Early History Death Cave Drink for the Dead Two Guns ...api.ning.com/files/UlNjvG5vpZPii-NEdQeJuxhzxF-4T*T0TOq9wy0f3nt0-4... · its history, legends and Indian lore. Early History

Story of Two Guns and Canyon Diablo, Arizona by Gladwell Richardson

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/richardson.htm[2/26/2010 11:51:53 PM]

By Gladwell RichardsonCopyright 1968, Phil Cooke.

Library of Congress Card: 68-24014

Front Cover:

B'ugoettin Begay, who with Bahe, discovered the Apaches in their hide-away cave.Sketch by Storm Townsend.

Dedicated To Benjamin F. Dreher, a westerner who has dedicated himself to therestoration of northern Arizona's most famous frontier site, Two Guns, preservingits history, legends and Indian lore.

Early History

Death Cave

Diablo

Platinum

Drink for the Dead

Diamonds

Two Guns Trading Post

Indian Miller

Renaissance (late 1960's)

References

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/photos.htm

Early History

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/history.htm[2/26/2010 11:57:47 PM]

By Gladwell Richardson

Early HistoryTwo Guns, on the east side of Canyon Diablo in north central Arizona,occupies one of the most important historical sites in the State. This doesnot except the vanished glory of Navajo Springs where the first territorialgovernment officials took their oaths of office on December 29, 1863.

Following the ceremonies, the party continued on west, crossing CanyonDiablo near Two Guns. The new officials proceeded to Prescott and FortWhipple to establish the seat of government for the new territory in theApache Indian-ridden vastness of desert and mountain wilderness.

The most unusual town of Two Guns is very near the half-way markbetween Flagstaff and Winslow on Interstate Highway 40, and twelve milessouth of the Little Colorado River.

The surrounding area of Coconino Plateau's rolling ranges, ringed by distantmountains, has played an important role in western history since the comingof the Dawn Men, the first aboriginal inhabitants. Following them were theBasket Makers, and then Pueblo I and Pueblo II periods, as shown by theirtypical cliff dwelling ruins in Canyon Diablo and its tributaries.

Potsherds recovered at Two Guns have been dated by the carbon method,placing the greatest density of inhabitants there as between 1050 and 1600A. D. The centuries 1050 to 1300 saw the greatest Indian population thatthe region has ever had. This was due to fertile farming land on the plateaucreated by disintegration of the volcanic fields of lava and ashes that oncespewed out of the San Francisco Mountains skylined west.

Even before the beginning of man's history in the area, about 22,000 yearsago, a giant, fiery meteor flashed out of the skies, plunging into the eartheast of Two Guns. Most scientists believe that the mass, weighing severalmillion tons, was part of a planet once existing in orbit between Mars andJupiter. It was destroyed by a great cosmic explosion. On striking theground the meteor created a vast hole in the earth's crust known today asMeteor or Barringer Crater.

The more recent history of local Indian tribes reveals that they used thecanyon both as a refuge from enemies and as a vantage point from which tolaunch attacks.

The Apache and Navajo tribes often employed the area as a battleground,even after the arrival of white men in the southwest. From the earliest yearsof settling in what is now Arizona, the Navajos used a well-traveled trailfrom the north passing along the east side of Canyon Diablo past Two Guns.It went through Chavez Pass, and over the stark Mogollon Rim into central

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Early History


Arizona.

The first known white men to see Canyon Diablo, and probably not muchmore than its mouth, was a party of Spaniards under Captain Don Garcia deCardenas. This group was a section of Coronado's expedition into NewMexico in 1540-1542.

Hearing from Hopi Indians of a great canyon and river far to the west,Coronado dispatched Cardenas to discover it. Led by Hopi guides, the smallparty came down from the mesa villages to the Little Colorado River.Undoubtedly they crossed at ancient Hopi Ford, somewhere betweenWinslow and Leupp.

The party turned northwest in order to pass above the San Francisco Peakson the blue skyline. Following downstream, they crossed Canyon Diablo nearwhere it enters the river on the flatland.

With the party was Captain Juan Melgosa. On arrival at the brink of GrandCanyon he failed in an attempt to descend into the mighty gorge to theColorado River. The upper end of the Painted Desert, from Leupp to north ofCameron, was named for this Spanish explorer, the Melgosa Desert.

Spanish explorers of 1542 may have provided the name for the fantasticdefile at Two Guns, calling it Canon Diablo - the Devil's Canyon. If so, theycertainly came part way upstream along the sharp rim to where sheer wallsmade a crossing impossible.

It is historically uncertain whether this party of Spaniards, or that of Antoniode Espejo, aptly named the canyon in 1582. That autumn Espejo set outfrom Zuni accompanied by nine men on a silver prospecting expedition.

Proceeding west to the Hopi villages they visited Walpi, Shungopovi,Mishongovi, Oraibi and Awatobi. From the latter pueblo not on a mesa,Espejo took four of his men and Hopi guides southward, exploring newcountry.

After crossing the Little Colorado River they came in against Canyon Diablooff the Navajo Trail somewhere near Two Guns. The vertical walls preventinga crossing, they continued on up the east side. Passing somewhere south ofKinnikinick Lake they reached Stoneman Lake, proceeding from there intothe Verde Valley of central Arizona.

The pueblos of New Mexico, including the Hopi of Arizona, rebelled anddrove out their Spanish conquerors in 1680. Twelve years later Don Diegode Vargas organized a great expedition and came north from Mexico. InNew Mexico he re-conquered the rebellious Indians permanently.

After accomplishing this task he set forth hunting valuable metals, mercury,gold and silver the Indians told him about. Several of his small partiesexplored west and south from the Hopi villages. They did make a few butnot important discoveries.

Early History


It was during this period that the extensive legend of the 'Lost Mines of thePadres" originated. Men still seek these legendary and fabulous mines. Fromthe translated ancient Spanish documents they could be anywhere from TwoGuns west to the Colorado River or north to Utah's Blue Mountains.

Their several reports of the mines resulted in many unauthorized expeditionsof wealth seekers venturing west from New Mexico. Although notauthenticated satisfactorily by record and identity, most of them crossedCanyon Diablo. Here they were forced downstream a few miles to whereprecipitous walls fell away. Those without strict official permission to searchfor gold and silver were not likely to have left journals behind detailing theirtravels or what they found.

The chronicle of a Spanish party in 1769 is more definite. Recently this datewas found by Melvin McCormick, cut with an inscription and a Christian crossinto a huge rock on the Little Colorado River.

This party, composed of several padres and Spanish soldiers was an ill-fatedone. The Franciscans, having mined and collected a huge store of silver barssomewhere in central Arizona, set out to transport the treasure by muletrain to their church headquarters in Santa Fe. In 1767 the Spanish crownhad laid claim to all gold and silver found in the New World. The Franciscanshad also been ordered from their New Mexico missions.

Coming up over the Mogollon Rim on the Navajo Trail, the train wasattacked by an unknown tribe. Constant hit and run assaults forced theparty west and north. They came in against Canyon Diablo somewherearound Two Guns. Standing off the Indians, the Spaniards followeddownstream to where a crossing could be made.

According to a document and a map which came to light in 1902, theSpaniards were continually compelled to dispose of some of the weightoverburdening the pack animals. Mules packing the silver were killed or gaveout completely. The train gained part way along the side of Padre Canyon,which was so named for the fathers. Finally, against the Little Colorado,fatalities from Indian attack cut them down. As a final resort the many muleloads of silver bars were cached on the site of an abandoned Indian village.

The survivors split apart, five attempting to escape west into California, andanother five east towards New Mexico. Apparently only the latter groupmade it through to their destination. For it was in the musty archives of theOld San Miguel mission in Santa Fe that the above-mentioned document wasfound.

The map locating the buried silver, and the account, brought many treasurehunters into the area. On one side of Padre Canyon, 18th century armorwas recovered in 1919. One silver bar, approximately four inches square,about twenty-three long and weighing 64 pounds, was found by asheepherder. The discovery was made west of Two Guns in Bonito Park, andis believed to have been lost from a pack mule before the cache was made.

Early History


It is certain the Spaniards from New Mexico were continually passingthrough the Two Guns vicinity after 1750. However, no known Americansshowed up until 1825-1830. These hardy men were beaver trappers. TheLittle Colorado until the late 1880's contained a heavy growth of willows andcottonwood timber along its sides which overflowed on to the mud flats.Trappers took beaver plews along the stream, and in side canyonssouthward. After them followed the gold seekers who covered this area ofnorthern Arizona very thoroughly.

After American occupation of the southwest, 1846, the regular route fromthe east pointed directly to the blue and purple peaks of the San FranciscoMountains, visible for upwards of a hundred miles. Traveling a natural directcourse, they collided abruptly with the level rim of Canyon Diablo.

Indians passed on to Europeans information that water could be found in thecanyon at present Two Guns, and about two miles downstream. Water beingvital, especially during dry seasons when the Little Colorado did not flow,travelers always came to this point whether en route east or west. Althoughdifficult, the vertical walls could be descended afoot.

As a matter of fact, although unknown to early day travelers, the canyoncould be crossed not too far upstream from Two Guns.

Long before 1850 a route to the canyon which led downstream a few milesand a barranca crossing were being used regularly. In this barrancahundreds of names were cut in the low stone walls. Of the earliest stillexisting one can be read in part:

S.................. Bac................................ de Julio 1830

Of another, only the date, 1849, is legible. Inscriptions dating from 1860 tothe middle 1880's are in profusion.

Of the beaver trappers who left evidence behind them, and who came to thecanyon at this point, the best known were William (Billy) Mitchell, FredSmith, W. C. Siewert and Herman Wolf. Their starting point for eachtrapping expedition was either Santa Fe or Taos, during the middle 1830's.All of them were experienced mountain men.

During the 1850's, Apaches often raided north into the Melgosa Desert.Navajo families fled to the safety of deep Canyon Diablo. In particular theyfavored Long Canyon which enters it from the east near Two Guns.

It was in Canyon Diablo that the pack train traders, the forerunners ofpermanently established trading posts, found them.

