Author Series – Drew Desmond

Drew Desmond was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and followed his family into the advertising business, working as a writer after earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University. He first discovered Prescott while vacationing in 1986 and initially planned to retire there, but repeated visits made waiting impossible. He ultimately relocated to the area 25 years earlier than planned, where he discovered that advertising offered only limited personal fulfillment.

Drawn instead to the region’s past, Drew turned his focus to researching and writing about the history of Prescott and Yavapai County. He founded the #PrescottAZHistoryBlog and now spends more than 1,000 hours each year poring over old newspapers, periodicals, and books to support his weekly articles. The blog has since attracted nearly one million readers, averaging about 700 visitors per day. He is also the administrator of the popular Facebook group Celebrating Historic Prescott, which features a daily historic image and multiple Prescott history articles each week.

In his work, Drew brings to life the waning days of the Old West in Yavapai County—an era marked by fatal jealousy, corruption, and organized vengeance that lingered into the early twentieth century. His research uncovers grim and often shocking stories: a Prescott laborer murdered by a coworker who later evaded the law, was convicted, then inexplicably released and appointed constable; a failed land deal near Jerome that led to an attempted killing; and a violent union dispute that burned a rail depot to the ground and left several men dead. Through these never-before-told accounts of vigilante justice and revenge, Drew Desmond reveals a darker, largely forgotten chapter of Arizona’s frontier history.

Please RSVP to Katherine.Bartke@SharlotHallMuseum.org