Weekly journal-miner., 1919-10-15
(BY SHARLOT M. HALL)

open for vititors to the greatest Fair ill the history of Northern Arizona. Mingled with our own home folks are many strangers from other states and iron' other parts of our own state. While the exhibits are being admired and the sports and amusements en- jOyed many will be thinking of the long and steady development of this region, a long growth of which this Fair is but the crowning achieve ment. Such gathering together of people and things is both an eXposi- ton of the past and a prophecy for the future. Always at such times am asked how this and that came to be; why such and such names were chosen-who came first to such and such spot
 For instance, have met some visit ors of late who have been struggling with both the spelling and pronuncia- ton of our county name and wonder ing where 1t came from and what it means That it is of Indian origin, the name of tribe which occupied this region when the first Spanish ex- plorers entered the country, and con tinued to occupy it up to the settle ment of Prescott by white people and the subsequent extermination of the tribe, is about all we can hope to know.
 It is found on Spanish maps much older than the actual exploration of the region, which would show that the tribe was well enough known to the other Indian peoples of the South west for the name to be repeated to the incoming Spaniards as one of some importance. On these old maps it is spelled "Yabipay," following, no doubt, the Indian pronunciation. Long ago 1 was interested to learn from the white settlers of Yavapai who knew the tribe before it was scattered that they called themselves the "Yab-ba-pays" at least that spelling is the nearest I could get to the spoken sounds. They all agreed that it meant both a very hilly, brok- en country, and a people living in a hilly country-literally The People of the Hills"-just as the Havasupais are, to themselves, The People of the Blue Water
 The present spelling comes to us from the later Spanish from where, as ill many Spanish words, the W" and "b" are often interchanged or slurred softly into one sound ill pro- nunciation.
 It used to be told of former Yav- apai sheriff that he won no end of bets on a trip to classic Boston from people who were eager to prove that they could spell the name of the county he came from by hearing him speak it. The Yavapai man reported on his return to Prescott that he lost neither a cent nor a drink on the bets and never found stranger who could spell the name correctly.
 While We are talking about Yav- apai, 1t comes to mind that its nick name, if one may use the word, was for d long time The Mother of Counties" because so much of the original area of Yavapai county was cut of 10 help make up counties or ganizcd later on, Yavapai being one of the four counties organized by the first session of the legislature in 1864 ] At that time it included all of Coco nino, Apache and Navajo counties, 1 and portions of Maricopa and Gila, | and contained more than 3O,0O0 square i miles-a kingdom in itself. While | portions have been set off to form three of the fourishing younger coun- 1 ties who share in the present North 1. ern Arizona Fair the old mother county still reaches over more miles and acres than any other in the state and varies in products from oranges and grapefruit 10 Russian rye and oats and Turkestan alfalfa-and i'll climate from almost perpetual sum- mer to something close to late fall i followed by an early winter.
 It seems a natural thing that Pres colt should be the seat of the exposi- 1 ton which illustrates the growth and . prosperity of Northern Arizona be- cause Prescott illustrates. as few cities do, the deliberate planting and . growth of civilization, a growth which from the very beginning stood for the best ideals of social and indus trial development
 Prescott didn't just happen" it was planned to be the seat of gov ernment of the new state and to rep resent stable conditions, permanent growth, and law and order" as op-