Yavapai County
AZGenWeb
Yavapai County reflects the history of the old west while presenting the future of the new. Remnants of U.S. Cavalry forts, Indian dwellings, gold rush boomtowns, abandoned mines, Spanish Land Grant ranches, homesteads and vast tracts of uninhabited public lands exist side by side with modern housing developments, industry and business in the mountain heart of Arizona.
Traditional cowboys off the range, modern day gold prospectors and those living a rustic lifestyle in the isolated areas of the County rub shoulders with artists, university and college students, a large retirement population and families raising children in the small towns throughout the County.
As with much of the southwest, the history of the area predates the formation of the Arizona Territory and of Yavapai county. For millennia the region was home to a series of Pre-Columbian peoples. By 1 AD, the dominant groups in the area were the Hohokam, the Mogollon, and the Ancestral Puebloans (also known as the Anasazi). The Hohokam dominated the center of the area which is now Arizona, the Mogollon the southeast, and the Puebloans the north and northeast. As these cultures disappeared between 1000 and 1400 AD, other Indian groups settled in Arizona. These tribes included the Navajo, Apache, Southern Paiute, Hopi, Yavapai, Akimel O'odham, and the Tohono O'odham. Prehistoric Indian artifacts can be found in ancient Indian Pueblos and mounds throughout the County. The greatest concentration of artifacts are found in the Verde Valley where the Sinagua Indians arrived around 500 A.D. and created dwellings at Tuzigoot and Montezuma's Castle.
Spanish explorers also traveled through Yavapai County. One of the first incursions of the Spanish into this part of the world, Antonio de Espejo visited the Hopi mines in Jerome in May, 1581 looking for gold. They left the next day after finding only copper. Juan de Onate explored the area in 1604 and Friar Francis Garces visited in 1776.
As early as 1847 and l848 Joseph Walker and Jack Ralston, hunters and trappers, discovered gold upon the Little Colorado River, a short distance below the falls, but did not know what it was. In Oregon, in 1856, they saw the same yellow metal called gold and realized it was the same as that which they had found along the Little Colorado. Late in the 50's Ralston died, but Walker and a party, among whom were George D. Lount, John Dickason, Joseph R. Walker, Oliver Hallett, Arthur Clothier and Robert Forsythe, left San Francisco, in 1861, for the Little Colorado River, and arrived at the spot where some of the party had been before, but found no gold, as the gravel bed in which the gold had been found had been washed away by the high water of the river. The company went to Denver, Colorado, and the next spring another party was organized that went first to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and from there to the Gila and San Francisco Rivers in Arizona. The party divided at, or near, where afterwards was established Fort Wingate, and the smaller party went by Santa Rita copper mines, New Mexico, and Pinos Altos, where they were recruited by Jack Swilling, W. T. Scott, now of Tucson, and some others, and passed through Tucson and Pima Villages and on to the Hassayampa Creek; and in the vicinity of where Prescott now is, made important gold discoveries. Joseph Walker, Pauline Weaver, Jack Swilling, Henry Wickenburg, Mr. Peebles and others made many discoveries of precious metals in the Hassayampa Lynx Creek, Granite Creek, Big Bug and elsewhere.
The great find of gold at Antelope Peak was made the same year. There was a rush of miners and adventurers for these localities, and the Apaches made bloody raids on travelers in all directions. The Apache was sure to find them when too weak to resist, or if too careless or negligent. These Apache raids interfered very materially with the development of the country.
The California '49ers' crossed the northern part of the County in 1849 on their way to the California gold-rush and after the Civil War there was a marked influx of Southerners into the territory.
In 1851, the Oatman family was ambushed by a group of tribal members, possibly Do:lkabaya Yavapai (western band of the Yavapai), though many historians argue that it is impossible to know. Roys Oatman and his wife were killed, along with four of their seven children. The son, Lorenzo, was left for dead but survived, while sisters Olive and Mary Ann were taken as slaves and later sold to the Mojave. The story was widely published, and increased white settlers' fears of attack in Arizona.
The Yavapai Wars,
or the Tonto Wars, were a series of armed conflicts between the Yavapai and
Tonto tribes against the United States in Arizona. The period began no later
than 1861, with the arrival of American settlers on Yavapai and Tonto land.