First among these traders in the area were Smith, Mitchell, "Whitehead"Fitzpatrick, "Gabe" Hall and "Old Man Yellow Face" Buck. They traveledtogether for mutual protection. Smith wrote home to his sister in Tennesseein 1850 from Taos that he had been engaged in this precarious trade for

Early History


several years after beaver trapping went under.

On the sides of Canyon Diablo they held trading rendezvous not unlikethose of the old fur brigades in the Rocky Mountains but, of course, on a farsmaller scale.

Their trade goods consisted of galena, bullet molds, powder, dye stuff(Indigo and Cochineal), buffalo robes, cotton blankets, flints, Green Riverknives, cloth, cheap glass beads and imitation silver jewelry. In trade theyreceived horses and mules, if not too far distant to drive back into NewMexico, and a plain striped handcrafted woolen blanket approximately 36 by80 inches in size. This item sold readily as a "wagon blanket".

Other pack train traders followed them. One of the most unusual was called"Billikona Sani" (Old American) by the Navajos, and of all things, he arrivedduring the summer of 1852 off the California-Santa Fe Trail with a two-wheeled cart driven by a Mexican.

Until their deaths, old Navajos like Hosteen Redshirt, B'ugoettin, Soney andEtcitty, remembered him fondly. He spoke Navajo, which indicates that hehad previously lived among the tribesmen, probably as a trapper.

These old men, when about fifteen years old, with their elders watchedBillakona Sani contrive what they considered the most wonderful magic. Likemost traders he carried raw alcohol undiluted in wooden kegs. Mixing it inhis trading camp one gallon to three of water, Cayenne pepper was addedfor bite and chewing tobacco for color. This was the Arizona frontier Indianwhiskey. Small wonder that it drove redskins crazy.

It was many years later before they knew that Billakona Sani had dilutedthe alcohol in order to reap a larger profit.

The first official U. S. exploration of this area began in 1851. CaptainLorenzo Sitgreaves, Topographical Engineers, on government orders, led anexploration party west from Santa Fe via Zuni. Their objective was todetermine if the Little Colorado was navigable to the western sea.

Both sides of Canyon Diablo were explored seeking a shorter and moredirect crossing for a route passing south of the San Francisco Mountains.Apparently Sitgreaves did not venture much farther upstream than presentTwo Guns. In his official report he recommended use of the old northcrossing.

In 1853 Lieutenant A. W. Whipple came through with an expedition makinga preliminary survey for a possible railroad route to California. He followedthe 35th parallel which crosses upstream from Two Guns.

The following year Francois (Felix) X. Aubrey, a Santa Fe trader, was thefirst to actually lay out a wagon route across northern Arizona. Aubrey Cliffson the Grand Canyon south rim were named for him. Leaving San Jose,California, with sixty men he drove a wagon all the way to Santa Fe. Notonly was his the first important expedition to cross Arizona but he set a time

Early History


record for distance traveled.

East of the San Francisco Mountains he came in on Canyon Diablosomewhere between Two Guns and the present Santa Fe Railroad bridge.Trying to locate a means of crossing, he was baffled until Indians told himthat he could detour and move over lower down. Shifting his course, hewent north close to the river and negotiated passage over the regular trail.This route was thereafter known as the California-Santa Fe Trail.

While on Canyon Diablo, Aubrey wrote in his journal that he encountered alarge number of Indians. He traded them some old clothing and blankets for$1,500 in gold nuggets. However, he could not wrest knowledge of thegold's source from them for any price.

After reaching Santa Fe off the long trail he was killed August 18, 1854, bya Major Weightman in a personal encounter.

The most unusual expedition to touch near Two Guns was led by LieutenantEdward F. Beale, U. S. Topographical Engineers. He had orders to open awagon road from Fort Defiance, Arizona to California's eastern frontier. OnSeptember 8, 1857, he reached Canyon Diablo.

The singular feature of his exploring party was that most of his supplies andequipment were packed on camels. The animals, imported through Texasseaports, were in the charge of camel drivers from Greece and Arabia.Unable to pronounce their native names, Americans called two of them"Greek George" and "Hi Jolly". Both settled in Arizona, gaining considerablefame as pioneers on the rough frontier.

In his report, Lieutenant Beale admitted that his guide through the countrywarned that he could not cross Canyon Diablo gorge so far south of theLittle Colorado River. Having to be convinced by trying, Beale was forceddownstream to the barranca. This old trail was officially designated theBeale Road across Arizona. However, frontiersmen long using it continued torefer to the route as the California-Santa Fe Trail.

In the spring of 1858 when the grass greened up, Lieutenant J. C. Ives setout with a survey party from Needles, California, over the Beale Road toFort Defiance. He attempted to cross the canyon higher upstream because itwould be a short cut saving many miles of travel. In this venture he alsofailed.

During the winter of 1858-1859 Beale returned to work on the road he hadlaid out. For a while he camped his party on Government Prairie north ofFlagstaff, before removing his command to the west side of Canyon Diablo.One of the several tumble-down stone buildings still dotting the landscapeand visible from Two Guns, may have been his camp.

When the Navajo tribal roundup of 1864 began, many families fled into themain canyon and all along the side defiles ahead of U. S. troops. The cavalrybrought with them hundreds of Indian enemies of the Navajo who wereauthorized by the military commanders in the field to take all the Navajo

Early History


livestock they could find, or turn them in to the army for monetary rewardat so much per head.

Eight thousand Navajos were eventually imprisoned at Fort Sumner, NewMexico, for four years. Navajos who fled the Melgosa Desert into CanyonDiablo remained in hiding until their enemies left the country.

The outbreak of the Civil War put an end to further official exploration ofthis area, halting settlement for some years. Soon after the war endedHerman Wolf returned to the canyon and the Little Colorado to trap beaver.His first cabin camp was called Beaver House (Chi bogan) by the Navajos.They so gave it this name because his beaver plews were leaned against thewalls of his abode to dry. Later on the name was applied to the tradingpost.

Wolf may have built his large stockade picket post prior to 1868. But he wasdefinitely in the trading business on the river downstream from the mouth ofCanyon Diablo that year.

For several years his outpost was the sole center of attraction in the littleknown frontier of northern Arizona. But there soon followed others whoentered the wonderful country to stay. Meanwhile he and the U. S. Armywere both engaged in fighting renegade Indians.

One of the first cavalry battles with Indians on Canyon Diablo occurred April18, 1867, according to records in the National Archives. Companies B and 1,8th U.S. Cavalry, under command of Captain J. M. Williams, pursued a bandof Indians from the Verde Valley over the Mogollon Rim and down thecanyon's east side. In an engagement somewhere near present Two Guns,thirty of the Indians were killed. Whether they were marauding Apaches orraiding Navajos was not stated in Captain Williams' report.

Apaches when pursued north of the Mogollon Rim always fled to the safetyof deep canyons. They had a mania for following the well-marked ancientNavajo Trail, seeking refuge in Canyon Diablo into which they could descendafoot if attacked. Most of the many engagements between the cavalry andApaches were minor clashes with a few exceptions.

The greater portion of the Navajo tribe was released from the prisonreservation at Fort Sumner and returned to their old homes in 1868. Manyfamilies came down the Little Colorado basin into the Melgosa Desert. Theyseemed to think that the mere presence of a white man at Wolf Postafforded them protection. Soon they moved south of the river onto oldhunting grounds along both sides of Canyon Diablo.

The Apaches, discovering the permanent trading post established by Wolf,threw raiding parties against it in 1868 and 1869. Wolf, and the Santa FeNew Mexicans working for him at the time, repelled them all but not withoutsome casualties.

On September 26, 1869, the Apaches and the cavalry fought another battlenear Two Guns. Troops from Camp Verde, not identified in the records, took

Early History


out after Apaches raiding north into Navajo country. Well ahead of thetroopers, the Indians were returning south along Canyon Diablo loaded withloot when they encountered the cavalry. Following a short fight, the Apachesattempted to make their escape west into the San Francisco Mountains, thehighest peaks in Arizona. Overtaken before they could reach the oldcrossing, thirty-six were killed and twelve captured. One soldier wasreported as being wounded.

All through the 1870's more Apache raiders struck Wolf Post. By then theNavajos were increasing in numbers and rallied to help drive the enemyaway.

The dreaded Apaches, first linguistic cousins to the Navajo, changed theirstrategy somewhat. Avoiding Wolf Post in its lonely setting on a bluffoverlooking the river, they crossed the stream eastward. In the MelgosaDesert they struck like lightning and fled south with their booty of goods,livestock and a few prisoners.

A band of them on June 8-9, 1871 did not fare so well. Involved againstthem were detachments from A, D and G Troops (Cavalry companies hadchanged from that designation to "troops"), 3rd Cavalry, under command ofLieutenant Charles Morton.

When the Apaches were reported to have crossed the East Verde Rivernorth, the troops belatedly followed their sign up the Navajo Trail onto theplateau. Below the headwaters of Canyon Diablo the troops collided head-onwith them returning from raiding in Navajo country.

The fight occurred near what later became a stagecoach crossing upstreamfrom Two Guns. Abruptly breaking off the skirmish, the Apaches fled andwere pursued into the next day. Fifty-six were killed, eight wounded and tencaptured.

Mormon explorers from Utah reconnoitered the Melgosa Desert through thevalley of the little Colorado in 1874, seeking irrigable land for settlement.

This reconnaissance resulted in the first crossing of the Kaibab limestonegorge at Two Guns two years later. Bishop Lot Smith of the Mormon churchheaded five colonies which settled in the lower Little Colorado basin.

From three of them, Ballinger and Sunset near present Winslow, and JosephCity, he laid out a road southwest to Mormon Lake south of Flagstaff. Therehe established a co-operative dairy herd, a cheese making plant and asawmill, 1876. This route, leaving the river at Winslow, passed in an almostdirect line through Sunset Gap, south of Meteor Crater, across the canyonabove Two Guns and past Kinnikinick Lake to Mormon Lake. Over this roadmoved wagons, buckboards, herds of cattle, pack outfits and the usualnumber of mounted travelers.

