Welcome to the Mile-high City

Prescott IS INVITING YOU TO CALL

Ah, Prescott, as Arizona folks pronounce the name of the town of which Esquire magazine reported in December, 1970, "The rush of city life hasn't penetrated Prescott, and there's no reason why it should . . . The sun shines every day." "Trying to define the allure of Prescott is like trying to grasp a spring breeze," wrote Bob Dyer years ago in Prescott, Arizona, the Prescott Chamber of Commerce's magazine.

"To some," he added, "it is the sunset playing off Thumb Butte or Granite Mountain. The towering ponderosa pines attract still others to this town, situated on the edge of hundreds of thousands of acres of forestland."

Actually, it is all this and more, like the Courthouse Plaza, or the way the town honors its past, or the climate. Called the "Climate Capital of the World," it has mild summers at a mile-high elevation. As another writer noted in the August 1985 issue of Arizona Highways magazine: Prescott and Yavapai County are still there, still unforgettably captivating.

Many others bore the same sentiments. Among them another of Arizona Highways' editors, Merrill Windsor. It was Windsor who coined the phrase "Prescott is everybody's hometown." And he devoted an entire issue of the magazine to support his theory. In his opening statement, Windsor commented, "It [Prescott] is a place, I have found, where I can go home again." Sharlot Hall, territorial historian in 1909, also was a big booster. In Poems of a Ranch Woman, she wrote, "Enchanted land of pines and wind/and sun . all your beauty/ and my dreams are one." Aside from all the community has to offer in terms of history and scenery and some of the best weather in the state, Prescott, itself, feels it has something for everyone.

In a recent bit of slapping itself on the back, the town pointed out an assortment of events to be found there: Territorial Days, with more than 60 activities, including historic home tours and a folk art fair; the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo celebration, complete with fireworks and a parade; the Prescott Bluegrass Festival; Smoki Ceremonials; and of course gambling at the Yavapai Gaming Center and Bucky's Casino. And when it comes to recreational activities, well, there are ball games, bowling, dancing, tennis, gun clubs, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, jeep tours, and golfing at the two championship courses at Antelope Hills Municipal Golf Course. But if just sitting back and relaxing while enjoying the scenery is your favorite form of outdoor activity, Prescott affords that, too. It's couched amidst the Prescott National Forest at an elevation of 5,354 feet and right next door to the Bradshaw Mountains. If this humble writer has anything to say about Prescott, he finds himself siding with author Pauline Henson, who concluded her article "Why Prescott," in the May 1960 issue of Highways, with, "There is one other answer to 'why Prescott?' the one we hear most often: 'We just came to Prescott and fell in love with it.' "Love, I believe, needs no explanation." Richard G. Stahl