In 1862 one of the earliest frontiersmen to explore the area, Paulin de
Jesus Guiver (also known as Pauline Weaver), discovered placer gold near La Paz,
on the Colorado, northern Arizona, and a rush was made to the new El Dorado. A
year later the same man discovered what are still known as the Weaver Mines in
Yavapai County, and, soon after, the great find at Antelope Peak was made. These
discoveries, of course, attracted miners by the thousand to Yavapai and Mohave
counties, and an unexampled period of mining prosperity began in northern
Arizona, for the ledges and placers were abundant, easily worked, and rich
beyond all precedent.
On February 24, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, that created the Arizona Territory. The War was costly to the federal government and Union leaders were most likely influenced by the prospect of mineral wealth in the area that became the Arizona Territory. President Lincoln signed the bill that provided for a temporary government for the Territory of Arizona. In the next month he appointed the following officers for the territory:
Governor: John A. Gurley, of Ohio. Secretary: Richard C. McCormick, of New York.
Chief Justice: John N. Goodwin, of Maine. Associate Justice: William T. Hovell,
of Michigan. Associate Justice: Joseph P. Allyn, of Connecticut. District
Attorney: John Titus, of Pennsylvania. Marshal: Kilton B. Duffield, of
California. Superintendent of Indian Affairs: Charles D. Poston, of Kentucky.
The appointments were confirmed by the Senate in the same month. Gurley died
before the party started and John N. Goodwin was appointed to take his place.
Several other changes were necessary and the party that finally left Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, on September 25th was made up of the following:
Governor: John N. Goodwin, of Maine. Secretary: Richard G. McCormick, of New York. Chief Justice: William F. Turner, of Iowa. Associate Justice: William T. Howell, of Michigan. Associate Justice: Joseph P. Allyn, of Connecticut. District Attorney: Almon Gage, of New York. Surveyor General: Levi Bashford, of Wisconsin. Marshall: Kilton B. Duffield, of California. Superintendent of Indian Affairs: Charles D. Poston, of Kentucky.
From Fort Leavenworth to Albuquerque, they were escorted by Companies A and H of the Volunteer Cavalry, and Company I of the Fourth Militia Cavalry of Missouri, troops all under the command of Major James Philips, of Kansas. At Albuquerque, Company E of the First New Mexican Volunteers were added to the escort and the command was given to Lieutenant Colonel J. Francisco Chavez.
They went on to Fort Whipple by the 35th parallel or Whipple's Road. After entering the territory on December 27th they formally organized the government of Navajo Springs on December 29, at 4 p.m.
The officials, citizens, A loud cheer and escort assembled in the plaza went up as Secretary McCormick rose to give his opening address as follows:
"Gentlemon:
As the properly qualified officer, it becomes my duty to inaugurate the proceedings of the day. After a long and trying journey, we have arrived within the limits of the territory of Arizona.
Those broad plains and hills form a part of the district over which, as the representatives of the United States, we are to establish a civil government. Happily, although claimed by those now in hostility to the Federal arms, we take possession of the Territory without resort to military force.
The flag which I hoist in token of our authority, is no new and untried banner. For nearly a century it has been the recognized, the honored, the loved emblem of law and liberty.
From Canada to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, millions of strong arms are raised in its defense, and above the efforts of all foreign or domestic foes, it is destined to live untarnished and transcendent."
Mr. McCormick then raised the Stars and Stripes and a prayer was offered by Reverend H. W. Read for the success of the officials in their work and the future development of Arizona.
The oath of office was administered to all
the officials and they soon began their work of organizing the government.
One of the first acts of the governor was to order that a census be taken
with a view to an election of Delegate to Congress and members of the First
Legislative Assembly. The election was held on July 18, 1864, and Charles D.
Poston was elected Delegate to Congress.
Nine members were elected to the Council and eighteen to the House of Representatives.
The following were elected. -- Council: Coles Bashford, lawyer; Francisco S. Leon, farmer; Mark Aldrich, merchant; Patrick H. Dunne, printer; George H. Leihy, miner; Jos' M. Redondo, ranchero; King S. Woolsey, farmer; Robert W. Groom, miner; Henry A. Bigelow, miner.
