Ever since there’s been a courthouse in the middle of downtown Prescott, there’s been a Courthouse Plaza. As well as a gathering place, it’s always been a place where the community remembers its heroes.
Two plaques bearing the names of more than 500 residents who served in World War II stand under the Yavapai County Service Flag, near the Lady Ermintrude fountain on the northeast side of the square. The oldest of the five bronze statues on the plaza’s grounds predates the long-revered current courthouse it stands in front of by nine years. A sixth statue is on the way. These are the stories behind them.
Buckey O’Neill Rough Rider Memorial (north side of plaza)
Sculptor: Solon Borglum
Installed in 1907
William “Buckey” O’Neill was a Prescottonian and served as the City’s mayor until he resigned in 1898 to help organize the Rough Riders 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, out of hundreds of volunteers mostly from Arizona and New Mexico territories, at the start of the Spanish-American War.
He went on to command its Troop A until he was killed by a sniper just before the battle of San Juan Hill, where the Rough Riders made their name under Lt. Col. Teddy Roosevelt.
The fundraising effort to build a memorial to O’Neill was immediately launched with the help of schoolchildren kicking in their pennies, nickels and dimes and included some novel tactics for the time, including the sale of 50,000 Buckey O’Neill cigars, which amounted to $100.
Borglum was a renowned sculptor who would have normally asked for more than the $10,000 offered to him, but he was eager to take on the project. Some 7,000 people reportedly came to its unveiling.
Perched on top of a 28-ton granite boulder bearing a plaque with the names of all the Rough Riders, it’s the only statue on the plaza not placed at ground level. It’s considered one of the best equestrian sculptures in the United States, and Mount Rushmore creator Gutzon Borglum, after seeing his brother’s best-known work for the first time, said it was “unexcelled abroad.”
All Veterans Memorial (west side)
Sculptor: Neil Logan
Installed in 1989
Discussions among local veterans’ groups about creating a memorial to all Yavapai County veterans who had lost their lives in war led to the commissioning of Prescott-born artist Neil Logan, who served two tours in Vietnam and got the idea for it from his brother, who also served in that war. It was dedicated by the Yavapai Vietnam Veterans Association and bears a plaque with the names of county residents killed in action from World War I through the present.
The statue depicts a Marine paramedic signaling an unseen helicopter to pick up a wounded soldier he’s struggling to hold up. It’s been rededicated several times over the years as names are added, and it’s now maintained by the Sunup Rotary Club.
Cowboy at Rest (south side)
Sculptor: Solon Borglum
Installed in 1990
A year later a second equestrian statue by Borglum, who died in 1922 and is celebrated as the “first cowboy sculptor” on a plaque near the Rough Rider monument, found its way to the plaza. His depiction of a cowboy gazing pensively into the distance while resting on a rock next to his standing horse was originally created as a miniature in 1904, then enlarged to a life-size plaster figure shown at exhibitions in St. Louis and Portland, Oregon. That statue is now at Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
The Prescott Community Art Trust commissioned a life-size bronze drawn from the original miniature version, with the Borglum family’s blessing, and it was cast at Skurja Art Castings in Prescott with the help of local sculptor Karl Kendall.
Yavapai County Fallen Officer Memorial
Sculptor: Bill Nebeker
Installed in 2021
Former Sheriff Scott Mascher was a longtime advocate for memorializing fallen peace officers on the plaza and saw the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors approve the installation of a statue on Courthouse Plaza during his final year in office, 2020. He quickly formed a committee to raise funds and commissioned local sculptor Nebeker, already well-known for such work as the massive Early Settlers figures at the intersection of Gurley and Sheldon streets, the gateway into downtown Prescott.
The simple scene of a territorial-era lawman, hat in hand and staring mournfully at a pair of empty cowboy boots, was unveiled May 1, 2021 and has since been the site of an annual ceremony paying respects to all law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty.
Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial
Sculptor: Deborah Fellows
Installed in 2024
Shortly after the June 30, 2013 Yarnell Hill wildfire took the lives of 19 firefighters, came calls to create memorials for their sacrifice, and by 2015 the southeast corner of the plaza was proposed as the site of a monument that would be accessible to everyone in the community. The Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial Partnership was formed in 2015, collected the community’s ideas for the design, and selected southeastern Arizona artist Fellows’ design out of 29 submitted in 2018.
The drive to raise $500,000 for the site got an early assist from the City of Prescott and other local governments but ran into some difficulty during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inflation crisis that followed drove costs higher, with another $111,000 needed by the fire’s 10th anniversary in 2023. With help from a video in support of the project by a Yellowstone actor, the piece was completed and installed in time for the 11th anniversary in 2024.
Wish Man Monument (northeast corner)
Sculptor: Bill Nebeker
Coming in 2026
Frank Shankwitz, a Prescott resident and longtime Arizona Highway Patrol officer, co-founded the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 1980, becoming its first president and helping propel its growth into an international nonprofit granting experiential wishes to more than 500,000 seriously ill children.
He passed away from cancer in 2021, and in 2024 the City of Prescott approved the sculpture’s placement in City right-of-way just off the plaza, next to the bus stop on Cortez Street just south of Gurley Street.
Fundraising for the $250,000 project kicked off shortly afterward, and as of publication time Nebeker, a good friend of Shankwitz’s, has completed the clay figure and it’s been sent to Bronzesmith Fine Art Foundry in Prescott Valley, says Gary Sax, another friend of the “Wish Man” and President of Wish Man Monument, Inc. It is expected to be completed by the end of summer and Sax is hoping it will be installed in the fall.
The larger-than-life bust will be fixed to a locally donated granite boulder and is expected to stand about 8 feet tall. For more information or to donate to the memorial visit
www.wishmanmonument.org.
Sources: Sharlot Hall Museum, Daily Courier archives, Signals AZ
