Sharlot Hall Museum

Top choice in Arizona


Prescott's chief museum highlights the town's period as territorial capital (1863–67). The 1928 museum is named for its founder, pioneer Sharlot Hall (1870–1943). A small exhibit in the lobby commemorates her legacy. The most interesting of the nine buildings is the 1864 Governor's Mansion, a log cabin where Hall lived in the attic until her death. It's filled with memorabilia, from guns and opium pipes to letters. The Sharlot Hall Building next door is the main exhibit hall.

Ms Hall distinguished herself first as a poet and activist before becoming Territorial Historian. In 1924 she traveled to Washington, DC, to represent Arizona in the Electoral College, dressed in a copper mesh overcoat – currently on display in the lobby – provided by a local mine.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Arizona attractions

1. Historic Downtown

0.18 MILES

Montezuma St, west of Courthouse Plaza, was once the infamous Whiskey Row, where 40 drinking establishments supplied suds to rough-hewn cowboys, miners…

2. Smoki Museum

0.81 MILES

This pueblo-style museum displays Southwestern American Indian objects – baskets, pottery, kachina dolls – dating from prehistoric times to the present…

3. Phippen Museum

6.29 MILES

The Phippen, located 7 miles north of Prescott en route to Jerome, is named after cowboy artist George Phippen. The museum hosts changing exhibits of…

4. Mine Museum

24.94 MILES

Two halves of a 4-ton flywheel mark the entry to this small but informative museum that highlights Jerome's hardscrabble past. Displays include a…

5. Audrey Headframe Park

25.19 MILES

At this small park, run by the Jerome Historical Society, bold travelers can stand on a glass platform under Arizona's largest wooden headframe,…

6. Jerome State Historic Park

25.26 MILES

This state park preserves the 1916 mansion of eccentric mining mogul Jimmy 'Rawhide' Douglas, who developed the Little Daisy Mine. An interesting variety…

7. Arcosanti

25.3 MILES

Two miles east of I-17 exit 262 (at Cordes Junction, 65 miles north of Phoenix), Arcosanti is an architectural experiment in urban living that's been a…

8. Clemenceau Heritage Museum

28.87 MILES

Housed in a refurbished state school dating to 1924 (Cottonwood's heyday) this worthwhile volunteer-run museum reanimates everyday life in the Verde…