Who Was Sharlot Hall?

Point of Rocks RV Park

Prescott, AZ

May 13, 2025 

French Rose Boursault...this beauty was brought to Prescott by Margaret McCormick who was the wife of the 2nd Governor of the Arizona Territory in 1865

Sharlot Hall, born in 1870,  states that her earliest memories were of Comanche raids, grasshopper plagues, and prairie fires.  In 1882, her family traveled the Santa Fe Trail from Kansas to Arizona. The family settled on Lynx Creek near Prescott Valley in the last decade of the great western frontier.  Sharlot expressed her impressions of this journey through stories and poetry and attributes her mother for her love of reading. 

Arizon's  first Governor's Mansion was home to the first two territorial governors.  It was built in 1864 on this site.  

While attending a boarding school for a year in Prescott, Sharlot met Henry Fleury who had come to Prescott in 1864 as secretary to the first governor, John Goodwin. He lived in the first Governor's Mansion along with the governor.  It was Judge Fleury who inspired in Sharlot the love of history through the many stories he told her.  

Sharlot was the first woman to hold a salaried office in Arizona. She served as Arizona's first historian from 1909 to 1912.  

We can thank Sharlot for many things and among them are collecting early possessions and stories from sites where the early settlers lived and died, collecting and preserving Arizona's spectacular Native American ruins and relics from looters, and her crusade against the congressional measure which would have brought New Mexico and Arizona into the Union as one state. 

Sharlot was selected as the elector who would deliver Arizona's three electoral votes to Washington when Calvin Coolidge was elected president in 1925.  She attended the inauguration wearing an overdress made of copper links and accessories made of copper along with a hat made from cacti.  

Sharlot later wore this  unusual outfit as she traveled giving lectures about Arizona and it's resources.

I love this hat!  It is made from prickly pear cacti.

In the 1920s this great woman who was considered to be "ahead of her time" persuaded the State of Arizona and the City of Prescott to preserve the Governor's Mansion.  She agreed to move her extensive collection of artifacts to the mansion and the museum opened to the public in 1928.  For the rest of her life she worked to preserve the old log building and to save Arizona's history.  

There is a $13.00 admission fee for seniors and the museum is a self guided tour.  Docents shared information and answered questions in the Governor's Mansion, the Sharlot Hall Building, and the Fremont House.  

1. John & Helen Lawler Exhibit Center: Completed in 1979 the center presents the Museum's pre-history exhibits, Sharlot Hall's story and changing exhibits.

A 10 week wagon trip across the wild Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon

2. Governor's Mansion: Built on site in 1864, workers built the log cabin as the first governor's house and office.  It is the oldest building associated with Arizona Territory still standing in its original location.  Today, it is furnished based on a letter written by the second governor's wife (dated in 1866) to her friend in New Jersey where she describes "her home".  

The planks that were used to build the mansion were from Ponderosa Pines on site.

Judge Henry Fleury", the Governor's secretary had a room at the mansion 

3. Shallot Hall Building :  Completed in 1936 as a Civil Works project, this building houses the museum's original exhibits and dioramas and served as Sharlot's home for a time.  Native rocks and pine logs were used in the construction and Sharlot referred to it as "the house of thousand hands" because she believed at least 500 men helped to complete it. It has served as the primary exhibit hall since 1936. 

The floors are beautiful.

Inside walls and door frame

There are two galleries in this building that display Sharlot's artifacts. 

Exhibits tell a story from the founding of a wilderness territorial capital in 1863 to statehood in 1912. 

A beautiful exhibit about the area's native Yavapai Prescott Indian tribe. Titled " The Baskets Keep Talking" tells the story of the tribe and their culture through their own eyes.  Included are more than 40 baskets on display. 

4. School House :  This is a 1962 replica of the first public school house in the Arizona Territory built in 1867.

5. Fort Misery : This is the oldest log cabin in the Arizona Territory built in a1863-64.  It was built by a trader from NM to be his home and a mercantile. It was built two blocks south of the museum on the banks of Granite Creek.  Shallot had it disassembled in 1934 and reassembled on the museum grounds.  It is furnished as it would have been in the 1870s when Judge John Howard was the owner.  It isn't really a fort...but has the name due to his home cooked meals "whose fame spread through the territory".

6. Ranch House : Built in the 1930s represents early ranch homes in Prescott.

7. Fremont House : Built in 1875 this was the home of John Charles Fremont, the fifth territorial governor of Arizona.  

8. Transportation Building : Built in 1937 as an automotive repair shop, it now exhibits the Museum's "rolling stock" including a stagecoach, Model T farm truck, and Sharlot's own 1927 Durant Star touring car.

9. Bashford House and Museum Store : Built is 1877 and bought by Prescott merchant William C. Bashford as a family home.  It is a beautiful Victorian home and also serves as a gift shop.  It was moved to the Museum in 1974. 

 

Walking through the museum grounds you can't help but notice the gardens.  The first memorial rose bushes were planted in 1948 by the Yavapai Cowbelles.  The garden was later moved to the north side of the Mansion in 1974.  

There are currently 500 women honored in the Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden with a rose bush planted for each one.

The Historic Iris Gardens, initiated by the Prescott Area Iris Society ,showcase historic iris from the early settlement period of Arizona from the years 1500 to 1943 which is the year Sharlot Hall died. 

It was a very nice morning full of history and beauty.   

Until next time, 

HAPPY TRAILS!