title: Catalyst Infoshop
text: # Catalyst Infoshop
  
  The Catalyst Infoshop was an infoshop and bookshop at 109 N. McCormick Street, Prescott, Arizona, founded in 2004. It had closed by 2010.
  
  ## Foundation
  
  Catalyst Infoshop was founded in an old railroad cabin in Prescott, Arizona in 2004, by Katie Rose Nelson and William C. Rodgers. The space was used for a reading group, a philosophy salon, a knitting circle, a high school girl club, a free school and an all ages venue. It was fostered by Prescott College. By 2010, the infoshop had closed down.
  
  ## Raid
  
  On December 7, 2005, Catalyst Infoshop was raided by federal agents working on information provided by Jacob Ferguson. Rodgers and Nelson were both arrested. The raid was part of Operation Backfire investigating an eco-terrorist unit within the Earth Liberation Front that caused upwards of $20 million in damage across numerous states. Rodgers was charged by Federal Bureau of Investigation with masterminding the arson that destroyed the Two Elk Lodge in Vail, Colorado in 1998.
  
  Rodgers committed suicide by self-asphyxiation, in jail, two weeks after his arrest and before standing trial.
  
  