Timeline of Yavapai County, Arizona


25,000 BC	Indigenous cultures in Arizona, but they probably lived in the region as early as 25,000 BC
ca. 9,000 BC	Paleo-Indians arrive in the southwest, including Arizona. Known as the Clovis culture, they were hunter-gatherers.
ca. 4,500 BC	Maize is introduced into the southwest United States, including Arizona.
2,000 BC	Indians introduce agriculture to Arizona. Cochise Culture develops in what is now southern Arizona. The Cochise people introduce agriculture to Arizona, growing vegetable crops including corn.
ca. 1,500 BC	Pre-Columbian Indians begin developing irrigation systems
1,250 BC	Las Capas, slightly north of present-day Tucson, settled by pre-Columbian peoples, centered on an irrigation system.
1,000 BC-1000 AD	Anasazi culture develops on the Colorado Plateau.
300 BC	The Hohokam settled in south central Arizona and built irrigation canals.
600 BC-550 AD	Ancestral Puebloans begin to settle on the Four Corners area.
1-300 AD	Hohokam establish several villages along the Gila River
200 AD	The Mogollon culture begins to appear in the southeast area of Arizona.
300 AD	Ceramics appear in the Hohokam culture.
ca. 450 AD	Pueblo Grande settled.
500 AD	Sinagua people are farming near San Francisco Peaks.
500 AD-1450 AD	A later culture, the Hohokam, were pit dwellers who constructed extensive irrigation systems.
700-1000 AD	Anasazi culture develops into its Pueblo Period in which they build complex structures and ceremonial chambers. The Hopi pueblo village of Oraibi was founded, making it the oldest continuously inhabited town in Arizona (and along with Taos and Acoma Pueblos of New Mexico, one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in America).
700-1550 AD	Patayan (the Yuman word for old people) peoples appear. South of the Grand Canyon, the Patayan culture (a branch that descended from the primordial Hakataya culture root) emerges along the Colorado River in what is now western Arizona, extending west to Lake Cahuilla in California, and in Baja California. This included areas along the Gila River, Colorado River and in the Lower Colorado River Valley, the nearby uplands, and north to the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. Patayan culture is sometimes known as the Hakataya culture. The Patayan were ancestors of the Yavapai, Hualapai, and Havasupai people in the upland regions, and to the Yuman-speaking peoples of western Arizona and southern California, including the Cocopa, Quechan, and Mojave.
899 AD	Major floods along Salt River disrupt Hohokam irrigation systems.
1000 AD	The Kayenta tradition of the Ancestral Puebloans develops in northern Arizona. The Hopi found the village of Oraibi, the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America.
1064 AD	Sunset Crater erupted.
1150 AD	The myth of Cibola and Seven Cities of Gold originated when the Moors conquered Merida, Spain. According to legend, seven bishops fled the city, not only to save their own lives but also to prevent the Muslims from obtaining gold, gems, and sacred religious relics. A rumor circulated that in a far away land- a place unknown to the people of that time- the seven bishops had founded seven cities. These cities supposedly grew very rich, mainly from gold and precious stones. This idea fueled many expeditions in search of the mythical cities during the following centuries.
1276-99 AD	Severe drought hits the Colorado Plateau. Grasshopper Pueblo founded by the Mogollon and Ancestral Puebloans.
1200 AD	Hopi village of Oraibi is founded. May be oldest American town where people have continuously lived.
1275	A great drought began and lasted until 1299.
1300 AD	Ancestral Puebloans abandon their elaborate cliff dwellings in north Arizona that still stand. Hohokam have largest population in the southwest. Awatovi founded by the Hopi. The Apache and Navajo people came to the area about1300 from Canada. The Yavapai people, descended from the Patayan (see 700-1550 AD), begin settling in Arizona near the southern extent of the Colorado Plateau.
1370s AD	Drought hits the Hopi areas.
1300	Casa Grande is built near the Gila River.
1300-1450 AD	Periods of drought alternate with flooding in the Salt River area.
1400 AD	The Athabaskan ancestors of the Navajo enter Arizona. Cultural decline of various pre-historic groups. Hohokam culture disappears.
1430s AD	Drought hits the Hopi areas.
1440s AD	Drought hits the Hopi areas.
ca. 1450 AD	Pueblo Grande abandoned due to drought.
1455-65 AD	Drought hits the Hopi areas.