Before long Smith's road became a gateway for stockmen. They establishedthe first ranches in northern Arizona and soon appeared in increasingnumbers, occupying the range around Two Guns. The first such was 800

Early History


head trailed in by James M. Baker to Canyon Diablo headwaters. He stayednorth of the military road that had been laid out along the Mogollon Rimfrom Fort Apache west to Forts Verde and Whipple.

For some reason Baker, for whom Baker Butte was named, remained onlythree years before moving on to the Salt River Valley in central Arizona.

The year of his arrival in Arizona, 1877, John Wood brought a small herdover from New Mexico. His cattle grazed south of Two Guns where herds ofantelope run today, and west into the Coconino National Forest. Woodshifted his grazing cattle depending on whether or not raiding Indians werereported coming his way.

The third cattleman to arrive with a herd was August Helzer from Utah.These men were the pioneer cattle ranchers of the many who followed therailroad through Arizona in 1881 -- 1882, and overran the countryside alongit.

Navajos had long used the Two Gun ranges for summer and fall grazing forsheep, cattle and horses. In those days the present naked, red clay flatswere covered with a thick grass sod, the bunch types and the grammas.

The first white-owned sheep reaching Two Guns country were migratoryflocks from New Mexico in the late 1860's to about 1874. Moving slowlydown the Little Colorado, they turned out of the basin, grazed until fall alongCanyon Diablo and then returned to New Mexico.

Extended droughts in California in the early 1870's brought a number ofsheep owners into the area. Their advance caporals hunting grass andwater, discovered that this region fulfilled their needs.

While a number of small flocks preceded him, John Clark drifted in with3,000 head in 1875. The first big sheepman of importance, he settled inClark Valley, now Lake Mary, for winter range and Two Guns for summerand fall grazing.

After Clark, came William Ashurst (father of the late Senator Henry F.Ashurst) in 1876. Locating south at Ashurst Run, he used Canyon Diabloranges part of the time.

That same year the Daggs brothers, J. F. and W. A., trailed more than tenthousand sheep into northern Arizona from California. Their permanentranches were located north of Chavez Pass, and southwest at AndersonMesa. Their grazing camps were strung out from each headquarters pastTwo Guns north to the Little Colorado.

Late in 1874 a scouting troop of cavalry rode through Chavez Pass onto ahorrible scene. Apaches had attacked and almost completely destroyed awagon train of immigrants near the military road. Identity of no one in thetrain was ever known. Their presence in the country, apparently headed forPrescott, had gone unnoticed.

The stock had been run off, and the wagons with their contents burned.

Early History


Only the metal used in their construction remained amid the debris of thefires. Bodies of murdered men, women and children had been thrown intothe flames. All the fragments of charred bones raked out of the ashes wereburied in a common grave. It was estimated that twenty-eight humanbeings were massacred.

continued ...

The Death Cave

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/deathcave.htm[2/26/2010 11:58:37 PM]


Death CaveBy 1871 the Navajos were employing a new strategy of defense againstraiding Apaches. When they appeared, one group gave battle while anotherraced south to block their exit over the Mogollon Rim. Almost always theApaches followed the Navajo Trail along the east side of Canyon Diablo andthrough Chavez Pass. After this went on for sometime the Apaches begandisappearing without trace. The Navajo group blocking the escape routenever once saw them.

Then in 1878 they discovered the secret of this successful evasion. ThatJune, Apaches struck a community of hogans at dawn in the Melgosa Desert.All the men, women and children, except three young girls taken prisoner,were slain. Robbing the dead and pilfering the hogans, the band of twentydisappeared into sered wastelands along the river.

At the same time a second raiding party hit a cluster of hogans near GarcesMesa and looted without taking any prisoners.

District leaders, sometimes called district chiefs, Natani, B'ugoettin andRedshirt, raced south with twenty-five fighting men. Ahead of the raiders,they lurked on Mogollon Rim trails waiting to ambush them. But the wilyApaches did not come through. Puzzled, the Navajo war party started homewith scouts on its sides as flankers.

A messenger sent to find them delivered more tragic news. The sameraiding bands had struck north of the river again. Many more Navajos hadlost their lives in a blood holocaust.

This time a wounded man, thought to be dead by the raiders, had survived,He recognized their leader, known to them as "Crooked Jaw." Although notdeformed, his jaws were not symmetrical. He was Nachise, son of the famedChief Cochise.

The Navajos were badly puzzled by the raiders' failure to take good horses,and their mysterious vanishing act. Their several trails below the river splitoff, disappearing into the malpais and volcanic cinder country.

Scouts were dispatched in pairs on fast horses in a desperate attempt tolocate the enemy before it escaped the country. B'ugoettin Begay and Baheproceeded to the cave at Two Guns. In the late afternoon they approachedundetected by crawling through the grass, tall weed and sagebrush towardsthe rim intending to reconnoiter.

As he moved slowly forward, Bahe was startled when hot air struck his face.At the same time the sound of voices reached his ears. Overcoming briefpanic caused by this weird occurrence, he found an earth crack almost

The Death Cave


directly beneath his face. It obviously gave into the underground cavern; theApaches were hiding in it!

Retreating to their ponies, the two scouts raced back to the river with thisimportant news. The three leaders ordered their fighting men in motion atonce, arriving as sunset glow marked the distant San Francisco Mountains.Waiting until full night shrouded the plateau world, the jubilant Navajosclosed in.

The cave is situated in a side canyon of Diablo directly behind Two Guns. Atthat time the entrance was concealed by a solid stone natural bridge longsince fallen in. A narrow tunnel-like passage, stone walls higher than aman's head, led under it into the cave. It was wide enough to lead a horsethrough. This the Apaches had done, therefore leaving no give-away ponyherd grazing on the flat terrain around the side canyon.

Stealing in afoot, the Navajos blocked all possibility of escape for the hatedenemy. The two outside guards were shot down. The Navajo leaders haddecided their vengeance strategy.

Most of the party gathered dry sagebrush on the rims and driftwood on thecanyon floor. Taken onto the land bridge and the close rims of solid stone,this flammable material was dropped into the passageway leading to thecave mouth.

On realizing the terrible end planned for them, the Apaches grew desperate.Sorties into the narrow space in attempts to drive the Navajos off wereannihilated almost instantly by riflemen above. When the brush and woodfilled the passageway the mass was set afire. As fast as it burned part waydown more fuel was added.

The smoke and fumes sucking into the cave reappeared from several surfacecracks on the plateau. Only once during the night this tell-tale death signended. The conflagration was allowed to die down in order to find out whathad happened.With what little water they had and blood from pony-cut throats, theApaches had extinguished the fire directly in the cave mouth. They had thenattempted to seal the entrance with rocks and quarters from killed ponies.

At this juncture a spokesman broke out of the heat-ridden barrier to beg forterms to save their lives. Although speaking only "pidgin" Navajo, hemanaged to make himself understood.

The proposal was an old custom among southwestern Indians: paying ingoods and stock to evade corporal punishment for murder.

Natani asked where Crooked Jaw was and learned that he and two otherApaches had departed south early that day.

Pretending to be agreeable to blood payment, Natani said, "Send out thethree girls and we will talk further."

The Apache spokesman hesitated overly long. His delay confirmed the

The Death Cave


Navajos' direst suspicions. The hapless prisoners had already been torturedto death for their captors' amusement the first day of raiding.

In a wild rage the Navajos poured a stream of bullets into the cave mouthbut of course hit no enemy. Again the passageway was refurbished withflammable material and kept burning furiously like the pits of hell. At firstnot too much smoke poured up through the cracks but finally it driftedagainst the starlit sky unabated. The last desperate measure of the Apachesto escape death by asphyxiation had failed.

Men listening on the flat surface at the cracks reported only a few of theenemy able to sing the final death song. Slowly the chanting subsided untilno sound whatever echoed upward with the smoke from the depths.

The great fire was allowed to die out but the masses of rock did not cool offuntil the following noon. An indescribable scene met the Navajos when theyventured into the charnel cavern. The last feeble attempt of the doomed tostave off death had been to pile more quarters from the killed ponies in thecave entrance. Noxious fumes had sapped their strength too fast, droppingthem gasping in death.

The barbecued pony meat was punched out with poles, and drafts of airallowed to circulate through the cave. Just inside the narrow passage thatturned right, a dozen partly burned Apaches lay sprawled in the confines.

The first cavern into which the runway gave was a macabre scene of horror.Most bodies lay on the stone platform above the pony carcasses.

Towards the inevitable end so many Apaches had bolted through the smallentrance into the second cavern that it was blocked solid. Pulling the deadaside, it was inspected. Only five of the enemy managed to get clear into it.They lay prone in grotesquely twisted positions, frozen in death whilechoking for a final breath of fresh air that never revived them.

Altogether forty-two Apaches lost their lives in the cave. The bodies werestripped of valuables, and raid loot recovered. Navajo fighting men retreatedfrom the cave quietly, awed by the terrible destruction they had wrought.The girl victims cruelly put to death had been avenged.

This incident put an end to further use of the mystery cave by the Apaches.In fact no raid in that direction was ever undertaken against the Navajosagain.

continued ...

Diablo Canyon

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/diablo.htm[2/26/2010 11:59:22 PM]


DiabloThe Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (Later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe)approaching from New Mexico began changing the region radically.Contractors' construction crews advanced rapidly ahead of trackmen layingsteel rails. Reaching the flat rim of Canyon Diablo at its 255 foot depth, twoand a half miles down stream from Two Guns, all work halted abruptly.

The railroad company encountered financial difficulties and could notimmediately bridge the gorge. During the period of reorganization, from thesummer of 1881 until late in 1882 before work resumed, the booming townof Canyon Diablo roared day and night.

For the brief span of its vicious life, more famous places like Abilene,Virginia City and Tombstone could not hold a candle to the evil of this end-of-the-railroad's depravity. Murder on the street was common. Holdups werealmost hourly occurrences, newcomers being slugged on mere suspicion thatthey carried valuables.

It was a shack town, Two lines of buildings faced each other across therocky road on the north line of the right-of-way. They extended east onemile from the yellow-painted depot.