House of Representatives: W. Claude Jones, lawyer; John G. Capron, merchant; Daniel H. Stickney, miner; Gregory P. Harte, surveyor; Henry D. Jackson, wheel-right; Jesus M. Elias, ranchero; Nathan B. Appel, merchant; Norman S. Higgins, mining engineer; Gilbert W. Hopkins, mining engineer; Lu's G. Bouchet, carpenter; George L. Holiday, hotel-keeper; Thomas J. Bidwell, miner; Edward D. Tuttle, miner; John K. Boces, miner; Jackson McCracken, miner; Janes Garvin, physician; James S. Giles, miner.
In May, 1863, the first organized body of mining men to put foot in what is now the county of Yavapai was an exploration party of 34 men led by Captain Joseph R. Walker, a mountain man and experienced scout. The company discovered placer gold in the stream beds at the headwaters of the Hassayampa River in the Bradshaw Mountains. One of those tributaries, Lynx Creek, would be the richest streambed in Arizona history, the impetus for an influx of white settlement in the area. The gold finds were just south and east of present-day Prescott. A subsequent discovery of gold in the Antelope Mountains set in motion a chain of events which led to establishment of Fort Whipple along the Granite Creek and the founding, on May 30, 1864, the town of Prescott.
Discovery of gold meant
hundreds, if not thousands, of White settlements along the Hassayampa and Agua
Fria Rivers, the nearby valleys, as well as in Prescott, and Fort Whipple would
be built, all by the end of the year, and all in traditional Yavapai territory.
The first house on the Prescott town site was the office of the Arizona
Miner, later demolished. The publisher was Tisdale A. Hand. In its place was the
building of a brick store house now owned by T.G. Loisilon. The first hotel and
restaurant was called the Juniper House with George W. Barnard as proprietor.
In November, 1863, a party of twenty-four men arrived from Santa Fe, New
Mexico. Among them were Ed Peck and Lew Walters, who afterwards became residents
of Prescott. As soon as the lumber for sluice-boxes could be whip-sawed out and
the sluices gotten ready, members of this party commenced operations upon
Granite Creek, washing for gold. This creek, now generally a 'dry' stream, at
that time carried considerable water for four or five miles above where Prescott
now is, and many men were soon at work washing for the precious gold. Another
feature of this stream in those pioneer days, at which persons who have only
known it in recent years, may indulge in an incredulous smile upon hearing, is
that it afforded a fine variety of mountain trout, which contributed materially
to the luxury of many a miner's table, in those days when luxuries were scarce.
The waters seem to have withdrawn from the face of civilization, as at this time
there is no water in Granite Creek, except when a heavy rain falls, and then
only for a few hours.
The first store was opened by Manuel Yesera, in the south end of town. Yesera arrived on December 24, 1863 and according to C.B. Gunung, stopped his loaded teams just where Granite Street turns to cross Granite Creek and on that spot erected a two-roomed log house. One room was used as the store, the other as a living room. Judge Howard occupied this house after Yeserea returned to New Mexico and called it Fort Misery.
Prescott served as the territorial capital from 1864 to 1867. The troops at Fort Whipple protected the settlers and miners in and around the newly established territorial capital of Prescott.
In April 1864, Territorial Secretary Richard McCormick claimed 160 acres on the west side of Granite Creek, calling the property Pinal Ranch. By June, ready for a home with walls and a roof, McCormick and Goodwin contracted to have a log structure built on the property. They hired Samuel E. Blair, Daniel Hatz and John Raible as contractors.
On the 30th of May, 1864, a meeting of citizens was held on Granite Creek, a
town was located, and named Prescott in honor of the eminent American writer and
standard authority upon Aztec and Spanish- American history. The streets of the
new city were laid out wide, straight and with the cardinal points of the
compass; many of them were named after governors and other prominent men.
In August 1864, Arizona's territorial governor John Goodwin and his group of
government officials had been living in tents for almost a year. They had
traveled into the new Territory the preceding winter looking for a place to
found a capital. They chose a spot in the Central Highlands with plenty of
timber and water where the town of Prescott had recently been established.
The first well-regulated saloon in Prescott was opened by Tom Hodges on
Cortez Street who sold drinks and cigars and took "Burros" in payment. The first
Sunday School was organized on August 7, 1864 in a log cabin by Rev. H. W. Reed,
postmaster and pastor.
