Come ride the trail with The Arizona Prospector. Since my early high school years I've been, hooked as they might say, on Arizona history. Not only the facts and figures but what lies under all those numbers and facts. That is the stories about the little know incidents and people who first crossed into what was then only the Arizona Territory.
As a course of my research, I've prospected a great many locations in the state myself and over time came to meet and know a number of fellow prospectors. When I first began my research, many of these old prospectors had been venturing over and across the state for more than half a century themselves. This opened the door for me to document many of the stories they told. Many of those stories were themselves told to them by previous prospectors and miners who worked the claims and mines that dotted Arizona at the time. All these stories I documented knowing that without them being recorded, they would some day be lost in the vastness of history.
Over time and I'm not really sure of the "when" or "where", I know it was many decades ago, some of those old prospectors and miners started calling me The Arizona Prospector and the nickname stuck.
I lost track decades ago of how many camp fires I sat beside listening to these rugged men tell their tales or how many a sparse meal I enjoyed sitting in some miner's shack being enthralled by the owners stories. Although many of their tales would be classified as folktales or folklore, at the root of each one lies a grain of truth and reality about Arizona's early years.
Research any of those old folktales and pieces of folklore deep enough and somewhere you will find a grain of truth about either an incident or place that makes these stories well worth preserving. Now that I'm crossing over that 70 year mark myself, I am glad all those researching days are in my past and I can simply read and recall all these stories for the pure pleasure they provide.
I hope those who read The Tales From The Files Of The Arizona Prospector will also derive at least a small portion of the enjoyment I had gathering and documenting these stories. My name is David Meier and I'm The Arizona Prospector.
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