Travels With Two Sisters: The city of lights: Adventures in Prescott

Prescott, with a current population of about 45,000 residents, was designated in 1864 as the Territorial Capital of Arizona. This former gold and silver mining town has a rich and diverse Wild West history. One of the notable events that occurs annually is the Prescott Frontier Days that includes a rodeo parade and several other events during the World’s Oldest Rodeo.

This mile-high city was designated as Arizona’s Christmas City by Governor Rose Mofford in 1989. The festivities include a Christmas parade, musical events and thousands of lights.

We have spent time in this welcoming city on numerous occasions. We have walked amongst the memorials in the Yavapai County Courthouse Square, explored and photographed many of the historic structures on Whiskey Row, visited the Hassayampa Hotel, spent time in the Granite Dells, sat by the water at Goldwater Lake, spent an entire afternoon at the Sharlot Hall Museum, strolled through the sculpture park at the Yavapai Community College, found the graves of Mary Cummings and Sharlot Hall in the Arizona Pioneers Home cemetery, spent time at the Hot Shots Memorial, strolled through Fort Whipple, photographed the Arizona Pioneers Home, sat on a bench enjoying the fresh air at Watson Lake, browsed through the Smoki Museum, clapped and waved during the Christmas Parade, strolled through and photographed the Courthouse Square Christmas Lights display and admired all of the tiny houses at the Christmas gingerbread house village.

We returned to Prescott in October 2023. We are sure you are wondering why we would return to a site we have seen on numerous occasions. The story goes like this. One of our dear friends lent us a book entitled, “How Arizona Sold its Sunshine” by Victoria Clark, which includes several historic hotels throughout the state.

For those of you who know us well, it will not surprise you that one of us made a list of all the hotels, highlighted the ones we had not seen and came up with a percentage of those we explored — 83 percent. The other sister read the book from cover to cover. Then, after calculating the percentage and reading all of the historic facts, both of us created a list and decided to return to Prescott to explore three historic hotels.

During our last visit, we took the opportunity to visit some of our favorite places. We spent an afternoon driving through the Granite Dells (a unique geological feature), sat on our favorite bench at Watson Lake and enjoyed the deep blue waters of the manmade reservoir, strolled through the elegant lobby of the Hassayampa Hotel, returned to the Arizona Pioneers Home to view the city of Prescott from their parking lot, paid our respects to the firefighters buried at the Hot Shots Memorial in the Arizona Pioneers cemetery, spent an afternoon at the Museum of Indigenous People (formerly the Smoki Museum), strolled along Whiskey Row, admired the elegant Yavapai County Courthouse and took a photo of a bagpiper playing in the courthouse square.

On our last journey to Prescott, here are some of the places we had not previously explored.

The town of Dewey-Humboldt was incorporated in 2004 when Dewey (an agricultural and ranching community) and Humboldt (a former mining community) voted to unite both communities. This town of approximately 4,000 residents is known as “Arizona’s Country Town.” On prior visits to the town, we frequently stopped at their commercial district to rest, enjoy an ice cream cone, browse through the gift shops and ask directions to various sites.

During our recent visit, we explored the Humboldt Historic District and took photos of the Agua Fria Church (1907), Humboldt Hotel (1917), Post Office (1910) mine tailings and several other abandoned brick and wooden structures.

Willow Lake, located in the Granite Dells, is a manmade reservoir that offers residents and visitors a variety of recreational options including boating, fishing, hiking the established trails, sitting on a bench to admire the unique rock formations, having lunch at one of the covered picnic areas, photographing the unusual and intriguing rocks jutting out of the water and exploring the Prehistoric Culture Pit House Village (AD 900-1100).

We spent time at the lake, exploring the area, taking several photos of the archeological site, reading the information panels about the archeological excavations, breathing in the clean air and taking several photos of the surrounding area.

The Original City Hall and Firehouse (1894), listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located at 117 W. Goodwin Street. This building currently houses the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Center. We visited this historic building to view the newly installed Hotshot Tribute Murals. We felt that the brightly colored and impressive murals were an honorable tribute to the Arizona Hotshots and to the 19 Hotshots who died in the Yarnell Fire. This is a great addition to the downtown area.