The first day-school was opened in the fall of 1864 by Alexander Malron but it failed to assume the form and character of a school until taken hold of by Mrs. L.A. Stevens in 1865. Dr. James Garvin was the first Justice of the Peace. Captain Joe Walker and some of his party lived just across the South Granite Street bridge in a log corral with two sides covered and the center left open for a fireplace. The next store started was in a small log cabin on Granite Street where California Jackson lived when he died. Herman Menassee was the next proprietor. He was murdered by a Mexican at his store in Wickenburg some years later. About the same time Barnett and Barth started another store on Montezuma Street. This building was of hewn logs, about twelve by eighteen and was built by Steve Richardson for Secretary McCormick to be used as a printing office.
One of the first families to settle on Prescott's Granite Creek was that of Julius Sanders and his wife and daughter. They came in with a pack-train in March 1864. Other families in 1864 were Joseph Ehle and family, Daniel Stevens and family, consisting of a wife and a son and three daughters, T.M. Alexander and wife, with three sons and three daughters, Lewis A. Stevens and wife, John Simmons and wife, with two sons and a daughter, and J.P. Osborn and wife with three sons and four daughters. Mrs. R.C. McCormick, the wife of the Secretary came out in the same year and died in childbirth in 1866 in the old Gubernatorial Mansion. Captain Leib and wife came with the Governor's party a little prior to the others, and located at old Fort Whipple. Mrs. Leib afterward became the wife of Judge Hezkiah Brooks. The first marriage in Prescott was that of John Boggs to a woman from California. The Fish manuscript states that the first marriage was that of John H. Dickson to Mary J. Ehle, which took place on November 17, 1864. Miss Mary Sanders afterward became the wife of Samuel C. Miller in April 1867.
Prescott's first boarding house for miners was presided over by "Virgin Mary" who built a log house on Goose Flat. Two goats furnished the milk and the price "Board $25 in gold, per week in advance" hung from the latch string. Shortly afterward a man named Jackson started another boarding house and cut the price to $16 dollars in gold per week. Virgin Mary could furnish goat milk for coffee which was an attraction and to offset this Jackson had a few stewed apples. Virgin Mary was one of two women who lived in Prescott in 1864. Her real name was never known but she was called Virgin Mary because of her charity and benevolence. She died about 1888 on Lynx Creek.
Christy and Van Smith erected under contract, the old capitol building in 1864 of logs which stood for many years. Levi Bashford owned the property for more than twenty years. The original Montezuma building was erected in 1864. It was used as a saloon and stood where the Cabinet saloon and the Palace Barbershop were located in later years. About twenty feet in back of the Montezuma the first boot and shoe manufacturing shop was erected. It was built and owned by John Laughlan.
William H. Read was the first clergyman to arrive in Prescott. He came with the Governor's party and started a Sunday School for boys until June 14, 1866 which was done by Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Bashford and Mrs. Turner.
D. Henderson and Company had a general merchandise store near the creek. This place was later occupied by Fred Brecht and used for a blacksmith shop. The first adobe building in Prescott was used for a saloon but was later converted into a clothing house by Cook and Bowers. Coles Bashford and Judge Howard were the only lawyers. Michael Wormser erected the first building on what is now the plaza. It was built of adobe and stood near the southwest corner of Goodwin and Montezuma streets.
In 1868, Samuel Curtis Rogers built the first one-room schoolhouse in northern Arizona. Rogers used borrowed books and his own library to teach his students. The log building served as Northern Arizona's first schoolhouse and remained in use until 1873, when it was replaced by a new, larger structure.
Prescott's first hotel was started and run by George W. Bernard, now of Tempe, and was known as the Juniper House, deriving its name from the tree under which the cooking and eating was done. It was very handy as a man could load up his plate with grub and go to the shady side of the tree to eat. About the time Bernard opened his establishment, John Roundtree and Dr. Alsap opened the first saloon. That was opened under some large pine trees that grew on the lower end of Goose Flat. It was built of cloth and timber; a small wagon sheet stretched over a pole which rested in the forks of two upright posts. The bar fixtures consisted of one ten gallon keg of whiskey; a half dozen tin cups and a canteen of water. The cups had handles, loose at one end and the loose end formed a hook by which they hung around the chain of the keg when not in use.
