Few towns can match Prescott’s Whiskey Row with the Palace and other saloons along Montezuma Street. Before Tombstone, Doc Holliday and Wyatt and Virgil Earp walked these streets and drank on Whiskey Row. And today, thousands visit the city each year to take in the Old West feel.
That is one reason Prescott is #1 among True West Magazine’s 2021 Top Western Towns. They will be featured in the February/March 2021 issue, hitting newsstands on February 16, 2021.
Prescott has a bit of everything. The Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza is the beating heart of Prescott’s walkable downtown stretching for several blocks down to the former Santa Fe train depot. Visitors can enjoy Western hospitality in historic digs at the Hassayampa Inn, a Mission Revival gem built in 1927, and the 1917 Hotel Vendome. Prescott’s reverence for its Western roots started with Sharlot Hall, who collected artifacts and more, and in 1928, opened a museum in the Territorial Governor’s Mansion. The museum has grown to 11 exhibit buildings on four acres and added a $3 million Education Center in May. Sharlot Hall and the town’s other museums are notches in the gun belt that helped pushed Prescott to its No.1 spot on our True Western Towns list. Western art lovers should see the Phippen Museum and its Arizona Rancher and Cowboy Hall of Fame. Then there’s the legendary events: Frontier Days and the World’s Oldest Rodeo.
“Prescott is the crown jewel of Old West towns,” says True West Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell. “There’s so much to see, so much to do, year-round. The local folks are serious about preserving their history and sharing it with visitors—and nobody does it quite like Prescott. There’s no question: Prescott is the Top True Western Town.”
This is the 16th year True West has presented this annual award. Editors base their selection on criteria demonstrating how each town has preserved its history through old buildings, museums and other institutions, events, and promotions of historic resources.
True West magazine is in its 68th year of leading the way in presenting the true stories of Old West adventure, history, culture and preservation. For subscriptions and more information, visit TWMag.com or 480-820-5545.