It was the railhead for Flagstaff, Prescott and other towns west and south.Long wagon freight trains of goods passed north along the east canyon rimto the old crossing. Swinging west, freighters and stagecoaches made stopsat Walnut Tanks and Turkey Tanks on the slow forty mile haul into the cedarand pine forests surrounding Flagstaff on the mountain. Other routes fannedout from the small town. A regular stage line also operated betweenFlagstaff and Canyon Diablo.

Not only the stagecoaches hauling money but the freight trains were subjectto robbery by unorganized gangs. They were footloose drifters in hard luckwho came west looking for a place to settle. Killers and badly wantedcriminals composed the bulk of their hardened numbers.

Short passenger train runs were made daily from the division yards atWinslow. Rail-road freight trains unloaded at Canyon Diablo. Wagons withtrailers waited to haul merchandise, saloon potables, sawmill and miningmachinery on to destinations. Near the depot on railroad land were locatedthe section crew's house, stock pens, a water tank (pumped out of thecanyon's depth at that time), freight docks and warehouses.

Along Hell Street stood fourteen saloons, ten gambling dens (or poker flats)four houses of ill-repute and two dance pavilions which were hardly morethan houses of ill-repute themselves. None of the shacks were substantialbuildings, being green lumber frames covered with tin, tar paper, and

Diablo Canyon


canvas. Wedged between these places were eating counters, and a groceryand dry goods store. Few had a name lettered on their drab, unpainted falsefronts.

Among this motley collection of clip-joints were the Colorado and Texassaloons, the Last Drink, Road To Ruin, Bughouse Joe's and Name Your Pizen.The main dance pavilion was the Cootchy-Klatch, where alleged youngfemale singers sang nostalgic melodies. In between appearances, thepainted hags doubled in the bordellos.

The houses of prostitution were untitled. The favorites were owned byClabberfoot Annie and B. S. Mary (the initials stand for what you think theydo). Both gained fame, of a sort. Clabberfoot Annie was not so deformedbut a handsome woman with an hourglass figure when corseted and wearingsilks. B. S. Mary was buxom, rawboned, stood about six feet tall and wasstrictly a skidroad bawd. (please note, not skidrow).

Their competitive places faced each other across the dusty, stony road.Liking their red eye, both were usually plastered. Their joints were noted fora steady stream of pretty girls passing through them. Old timers told manya misty-eyed tale of some of the fanciest to sojourn there. A few localstockmen married some of them.

The fame, or infamy, of Clabberfoot Annie and B. S. Mary resulted fromconstant bickering and hair pulling fights. When one or the other consideredherself particularly abused she stood on the narrow wooden porch beforeher joint yelling insults across the road. On prompt appearance of the otherthey stood calling each other all the vile names not in the book.

When one had been insulted beyond endurance she rushed into the street.Both always collided there. A fast-gathering populace was regularlyentertained by their screeching battles, in which arguments invariably endedafter the exchange of picturesque descriptions of each other's antecedents.

Men in the close-packed crowd ringing the combatants yelled oath-filledencouragement to whichever one he favored at the moment. Bloody noses,black eyes and torn-out hair resulted. Sometimes one managed to tear offevery shred of clothing the other wore, much to the spectators' delight.

One time Clabberfoot Annie instead of meeting B. S. Mary in clawingcombat, rushed back inside her diggings. Reappearing with a double-barreled shotgun, she let both tubes thunder birdshot into B. S. Mary'sbroad bottom while running away.

In this wild, untamed town the death rate was high. A boothill wasestablished south of the tracks from the very beginning. At one time 35graves could be counted in it. Some had wooden head-boards that haverotted away. A few were enclosed by wooden picket fences, which havebeen torn down and carried off by souvenir hunters. A pile of stones washeaped protectively over several.

Today only those graves protected by rocks, and one with a curb and iron

Diablo Canyon


pipe frame railing enclosing a blue granite headstone, can be located. Theupright stone marks the grave of the only man buried there who diedpeacefully with his boots off. He was Herman Wolf, the trader off the riverwho passed on in September 1899, long after Canyon Diablo town hadvanished.

Only one woman was buried there. She worked in Clabberfoot Annie'shouse. One morning she was found with her throat thoroughly sliced, thedeed accomplished by an inmate of B. S. Mary's place who mistook her bunkfor that of Clabberfoot Annie.

Boothill did not by far contain all the bodies put away at Canyon Diablo.More graves of the nameless are scattered north and south of the tracks,and east of the canyon rim. The incumbents of this real estate were plantedwhere their bodies were found.

Flagstaff merchants and especially the saloon owners, could never dependon a freight train load of goods reaching them intact. Even the severalsawmill operators lost or had machinery and replacement parts damagedbeyond use while en route. The freighters themselves were also robbed.Several times, enraged because they found nothing spendable, the outlawsburned the freighter's wagons.

E. E. Ayer, who owned the largest lumber mill in the southwest at Flagstaff,arrived at the end of the railroad for the purpose of establishing a mill. Thelawless conditions stunned him. But he had enough political power todemand and receive an escort of soldiers from Fort Defiance. With them hegot his machinery through. But the presence of troops hardly caused thecriminal element to pause in their depredations.

The sawmill men and Flagstaff merchants organized, and provided a goodsalary for a marshal at Canyon Diablo to keep outlaws under control. Thebusinessmen at end-of-the-tracks had only to hire the marshal. This provedmore difficult than providing the officer's salary.

The town had a rapid succession of peace officers. The first one pinned onthe badge at three o'clock in the afternoon; at eight that night he was laidour for burial.

The second one lasted two whole weeks. The third was a sneaky, chinchycharacter who carried a sawed-off shotgun. When he got a bad actor he alsoliberally sprinkled innocent bystanders with double-0 pellets. At the end ofthree weeks, forty-five lead slugs fired by a disgruntled man, pepperedbetween the shoulder blades, ended this peace officer's usefulness.

The fourth was a gnarled little man owning piggish black eyes who made adeal with the outlaw element. He actually served six days before a bandit'sabused victim turned a blazing gun muzzle on him point blank in the dark.

Weeks passed without a town marshal. Finally, in rode a sallow-cheeked,gaunt, consumptive who was an ex-preacher from Texas. Spotted enteringtown by the hiring committee standing before Keno Harry's Poker Flat, they

Diablo Canyon


discovered that he wore two low slung guns. Forthwith they propositionedhim. Being broke and hungry, he accepted the chance to start eatingregularly again.

When asked his name for the record he hesitated overly long. Glancingdown at the striped ducking pants he wore, he replied smugly that hereckoned he was "Bill Duckin."

Although he lasted a full thirty days, he died before collecting his firstmonth's salary. During that period he killed a man a day and wounded somany that the railroad hospital at Winslow refused to accept any moregunshot victims.

Duckin passed from this world on a Sunday morning because prosperityruined him. Flush with money after putting the squeeze on all the joints, hedecked himself out in fancy clothes. Imitating famous marshals of the day,he also provided himself with two black two-button bob-tailed coats. Theeveryday coat had the side pockets cut out. Thus, while wearing it he couldshove both hands down, grasp gun butts, and thrust the long barrelsthrough between the coat edges since the holsters hung on swivels with thebottoms lopped off. In this tricky way he literally scared badmen to death.The second coat was kept unaltered for Sunday wear.

On the fatal morning he strolled along the street in the good coat; not thathe was going to church. There wasn't one to care for the unspiritual needsof the two thousand denizens then inhabiting the town. Duckin was headedfor Ching Wong's beef stew counter for breakfast.

Out of the Colorado Saloon backed a man wearing a black derby hat.Holding a sack of loot in his left hand, he carried a smoking gun in his right.Halting, Duckin, resting hands in side coat pockets, ordered him tosurrender. Instead, the bandit opened fire. Too late Duckin realized that hewas wearing his Sunday coat. Exit town marshal Duckin; and no slowwalking and lonesome singing.

His successor was Joseph (Fighting Joe) Fowler, who had tamed the boomingroar of bad actors in Gallup, New Mexico, when the railroad reached there. Areal toughie without a doubt, he had killed twenty men during hisgunfighting career.

Fighting Joe lasted ten days before outlaws put the Indian sign on him. Afterthree narrow squeaks escaping alive in bushwhack deals, he returned toNew Mexico without announcing his sudden departure.

Subsequently a sheriff named Harvey H. Whitehill battled him hand to handin a stand-off fight before being able to haul him off to the Silver Cityjuzgado. That night an ingrate mob took Fighting Joe from behind bars anddecorated a tree with him. (Editor's note: "Fighting Joe" Fowler should notbe confused with one Joel Fowler, who was also lynched, but in Socorro,New Mexico, January 23, 1884)

Changing ownership of a saloon or gambling-parlor business in Canyon

Diablo Canyon


Diablo was by the simple expedient of gunning down the then claimer inpossession. That was how Keno Harry, never known by any other name,obtained his poker flat. That was also how he lost it. Planted in boothill, hiswooden board grave marker had painted on it in black letters:

Keno Harry1882

Flagstaff was then in Yavapai County, the seat of government being atPrescott more than two hundred miles away. County officials refused tofurnish officers to maintain law and order at Canyon Diablo. Why send onethere merely to have him killed.

Desperate, Flagstaff business men appealed to Territorial Governor FrederickA. Tirtle for help. He requested the army to step in and restore order.

While the army moved with its habitual slowness, the presence of troopsbecame unnecessary. Reorganized and with new funds pumped into thecompany, the gorge of Canyon Diablo was bridged, the railroad built onwest to California. The rip-snorting town of malevolent evil died overnight.

When contractors, building the grading ahead of steel-laying crews firstreached the canyon rim, Billy the Kid and several of his gang drove a bandof stolen stock there from New Mexico, sometime during the winter of 1879-1880.

The year before, sheepman Bill Campbell had started constructing a stonebuilding, laid in mud mortar, across the canyon from Two Guns. Taking overthe unfinished walls, the Kid and his men completed it with a flat roof andpiled up rock walls next to it for a night-holding corral. The gang then setabout trying to dispose of the horses and mules.