Yavapai County was home to Arizona's first territorial capital, with the provisional seat of the territorial government being established at Fort Whipple in 1864 and then several months later moved to Prescott. In 1867, the territorial capital was moved to Tucson and ten years later returned to Prescott. In 1889 the capital was moved to Phoenix, where it remains to this day.
The mining industry practically stopped in 1861 when the forces were withdrawn and Arizona was at the mercy of the Indians. Even as late as 1876 only about one-half of the territory was prospected. "This was due to the hostility of the Indians. In spite of this many mines had reopened in 1876. The County register reports on October 1, 1876 give the number of mines in the various counties: Yavapai had 7,298.
Named for the Yavapai Natives, Yavapai County was one of four original counties created 21 December 1864 by the Arizona Territory. It originally covered over 65,000 square miles in size and is believed to have been the largest county ever created in the lower 48 States. Yavapai County came to be known as the "Mother of Counties" after being called upon to contribute territory of which to form other counties. Apache, Coconino (1893), Gila, and Navajo (1879) counties were carved from it, plus parts of Greenlee, Graham, Mohave, Maricopa (1871), and Pinal (1875). Today, Yavapai County is 8,125 square miles in size, approximately the same size as the state of Massachusetts.
The population of Yavapai, by the census of 1900, was 13,799.
Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society. The History of Arizona: From the Earliest Times Known to the People of Europe to 1903. The Whitaker & Ray company, 1905.
Braatz, Timothy. Surviving Conquest. University of Nebraska Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8032-2242-7
DeLong, Sidney Randolph. The History of Arizona: From the Earliest Times Known to the People of Europe to 1903. Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society Published by The Whitaker & Ray company, 1905.
Farish, Thomas Edwin. Early Settlers in Prescott History of Arizona. 1915, pg. 194.
Journal of the First Legislative Assembly of Arizona, 9-14
Pritzker, Harry. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-513877-5.
Salzmann, Zdenek and Salzmann, Joy M. Native Americans of the Southwest: The Serious Traveler's Introduction to Peoples and Places. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 1997. ISBN 0-8133-2279-0
Stinson, H.C. Arizona: a comprehensive review of its history, counties, principal cities, resources and prospects: together with notices of the business men and firms who have made the territory. [S.I.:s.n.], 1891.
Swanton, John Reed. The Indian Tribes of North America, US Government Printing Office, 1952.
Contributor and Author: Unknown
| 25,000 BC | Indigenous cultures in Arizona, but they probably lived in the region as early as 25,000 BC |
| ca. 9,000 BC | Paleo-Indians arrive in the southwest, including Arizona. Known as the Clovis culture, they were hunter-gatherers. |
| ca. 4,500 BC | Maize is introduced into the southwest United States, including Arizona. |
| 2,000 BC | Indians introduce agriculture to Arizona. Cochise Culture develops in what is now southern Arizona. The Cochise people introduce agriculture to Arizona, growing vegetable crops including corn. |
| ca. 1,500 BC | Pre-Columbian Indians begin developing irrigation systems |
| 1,250 BC | Las Capas, slightly north of present-day Tucson, settled by pre-Columbian peoples, centered on an irrigation system. |
| 1,000 BC-1000 AD | Anasazi culture develops on the Colorado Plateau. |
| 300 BC | The Hohokam settled in south central Arizona and built irrigation canals. |
| 600 BC-550 AD | Ancestral Puebloans begin to settle on the Four Corners area. |
| 1-300 AD | Hohokam establish several villages along the Gila River |
| 200 AD | The Mogollon culture begins to appear in the southeast area of Arizona. |
| 300 AD | Ceramics appear in the Hohokam culture. |
| ca. 450 AD | Pueblo Grande settled. |
| 500 AD | Sinagua people are farming near San Francisco Peaks. |
| 500 AD-1450 AD | A later culture, the Hohokam, were pit dwellers who constructed extensive irrigation systems. |
| 700-1000 AD | Anasazi culture develops into its Pueblo Period in which they build complex structures and ceremonial chambers. The Hopi pueblo village of Oraibi was founded, making it the oldest continuously inhabited town in Arizona (and along with Taos and Acoma Pueblos of New Mexico, one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in America). |
