Editing Prescott Valley, Arizona (section)

== History ==
[[File:Barlow-Massicks House.tif|left|thumb|alt=|Barlow Massick's House]]
Prescott Valley's Fitzmaurice Ruins contain artifacts from the early Mountain [[Patayan]] people who inhabited the area some 1,400 years ago.<ref>{{cite web |title=Prescott History |url=https://townsquarepublications.com/prescott-valley-az-history/ |website=townsquarepublications.com}}</ref>
The [[Walker Party]] discovered gold along [[Lynx Creek]]<ref>Lynx Creek https://highlandscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Highlands-Trail-Geology-Map.pdf</ref> in 1863. The Lynx Creek placers went on to produce a recorded {{convert|29000|ozt|kg}} of gold. Estimates of actual production range up to {{convert|80,000|ozt|kg}}, which would be worth about $138 million at 2020 prices.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.apmex.com/gold-price|title=USD Gold Price Charts & Historical Data|website=APMEX|access-date=August 30, 2019}}</ref>

Prescott Valley, formerly known as Lonesome Valley, was settled by ranchers in the 1880s, raising beef to supply the miners and new settlers. The Fain family, pioneer ranchers, still ranch in the valley.<ref name=Cross/>

Thomas Gibson Barlow-Massicks arrived in the area in the early 1890s and built the historic "castle" that still stands in Fain Park. Massicks had a [[hydraulic mining|hydraulic gold mining]] operation in Lynx Creek Canyon and built the company mining camp of Massicks, Arizona just east of his Victorian home, the castle. The fireplace with chimney just inside the castle's fence is all that remains of the Massicks store. Massicks accidentally shot himself and died in April 1899 at the age of 37. In the 1930s, there was a [[gold dredge|gold dredging]] operation, the Doodle Bug Diggings, farther east in Lynx Creek Canyon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/days_show.pl?name=1997_10_12&h=%7CMassicks%7C|title=Sharlot Hall Museum|access-date=August 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727033945/http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/days_show.pl?name=1997_10_12&h=%7CMassicks%7C|archive-date=July 27, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the mid-1960s, Prescott Valley Incorporated, a real-estate company from Phoenix, purchased land in an area 10 miles east of Prescott known as Lonesome Valley. In 1966, representatives from Prescott Valley Inc. began traveling to the Midwest to sell home lots. By 1978, more than 1,500 residents were living in the unincorporated area now known as Prescott Valley. In 1978, 80 percent of the voters of Prescott Valley voted for incorporation as a town.<ref name=Cross>Jean Cross, 2009, ''Images of America: Prescott Valley'', Arcadia Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7385-7070-2}}</ref> The town celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018.

In 1985, Prescott Valley got its first licensed radio station. The station was the first solar powered FM station in the United States. Today, Arizona's Hometown Radio Group has grown to seven stations throughout Arizona.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.azhometownradio.com|title=Arizona's Hometown Radio}}</ref>