1527-1536	Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, an early Spanish explorer of the New World, and Esteban Dorantes, a Moorish slave, were shipwrecked off the coast of present-day Texas. During their eight-year-long trek to Mexico City, they encountered natives along the way who told them about cities with great riches. Marcos de Niza, a Spanish Franciscan friar, supposed that the stories pertained to the 'Seven Cities of Cibola.'
1539	Marcos de Niza, a Jesuit Franciscan leads an expedition which passes through eastern Arizona. He claims Arizona for Spain.
1540	The first documentation of European contact with the Yuman-speaking tribes was by Hernando de Alarcón, a mariner involved with the Coronado expedition to the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. Alarcón ventured up the Colorado River, and his account marks the beginning of written observations about the Colorado River tribes.
1540-1542	Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led a large armored military expedition to take possession of the wealthy city of Cibola. Coronado claimed all of the land as part of New Spain and conquered the Zuni pueblo. Coronado sent Pedro de Tovar to lead an expedition westward, and they visited the Hopi pueblos. Garcia Lopez de Cardenas left from there in search of a river that the Hopi had spoken about, and was the first European to view the Grand Canyon.
1581	May - Antonio de Espejo's explores eastern Arizona, discovers Hopi copper mines near present-day Jerome.
1598-1599	Juan de Oñate was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain. An explorer, he established and served as colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. Oñate founded settlements in the province, being the first European settlements in what is now the southwestern United States.
1629	Franciscans, the first Europeans to live in Arizona, tried to establish missions in the north around the Hopi, but their venture failed.
1680	A Pueblo rebellion against the Spanish drove the colonists, priests, and soldiers out of New Mexico.
1687	Jesuit Priest Father Eusebio Francisco Kino establishes missions in Pimería Alta among the Tohono O'odham people, along the Rio Santa Cruz and Rio San Pedro.
1691	Father Kino (see 1687, above) established Mission Cayetano del Tumacacori near a Sobaipuri settlement on the east side of the Santa Cruz River. It was the first European settlement in Arizona.
1692	Father Kino starts work and founds Guevavi mission.
1694	Father Kino explores Arizona, discovers the ruins of Casa Grande.
1700	San Xavier del Bac mission (White Dove of the Desert) is founded.
1732	Mission San Xavier del Bac founded by Jesuits near present-day Tucscon.
1736	Silver discovered on the ranch of the Basque settler, Bernardo de Urrea, near the Guevavi mission. The name of Urrea's ranch was Arizona, meaning the good oak tree.
1751	The O'odham people rebel against the Spanish, but the rebellion is put down.
1752	In response to the rebellion from the Pima and Papago tribes, the Spanish construct a presidio at Tubac, the first permanent European settlement and colonial garrison in what is now Arizona. While stationed at Tubac (1760-1776), Juan Bautista de Anza builds the chapel of Santa Gertrudis, the foundations of which lies beneath today's St. Ann's Church.
1757	Tumacácori Mission established.
1768	Arizona becomes part of the Provincia de las Californias, under Spanish rule.
1774	The first Spanish rendition Yavapai (the Yuman terminology) appears as Yabipai (note the b) in a 1774 journal entry of Spanish Franciscan friar and explorer Francisco Garcés. Garcés, who was accompanying Captain Juan Bautista de Anza on a quest for an overland route between Spanish missions in Sonora and southern California, apparently adapted the name Yabipai from the lower Colorado River tribes he encountered as he moved northward from the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers. Members of some of these communities likely served as guides for Garcés' party as they entered Yavapai lands. Prior to Garcés, Spanish chroniclers had routinely referred to the Yavapai as Cruzados after the crosses of cane they allegedly wore on their foreheads.
1775	20 August - Spanish explorers founded the Presidio San Agustin de Tucson, the official birth date of the City of Tucson. It actually began as a small Spanish presidio, or walled fortress, a 750 feet square area, housing approximately 2 - 3 officers and 75 soldiers and their families.
1810-1821	Mexican War of Independence.
1820s	Trappers began entering Yavapai territory, trapping beaver along the Salt, Gila, and Bill Williams rivers.
1821	Mexico gained military control of Arizona. Trappers and traders from the United States came into the area.


