The Prescott Westerners & The Man Who Met Big Nose Kate

[Bob Boze Bell]

July 6, 2012

Drove up to Prescott yesterday at three. Had a speech for the Prescott Westerners Corral, a group dedicated to authentic history. The last time I spoke to the Prescott Westerners I mentioned that a young medical student had interviewed Doc Holliday's girlfriend in 1940. A buzz went through the room. So much so that I asked what the matter was. Several people pointed to an elderly gentleman sitting near the front who was now smiling broadly at me. the entire room said, almost as one, "Dr. William Bork is seated right there." I literally jumped off the stage to shake his hand like some gushy Justin Beiber groupie. I mean, holy guacamole, HE actually talked to Doc Holliday's girlfriend.

 

After the speech I had a nice talk with him about the encounter, but as happens so often when you get to actually talk to someone who glimpsed history, he didn't really have any earth shattering news to tell about it. She was merely an old woman trying to cash in on her story and she had things mixed up, didn't tell a very good story and had unrealistic ideas about getting paid for it.

 

Still, it was a thrill to talk to him. When I was about 14 my mother dragged me to an old woman's musty house on Beale Street in downtown Kingman. I remember it was hot and the house was decorated like a museum and she had a big, old-fashioned clock that chimed every half hour. The time dragged by as I sat on an uncomfortable chair and listened to the women gab on and on about people they knew and when they died. I was quickly bored and basically day dreamed the entire time about basketball and a certain girl in civics class I had a thing for. I really couldn't wait to get out of there.

 

Years later, I found out that Wyatt Earp and Josie had visited this woman and her husband in Kingman about some mines in the area and there was a legend that Wyatt had a secret gold stash that the old woman knew about.

 

Wish I'd'ah Paid More Attention!

 

At the speech last night I had a similar encounter. Several people came up to me and introduced themselves. One of them turned out to be the great grandson of John Wetherell, a pioneer of Kayenta and discoverer of Rainbow Bridge and other important treasures of Navajo Land. More on that later.

 

Afterwards, I walked down to Whiskey Row and had a drink with John Langellier in Tommy Meredith's Jersey Lillie, above the Palace Bar. We were the only people in the bar and it was a hoot to talk history with John in such a historic place.

 

Two or three weeks ago we filmed a segment in this bar for our upcoming show on Channel 8. Here I am with Tommy behind the bar after we finished taping:

 

After two drinks ($5!), I walked back across the courthouse lawn where a bunch of kids were lollygagging (a teenaged girl is on a cell phone, and she yells to a nearby boy, "I've got a bug on my foot! Get it off me! Get it off!"), then across Gurley to walk along the shops. When I got to the next corner I spied a familiar image in the lobby of the Prescott National Bank:

 

These are the smaller versions of my sculpture "Not-So-Gentle Tamer" which is being proposed for the Prescott Valley Courthouse. Limited editions of the statue are available for sale, and proceeds will go toward the cost of the 10-foot, larger-than-life monument.

 

"Wish I'd Paid More Attention."

—Every history minded person who every lived

[C. Neil]

You will let us know when the Channel 8 show is broadcast, right, BBB?

[Bob Boze Bell]

It's scheduled for the evening of August 16 and all the people who worked on it are invited to the Walter Cronkite Studios on the downtown ASU campus, to be on the air and to have a reception, party afterwards. Be sure to come in costume. Thanks. See you there.

[Steve Sanders]

Is Tommy-Behind-the-Bar related to Johnny Behind-the Deuce?

[Nicholas Narog]

I know just what you mean when you say you wish you'd paid more attention. My Great Grandmother used to rattle on stories about how her family used to hide out outlaws during the depression and how she remembers having people stay over such as the members of the Barker- Karpis Gang and even John Dillinger! Gosh, if only I recorded her stories!

[Chuck Sawyer]

   Well, I too  remember special events in our family.  My Dad ran head long into a buttocks chewing by the best on his time, General MacArthur right after WWII.  The other day, I was reading about my GGGrandfather who ran into Cochise and was about to be burned at the stake.  Now, I wonder what my fate might be ?   

[Lee Anderson]

I grew up in the late 1940s and 50s in Iowa and a history minded atmosphere. My 94 year old Mother collects Victorian furniture and antique dolls. (she's an internationally recognized expert on the Rose O'neil Kewpie Doll. She also drives a Mustang GT convertible.) My father restored Model "A" Fords. The past was always present in my life. My preference was always cowboys and horses. As a youngster I listened to my 80+ year old Aunt Emma Carlson tell how, when she was about 8 or 10, her mother chased three "pushy" indians out of their log cabin with a broom. (and you think the men were tough back then?) I've stood in the grove of walnut trees where that cabin was located. At about 12 or 14 years of age my Great Aunt Jenny Wolfe was visiting us. She was well up in her 90s and still sharp. During conversation at the Sunday dinner table it was brought out that she was born in 1862. I knew my history and asked if she had any recollection of Lincoln being assinated. She said she only remembered her parents taking about what a terrible thing it was that the president was killed. It was pretty awesome to actually talk with someone who was alive then. Over 30 years ago I accompanied a Mexican friend to Mexico where we visited with a woman who was Pancho Villa's last (and youngest at 14) wife and I actually held several artifacts that belonged to him. There are a lot of you folks "out there" that have done a lot of things just as interesting that really should be told and documented. I am doing both.