Yavapai County reflects the history of the old west and the future of the new. Remnants of U.S. Cavalry forts, Indian dwellings, gold rush boomtowns, abandoned mines, Spanish Land Grant ranches, homesteads and vast tracts of uninhabited public lands exist side by side with modern housing developments, industry and business here in the mountain heart of Arizona.

Traditional cowboys off the range, modern day gold prospectors with metal detectors and those living a rustic lifestyle in the isolated areas of the County rub shoulders with artists, university and college students, a large retirement population and families raising children in the small towns throughout the County.

Yavapai County is one of the four original Arizona counties formed in September of 1864, one year after the Arizona Territory was established. The County was named after the Yavapai Tribe, whose name means the “people of the sun.”

The County was originally 65,000 square miles and was called the “Mother of Counties” because Apache, Coconino, Gila, Maricopa and Navajo Counties were later formed from it. The territorial government was also born in Yavapai County, the capital being originally located in the County in the City of Prescott.