Hotel St. Michael, located on West Gurley Street, is a large three-story brick building that proudly sits on the corner near the courthouse square. This large, impressive building, built in 1901, is well known as the cornerstone of Whiskey Row, Prescott’s famous street. Theodore Roosevelt, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Tom Mix and many other notable guests have reportedly stayed overnight in this establishment. This historic hotel, with its 70 guestrooms, an eatery, shops, galleries and specialty stores, offers a wide variety of activities and amenities to its guests, including courthouse and city views.

During our visit, we had a leisurely lunch in the notable brass-and-wood bistro, explored the lobby area, met the manager on staff, traveled up on the Otis Traction elevator, viewed some of the guestrooms and admired the original, beautiful woodwork throughout the building. We also took the opportunity to stroll through the shops and enjoyed the ambiance in a beautiful and exquisite historic building. Note: for those who are interested, this hotel is listed as an Arizona Haunted Site.

The Grand Highland, a historic boutique hotel, is located on Montezuma Street in the heart of Whiskey Row and across the street from the courthouse square. This hotel consists of 12 upstairs rooms with modern conveniences and a downstairs event hall. During our visit, we viewed the event area on the first floor, but we were unable to view the upstairs rooms due to a lack of staff.

The Vendome Hotel, built in 1917, is located on South Cortez Street within walking distance of the courthouse square. Originally, it was built as housing for workers migrating to the area. In 1983, the building underwent renovations. Today, this restored boutique hotel offers its guests a comfortable place for an overnight stay in a historic building.

Located in a neighborhood, it also offers guests an opportunity to sit on the upstairs veranda or on the large first floor porch to enjoy the mountain air in a peaceful environment. During our visit, we had the opportunity to meet the manager on staff, viewed some of the rooms (one of the rooms had the original clawfoot tub) and asked several questions. We took dozens of photos of the unique lobby, the annunciator box and the original woodwork. Leaving the site, we noticed a small boutique café next door.

Oops! Almost forgot to tell you that we left this site with a present — a book entitled, “Hotel Vendome (The story of Prescott’s Historic 1917 Hotel),” by Ken Edwards.

The Prescott Western Heritage Center is located on South Montezuma Street in downtown Prescott. The mission of the Heritage Foundation is to preserve and promote the Prescott area’s western heritage through education, art, music, events and projects. One of their major objectives is to raise the awareness of their unique and special history so that it becomes part of their future.

During our visit to the Western Heritage Center, we viewed the large variety of exhibits, learned about the ongoing events such as films, lectures, book signings, art shows etc. During our extended discussion with Brenda Cusick, the director, we also learned about some of the annual events such as the boot drop, the Bluegrass Festival, Earth Day, Frontier Days, Gold Rush Days and Cowboy Poet Gathering, to name a few. Prescott is also known for the world’s largest gingerbread village. For those newcomers and/or visitors to the area, this is a recommended stop to gather information about the history of the area and historic places to visit.

Prescott is sometimes referred to as “Everybody’s Hometown,” “Mile High City” or “Arizona’s Christmas City.” To us, it will always be remembered as “The City of Lights.”

Why? To this day, when we close our eyes, we can still see the millions of Christmas Lights lighting up the night sky.

On our last trip to Prescott, in October 2023, we had not anticipated a future trip. We have thoroughly enjoyed every event we participated in, every location we have visited and every person we have met. Having returned to several other Arizona locations in the last 13 years, it did not surprise us when we discovered that, someday, we will be returning to the Prescott area.

The story goes as follows. During the month of December we attended a concert at the Community Performing Arts Center in Green Valley. We eagerly awaited this event that would allow us to enjoy the music of Peter, Paul and Mary. During the concert, one of the musicians stated that all of the band members lived in Prescott.

During the intermission, we spoke with one of the musicians and shared that we loved his hometown. He asked if we had even been to the annual Acker Day Event (a night of music in local businesses that raises money for music education) and shared with us that the renovation of the Elks Theatre was completed.

Arriving home from the concert, we placed those two items on our To Do List.