When you hear “Prescott,” you might think of Whiskey Row, Thumb Butte or the “World’s Oldest Rodeo.” Fashion probably doesn’t spring to mind. But there was a time when fashion was big business in the mile-high city. By the time it closed, Thunderbird Fashions was one of Prescott’s largest employers, and its Southwest-inspired clothing carried the city’s name from coast to coast.
Photography has come a long way since 1952, when the first Pioneer Camera Shop opened at Fifth Street and Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe. Located in the historic Laird and Dines Building, just north of what now is the Harkins Valley Art theater, the shop was the dream of two East Coast natives who turned a hobby into a thriving business.
In 1926, Carl Mayhew was newly in love. No doubt, he still loved his wife of 14 years, and Ethel had no cause for jealousy. Because Carl was not infatuated with another woman. He was smitten with the lodge he had recently purchased in Oak Creek Canyon. “This wonderful place,” he wrote, “like a great sunken garden of orchards, roses and vine-covered buildings, is located at the bottom of the canyon … a canyon of mystery, with its great buff walls of sandstone eroded into fantastic shapes, silhouetted against the glorious Arizona sky.”
Marla Gaines Lawrence remembers walking Gilbert’s dirt roads as a child to head to Good Eats Dairy Bar for cheap burgers and root beer sold by the gallon. Gaines Lawrence, born in Gilbert in 1955, lived there when the town that now boasts more than 275,000 residents was still a rural farming community, with a single streetlight, nestled on the outskirts of Phoenix.
What would you do if you found Eden? If you’re like the succession of people who bought land around the hot springs near Eden, Arizona, you’d build a spa resort — or perhaps a commune of sorts. The vision for Indian Hot Springs, this particular paradise northwest of Safford, seems to have changed with the times. So did the visitors, who are said to have included Territorial-era soldiers, well-to-do health seekers and a legendary rock band.
Chances are, you haven’t heard of Virgil Carrell. But if you’ve spent any time at all on America’s highways, his work is as familiar as McDonald’s golden arches. Although Carrell’s achievements ranged widely, the U.S. Forest Service’s iconic signs became his legacy — they’ve endured, unchanged, for six decades.
Carrell was born to railroad workers who spent their lives in remote parts of the Pacific Northwest, so it isn’t surprising that he earned a degree in forestry. During his long career with the Forest Service, he raised his own family in similar conditions.
Championships are rare in Arizona. Arizona State and the University of Arizona have won a few. And the Arizona Diamondbacks won a World Series in 2001, but that wasn’t the first big win for a ball team. That honor belongs to a women’s softball team. The Phoenix Ramblers, whose official name was the Peterson Brook Steiner and Wist (PBSW) Ramblers, captured the Amateur Softball Association championship in 1940. At the time, fast-pitch softball was a popular pastime in Arizona. Although the Ramblers were an amateur team, there was no shortage of spectators to watch the women play.
There’s some debate about the inception and original ownership of Granite Dells Resort, which was a prime vacation spot in the Prescott area from the early 1900s to the 1970s. The Weekly Arizona Journal-Miner listed the resort’s grand opening in 1903, but an article in the Prescott Journal-Miner from May 1907 announced another opening four years later. Several articles reference the “original” owner being a businessman named Ed Shumate, who reportedly sold the property in 1905 after investing a large amount of money in upgrading the facilities.
It was halftime in the 1973 AA state basketball tournament semifinals, and Flagstaff’s Coconino High School Panthers found themselves down 20 points and receiving a stern lecture from head coach Stan Townsend. “You guys picked the worst time to play your worst game,” he said. “You seniors, this is your last chance. You guys need to get together and figure it out.”
Golf fans from around the world are familiar with the raucous crowds at the Phoenix Open. And the rock ’n’ roll atmosphere of the 16th hole. The state’s 300-plus golf courses are well known, too. And so are some of the “19th holes.” But there’s a piece of golf history that few have ever heard of.
