Prescott, Territorial Capital

Prescott was raised in 1864 as the first capital of Arizona Territory, planted on Granite Creek where a gold strike the year before had drawn miners onto Yavapai land. Governor John Goodwin, a Lincoln appointee, convened the first legislature that July in a log Governor's Mansion two blocks west. The founders named the town for William Hickling Prescott, a historian of Mexico who never set foot in the West. The capital moved to Tucson in 1867 and back again in 1877 before settling in Phoenix in 1889, but Prescott kept the frontier-Victorian character of its founding.

What the plaque says

Prescott, Yavapai County Seat, founded 1864 on Granite Creek, source of Placer gold. Named for William Hickling Prescott, Historian, first Gov. J. N. Goodwin, Appointee of Abraham Lincoln. Established first territorial capital of Arizona here. At Governor's Mansion, two blocks west, the first legislature met July 18, 1864. Site of first graded school in Arizona. Disastrous fire started by miner's candle destroyed four blocks about this square in 1900.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Prescott — steps away
  Arizona's first territorial capital — Whiskey Row, the courthouse square, and a mile-high pine town
• Jerome — 25 mi
  The billion-dollar copper camp clinging to Cleopatra Hill — now the largest ghost town in America
• Tuzigoot — 30 mi
  A hilltop Sinagua pueblo over the Verde, dug out of the ground in the Depression

More markers nearby

• Whiskey Row — steps away
• The Palace Saloon — steps away
• Prescott's First Mining District — steps away
• Doc Holliday in Prescott — steps away