By Norm Tessman

It was America’s most popular war. All over the United States, young men demonstrated their patriotism by rushing to enlist in newly formed regiments. During the spring and summer of 1898, over 200,000 such volunteers signed up to fight against the Spaniards.

In Arizona Territory, war fever was high. Prescott’s mayor, William Owen "Buckey" O’Neill, and former cavalry officer Alexander Oswald Brodie, made plans to raise a 1,000-man regiment of "…the cowboys of Arizona." To their disappointment, when the regiment was authorized on April 25, 1898, only 170 (later 200) of its 1,000 men would be Arizonans. The rest were to come from the three other territories: New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory. This unit became the most recognized and best known of the Spanish-American War. Officially called the "First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment," it went on to fame as "Roosevelt’s Rough Riders."

Arizonans also joined another territorial regiment. On July 9, 1898, Arizona Territorial Governor Myron McCord resigned his office to organize and command an all-Arizonan infantry regiment. When the unit was authorized, however, it too was to include men from New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, as well as 300 Arizonans. Many of these men came from territorial national guard units. Officially designated as the First Territorial Volunteer Infantry, the regiment became known as the "Western Regiment," the "Big Four" (from four territories), or "McCord’s Infantry."

Photos show that McCord’s soldiers lacked the state-of-the-art equipment which the influential Theodore Roosevelt procured for his Rough Riders. Instead of the brown cotton uniforms of Roosevelt’s troopers, the territorial infantrymen were issued blue wool coats and trousers. While the Rough Riders carried .30-40 Krag-Jorgenson six-shot carbines, McCord’s soldiers were armed with obsolete .45-70 single-shot Springfield rifles. Besides having more fire power, the Krags used a smokeless powder cartridge. This eliminated the clouds of tell-tale smoke which marked the location of riflemen firing the older cartridges.

The Arizona members of the territorial infantry regiment, (companies A, B, and C and the regimental band,) mustered at Fort Whipple. Robert Brow, proprietor of the Palace Saloon, donated his pet bear, "Yavapai Maggie," as mascot. On September 28, McCord’s infantrymen left Prescott to join the regiment at Fort Hamilton, Lexington, Kentucky. This site was selected "…for getting them accustomed to a lower altitude before sending them to sea level." Suffering "the coldest winter on record," Colonel McCord and his infantry moved south to Camp Churchman, Albany, Georgia, sometime before Christmas. There they shared the camp with the Second Missouri and the Third Mississippi Volunteer Infantry regiments.

We can only guess at the growing frustration of McCord and his men. Fighting in Cuba had ended in July. On September 15, the Rough Riders were discharged, heaped with honors and assured of a place in history. Undoubtedly, as the year wore on, the infantrymen hoped to see service in the Philippines, where Filipino insurgents had begun to rebel against the American occupation. But McCord’s regiment was not one of those selected to fight in the so-called "Philippine Insurrection."

An estimated two-thirds of the 200,000 volunteers who had enlisted were in the same predicament. They sat out the one-hundred-thirteen day war in training camps, begging to see action, but fighting only boredom and disease rather than enemy weapons. In February, 1899, the men of the First Territorial Volunteer Infantry were discharged.

Of the 1,308 men who served in McCord’s Infantry, eight died of disease (typhoid, dysentery, meningitis) and twenty deserted. These rates were much lower than that of many similar regiments. Although by 1898, weaponry was rapidly advancing, military sanitation was still primitive. Total casualties for the Spanish-American War included, 379 men killed and 1,604 wounded in combat, while 4,000 (another source says 5,462) died of disease.

Today, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders are well remembered in books and photographic collections, as well as by many attributed uniforms and pieces of equipment in museum collections. By contrast, no book was ever written about the men of the First Territorial Volunteer Infantry. None of their uniforms or major pieces of equipment are known to survive. Only a few photographs, newspaper accounts, and official records document the regiment’s existence. Perhaps the difference is that while the Rough Riders won glory in Cuban fighting, McCord’s men found only boredom and frustration.