The contractors using teams had no idea when or if they would return towork, and were not interested in spending any more money. Whenpropositioned, local stockmen refused to buy because they had plenty oftheir own animals. In desperation the Navajos were dickered with. For thevalue of a five or ten dollar blanket they swapped a few. The gang was notthere long before becoming disgusted so the Kid led them back towards NewMexico. Because they did not want to return the stock there, the rest of theremuda was shot dead in a red flat west of Winslow.

The ruins of the stone house and part of the adjacent corral where the gangholed up briefly is visible from Two Guns. It is southwest, across the canyonbridge and near the highway.

The last important Indian fight with U. S. troops occurred at Big Dry Washon July 17,1882, just south of Two Guns.

The renegade Apache chief, Natiotish, was discovered hiding with betweenseventy-five and a hundred men southwest of Fort Apache. A company ofApache scouts was sent to arrest and bring him in with several others.

Diablo Canyon


Turning on the scouts, the renegades killed eight and chased the rest backto the Fort.

The Apaches then attacked the mining town of McMillenville, from which thefirst alarm of the raiders had spread. Several troops of cavalry were orderedinto the field from Forts Apache, Thomas, McDowell and Whipple. Theconverging commands made forced night and day marches to catch up withthe renegades who were spreading terror and death on their rampage.

From McMillenville, Natiotish crossed the Salt River and went up CherryCreek into Tonto Basin. Livestock was wantonly slaughtered, horses stolen,and twenty-eight settlers murdered. Reaching the old Navajo Trail at TunnelSprings on the Mogollon Rim, the Apaches fled on north apparently planningto hide out in the Melgosa Desert.

On discovering one troop of cavalry following them, Natiotish imagined thatonly it alone was after them. He decided to wipe out the troopers. Hisambush trap was made where Navajo Trail crosses the upper fork of ClearCreek. This chasm is nearly a thousand feet deep and about 750 wide. Thetrail leads north from there through Chavez Pass and down Canyon Diablopast Two Guns.

By the time Natiotish discovered that more than one troop of cavalry wasafter him, he and his men were completely surrounded. The renegade chiefwas killed in the battle that ensued. Twenty-four Apache bodies were foundin the rocks, and buried. But that was less than half of the total slain. A fewtroopers were wounded but only one killed.

As night settled over the battlefield, the surviving Apaches pulled their usualand expert vanishing act. Fleeing in many directions, a few came all the wayto Two Guns. In due course they all sneaked back onto the reservationwhere they were caught and jailed.

continued ...

Platinum

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/platinum.htm[2/26/2010 11:59:56 PM]


PlatinumTwo Mexican sheepherders working for the Daggs brothers, picked upseveral pieces of an iron-like heavy substance during the summer of 1886.Curiosity aroused, the fragments were taken to Fred W. Volz, the NavajoIndian trader at Canyon Diablo. He bought the post from C. H. Algert whohad established it soon after the boom town fell into decay and ruin.

Realizing that the material could be valuable, he sent it off to a metallurgist.It was identified as meteoric iron, for which there was demand on themarket.

Volz hired Mexicans with wagons to pick it up all around Two Guns andtowards Coon Mountain (Or Coon Hole) as Meteor Crater was then called.Sending out samples of the rusty red iron, Volz soon received an order. Twoflatcar loads were shipped to a Los Angeles dealer who paid him 751 apound.

While arranging to collect more and ship it, Volz learned some dismayingfacts. It was reported like this in the Flagstaff Weekly Champion:

Meteor Crater may be the world's richest mine. Every fragment contains,among other metals, and without variation, two-percent platinum and sixpercent nickel.

Platinum is worth $120 an ounce. So a pound of meteorite is worth $36 inplatinum alone.

Volz had practically given the meteoric iron away!

After his business in meteoric iron collapsed, others hauled out tons of it.The fragments were sold to jewelers for $25 a pound and cut, polished andmade into jewelry.

By no means did the coming of the railroad through northern Arizona stopall freighting and vehicular traffic. In fact it increased as more settlersarrived to take up homesteads. The Beale Road, or the California-Santa FeTrail, was far too long in distance between Flagstaff and Winslow. A muchshorter route was made from Flagstaff to connect with the Smith MormonLake road. The crossing over upper Canyon Diablo was used.

It was a lonely, winding road over which some settlers came in wagons. Theroute also was a dangerous one, because holdups were occasionallyperpetrated.

On one occasion two wagons, loaded with families and household goods, asmall bunch of cattle being driven along, were stopped on the edge of the

Platinum


cedars off the mountain. Three hardcases went through the wagons afterrobbing the men, and found a thousand dollars in gold coin. Leaving thescene, they fled south and were never caught.

In 1888 a horseback traveler came onto a wagon stopped off the road shortof the crossing. The wagon box contents were scattered around and theteams gone along with the harness. Hanging from the end of the wagontongue braced upward in the air by the neck yoke was a middle-aged man.He was never identified but buried on the site, and to this day how and whyhe was hanged is still an unsolved mystery.

Robbing passenger trains became a popular pastime in the west. It appealedto young cowboys as a quick and sure means to grab a small fortune. Trainswere held up at Canyon Diablo station several times. The most noted andbiggest of the robberies, in loot, occurred on the blustery cold night of March21, 1889.

Four Hashknife cowboys, just tired of it all, John H. (Jack) Smith, "Long"John Halford, Daniel M. Havrick and William D. Starin, planned and carriedout the spectacular robbery.

On a snow-spitting night the eastbound Atlantic and Pacific fast express No.7 stopped at Canyon Diablo for water. Two of them grabbed the engineerand fireman, taking them out of the cab. Then they blew the express safe,looted it and took several packages of money. They also took watches andjewelry which was not locked up.

To throw off trackers who would be after them the next day, the fourheaded south along the canyon rim. After halting awhile, they circled aroundtrying to confuse their sign. This strategy did not fool expert trackers whosoon took out after them.

Two rode off together for Black Falls downstream on the Little Colorado. Theother pair, after starting north across the Navajo reservation, changed theirminds and swung around to the west. All four crossed the big ColoradoRiver at Lee Ferry in the dark of night and streaked on into Utah.

Sheriff William 0. (Bucky) O'Neill, fated to die on San Juan Hill in Cuba withthe Rough Riders, pursued the cowboys with a couple of deputies, severalexpress company and railroad officers. By the time they reached Utahfollowing their tracks, the bandits had escaped a settlers' net, hoorawed thetown of Cannonville, and turned back into Arizona. It was in the ArizonaStrip that O'Neill ran them down, hungry and exhausted.

The prisoners were taken to the end of the railroad at Milford, Utah. Theywere started back to Arizona by train via Salt Lake City and Denver.

On the way through Raton Pass into northern New Mexico, Smith caught hisguards asleep. Slipping steel handcuffs off his slender wrists he jumpedthrough the car window.

The three remaining bandits were taken on to the Prescott jail. Managing to

Platinum


part his leg iron chains, Smith tied them to boot tops. That same night hestole a settler's staked-out horse and headed for Texas. Before reaching theborder he rescued a school teacher lost in a blowing snow storm. Deliveringher to the country home where she boarded, he rode on.

When she told how chains and irons had been tied to his legs, the settlerspromptly mounted up and pursued. Well ahead of them, after Smith clearedthe storm, he ran into Texas lawmen who had been alerted. A couple ofweeks later he joined his bandit companions in jail.

Tried in district court, the four were convicted of robbery and sentenced to25 years in the territorial prison at Yuma. None served his full term, beingpardoned out as the years went by.

After release, one of the bandits said that they had buried the silverwatches, their rifles and the jewelry near present Two Guns on the canyonrim. At that time a few cedar trees had been growing along it, whicheventually were cut down for firewood.

Before the jewelry was buried, Smith removed some of the diamonds fromtheir ring settings, putting them in a shirt pocket in which he carriedsmoking tobacco. Emptying the sack during flight, he soon began smokingthe stones in the loose dregs remaining in his pocket.

On the canyon rim the loot had been divided into four piles. Havrick wasblind-folded so that he could not see a hand held over a pile. He was askedwho it belonged to and named the man. The last pile was his.

On the witness stand in Prescott a Wells Fargo special agent was asked howmuch the loss amounted to, replying that he did not know. This beingabsurd, he was asked if it amounted to more than $10,000, and reluctantlyhe agreed. The district attorney got him up past $70,000 whereupon herefused to continue playing the game of musical chairs.

From unofficial sources it was generally known that the bandits obtained$100,000 in currency contained in a small metal box, $40,000 in gold coinsand 2,500 new silver dollars besides considerable jewelry. Yet whencaptured, less than $100 was found on all four of them together.

What happened to the loot? It was buried somewhere on the canyon rim ordown in the gorge near Two Guns where descent could be made afoot.Treasure hunters have been seeking it avidly all the years since. Today'ssearches are concentrated down the canyon from Two Guns. Each year atleast five parties hunt for the planted loot between the town and the railroadbridge across the canyon.

Onyx became valuable during the 1890's for use in architecture, for tabletops and jewelry. It could be found in a number of canyons south of theLittle Colorado. Prospectors staked claims and mining started to boom. Butonly briefly, for enough of the agatic onyx was discovered in Grapevine andDeer Canyons above Two Guns to supply the entire domestic demand formany years. It was shipped to Los Angeles and Chicago, after being brought

Platinum


out of the canyons in two-wheeled, one-horse carts.When the Spanish-American War erupted in 1898, the Flagstaff Blues, alocal uniformed militia, was formed as happened in many othersouthwestern towns. Their first action was to chase down and pursue amurderer who killed an Indian woman in a cabin across the canyon east ofTwo Guns.

After turn of the year, 1899, the Flagstaff Blues were called out to put downa Navajo uprising in the vicinity of Canyon Diablo station. Hardly was thatdone, without bloodshed, when a band of stock thieves holed up in thegorge a mile upstream from Two Guns.

When their hiding place was discovered the gang numbered about fifteen. Inaddition to Arizona, the outlaws were wanted in Utah and New Mexico.Riding at night in their dashing uniforms, the Flagstaff Blues surroundedtheir camp and captured the entire bunch without firing a shot.

