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ARCHIVES - Past issues will stay online here for research.  Welcome to the Arizona History Convention2008 ARIZONA HISTORY CONVENTION
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March 2008 Issue
Photo Courtesy of Cave Creek Museum Collection. Above: Built on the
former cavalry remount station along the creek, the Hunt Compound, is on
the Cave Creek Museum’s 2nd Annual Home’s Through Time Tour March 30th.
The following is an excerpt from "Cave Creek and Carefree Arizona A History of the Desert Foothills" by Frances Carlson. This is an idea of what the early settlers experienced in the harsh environment of Arizona. The area discussed covers roughly 20 miles west of Wickenburg to Fort McDowell on the east. The north boundary is Prescott and the Salt River to the south. This places Cave Creek – Carefree in the center of the Apache conflicts endangering the populous of Wickenburg, Prescott, Cave Creek, Carefree and surrounding areas. Contact the Cave Creek Museum for additional historical information. "While the Apaches were enjoying the beauties of Cave Creek and discouraging visitors, (Several parties of "mountain men," or fur trappers, came to hunt beavers along the Verde and Salt Rivers in the early 1800s, but the Indians were very hostile. The hunters left the region to its fierce protectors) southern Arizona was alive and bustling with travel and commerce. The great 1849 gold rush brought thousands of prospectors streaming through the territory bound for the California gold fields. The lucky ones soon skimmed off the richest claims, and those still searching for bonanzas drifted back eastward, establishing camps along the Colorado River in the 1850s. As the miners continued exploring to the east, in 1863 the clarion call of "Gold in the Bradshaws!" rang out and the gold rush to central Arizona began. The prospectors found gold a-plenty in the Bradshaw Mountains south of present-day Prescott, where every creekbed held precious grains of the gleaming metal. They found fabulously rich gold outcroppings on high peaks such as Antelope Hill, where each scoop of earth contained bright yellow nuggets, theirs for the taking.5 Pouches of gold dust and shiny nuggets from the Bradshaws circulated through the stores and saloons of the West, and more miners swarmed to the central Arizona creeks with their gold pans, washers and rockers. One rich strike followed another as, stream by stream, the gold seekers moved eastward. In 1864 Henry Wickenburg uncovered the richest strike of all, the Vulture Mine southeast of the Bradshaw Mountains (The town of Wickenburg is named for Henry Wickenburg and his famous mine is located nearby) In the distance the Agua Fria, New River, Cave Creek and the streams of the Tonto Basin beckoned. The miners were sure that each of these would also yield up a golden treasure. A few hardy prospectors explored to the east, but they ran into the Apaches. The Tontos (Apache Band) controlled these lands and for the time being, the miners must wait. Ranchers and farmers followed the gold seekers, lured by reports of the mild climate, plentiful water, tall timber and lush grass for livestock. The accounts were true, but there were also deadly dangers, for hostile Indians surrounded them on all sides. They especially feared the Tontos, who swooped down on unprotected mining camps and ranches, murdering anyone who tried to stop them and stealing anything they could carry away. They were particularly fond of the white man’s livestock, and many an early rancher lost his life’s savings when they ran off with his valuable animals. The Tontos ate any creatures they captured, including horses, mules, oxen and burros. Even if a rancher could assemble a posse to chase them down, there was rarely anything left to recover. The Indians were highly unpredictable and likely to pop up almost anywhere, so settlers in the Bradshaws and along the upper Verde River slept uneasily when reports came that the Tontos were on the move. The newcomers appealed to the federal government for help, but the nation was embroiled in the bloody conflict of the Civil War, and every soldier the army could muster was needed elsewhere. The leaders in Washington were reluctant to see these producing gold fields abandoned, however, so they did what they could. In 1863 Arizona was declared a new and separate territory, splitting it off from the Territory of New Mexico. A governor was sent out along with a small force of troops to establish Fort Whipple. The town of Prescott was designated the first territorial capital. This raw, new village had come into existence to supply the miners and ranchers in the surrounding area with needed goods and services. Its handful of crude log cabins was the only settlement in all of central Arizona, supplied from California over a long, tortuous wagon route across dangerous, forbidding deserts. Anglo settlers in central Arizona were there to stay. The miners banded together for protection and the ranchers fortified their lonely log houses. The Indians took a deadly toll of victims, but the survivors grimly hung on. When the Civil War ended, troops and supplies again rolled into Arizona, and the struggle to control the Apaches began in earnest. In 1865 the US Army sent a small force of three hundred men marching across the desert from California to establish Fort McDowell (This fort, also referred to as Camp McDowell, was named for General lrvin McDowell, then commanding officer of the Army’s Department of California and New Mexico) eighteen miles east of Cave Creek on the west bank of the Verde River. This new fort, set down in the midst of the Tonto Apaches’ domain with no Anglo settlements, roads, mining camps, ranches or other forts within sixty miles in any direction, was a bold stroke on the part of the military leaders. The land north of the Gila River was empty, isolated and largely unexplored. Not a single white man lived along the Salt River, the lower Verde River (There were settlers along the Verde River some seventy miles to the north, and within a short time, Camp Verde was established to protect them) or on Cave Creek. All of the present-day towns of the Salt River Valley, including the city of Phoenix, can trace their beginnings to the army’s decision to build this isolated outpost." Stoneman soon ordered his troops to widen this narrow path into a wagon road that would shorten the distance between the two forts. A small portion of this old army road, called Military Road, is still in use on the northern flanks of Black Mountain. Another short stretch is now incorporated in today’s Cave Creek Road. The Military Road from the south joins Cave Creek Road just east of the Carefree Airport, and the two roads, old and new, share the same course until they reach the top of the hill west of the airport. There the routes separate, the army’s trail striking a more southerly