(Norm Tessman is senior curator at the Sharlot Hall Museum.)

Sidebar: On April 24, 1998, the Sharlot Hall Museum will open the exhibit "1898: Arizona Goes to War." It tells of the Rough Riders, McCord’s infantry, Buckey and Pauline O’Neill, and the people and events of 1898. The exhibit and related programs will continue throughout the year.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(mil264p). Reuse only by permission.

Governor Myron H. McCord resigned as Arizona Territorial Governor and became the commanding Colonel of the above first Territorial Regiment of the U.S. Volunteer Infantry. This photo was taken Christmas Day 1898 in Albany, Georgia. Included in this photograph are the volunteers from Prescott.

By Nancy Burgess

Last year, the Arizona State Savings and Credit Union purchased a church on East Gurley Street in Prescott. On the same property as the church, which was built in 1961, is the J.M.W. Moore House, built in 1892. This house was documented in 1978 as a part of the Prescott Multiple Resource Area documentation of Territorial Architecture, but was not listed in the National Register. Upon acquisition of the property, the Credit Union proposed a remodeling of the church for an office and demolition of the Moore House. The Moore House is a very plain, simple one-and-one-half story Victorian Cottage with shingle style influence which is important for its simplicity of form and detail. The building is structurally sound and has exceptional integrity.

J.M.W. Moore was a prospector who made a rich strike in 1884. He was elected to the Territorial Legislature and engaged in a successful real estate business. In 1892, after bringing his family to Prescott, he built the house at 518 East Gurley Street and planted a fruit orchard. Photographs from the late 1920s show the house surrounded by fruit trees, but otherwise almost identical to its appearance today.

After the Prescott Preservation Commission expressed their concerns in a letter to the Credit Union about the proposed demolition of the Moore House, the City started working with the Credit Union to find a solution for saving it. Initially, there were proposals to move it, and the Credit Union was willing to donate it to a non-profit if they would remove it. After considerable negotiation with Patti Venuti, the Manager of the Prescott office of the Credit Union, the Credit Union committed to finding a way to save the house on the site and give up the parking spaces its removal would have generated. We were able to find a very suitable buyer, Guy Naus, who won the Governor’s Award in 1995 for his restoration of the Rev. E. Meaney House across the street. A creative transaction was completed and Naus Construction has begun the restoration and reconstruction of the J.M.W. Moore House for professional offices.

The City of Prescott feels that this has been a very positive step for Prescott and are very pleased that the Credit Union Board was willing to commit to saving the Moore House and retaining this historic structure on site. The Arizona State Savings and Credit Union has demonstrated its support for the historic resources in Prescott by its willingness to be creative in finding a solution to save the Moore House. We are all looking forward to the restoration by Naus Construction and plan to include the Moore House in a National Register District nomination to be prepared in 1999/2000.

(Nancy Burgess is the City of Prescott’s Preservation Officer.)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bure4004p). Reuse only by permission.

The Moore House on Gurley Street as it appeared in 1900. The house is currently undergoing restoration by Naus Construction.

By J.J. McCormack

An artist’s inspiration, a sportsman’s paradise, a mountain gem and Prescott’s playground. Take your pick of the assorted descriptions writers have bestowed on Watson Lake in the 84 years since the turquoise body of water began lapping at the sloping walls of the Granite Dells. The same romantic prose was ascribed to Willow Lake when it appeared west of the Dells 21 years after Watson. Both scenic lakes have provided ample fodder for writers and photographers throughout their separate, but related histories, with most early journalistic attention focusing on their unique beauty and the recreational amenities the two lakes afforded Prescott residents and visitors. The fact that the lakes were engineered for a singular purpose – providing irrigation water for grazing and farm land in Chino Valley – got scant notice in the local press. "A New Play Ground Developed for Prescott by the Big Dam" heralds a headline in Yavapai Magazine in 1915, the first year Watson Lake graced the local landscape.

