Why this book: My wife and I inherited a second home in Prescott in Yavapai County, Az and we visit there pretty regularly. I recently attended a Cowboy Poetry, Music, and Story Telling “convention” in Prescott and was excited to learn how Prescott is a center for the preservation of the history and culture of cowboys in the region. At that event, I bought all three volumes of stories of the history of Prescott. .

Summary in 3 sentences: This book is Vol 1 in a series of three books of short stories and articles by and about people, places, events and the culture of the people who settled Prescott Az, the county seat of Yavapai County. Vol 1 is mostly about 70-120 years ago and many of these are simple, but authentic renditions from the people who actually lived in and around Prescott during that period, their stories “echoes” of life as it once was. The people who wrote these stories were descendants of and/or knew and interviewed those still alive who’d arrived in Prescott in the late 1800s when it was an isolated outpost on the frontier.

My Impressions: I loved reading these stories – so unpretentious, and so evocative of life on the frontier in the West, without all the drama, hyperbole, and romance that one sees on TV and the movie Westerns. First published in 1955, it includes short stories and articles written by and about the people who settled Yavapai county 100-150 years ago, how they lived, met their challenges, struggled, supported and took care of each other, and together, survivied. Authentic and real, the character of the people who built and settled Prescott and Yavapai county, and by extension, much of the Western frontier, shines through loud and clear.

A few of the many noteworthy stories are about: cowboys (what their life was like and what they really did), the origins of agricutlure in the region, dealing with Apaches when settling the southern part of Yavapai County, a biography of a woman (entitled “Our Mama”) who had come from ranching in Texas to ranching in Prescott, the struggles she and her husband experienced ranching while raising a large family, This piece was written while 78, this remarkable woman was still alive at 78 yrs old. There’s a long-ish story about how Prescott originated the rodeo in the West with the first rodeo on the 4th of July 1888 and which continues to this day on the 4th of July. And much more…fun book to read and full of insights about life on the frontier a century and more ago.