path higher on the mountain and leading directly west to today’s Andora Hills section of Cave Creek. Light wagons, marching troops and parties on horseback used Stoneman’s first road through the Cave Creek area, but heavy freight wagons found the steep path through the New River Mountains impassable. In 1875 the soldiers built today’s Old New River Road that now skirts the southern boundary of Cave Creek Regional Park. This new wagon track joined the Fort McDowell road at the bubbling springs where Stoneman and his men rested. This flatter route allowed the heaviest freight wagons to come rumbling through Cave Creek to Fort McDowell. The bubbling springs became a favorite camping spot for travelers, and within a few short years, the first settlers along Cave Creek built homes near these springs. As the army’s military campaign against the Indians gathered steam, large heavily armed patrols from Fort McDowell scouted back and forth across the Verde River and through the Cave Creek area in search of Apache Rancherias or camps. The Indian scouts were a priceless asset to this effort. They were familiar with the wild Arizona back country and they could track the elusive Apaches better, march farther and faster than the Anglo soldiers and could creep more stealthily into position for an attack. There were no large battles, only an endless succession of deadly ambushes and nasty skirmishes. The Apaches had no concept of the type of unified leadership necessary to muster a large force of warriors. On three recorded occasions’ army units clashed with hostile Indians on the banks of Cave Creek. On December 1, 1873, Lieutenant Walter S. Schuyler of the 5th Cavalry led a scouting expedition out of Fort McDowell that resulted in the first skirmish along the stream. Schuyler’s command consisted of thirteen army enlisted men, twenty five mules carrying supplies and ammunition, civilian packers to manage the mules and sixteen Indian scouts with their leader, the famous Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts.13 After days of fruitlessly searching for Apache Rancherias east of the Verde River, the patrol re-crossed the Verde and slowly moved down towards Cave Creek. Footnotes: 5 Byrd Howell Granger, Arizona’s Names: X Marks the Spot (Tucson: The Falconer Publishing Company, 1983). p.20 The miners also called this peak Rich Hill. 13 Dan L. Thrapp. Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1964). pp.132-134.
Photo Courtesy of
Cave Creek Museum Collection. Desert Foothills Chronology
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Tombstone:
The Town Too Tough to Die!  Exciting destinations steeped in Arizona History Edward Lawrence Shieffelin was born in 1847, died in 1892. In 1877, he intended to go to California and find gold. He did not make it to California. Instead, he became an Indian scout working out of Camp Huachuca. He prospected in his spare time near the San Pedro Valley, Arizona. The specific site of his exploration was a waterless plateau called Goose Flats. The soldiers he scouted for would josh him about his rock hunting; telling him "The only rock you will find out there will be your own tombstone." Prospecting Goose Flats, Shieffelin discovered a sizable vein of silver. Remembering the jostling he took, he called the mine Tombstone. In 1879, the town of Tombstone was founded. It boomed into a business city and became county seat in 1882. Story Continues |
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CHILDREN’S BOOK
TO BENEFIT ELKS OPERA HOUSE |
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HERITAGE CAKE THE “ICING” ON PAYSON’S 125TH
Article written by Jayne Peace Pyle 
One big cake, made up of many little
cakes, will be the “icing” on Payson’s 125th Celebration
in October. Called a “Heritage Cake”, this big cake will bring back
memories for some of the Old Families, and will hopefully share some
culture with those who are not from the Old Families. These cakes
are links to our Early Payson area culture. Memories of special
people – especially grandmothers and aunts – and special events
–such as Christmas or a wedding or a Saturday Night Dance where a
young woman was proposed to – are often recalled. Just as many
individual pieces of cloth make up a Heritage Quilt, many individual
cakes make up the Heritage Cake.
Story
Continues CELEBRATES CONSTITUTION DAY  Washington, D.C. . . The National Archives celebrates the 220th Anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution throughout September with exciting public programs including a special family day on Sunday, September 16, and a panel discussion on racial equality on Constitution Day, September 17. These events are free and open to the public. The National Archives has the original Constitution on permanent display in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom of the National Archives Building, located on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. Constitution Day Family Celebration - Happy Birthday U.S. Constitution! Sunday, September 16, 12 noon - 3 p.m., Presidential Conference Center Story Continues |
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CHILDREN’S BOOK
TO BENEFIT ELKS OPERA HOUSE |
William Floyd "Billy" Clayborne This is an original article written by Shari Jo Can the actions of one short period of time define how one man is perceived throughout history? The answer is "yes" for a man named Billy Claiborne. A mere thirty seconds during the infamous shootout near the Ok Corral have branded Billy with such labels as coward, liar, rustler, and outlaw. Do these terms accurately describe him? Just exactly who and was Arizona's "Billy the Kid?"
William Floyd Claiborne was born on October 21, 1880 in either
Mississippi (1) or Alabama (2). While he was still young his family
most likely packed up and moved to Texas. He’s known to have had at
least one sibling named Norman Francis. Growing up in the post-Civil
War atmosphere prevalent at the time, the antagonism caused by the
influx of northern carpetbaggers in an area of southern ranchers
couldn’t help but have an influence on young Billy.
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Flagstaff AZ Post Office circa 1860
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42nd Annual Cowboy
Artists of America
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Inaugural Issue Center is
Program for Features
include:
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Marguerite Noble
Born January
1910 - Born in “Tent City” January 1910, at the confluence of the Salt River & Tonto Creek, moved to Payson area where she remained until January 2007. “We thank you for your recorded “moments” of Arizona History for KMOG Radio in Payson. These tidbits of history are an intricate part of http://www.wildwestgazette.com Thanks to Roger Buchanan for approving the use of these jewels of Arizona history.
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