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The power of Prescott - Prescott, Arizona

Sunset, Nov, 1997 by Matthew Jaffe

Arizona's historic high-country hub holds its own, even as it's being invaded by lowlanders

To borrow the parlance of Sedona, its nearby New Age neighbor, Prescott is an old soul. It may lack Sedona's gorgeous red rock and mystical good vibrations, but what Prescott has is just as rare - integrity.

When you come into the city center, it's immediately clear that Prescott has an authenticity that's increasingly hard to find in smaller Western cities, where boutiques have neutered so many once-brawling, bawdy towns, turning them quaint and tasteful. Like putting The Wild Bunch into Tommy Hilfiger.

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Which isn't to say that you should come to Prescott fixing for a brawl on its famed Whiskey Row, once home to 40 taverns. What you can expect is a place that hasn't sold its soul to sell you stuff, or been so transformed by newcomers that it has become unrecognizable to its old-timers (or at least most of them). Prescott is still very much a real community, where the Old and New West have reached a truce.

That's not so easy to pull off. "There are pressures to develop every developable piece of dirt in this town," says Richard Sims, director of the Sharlot Hall Museum. "At the same time, there's a growing awareness to save open space" and, he adds, the town's history. "People won't let Prescott be caricatured and masked by a faux-Western theme park."

Prescott has become a leading destination for retirees, as well as a low-key retreat for Phoenicians and Californians, who are drawn to its beauty, weather, and small-town ways. Newcomers are accepted, but if you pronounce the name "Pres-cott" instead of "Pres-kit," you are immediately recognized as an outsider.

A sense of tradition and history is only appropriate in a 130-year-old town named for a historian, William Hickling Prescott. While Sedona as a town is essentially a fortuitously situated intersection (a thousand vortices in search of a center), Prescott became a city years before Arizona became a state. It even served as the original capital of the territory of Arizona.

Gold was found in the nearby Bradshaw Mountains in 1863. The discovery, during the Civil War, encouraged President Abraham Lincoln to establish the Arizona territory to protect these riches. Tucson would have been the more logical choice for a capital, but Confederate sympathies there combined with the gold find here opened the door for the founding of Prescott.

Today, even with the arrival of shopping centers and Californians, Prescott retains an edge-of-the-frontier quality. Just go a short distance out of town and hike up to Prescott's landmark granite outcrop, Thumb Butte. Sure, in one direction you get metropolitan Prescott, such as it is, whose 30,000 residents relish the cool mountain air found at 5,347 feet. But most everywhere else are hills forested with pinions, junipers, and ponderosa pines, occasionally broken by craggy mountains. Go a bit farther out and you reach genuine, U.S. government-certified wilderness and the massive rock formations at the Granite Mountain Wilderness.

The town itself mixes Victorian prettiness with a rugged territorial feeling. Its older neighborhoods, especially along Mt. Vernon Street, are among the best preserved in Arizona.

Invariably, you'll end up spending most of your time at the town's downtown plaza, presided over by the Yavapai County Courthouse. A 1900 fire started by a miner's candle destroyed all but two of the buildings around the plaza, although Whiskey Row, on Montezuma Street, was largely spared.

Despite its Back to the Future movieset quality, there is a solidity and gravity to the square that suggests an old-fashioned, built-to-last permanence. Red brick buildings, the courthouse columns, and the plaza's tall trees - all remind you that, unlike Sedona, Prescott is not merely a place to get centered. Here there really is a center.

SAVE THE DATE

Holiday celebration. Prescott is Arizona's Christmas City, and its holiday parade and the lighting of the courthouse on December 6 are among the highlights of the season; (800) 266-7534, (520) 445-2000 in Prescott.

Prescott planner

Prescott is a good year-round destination, and at two hours from Phoenix, three hours from the Grand Canyon, and an hour from Sedona, it makes a good side trip or base of operations. The area code is 520 unless specified.

Your first stop should be the Prescott Chamber of Commerce (117 W. Goodwin St.; 800/266-7534, 445-2000 in Prescott), which offers maps for self-guided historical and architectural tours around town. Historian Melissa Ruffner offers guided walking tours of downtown by appointment; 445-4567.

SLEEPS AND EATS

Hassayampa Inn. Opened in 1927, this downtown Prescott classic has been restored. Our room was small, but we enjoyed the Southwest-influenced lobby with its painted beams, as well as dining in the Peacock Room. From $99. 122 E. Gurley St.; (800) 322-1927.

Marks House. This landmark 1894 Queen Anne-style bed-and-breakfast is just a block from downtown. From $75. 203 E. Union St.; 778-4632.

The power of Prescott - Prescott, Arizona

Sunset, Nov, 1997 by Matthew Jaffe

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