Lecture Series – From Trails to Rails to Route 66 – Saturday, June 7, 2025

Sharlot Hall Museum’s Executive Director Stuart Rosebrook will be presenting on the history of transportation in the West, with a focus on Prescott’s transportation history from 1863 to 1926.

Arizona’s first territorial capital quickly emerged as a key commercial transportation hub after its establishment in 1864.

On December 31, 1886, the inaugural Prescott and Central Arizona Railway locomotive, carrying both freight and passengers, arrived in downtown Prescott from Seligman. This location connected to the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. However, the rapidly constructed rail line proved to be neither reliable nor successful, prompting the development of the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway, which started operations in 1893, linking Ash Fork to Prescott.

Only thirty years prior to this first successful railway connection, the Walker Party discovered gold near Lynx Creek. During their search, miners came across well-established Indigenous trails that ran along riparian corridors, providing access to sources of water in all directions—north, south, east, and west.