1846	25 April - Mexican-American War begins
1848	2 February - United States won the Mexican War and gained all of Arizona north of the Gila River. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848). Mexico ceded to the United States in 1848, minus Texan claims. The Mexican Cession consisted of present-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, the western half of New Mexico, the western quarter of Colorado, and the southwest corner of Wyoming.
1849	The California 49ers crossed the northern part of the County in 1849 on their way to the California gold-rush.
1850	13 December - Territory of New Mexico created, included present-day New Mexico, Arizona, parts of southern Colorado, southern Utah, and a piece of southeast Nevada.
1854	New Mexico Territory changed counties stretching to future Nevada from five to three.
1860	Census of New Mexico Territory taken. Arizona County enumerated.
1863	24 February - Arizona Territory created from the western half of New Mexico territory. December 23 - Fort Whipple temporarily established at Del Rio Springs, north of present day Chino Valley by Major Edward Banker Willis and Captain Nathaniel J. Pishon. A party which included Jack Swilling discovers gold along the Hassayampa River, on what is now known as Rich Hill, famous for the size and quality of the high karat gold that it has produced. Gold mining brings the first settlers to the site that would become Prescott; farmers and cattlemen followed. Fort Misery is built by Manuel Yrissari, a trader from New Mexico, to be his home and mercantile on the banks of Granite Creek. It is now the oldest log building associated with the territory of Arizona.
1864	March 9 - First newspaper in Arizona - The Arizona Miner newspaper published at Fort Whipple, ceased publication in 1868. May - Prescott was founded as the Territorial Capital of Arizona. September - Yavapai County is one of the four original Arizona counties formed one year after the Arizona Territory was established. The County was named after the Yavapai Tribe, whose name means the people of the sun. The other three counties were Mohave, Yuma and Pima. Van Ness C. Smith appointed as the first Territorial Sheriff. Fort Whipple moves to Granite Creek, closer to Prescott. The first census of the new Arizona Territory was taken by U.S. Marshal, Milton B. Duffield, found the non-Indian population to be 4,573.
1865	September - Camp Verde established at the Verde River. It was later renamed Fort McDowell. 18 December - General Order #15 divided Arizona Territory, declaring friendly Indians to the west and hostiles to the east
1866	Population of Yavapai County - 1612
1867	18 January - The northwestern corner of Arizona Territory, west of the Colorado River, was transferred to Nevada. The law transferring the land was approved May 5, 1866, but this transfer was contingent on the state accepting it. Territorial capital moved from Prescott to Tucson.
1870	Population of Arizona - 9,658 April - Whipple Barracks became the Headquarters for the Military Department of Arizona.
1871	14 February - Maricopa County created from Yavapai County.
1874	Arizona Weekly Miner newspaper founded in Prescott, ceased publication in 1877.
1875	Copper deposits discovered in Jerome. Part of Pinal County created from Yavapai County.
1877	The Weekly Arizona Miner newspaper founded in Prescott, ceased publication in 1885.
1879	14 February - Apache County, which embraced the County of Navajo, created from Yavapai County.
1880	Population of Arizona - 40,440.
1882	Ash Fork founded.
1891	19 February - Coconino County, created from Yavapai County.
1893	Coconino County created from Yavapai County.


1900	14 July - Most of downtown Prescott is destroyed by fire.
1907	1 March - The Escalante Hotel opens in Ash Fork. Ash Fork was an important railroad junction at the time. Passengers and freight bound for central and southern Arizona boarded the trains at the famed Hotel Escalante.
1909	Writer and poet Sharlot Hall was appointed Territorial Historian becoming the first Arizona woman to hold territorial office.
1910	The County had a population of approximately 16,000 people.
1912	3 December - First movie made in Prescott, The Cringer produced by the Lubin Motion Picture Company and starring Romaine Fielding. The Prescott premier was shown at the Wigwam; completely sold-out for two nights and a matinee. Women are granted the right to vote.
1917	United States joined World War I against Germany. The Zimmerman Telegram was one reason we joined the war. It was sent from Germany to Mexico, and said that if Mexico helped Germany fight in the war, Mexico would regain Arizona.
1920	The County had a population of approximately 24,000 people.
1928	Sharlot Hall Museum opens in Prescott.
1935	June 7 - the Yavapai-Prescott reservation was established by an act of Congress, with 35 acres allotted. Smoki Museum, housing American Indian artifacts, opens in Prescott.
1937	The County had a population of approximately 37,000 people.
1940	Chieftess Viola Jimulla took over leadership of the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe in 1940 at the death of her husband, Sam. She was seen as a healer, and helped bridge the gap between the Anglo and Indian cultures.
1941	Ernest A. Love Field opens near Prescott.
1943	1 March - Prescott Community Hospital opened its doors to patients in the old Jefferson School building on Marina Street. By 9:00 p.m. on that date the first baby had been born at the new hospital. It is now the Yavapai Regional Medical Center.
1948	Natives obtain the right to vote.
1965	Yavapai College, a community college in Prescott, opens.
1978	Prescott Valley incorporates.
1986	The late Chieftess Viola Jimulla was proposed for the Arizona Woman's Hall of Fame.


2000	Yavapai County population is 167,517.
2004	Town of Dewey-Humboldt incorporated.
2010	Yavapai County population is 211,073.
2021	Yavapai County population is 241,753.