The article announcing the speedy rise of Watson Lake behind the newly completed Granite Creek Dam focuses on the beauty and the recreational promise of the expanding reservoir. "One of the greatest sports for Prescott and its visitors from now on will certainly be boating on Lake Watson. The surroundings are incomparably romantic", states the magazine article, which is accompanied by three black and white photographs showcasing the "many rocky promontories" breaking the shoreline, and the "spires of granite" that wall the lake. The article does note the lake’s purpose – storage for irrigation. It and other post-Granite Creek Dam newspaper and magazine articles offer few glimpses of the origins of Willow and Watson lakes.

Perhaps the most detailed historical account available was written by longtime Chino Valley Irrigation District Board member Helen Wells. The two lakes and the dams that harness them have been something of a labor of love for Wells for nearly three decades. A former CVID secretary, Wells, a small farm owner and horsewoman was elected to the three-member CVID board in 1982. She often hosted meetings at a dress shop she operated on her farm. Wells, who harbors a deep pride in the gritty, hard-working and thrifty irrigation district board members and shareholders, authored the irrigation district’s history some 10 years ago at the request of attorneys seeking to secure insurance for the district. "I read old minutes. I talked to old-timers that are still here and knew a lot. I read files," she said. Efforts to insure the district failed.

Wells’ history proved useful in negotiations paving the way for the City of Prescott to purchase Willow and Watson Lakes real estate and retain water rights from the CVID. The proposed $15 million purchase will be put to Prescott voters on May 19. Wells, who would just as soon see CVID retain control of the lakes but deferred to the majority of shareholders in negotiations, noted in an interview the historical significance of the CVID. "It’s unique. There are lots of other irrigation districts, but they don’t have dams," she said.

The CVID’s dams and irrigation water rights originated with the vast Chino Valley area land holdings of the Arizona Land and Irrigation Co. The company purchased the land from the railroads after the turn of the century and later applied for water rights on Granite, Lynx and Willow Creeks. The land and accompanying water rights were promoted and sold as farm land. In 1914, the same year Granite Creek Dam was built, the Arizona Land and Irrigation Co. became the Hassayampa Alfalfa Farms. Watson Lake was named after Sen. James Watson of Indiana, a principal investor in the Arizona Land and Irrigation Co. The irrigation district’s name changed to Chino Mutual Water Users Association after Granite Creek Dam was built and again in 1925 – to CVID. The district incorporated a year later.

Wells’ history provides Granite Creek Dam storage, spillway and gate-valve specifications, as well as other insights, such as the fact that a helicopter had to be employed several years ago to install a new 36-inch hand-operated gate valve because the dam is accessible, even today, only by boat or on foot. Watson Lake furnished irrigation water to CVID shareholder properties via 40 miles of earthen canals for the first time in 1916, and has been providing water for alfalfa and other cash crops on an annual basis since.

Willow Lake was created in 1935, behind Willow Creek Dam, to augment Watson Lake storage for the CVID. Whereas Watson is fed by Granite Creek, Willow harnesses Willow Creek inflows. The Willow Creek Dam is accessible by car, thanks to the construction by the CVID of a road in 1984. Although boating historically has been allowed on Watson Lake when water levels allow, Willow Lake has been posted off limits since about the mid-1970s when vandalism, illegal dumping and liability risks forced the CVID to prohibit public use. Trespassing and vandalism have been ongoing problems at both lakes, at a substantial cost in time and money to the irrigation district, Wells said. She and family members have spent many weekend hours at the lakes over the years cleaning up garbage, pursuing vandals, fixing fences, replacing signs and inspecting damage to the dams. "I always have baling and barbed wired in my truck," she said. Lack of rain and snow in recent years coupled with irrigation draws by the CVID have dried up Willow and Watson lakes. In the past, it was CVID policy to leave some water in the lakes year-round. "It would evaporate and we thought why are we doing that?"

An abundance of precipitation this year has started filling Watson Lake. If spring brings continued wet weather, Willow Lake won’t be far behind.

(J.J.McCormack is the City of Prescott Communications Director.)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(dam126p). Reuse only by permission.

This Acker Book Store postcard from the 1920s shows Lake Watson and the dam at Granite Dells.