By local report, yes. The Palace Saloon on Prescott's Whiskey Row is the address on the block with the most logged activity: a recurring figure staff and regulars call the Phantom Cowboy, glasses that move on their own, and lights that keep their own schedule. The documented history helps explain the reputation. The saloon's celebrated bar was carried out of the Great Fire of July 14, 1900, and it stands in the rebuilt 1901 building today, still serving. Evening walking tours pass the Palace after dark.
The Palace on Montezuma Street calls itself Arizona's oldest saloon, with roots in the 1870s and a guest register that once read like a census of the territory's gamblers and lawmen. It anchors Whiskey Row, the block of saloons facing Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott, and it carries more reported activity than any other address on that block. This page is the Palace's story the way we tell it on the sidewalk: what the record documents, what the town repeats, and where the two part ways.
One point of order before the ghosts. The celebrated bar inside the Palace did not, as the famous version has it, sail around Cape Horn. The better evidence says it came by train from San Francisco and was installed in December 1897, after an earlier interior fire. It had been in place barely three years before the night that made it a legend.
July 14, 1900: the night the bar crossed the street
On July 14, 1900, fire broke out in the O.K. Lodging House on South Montezuma Street, by one account from a miner's lit candle left stuck in a wall. The exact cause was never confirmed. What is beyond dispute is what the fire did: within hours it had burned through the wooden business district and taken roughly five blocks of downtown Prescott with it, Whiskey Row included. Eleven saloons stood on the Row that summer, and as the flames worked north, bartenders and customers hauled what they could save across the street to Courthouse Plaza, the Palace's celebrated bar among it.
Here the record and the legend split, and we would rather be straight about which is which. That the bar survived is documented: photographs taken in the fire's aftermath show it upright on the Plaza, pouring drinks in a hastily raised temporary saloon while the block behind it still smoked. How it crossed the street is not documented. The beloved version has patrons hoisting it by hand and pausing mid-crossing for a drink; other tellings credit horse teams. The piano said to have kept playing while downtown burned does not enter the record until a recollection a quarter century after the fact, so we file it as legend. Within a year the Row had rebuilt in brick, and when the new Palace opened in 1901 the rescued bar went back inside, where it stands today.
Guests on our Prescott walks tend to remember that night as vividly as any ghost story. One guest on the Prescott History Tour put it this way:
“This is a fabulous tour with great detail about the Whisky Row fire, the rough and tumble history of the town and stories of individuals who lived in Prescott! I highly recommend.” (Katherine W., TripAdvisor, May 2026)
The Phantom Cowboy
The Palace's signature report is a recurring figure that staff and regulars have long called the Phantom Cowboy: a man in period dress seen at the bar who is said to vanish when approached. Around him collects the rest of the saloon's file. Glasses move on their own. Lights keep their own schedule. Bottles are reported to launch off shelves. A mannequin known as Madame Annie is said to have turned her head on a security camera. Older tellings add a spectral woman seen dancing in the saloon. Staff have summed up life at the Palace in one line: something happens every day.
We present all of this as reported lore rather than settled fact, which is how we handle every story whose record thins. The Palace has drawn Travel Channel filming visits, and it has never stopped operating as a working saloon, Prohibition included. That continuity is part of why the reports keep coming: there has always been somebody behind the bar to notice.
Standing where it happened
The Palace is a restaurant and saloon today, open for business, which makes it one of the easiest hauntings in Arizona to check on in person. Order something at the bar the town saved from the fire and you are leaning on the same wood that stood on Courthouse Plaza while the Row burned behind it. The past does not feel especially past in there.
The Palace is also one story on a block full of them. The Row has burned twice, in 1900 and again in 2012, and both times the town saved the bar before it saved much of anything else. For the full block, from the rebuilt Bird Cage to the ghost girl at Matt's Longhorn, start with our page on Haunted Whiskey Row.
Questions people ask
Is the Palace Saloon in Prescott haunted?
By reputation, yes, and the reputation is unusually well fed. Staff and regulars have logged a recurring figure called the Phantom Cowboy, glasses and bottles that move on their own, lights that keep their own schedule, and a mannequin said to have turned her head on a security camera. We tell these as reported lore, hedged wherever the record thins, but at the Palace the reports have kept coming for decades.
Did the Palace Saloon survive the 1900 Whiskey Row fire?
The building did not; the bar did. The Great Fire of July 14, 1900 leveled roughly five blocks of downtown Prescott, Whiskey Row included. Photographs taken after the fire show the Palace's celebrated bar standing on Courthouse Plaza, serving drinks from a temporary saloon. How it crossed the street, by patrons' hands or horse teams, no contemporary account settles. The rebuilt Palace opened in 1901 with the rescued bar inside, where it still stands.
Who is the Phantom Cowboy?
He is the Palace's most repeated report: a man in period dress seen at the bar who is said to vanish when approached. Nobody has ever put a documented name to him, which is part of why the story has lasted. Staff and regulars named him the Phantom Cowboy, and the name stuck.
How old is the Palace Saloon?
The Palace calls itself Arizona's oldest saloon, with roots in the 1870s, and it has never stopped operating, Prohibition included. The bar inside is younger than the legend says: it came by train from San Francisco and was installed in December 1897, after an earlier interior fire, three years before the 1900 fire made it famous.
Does the Prescott Ghost Tour go past the Palace Saloon?
Yes. Our evening Prescott Ghost Tour departs from Courthouse Plaza at the Rough Rider statue, directly across the street from Whiskey Row, and the Palace's stories are told standing in front of it. Booking is flexible: full refund when canceled 24+ hours before the tour; no refund inside 24 hours.
Hear the endings on the sidewalk
The stories above are the outline. The endings get told standing in front of the Palace, after dark, which is where our evening Prescott Ghost Tour tells them. The walk departs from Courthouse Plaza at the Rough Rider statue, directly across the street from the Row, and the research behind the route is the same material this page draws on, originally researched by a Northern Arizona author in the town's archives. Across platforms, Freaky Foot Tours holds 300+ reviews in Prescott as of July 2026, including a 4.9 of 5 rating across 90+ reviews on Viator.
“I had a wonderful time touring Whiskey Row. Loved learning about the historical events and context of Prescott.” (Carolyn, Airbnb, January 2026)
“Stephanie was a great guide around Whiskey Row and the other local haunts of Prescott. She seemed very knowledgeable about both the natural and supernatural histories of the town, and was very engaging with our group. The tour was quite interesting and is very walkable. Worth checking out!” (Mithrin a., TripAdvisor, September 2025)
For the town's full roster beyond the Row, start with the most haunted places in Prescott.