| 700-1550 AD | Patayan (the Yuman word for old people) peoples appear. South of the Grand Canyon, the Patayan culture (a branch that descended from the primordial Hakataya culture root) emerges along the Colorado River in what is now western Arizona, extending west to Lake Cahuilla in California, and in Baja California. This included areas along the Gila River, Colorado River and in the Lower Colorado River Valley, the nearby uplands, and north to the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. Patayan culture is sometimes known as the Hakataya culture. The Patayan were ancestors of the Yavapai, Hualapai, and Havasupai people in the upland regions, and to the Yuman-speaking peoples of western Arizona and southern California, including the Cocopa, Quechan, and Mojave. |
| 899 AD | Major floods along Salt River disrupt Hohokam irrigation systems. |
| 1000 AD | The Kayenta tradition of the Ancestral Puebloans develops in northern Arizona. The Hopi found the village of Oraibi, the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America. |
| 1064 AD | Sunset Crater erupted. |
| 1150 AD | The myth of Cibola and Seven Cities of Gold originated when the Moors conquered Merida, Spain. According to legend, seven bishops fled the city, not only to save their own lives but also to prevent the Muslims from obtaining gold, gems, and sacred religious relics. A rumor circulated that in a far away land- a place unknown to the people of that time- the seven bishops had founded seven cities. These cities supposedly grew very rich, mainly from gold and precious stones. This idea fueled many expeditions in search of the mythical cities during the following centuries. |
| 1276-99 AD | Severe drought hits the Colorado Plateau. Grasshopper Pueblo founded by the Mogollon and Ancestral Puebloans. |
| 1200 AD | Hopi village of Oraibi is founded. May be oldest American town where people have continuously lived. |
| 1275 | A great drought began and lasted until 1299. |
| 1300 AD | Ancestral Puebloans abandon their elaborate cliff dwellings in north Arizona that still stand. Hohokam have largest population in the southwest. Awatovi founded by the Hopi. The Apache and Navajo people came to the area about 1300 from Canada. The Yavapai people, descended from the Patayan (see 700-1550 AD), begin settling in Arizona near the southern extent of the Colorado Plateau. |
| 1370s AD | Drought hits the Hopi areas. |
| 1300 | Casa Grande is built near the Gila River. |
| 1300-1450 AD | Periods of drought alternate with flooding in the Salt River area. |
| 1400 AD | The Athabaskan ancestors of the Navajo enter Arizona. Cultural decline of various pre-historic groups. Hohokam culture disappears. |
| 1430s AD | Drought hits the Hopi areas. |
| 1440s AD | Drought hits the Hopi areas. |
| ca. 1450 AD | Pueblo Grande abandoned due to drought. |
| 1455-65 AD | Drought hits the Hopi areas. |
| 1527-1536 | Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, an early Spanish explorer of the New World, and Esteban Dorantes, a Moorish slave, were shipwrecked off the coast of present-day Texas. During their eight-year-long trek to Mexico City, they encountered natives along the way who told them about cities with great riches. Marcos de Niza, a Spanish Franciscan friar, supposed that the stories pertained to the 'Seven Cities of Cibola.' |
| 1539 | Marcos de Niza, a Jesuit Franciscan leads an expedition which passes through eastern Arizona. He claims Arizona for Spain. |
| 1540 | The first documentation of European contact with the Yuman-speaking tribes was by Hernando de Alarcón, a mariner involved with the Coronado expedition to the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. Alarcón ventured up the Colorado River, and his account marks the beginning of written observations about the Colorado River tribes. |
| 1540-1542 | Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led a large armored military expedition to take possession of the wealthy city of Cibola. Coronado claimed all of the land as part of New Spain and conquered the Zuni pueblo. Coronado sent Pedro de Tovar to lead an expedition westward, and they visited the Hopi pueblos. Garcia Lopez de Cardenas left from there in search of a river that the Hopi had spoken about, and was the first European to view the Grand Canyon. |
| 1581 | May - Antonio de Espejo's explores eastern Arizona, discovers Hopi copper mines near present-day Jerome. |
| 1598-1599 | Juan de Oñate was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain. An explorer, he established and served as colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. Oñate founded settlements in the province, being the first European settlements in what is now the southwestern United States. |
