[caption id="attachment_1958" align="alignleft" width="198"] OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA[/caption] Cornish Miners and Tommyknockers The perils of gold mining led to the stuff of legends––some real and some imagined. By Marshall Trimble The rocky wilderness of the American West turned out to be the richest treasure trove of natural resources in the history of the civilized world. And the chance to get rich quick ...

The Irish in Arizona State historian Marshall Trimble on the indelible mark the Irish made on the history of the West. There’s an old saying, “He had the luck of the Irish,” referring to a person who struck it rich in the mining camps of the West. For a few Irish immigrants that was true. Others made it through pure hard work and honest determination. Take Nellie Cashman for example. She was a real-life dim ...

Practicing Medicine State historian Marshall Trimble on the standard practices of frontier doctors. The frontier was a great place for a doctor to start a practice. The word “practicing” when it came to medicine in territorial Arizona could well be interpreted literally. And, a license to practice wasn’t required until 1900, therefore anyone could hang out a shingle and start practicing. Folks were pretty t ...

State historian Marshall Trimble recounts the story behind a masterpiece in engineering and one of the most spectacular standard-gauge railroad lines in the country.  Gold was first discovered in the Bradshaw Mountains of central Arizona in 1863. Over the next few years, prospectors would comb the hills south of Prescott in search of treasure. Soon, the mineral-rich mountains were dotted with mines large an ...