Prescott's First Mining District

Prescott traces its founding to the spring of 1863, when a party of prospectors led by the mountain man Joseph Walker reached the headwaters of the Hassayampa River. On May 10, 1863, twenty-five members of the Walker company met a few miles south of this plaza and adopted the laws that organized the first mining district in what became Yavapai County. The gold they were chasing lay in the heart of Yavapai country, and the district's founding marked the beginning of a rush that would cost the Yavapai their land within a dozen years.

What the plaque says

The City of Prescott had its beginnings in the spring of 1863 when a party of explorers and would-be gold miners led by the famed Joseph R. Walker arrived near the headwaters of the Hassayampa River. On May 10, 1863, at a location some six miles south-southeast of this Plaza, twenty-five members of the Walker Prospecting and Mining Company adopted Laws and Resolutions governing members of the first mining district in what would later become Yavapai County.

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, Territorial Capital — steps away
• Site of the Territorial Courthouse — steps away