time the officers quarters of Camp Apache were log cabins built near the edge of the deep canyon through which the White Mountain River flows before its junction with Black River. Being a Second Lieutenant, and the lowest in rank, the Lieutenant was assigned half a log cabin that gave the bride one room and a small hall in which to make a home. A bare shed away from the house had to be used as a kitchen.

A carpet was nailed over the board floor of the log cabin, two iron cots were brought from the post hospital, and mattresses were filled with straw from the stable. A broken legged washstand was captured, a round table was brought from somewhere, and rawhide chairs were dragged in from the sutler's store. A fire was built in the fireplace and the Summerhayes were housekeeping.

After having failed the Lieutenant in making doughnuts over a campfire Mrs. Summerhayes achieved a noteable success with an oyster supper.

"One day," Mrs. Summerhayes wrote, "feeling particularly ambitious to have my dinner a success, I made a bold attempt at oyster patties. With the confidence of youth and inexperience, I made the pastry and it was/ace success. I took a can of Baltimore oysters and did the wa up in a fashion that astonished myself, and whendid the soup, each guest was served with a hot oystiovhs one of the cavalry officers fairly gasped. 'On and if I'm alive! Where on earth-Bless my stant heirnis at Camp Apache'!"

As winter approached the Apache accepted their medicine dances, and one evening several officers and their wives Mrs. Summerhayes witnessed the ceremonies. From the edge of a ravine they went down into a natural amphitheatre. She sat near fires where hordes of wild Apaches the edge of lance others sat on logs beating tomtomzaphithea were Appearing 'through the dance Mrs. Summerhayes was im"They were entirely naked, except for the loinJoth; their bodies were painted, and from their elbows

and knees stood out bunches of feathers, giving them the appearance of huge flying creatures; jingling things were attached to their necks and arms. Upon their heads were large frames, made to resemble the branching horns of the elk, and as they danced, and bowed their heads, the horns lent them the appearance of some unknown animal, and added greatly to their height. Their feathers waved, their jingles shook, and their painted bodies twisted and turned in the light of the great fire, which roared and leaped on high. At one moment they were birds, at another animals, and at the next they were demons."

In January, 1875, the first white child was born at Camp Apache to Lieutenant and Mrs. Summerhayes, and the boy was christened Harry R. Summerhayes. Everyone tried to help the young mother and sometimes the results were disastrous, but by that time Mrs. Summerhayes was getting used to frontier life.

There was no one to help Mrs. Summerhayes with the baby but a laundress, the wife of a soldier, who came two hours a day. The sutler finally located a Mexican girl in a woodchopper's camp, and with the aid of a Spanish dictionary Mrs. Summerhayes fruitlessly tried to teach the girl to be a nursemaid. It was the Apache squaws who gave the young mother the most understanding.

In her own words Mrs. Summerhayes described their visit. "The seventh day after the birth of the baby, a delegation of several squaws, wives of the chiefs, came to pay me a formal visit. They brought me some finely woven baskets, a beautiful papoose-basket or cradle, such as they carried their own babies in. This was made of the lightest wood, and covered with the finest skin of fawn, tanned with birch bark by their own hands, and embroidered in blue beads. It was their best work, I admired it, and tried to express my thanks. These squaws took my baby (he was lying beside me on the bed), then, cooing and chuckling, they looked about the room, until they found a small pillow, which they laid into the basket cradle, then put my baby in, drew the flaps together, and laced him into it. They stood it up, and laid it down, and laughed again in their gentle manner, and finally soothed him to sleep. I was quite touched by the friendliness of it all."

The second week in April when the baby was nine weeks old Lieutenant Summerhayes received orders to report for duty at Camp McDowell near Phoenix. They were to go by the way of Fort Whipple by a more northern route than Crook's Trail across the Colorado Chiquito at Sunset Crossing and by the Stoneman's Lake Road. More experienced, but with less strength, Mrs. Summerhayes packed up and climbed into the Dougherty wagon.

Near Sanford's Pass two fear stricken Mexicans came out of the ruins of a ranch house to report their horses had been taken by Apaches. Lieutenant Summerhayes gave his bride his service revolver and instructed her, "If I'm hit you know what to do."

The trip proved grueling for Mrs. Summerhayes and her infant son. The only bright spot on the trail was Stoneman's Lake. On May first the party camped on the high green mesa overlooking the lake.

"It was good for our tired eyes, which had gazed upon nothing but burnt rocks and alkali plains for so many days," Mrs. Summerhayes wrote in Vanished Arizona. "Our camp was beautiful beyond description, and lay near the edge of the mesa, whence we could look down upon the lovely lake. It was a complete surprise to us, as points of scenery were not much known or talked about then in Arizona. We never heard of water except the Colorado or Gila or the tanks and basins and irrigation ditches of the settlers. But here was a real Italian lake, a lake as blue as the skies above us. We feasted our eyes and our very souls upon it."

The trip was particularly difficult for the baby as there was no warm water and he was continually covered with alkali dust that irritated his tender skin. When young Harry became rubbed with blisters in his mother's arms by the rough movement of the wheels going over rocks he was placed in the Apache papoose basket and carried by one of the cavalrymen. The night before reaching Camp Verde the tent was pitched over an ant hill and the child was set to screaming by the ants as they swarmed over him. At Fort Whipple it was necessary to place the baby under the care of the post physician until he regained his health.

Mrs. Summerhayes had not thought much of being stationed at Camp McDowell, but she was startled when Lieutenant Summerhayes informed her he had been offered the post at Ehrenberg.

"What! Do I hear aright?" protested Mrs. Summerhayes. "Have your senses left you? Are you crazy? Are you going to take me to that awful place? Why, Jack, I should die there."

"Now, Martha, be reasonable; listen to me," argued the Lieutenant. "Don't you see we shall be right on the river. The boat comes up the river every fortnight or so. You can jump aboard and go up to San Francisco."

With her recent experiences dwarfing the discomforts of the Newbern and the Gila in her inexperience Mrs. Summerhayes agreed to go to Ehrenberg. She was soon to regret her decision.

One street in the sand along the river with a few cross streets straggling back into the desert constituted Ehrenberg in 1875. The house where the Summerhayes were to live was a one story adobe. It formed two sides of a hollow square and the other two sides were a high wall and the government freight house. The courtyard was partly shaded by a ramada and partly open to the hot sun. There was not a green leaf or tree or blade of grass in