From the first years of encroachment on their ancestral lands by whitestockmen around Two Guns and to the Little Colorado, Navajos protested invain. But when footloose cowboys began running off their horses they tookpunitive action.

At first, when caught, cowboy thieves were roughed up but not killed. Onecowman who arrived near the canyon in 1884, soon earned their deepesthatred. He was accused not only of rustling their stock, especially theircattle, but when his roundup wagons moved camp, of leaving arsenic behindin baking powder tins mixed with a remnant. Women scavenged thesecamps, picking up cast-away articles that might be of use to them. Theycollected the poisoned baking powder into one can. Used to make bread,one entire family of seven was wiped out.

For awhile, unable to get an ambush shot at the cowman, they damagedhim in another way. When any of his cattle were found bogged down in theriver quicksand, enough green hide was cut off the live animal to sole a pairof moccasins.

After a few distant shots were taken at him the cowman feared for his life.Yet he remained contemptuous of what the Navajos could do. Then one daywhile riding the river with another man, a single bullet whined at him.Missing him by a mere whisper, it killed the rider at his side. Soon after thatthe cowman sold out and retired to the safety of Flagstaff.

In another skirmish a cowboy named William Montgomery was accosted bythree Navajos near some of their ponies. They proceeded to administer agood beating. Going to Flagstaff he swore to warrants charging aggravatedassault and battery.

Deputy Sheriff Dan Hogan was sent back with Montgomery to serve thewarrants. Stopping at the Billy Roden cowcamp, Roden and Walter Durhamwere added to the party.

The four men rode to the rim of Elliott Canyon, near the junction of Padre

Platinum


and Diablo Canyons downstream from Two Guns. Locating a Navajo camp inthe brush below in the late afternoon of November 8, 1899, theydismounted and walked down.

They slipped up on a brush shelter and halted. Leaning over to peer inside,Hogan saw an old man tanning a buckskin. Unseen in the brush nearbylurked armed Navajos.

The sight of horsethief Montgomery triggered them into action. Suddenly ablast of gunfire spewed into the white men.

Hogan was wounded by a long gash across the shoulders while bent over.Montgomery was killed instantly. Roden was shot through the groin. As themen began withdrawing, they poured lead into the shelter, killing theunarmed, harmless old man.

It was then near sundown. The three survivors dared not climb the exposedcanyon wall to their saddled horses. Fleeing through the brush, they walkedall night, lost and wandering around, to the railroad. Durham had to packRoden most of the way.

At dawn they caught a freight train to Flagstaff where the shooting scrapewas reported. Alarm spread through the area. But more scared were theNavajos. They felt sure that soldiers or the Flagstaff Blues would be sent toround them up by force.

Once more families sought refuge in Canyon Diablo. The countrysideremained in turmoil for three weeks before government agents could take ahand adjudicating the controversy. The Navajos involved were told to reportin Flagstaff for a hearing.

This they refused to do at first. Finally, one night, 300 heavily armedNavajos led by aging B'ugoettin, veteran of so many fights with theApaches, stopped at Wolf Post on the river. At that time S. I. Richardsonwas the resident trader. With his uncle, George W. McAdams, he hadpurchased the post in 1899 after Wolf's death.

They informed him that white men were making war on them. Once beforethe soldiers had come to fight them, then had imprisoned them at FortSumner. This time they would wipe out Flagstaff! They could easily havedone this for the small, unprotected town had less than a thousandinhabitants.

Then surprisingly, after war-like statements, B'ugoettin asked Richardsonwhat he thought would happen if those concerned surrendered for thehearing.

"You will be turned loose by the judge," he replied. "The white men were inthe wrong and you can prove it."

The war party rode on without revealing what they would really do. Passingup the near side of Canyon Diablo they cut west from Two Guns toconcealment in thick standing pine timber, approaching the town from an

Platinum


unexpected direction.

Three days later they were back at Wolf Post, laughing and talking aboutwhat had happened. The large party hid in the timber within quick strikingdistance. Three men, one of them B'ugoettin, went in unarmed, taking thefour horses and saddles seized by them after the shooting fray.

Their plan was that if the three were jailed, the war party would strike inthe dead of night, burn down the town and kill all who opposed them.Fortunately the judge before whom the hearing was held found insufficientevidence to hold anyone.

continued ...

Drink for the Dead

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/drink.htm[2/27/2010 12:00:39 AM]


Drink for the DeadIn the year 1905, beginning on the night of April 7, there occurred one ofthe most bizarre incidents in western history, ending within sight of TwoGuns. Two cowboys, John Shaw and Bill Smith, twenty-two and twenty-fouryears old, entered the Wigwam Saloon on Second Street in Winslow.

Upon ordering a drink, and while the bartender poured, their eyes buggedout at sight of 600 silver dollars stacked on the dice table run by FrankKetchum. Glancing quickly at Shaw, Smith nodded his head in a signal. Outwith their rousers, they moved in on the table. Silver dollars were stuffedinto all their pockets and the remnant in hats. Then they backed out andmade good temporary escape.

The alarm spread all along the transcontinental railroad line. Navajo CountySheriff C. I. Houck and his deputy, J. C. N. Pemberton, rode the train westto Flagstaff searching for them. On their return that night they were tippedoff that the two had been seen near Canyon Diablo station.

Going there in the new night, Houck and Pemberton neared the side of awarehouse belonging to Volz. Abruptly Smith and Shaw appeared movingtowards them from the opposite direction.

In the bat of an eye a gunfight erupted. Twenty shots were fired duringwhich Houck's clothing was holed several times and Smith was wounded.Customarily that many cartridges would have been loaded in only four guns,the firing pin resting on the sixth, the empty chamber. Only Pemberton didnot observe this safety precaution. He had six bullets loaded and the lastone brought Shaw down dead as he wheeled to flee with an empty gun.

Shaw was hurriedly buried that night and Smith removed to the Winslowhospital. Over in the Wigwam Saloon a bunch of liquoring cowboys heard thestory of the shoot-out, which had been telephoned from Canyon Diablo.

Out of a long stretch of silence one of them remarked seriously, "Them twoboys paid for drinks and didn't down their whiskey. Was Shaw given a snortbefore they planted him?"

Another replied sarcastically, "Now, you know lawmen don't go aroundgiving a dead man no drink!"

"Shucks, that feller has a drink coming to him and not getting what he paidfor ain't right. We should go to Canyon Diablo and give him one!"

The idea caught on quickly and within minutes twenty-odd cowboys hadhopped a freight train west. Arriving with assorted bottles of whiskey, theyborrowed shovels from trader Volz and disinterred Shaw's body, rigid in rigor

Drink for the Dead

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/drink.htm[2/27/2010 12:00:39 AM]

mortis. It was held upright out of the grave. He was then given a going-away drink from a brown bottle as the new sun cleared the horizon. Therewas enough light to snap pictures before Shaw was replanted. The six printsfrom the film were displayed in a Winslow saloon for many years.

continued ...

Diamonds

http://www.hkhinc.com/arizona/twoguns/diamonds.htm[2/27/2010 12:01:04 AM]


DiamondsWhen the meteoric iron Volz shipped out was cut, very tiny diamonds werediscovered in it. For a long time this fact remained a closely guarded secret.Several strangers entered the rolling country looking around. Subsequently itdeveloped that they hoped to find a diamond mine. Those contained in theiron were too small and too difficult of recovery to be profitable.Unknown at this early stage of Meteor Crater's history was that not all theouter space visitor was composed of iron. There had also been in the mass astony, slate-like substance. This material contained larger diamonds thatcould be broken out with a hammer.

At some early date a mysterious and aged prospector, Adolph Cannon,discovered the diamonds. The stony material was not identified for manyyears. Today this fact is denied, or that any diamonds whatever are found inmeteorite fragments; but this is likely a safeguard to prevent a wilddiamond hunting rush leading to a stampede of prospectors. Not all of theland over which the fragments fell on contact with the earth is under controlto prevent pillage.

Cannon was a non-talking man who went to Winslow not more than threetimes a year for necessary supplies. During the winters he lived in thesmaller caves of upper Canyon Diablo, but never in the Apache death cave.

He always carried a large sum of currency when in town. Yet he never soldany diamonds. This transaction would have had to be made in or through arailroad town. That he had collected many pokes of diamonds is certain.Over the years he was seen picking up meteor fragments and breaking themout.

Sheepherders, cowboys and prospectors who spied on him occasionally,thought he searched for the outlaws' loot near Two Guns. Yet if so hecertainly hunted far from where it was supposedly buried.

Reputable men observing Cannon several times when they had business inthe area, were convinced that he cached a hoard of diamonds. Also hiddenaway in caves and cliff dwellers' ruins were more pieces of the explodedmeteorite picked up on the range.

For something like thirty years Cannon plodded the widely strewn area. Athis heels followed a burro carrying panniers slung from a forked saddle.When finding a piece of meteorite he knew contained one or morediamonds, he tossed it into a pannier.

Exaggerated tales spread about Cannon's hoard of diamonds. One individualmeeting him unexpectedly in the area offered to make contacts for theirsale. The yarns also drew hardcases who hoped to rob him of the alleged

Diamonds

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wealth in stones. On one occasion at least, two were prevented from killinghim from ambush by a deer hunter who followed them until they assumedambush positions. After driving them off, the hunter warned Cannon, whomerely regarded him bleak-eyed.

The old man, approaching eighty, was seen alive the last time in 1917. Thenin 1928 a gravel hauler found the skeleton of a man in a pit east of Winslowon the Little Colorado. The skull had two bullet holes in it.

Investigating lawmen found with the skeleton and rotted clothing a walletcontaining a piece of paper with his name on it, a small mug shot of Cannontaken when a younger man, and a pocket knife known to belong to him.From this evidence, clothing buttons, belt buckle and "buck" teeth, theremains were legally established as those of Cannon. The coroner's physiciansaid that he had been dead at least ten years.

No money whatever was found with the skeleton, and no diamonds. Theinvestigating officers theorized that robbery was the motive for his murder.But they could not account for how he happened to be on the river nearWinslow so far from his regular stamping grounds.