| 1629 | Franciscans, the first Europeans to live in Arizona, tried to establish missions in the north around the Hopi, but their venture failed. |
| 1680 | A Pueblo rebellion against the Spanish drove the colonists, priests, and soldiers out of New Mexico. |
| 1687 | Jesuit Priest Father Eusebio Francisco Kino establishes missions in Pimería Alta among the Tohono O'odham people, along the Rio Santa Cruz and Rio San Pedro. |
| 1691 | Father Kino (see 1687, above) established Mission Cayetano del Tumacacori near a Sobaipuri settlement on the east side of the Santa Cruz River. It was the first European settlement in Arizona. |
| 1692 | Father Kino starts work and founds Guevavi mission. |
| 1694 | Father Kino explores Arizona, discovers the ruins of Casa Grande. |
| 1700 | San Xavier del Bac mission (White Dove of the Desert) is founded. |
| 1732 | Mission San Xavier del Bac founded by Jesuits near present-day Tucscon. |
| 1736 | Silver discovered on the ranch of the Basque settler, Bernardo de Urrea, near the Guevavi mission. The name of Urrea's ranch was Arizona, meaning the good oak tree. |
| 1751 | The O'odham people rebel against the Spanish, but the rebellion is put down. |
| 1752 | In response to the rebellion from the Pima and Papago tribes, the Spanish construct a presidio at Tubac, the first permanent European settlement and colonial garrison in what is now Arizona. While stationed at Tubac (1760-1776), Juan Bautista de Anza builds the chapel of Santa Gertrudis, the foundations of which lies beneath today's St. Ann's Church. |
| 1757 | Tumacácori Mission established. |
| 1768 | Arizona becomes part of the Provincia de las Californias, under Spanish rule. |
| 1774 | The first Spanish rendition Yavapai (the Yuman terminology) appears as Yabipai (note the b) in a 1774 journal entry of Spanish Franciscan friar and explorer Francisco Garcés. Garcés, who was accompanying Captain Juan Bautista de Anza on a quest for an overland route between Spanish missions in Sonora and southern California, apparently adapted the name Yabipai from the lower Colorado River tribes he encountered as he moved northward from the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers. Members of some of these communities likely served as guides for Garcés' party as they entered Yavapai lands. Prior to Garcés, Spanish chroniclers had routinely referred to the Yavapai as Cruzados after the crosses of cane they allegedly wore on their foreheads. |
| 1775 | 20 August - Spanish explorers founded the Presidio San Agustin de Tucson, the official birth date of the City of Tucson. It actually began as a small Spanish presidio, or walled fortress, a 750 feet square area, housing approximately 2 - 3 officers and 75 soldiers and their families. |
| 1810-1821 | Mexican War of Independence. |
| 1820s | Trappers began entering Yavapai territory, trapping beaver along the Salt, Gila, and Bill Williams rivers. |
| 1821 | Mexico gained military control of Arizona. Trappers and traders from the United States came into the area. |
| 1846 | 25 April - Mexican-American War begins |
| 1848 | 2 February - United States won the Mexican War and gained all of Arizona north of the Gila River. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848). Mexico ceded to the United States in 1848, minus Texan claims. The Mexican Cession consisted of present-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, the western half of New Mexico, the western quarter of Colorado, and the southwest corner of Wyoming. |
| 1849 | The California 49ers crossed the northern part of the County in 1849 on their way to the California gold-rush. |
| 1850 | 13 December - Territory of New Mexico created, included present-day New Mexico, Arizona, parts of southern Colorado, southern Utah, and a piece of southeast Nevada. |
| 1854 | New Mexico Territory changed counties stretching to future Nevada from five to three. |
| 1860 | Census of New Mexico Territory taken. Arizona County enumerated. |
| 1863 | 24 February - Arizona Territory created from the western half of New Mexico territory. December 23 - Fort Whipple temporarily established at Del Rio Springs, north of present day Chino Valley by Major Edward Banker Willis and Captain Nathaniel J. Pishon. A party which included Jack Swilling discovers gold along the Hassayampa River, on what is now known as Rich Hill, famous for the size and quality of the high karat gold that it has produced. Gold mining brings the first settlers to the site that would become Prescott; farmers and cattlemen followed. Fort Misery is built by Manuel Yrissari, a trader from New Mexico, to be his home and mercantile on the banks of Granite Creek. It is now the oldest log building associated with the territory of Arizona. |
