Prescott Western Heritage Foundation Inc
- Tom Mix was born Thomas Hezakiah Mix in Mix Run, Pennsylvania in 1880.
- In 1906, he signed on with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Show, and in 1910 with Circle D Ranch Wild West Show and Indian Congress, which led to his being hired in 1910 by the Selig Polyscope Company.
- Mix arrived in Prescott in January, 1913 with his third wife Olive Stokes Mix and 6-month-old baby Ruth. They did not have money to buy a ranch at that time, and although he made movies at the Bar Circle A Ranch (where Yavapai Hills is located today), he never owned it.
- In 1913, Tom won first prize in steer riding during Prescott’s Cowboy Contests, and later that year won a relay race at the Northern Arizona Fair. He was also the Prescott Parade Marshall in 1913.
- Between 1913 and 1928, Mix appeared in 65 Prescott-based movies that have been cataloged. Many of these movies were filmed in and around the Granite Dells, the Bar Circle A Ranch and in Williamson Valley.
- The 1915 silent Western movie “Sage Brush Tom” was filmed in Prescott, and in the film it shows Tom Mix writing a letter with the return address, Diamond S Ranch, Prescott, Arizona. Diamond S Ranch was actually the name of the film unit, not an actual ranch.
- Tom and his wonder horse, Tony, performed on the stage of the Elks Theater (it took a specially made sling to lift him up to the stage entrance from the alley) in the 1920s to help raise money for the Mercy Hospital and other community fundraisers.
- Mix became the highest paid actor of silent films during the 1920s, and unquestionably the best-known cowboy star of the era.
- Prescott’s Hassayampa Hotel opened in 1927, and housed film crews during their stays in Prescott. Supposedly, a stair tile was broken when Mix rode Tony into the hotel lobby.
- In 1929, Tom was a pallbearer at the funeral of his good friend Wyatt Earp.
- On October 12, 1940, Mix died from injuries suffered in a one-car accident south of Florence, Arizona, and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.
- A stone memorial marks the site of his death on State Route 79 between Florence and Tucson, and the nearby gully is named “Tom Mix Wash.” The obelisk-style memorial was dedicated to Mix’s memory by Gene Autry.
Facts Courtesy of Melissa Ruffner’s Prescott: A Pictorial History and Sharlot Hall Museum’s “Days Past” article
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