Not long after discovery of his skeleton a burly man staggered into aPitchfork line camp near Jack's Canyon. Fatally wounded, he had a buckskinpouch filled rough diamonds. Before dying he told the two cowboysstationed there that he and a partner had found one of Cannon's diamondcaches, over which they had fought. After being wounded from a bushwhackshot the man then killed his partner, shooting him twice with a sixgun.

Although the cowboys tried to get him to the Winslow hospital the unknownman - nothing by way of identification on him - died at sunup while enroute.

The cowboys informed the local deputy sheriff of the matter, and hastenedto Black's jewelry store where they showed the glistening white stones tothe proprietor. Making tests, he pronounced them diamonds of a goodindustrial quality. Taking the next train to California the cowboys were notseen again in Arizona.

The sheriff's deputy took a search party out hunting for the camp where thefatal fight supposedly had taken place. They could not find it nor the body ofa dead man.

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Two Guns Trading PostAbout 1907 several Flagstaff business firms decided that the road toWinslow could be shortened. West of the upper crossing they scraped out aflat road north to Two Guns. It passed down a long slope to the bottom ofthe canyon. On the east side a dugway was blasted and torn through to theflat rim. During spring run-off the canyon flooded deep. The short-cutcrossing was then not useable, especially by the low-powered automobilescoming into general use. For that reason the old Mormon crossing continuedto be used by most travelers.

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel B. Oldfield, a childless couple in their fifties, settled bythe side of the then new road. They built a square stone house, the ruins ofwhich can be seen three miles south of Two Guns on traces of this old road.In 1914 this road became known as the Old Trails Highway. Since then, itand the newer Highway 66 have outlived several other titles and numericaldesignations.

In a small front room the Oldfields conducted a trading business withtravelers, wandering prospectors, cowboys, sheepherders and Indians.

Mr. and Mrs. Walter Drye entered Arizona in 1914 via Lee Ferry on theColorado River. A flat-bottomed barge was still employed for crosstransportation. After looking around, the Dryes selected a spot a mile aboveTwo Guns, building a rock house there. Running cattle awhile they removedto Anderson Mesa, about 1929, and although today in their eighties, still runcattle west of Two Guns.

When the highway changed from upper Mormon Crossing to the crossing atTwo Guns, an old time prospector, Ed Randolph, set himself up in businessbeside the section entering the canyon upstream from Apache Cave.

When Earle and Louise Cundiff reached Arizona in 1922 from Arkansas, theypaid Randolph $1,000 to relinquish his claim back to the U. S. Government.Cundiff, a World War I army veteran, then filed on a range claim of 320acres, encompassing that part of the canyon now called Two Guns.

He constructed a large stone building complete with living quarters on thewest side of the canyon where the dirt road turned down into the crossing.Near the foot of the dugway he put in a concrete dam to impound water,such development being necessary to prove up on the homestead.

As more and more automobiles came into general use, tourists began usingthe transcontinental highway across northern Arizona. From its beginningthe trading post in its wonderful isolation enjoyed a good business. Gasolinepumps, oil service, and a restaurant were added to take care of travelers.



Harry E. (Indian) Miller, claiming to be a full-blooded Apache Indian, andbeing part Mohawk, looked over possibilities at Two Guns. Well educated andpossessing a flair for gaudy publicity, he leased a business site from Cundifffor a period of ten years on March 5, 1925.

Miller advertised himself as "Chief Crazy Thunder," and wore his long hairbraided. He had served in the Philippines with the U. S. Army following theSpanish-American War.

At Two Guns he and his wife began an extensive building program. On thecanyon rim he put in a long stone structure with Indian labor, in the rear ofwhich and facing the main canyon, were wild animal cages and pens. Hecalled this a lion farm (he had several mountain lions). The center of thebuilding and entrance into the zoo contained a small store and livingquarters.

Additional small buildings were also constructed in which a restaurant andan Indian curio shop were put and operated by others. One of them wasHopi Chief Joe Secakuku.

Investigating the Apache Death Cave, Miller cleaned out the first twocaverns. Cliff dweller ruins were then constructed inside the entry way andfirst cavern. What few Apache skulls he found were sold to tourists assouvenirs. (Now and then one still comes to light). The horse and humanbones were disposed of to a Winslow bone dealer.

Hopi Indians hired off the reservation built a pueblo type house on the sidecanyon rim directly over the cave. A paved path was laid down, connectingwith a wooden bridge to a land island, and lookout points to a series ofopenings and eroded formations adjacent to the cave.

For a nominal charge tourists were conducted through the Hopi house whererolls of colored piki bread was made and sold. In the cavern below a softdrink stand was installed, and electric wires run down through the first crackto provide lighting.

Just who finally provided the name for Two Guns is unknown. During his firstyear or two there, Miller called his long building which was indeed a bulwarkof stone walls, "Fort Two Guns."

When Cundiff applied for a post office his request was refused under thatname. The designation "Canyon Lodge," was accepted. He then becameofficial postmaster when it opened for business in his store at the bridge,November 24, 1924.

Begun in late 1925, completed in 1926, the state rerouted the highway pastthe Cundiff store directly in front, and built a concrete bridge. This old roadmade a sharp right turn off the bridge, passing before the elaborately signedHopi house.

At about this time two Phoenix Mexicans appeared in Flagstaff. They were,they announced, going after a cache of Cannon's diamonds for which they



possessed a map.

A year after their departure from town the remains of a Mexican were foundin the canyon a few yards above Mormon Crossing. The skull contained abullet hole. The skeleton was identified as one of the Mexicans, but themissing partner was never located. Buried shallowly, the bones were dug upby coyotes. Then some one placed the skull on a pyramid of rocks where thenewer highway turned northeast as a warning not to use the abandonedstretch.

For some reason Cundiff leased the store to a man and his wife driftingthrough in l925. Shortly becoming dissatisfied with the arrangement, thepair departed in the night. Along with them went a considerable amount ofsilver, turquoise jewelry and merchandise.

From the beginning arguments ensued between Cundiff and Miller over thelatter's assumption of extra rights under rather broad terms of his lease.The crisis came the evening of March 3, 1926, when Miller shot Cundiff todeath. The body had been dragged out of Miller's living quarters at the zoowhen county officers arrived to investigate.

Following the formalities of a trial and despite the fact that Cundiff had beenunarmed, Miller was acquitted of the charge of murder.

The interior of the big store burned out in the fall of 1929. East of thebridge and north in a red clay flat, Mrs. Cundiff put in a large frame buildingfrom which she continued to conduct a trading post and tourist stop.

When she arranged to prove up on the homestead, Miller filed protests. Hesaid that the land was rightly his and that he was actually there before theCundiffs. Through a series of court actions that cost her $15,000 she finallycleared the title. The government patent was received in July, 1929, andsigned by President Herbert Hoover.

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Indian MillerMiller's lease on his part at Two Guns was a source of constant tribulation tohim. In his zoo was every beast and bird native to Arizona, from tiny coralsnakes to cougars. One of the mountain lions clawed him almost to death. Ayear later a small Canada lynx very nearly disemboweled him. Another timea Gila monster on exhibit as an attraction before the zoo entrance, clampedtoothless jaws fast to a right finger. The wound infected, his arm swellingenormously to the shoulder. Six months elapsed before it became normalagain.

He also had domestic troubles. Then someone maliciously ripped down allhis flamboyant advertising signs along the highway. In court, he charged sixdifferent people with the deed. One of them was found guilty in court andfined $90.

With all the trouble suffered, Miller had made up his mind to leave TwoGuns. The climax came in a very badly hushed-up case, the details notremembered by local people today. He left the State in 1930 to avoidprosecution on serious charges.

Crossing the Arizona line into New Mexico, he put in a similar zoo and touristattraction north of Highway 66. As before, he constructed phony cliffdweller's ruins, where none had ever existed, in a cave in a sandstone cliffwall. The name "Cave of the Seven Devils," was painted in huge letters overthe cave, and visible from the highway. He lived there until his death inFebruary, 1952.

After Miller's departure, his Two Guns buildings were leased to variouspeople. Earl Tinnin of Flagstaff managed the business and ran a restaurantfrom 1933 to the end of 1935.

Phillip E. Hesch, Santa Fe Railroad signal maintainer at Canyon Diablostation, and Mrs. Cundiff were married December 9, 1934. That year the bigtrading post at Canyon Diablo burned out. Hesch rescued Depot AgentRowen from the flaming building barely in the nick of time.

That same year Mrs. Ray Thomas, with an invalid husband, taught school atCanyon Diablo station. Obtaining a permit, she began constructing a redsandstone home with a flat roof, directly below the Hopi house. She plannedto live there with her husband but he had to be confined in an insaneasylum and it was never finished.

After Tinnin's lease expired the Heschs took over the Two Guns property tomanage it themselves.

The last rerouting of Highway 66 occurred in 1938, still crossing Two Guns


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land. A new bridge was built over Canyon Diablo downstream from the firstone.

Hesch moved two frame buildings to the new highway side. They housed astore, a restaurant and living quarters, with gasoline pumps directly in front.The zoo and lion farm were re-established by him directly behind the storeon the brink of the larger gorge.

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Renaissance

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RenaissanceThe zoo was discontinued before Two Guns was sold to S. I. Richardson in1950. For the next decade the property was leased to several operators,until purchased by Two Guns Inc., Benjamin F. Dreher, general manager.

Under his management new buildings have been constructed on Interstate40 in keeping with western atmosphere and tradition. Two Guns consists ofa new motel, coffee shop and restaurant, gift and curio shop, western tavernand lounge and an up-to-date service station and garage. U. S. Postalfacilities have been restored to the area and Justice Court has reopened forthat precinct of Coconino County. Two Guns has also organized its ownChamber of Commerce with members throughout the entire county. Hesch'szoo on the canyon wall was rebuilt, and a reptile exhibit has been added.

All the old ruins of Cundiff's and Miller's stone buildings are being restored.Trails have been made through the old sites and guided tours are conducteddaily.