| 1864 | March 9 - First newspaper in Arizona - The Arizona Miner newspaper published at Fort Whipple, ceased publication in 1868. May - Prescott was founded as the Territorial Capital of Arizona. September - Yavapai County is one of the four original Arizona counties formed one year after the Arizona Territory was established. The County was named after the Yavapai Tribe, whose name means the people of the sun. The other three counties were Mohave, Yuma and Pima. Van Ness C. Smith appointed as the first Territorial Sheriff. Fort Whipple moves to Granite Creek, closer to Prescott. The first census of the new Arizona Territory was taken by U.S. Marshal, Milton B. Duffield, found the non-Indian population to be 4,573. |
| 1865 | September - Camp Verde established at the Verde River. It was later renamed Fort McDowell. 18 December - General Order #15 divided Arizona Territory, declaring friendly Indians to the west and hostiles to the east |
| 1866 | Population of Yavapai County - 1612 |
| 1867 | 18 January - The northwestern corner of Arizona Territory, west of the Colorado River, was transferred to Nevada. The law transferring the land was approved May 5, 1866, but this transfer was contingent on the state accepting it. Territorial capital moved from Prescott to Tucson. |
| 1870 | Population of Arizona - 9,658 April - Whipple Barracks became the Headquarters for the Military Department of Arizona. |
| 1871 | 14 February - Maricopa County created from Yavapai County. |
| 1874 | Arizona Weekly Miner newspaper founded in Prescott, ceased publication in 1877. |
| 1875 | Copper deposits discovered in Jerome. Part of Pinal County created from Yavapai County. |
| 1877 | The Weekly Arizona Miner newspaper founded in Prescott, ceased publication in 1885. |
| 1879 | 14 February - Apache County, which embraced the County of Navajo, created from Yavapai County. |
| 1880 | Population of Arizona - 40,440. |
| 1882 | Ash Fork founded. |
| 1891 | 19 February - Coconino County, created from Yavapai County. |
| 1893 | Coconino County created from Yavapai County. |
| 1900 | 14 July - Most of downtown Prescott is destroyed by fire. |
| 1907 | 1 March - The Escalante Hotel opens in Ash Fork. Ash Fork was an important railroad junction at the time. Passengers and freight bound for central and southern Arizona boarded the trains at the famed Hotel Escalante. |
| 1909 | Writer and poet Sharlot Hall was appointed Territorial Historian becoming the first Arizona woman to hold territorial office. |
| 1910 | The County had a population of approximately 16,000 people. |
| 1912 | 3 December - First movie made in Prescott, The Cringer produced by the Lubin Motion Picture Company and starring Romaine Fielding. The Prescott premier was shown at the Wigwam; completely sold-out for two nights and a matinee. Women are granted the right to vote. |
| 1917 | United States joined World War I against Germany. The Zimmerman Telegram was one reason we joined the war. It was sent from Germany to Mexico, and said that if Mexico helped Germany fight in the war, Mexico would regain Arizona. |
| 1920 | The County had a population of approximately 24,000 people. |
| 1928 | Sharlot Hall Museum opens in Prescott. |
| 1935 | June 7 - the Yavapai-Prescott reservation was established by an act of Congress, with 35 acres allotted. Smoki Museum, housing American Indian artifacts, opens in Prescott. |
| 1937 | The County had a population of approximately 37,000 people. |
| 1940 | Chieftess Viola Jimulla took over leadership of the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe in 1940 at the death of her husband, Sam. She was seen as a healer, and helped bridge the gap between the Anglo and Indian cultures. |
| 1941 | Ernest A. Love Field opens near Prescott. |
| 1943 | 1 March - Prescott Community Hospital opened its doors to patients in the old Jefferson School building on Marina Street. By 9:00 p.m. on that date the first baby had been born at the new hospital. It is now the Yavapai Regional Medical Center. |
| 1948 | Natives obtain the right to vote. |
| 1965 | Yavapai College, a community college in Prescott, opens. |
| 1978 | Prescott Valley incorporates. |
| 1986 | The late Chieftess Viola Jimulla was proposed for the Arizona Woman's Hall of Fame. |
| 2000 | Yavapai County population is 167,517. |
| 2004 | Town of Dewey-Humboldt incorporated. |
| 2010 | Yavapai County population is 211,073. |
| 2021 | Yavapai County population is 241,753. |
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This page was last updated
05/19/2025