In 1890 James and Adeline Hall purchased 130 acres above the junction of the Agua Fria River and Lynx Creek and named their homestead Orchard Ranch. With the help of their children, Sharlot and Ted, they produced apples and beef there. Life on the ranch instilled in Sharlot a love of Arizona's pioneer ways, and she went on to write about early Arizonans and collect documents and artifacts. In 1927, after the deaths of her parents, she sold the ranch and moved her collections into the 1864 log "Governor's Mansion" in Prescott, which she opened as the museum that now bears her name.