While leveling off a car parking lot with a bulldozer before the Hopi houseover the cave, several graves were cut into. Mrs. Hesch does not recall anyburials there during her time, unless Miller buried two or three Indians.However, the skull of at least one burial is that of a middle-aged white man.

The Apache death cave was explored between three and four milesunderground at an early date. Miller inspected it underground in the beliefthat he might discover another Carlsbad Cavern.

The series of caverns never widen out or enlarge beyond the size of the firsttwo. Two Winslow men explored them to an estimated seven and a halfmiles. Subsequently amateur speleologists reached that point, apparently atthe end. However, a stone obstruction fallen from overhead was brokenthrough into the next cavern. They then explored the series of caves for adistance of nine miles altogether.

In recent years a rock slide from the ceiling blocked entrance from the fifthcavern to the sixth, about 500 feet from the cave entrance.

How were the caverns created? Two popular explanations are most oftengiven. One is that when the great meteor struck it ruptured horizontalstratas of stone, creating many cracks and fissures across the plateau. Inseveral cases the overlying structures were not fractured.

The second theory, and one that holds considerable plausibility, is that theycame into being during earth upheavals of the volcanic period which createdthe San Francisco Mountains. Many such open fissures are visible, northtowards Cameron from U. S. Highway 89. In appearance they resemble

Renaissance

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deep, black-colored arroyos.

Other great, open cracks in the earth's crust reach to the Little Colorado.Some contain water where Indian flocks can be trailed down to it. Blind fishhave been found in these underground streams.

Two Guns, Arizona, still in existence, still a trading post, still located in oneof the most historic and interesting areas of the great American Southwest,is one of those places where what went before meets with what is now. Forthe traveler, it is an oasis for rest and refreshment; for the historian, it is asymbol of the past; for everyone, it is of interest.

Two Guns, Arizona, richly deserves its proud place on the map.

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References

BooksApache Indian, The by Frank C. Lockwood. The Macmillan Co., New York,1938.Adventures in The Apache Country by I. Ross Browne. Harper and Brothers.New York, 1869.Arizona Characters by F. C. Lockwood. Los Angeles Times Mirror Press, LosAngeles, 1928.Arizona Place Names by Will C. Barnes. University of Arizona Press, Tucson,Arizona, 1935.A Reconnaissance of Parts of North Western Arizona by N. H. Darton,U.S.G.S. Bulletin 435, 1854.Alluring Arizona by W. H. Nelson. Privately Published, 1927.Arizona and its Heritage. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1936.An Ethnological Dictionary. The Franciscan Fathers, St. Michaels, Arizona,1910.Arizona. American Guide Series, Hastings House, New York, 1940.Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, The. Edited by Maurice G. Fulton, TheMacmillan Co., New York, 1927.Chronologic List Of Engagements Of The Indian Wars Of The United States.National Archives, 1929.Days In The Painted Desert by H. S. Colton, Museum of Northern Arizona,1932.Expedition Into New Mexico Made By Antonio de Espejo, 1582.1583, byDiego P. Lujan. University of New Mexico Press, 1940.Expedition Of de Vargas Into New Mexico by J. Manuel Espinosa. Universityof New Mexico Press, 1940.Geology Of The Navajo Country by H. E. Gregory. Water Supply Paper,No.380, Government Printing Office, 1916.Great American Plateau, The by T. M. Prudden. Putnam and Co., New York,1907.History Of Arizona by Thomas E. Farish. Filmer Brothers, San Francisco.1915.History Of Arizona by James H. McClintock. S. J. Clarke, Co., Chicago, 1916.History Of New Mexico And Arizona by H. H. Bancroft. The Bancroft Co.,New York, 1888.Indian Claims Commission Report. Dockets No. 1 to 229, The Navajo Tribe,Window Rock, Arizona, 1966.Indians Of The Painted Desert by Leo Crane. Little, Brown and Co., NewYork, 1925.Indian Blankets And Their Makers by George W. lames. A. C. McClurg & Co.,Chicago, 1927.Journey Of Coronado, The by George P. Winship. A. S. Barnes & Co., New




York, 1904.Mesa Land by Anna W. Ickes. Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 1933.Mesa, Canon And Pueblo by Charlcs F. Lummis. The Century Co., New York,1925.Missions and Pueblos of the Old Southwest by Earle R. Forrest. A. H. ClarkeCo., Chicago, 1929.Mormon Settlement in Arizona by I. H. McClintock. Phoenix, Arizona, 1921.Navajo Trading Days by Elizabeth Compton Hegemann. University of NewMexico Press, 1963.New Mexico, American Guide Series. Hastings House, New York, 1940.Navajo Bibliography, A by I. Lee Correll and Editha L. Watson. The NavajoTribe, Window Rock, Arizona, 1967.Navajo Weaving by C. A. Amsden. Fine Arts Press, Santa Ana, Calif., 1934.Navajo Indians by Dane and Mary R. Coolidge. Houghton Mifflin Co., NewYork, 1930.Navajo Legends by George W. Matthews. American Folklore Society, NewYork, 1897.Navajo Country, The by Herbert F. Gregory. Government Printing Oflice,Washington, 1916.On The Border with Crook by John G. Bourke. Charles Scribners & Sons,New York, 1892.Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man by A. H. Favour. University of North CarolinaPress, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1936.Old Trails West by Ralph Moody. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1963.On The Trail of A Spanish Pioneer by Elliot Coucs. Un. 1900.Personal Narrative of James 0. Pattie by Pattie. Donnelly & Sons, Chicago,1930.Pioneer Days in Arizona by F. C. Lockwood. The Macmillian Co., New York,1932.Report On A Wagon Road Between Fort Defiance and The Colorado River byE. F. Beale. Sen. Ex. Document Serial No. 959.Report On A Wagon Road from Fort Smith, Arkansas to the Colorado River,by E. F. Beale. House Ex. Doe. Vol.6, 1860.Report On the Colorado River of the West by J. C. Ives. Sen. Ex. Doc.No.90.Report On An Expedition Doss'n The Zuni And Colorado Rivers by LorenzoSitgreaves. Sen. lx. Doe. No.59, 1853.Report On Explorations for A Railroad Route by A. W. Whipple. Sen. Ex. Doe.Serial Nos. 760 and 761, 1855.Santa Fe, The Railroad That Built an Empire by James Marshall. RandomHouse, New York, 1945.Wrangling The Past by Frank M. King. Privately Published. Los Angeles,1935.Vanished Arizona by Martha Summerhays. The Salem Press Co., Salem.Mass., 1911.

ArticlesArizona's Wonderful Hole in the Ground by Joseph Stocker. Arizona Days andWays Magazine, November 16, 1958.Apache Death Cave by Maurice Kildare, Big West, December 1967.

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Arizona's Mystery Cave by Gladwell Richardson. Arizona Magazine, December3, 1967.A Brief Survey Of The Early Expeditions Into Northern Arizona by H. S.Colton, Northern Arizona Museum Notes, Vol.2, No.9, Flagstaff, 1930.Dynasty of Indian Traders by Maurice Kildare. Yet to be published byWestern Publications, Inc., Austin, Texas.Devils Canyon, The by John R. Winslowe. Thrilling Western, July, 1950.Dead Most Drink, The by Gladwell Richardson. Arizona Highways Magazine,June, 1963Care Of Death by Maurice Kildare. Desert Magazine, September, 1967.History of the Cattle Industry in Arizona by Bert Haskett. Arizona HistoricalReview, October. 1936.History of the Sheep Industry in Arizona by Bert Haskett. Arizona HistoricalReview, July, 1936.Keno Harry by Maurice Kildare. Real West, January, 1967.Lost Meteor Diamonds by Maurice Kildare. Old West, Fall, 1967.Museum Notes by H. S. Colton. Museum of Northern Arizona, Vol.2, No.11,1931.Meteor Crater by H. N. Russell. Museum of Northern Arizona, Vol.4, No. 3,1931.Meteor Crater Story, The by George Foster. Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc.,1964Meteor Mountain by Pauline Claffey. Arizona Highways Magazine, September,1938.Most Interesting Spot On Earth, The by Vera F. Sliter. Peoples Magazine ofArizona, October, 1939.Meteorite Search, The by D. Moreau Barringer. Natural History Magazine,May, 1964.Old Wolf Trading Post by Gladwell Richardson, Serially in the Winslow Mailand The Coconino Sun, 1939.Plateau Of The San Francisco Peaks, The by Percival Lowell. AmericanGeological Society, Vol. XLI, Nos. 5 and 6, 1909.San Francisco Volcanic Field, The by H. H. Robinson. U.S. Geological Survey,No.76, 1913.Stone Artifacts of the San Francisco Mountain Region by Katharine Bartlett.Museum of Northern Arizona, Vol.3, No.6, 1930.Visitor from A Distant Planet by H. H. Nininger. Desert Magazine, July, 1942.

Newspapers* indicates no longer published.

Flagstaff Coconino Sun, Champion *, Herald*, Journal* and The ArizonaDaily Sun.Winslow Mail and Daily Mail*.Prescott Courier-Journal.Winners Of The West*, St. Louis Missouri, 1935 - 1940.

Legal RecordsChecked in Yavapal, Coconino, Navajo and Apache counties, Arizona.





Personal Statements of People in the AuthorsFilesBruebman, R. M. (Dick). Indian trader on the Little Colorado River, early1900's. Bought Benton Mesa Store from G. W. McAdams, 1904.Bahe, Hosteen. With other Navajo leaders, fought the Apaches around TwoGuns.Brown, J. H. Winslow jeweler. He bought the diamonds from the twocowboys.Beasley, Al. Sheepman in area in the early days.Balmer, Jack. Indian agent at Leupp for many years.Begay. Salawa. Navajo Indian policeman who knew most of those concernedin the regional history from 1880 to 1909.Begay, B'ugoettin, son of Hosteen B'ugoettin. Was involved in the fights withApache raiders and the cowmen usurping Navajo range.B'ugoettin, Hosteen. Statements to G. W. McAdams and S. I. Richardson inthe 1890's to 1910.Campbell, William (Bill). He ran sheep along Canyon Diablo, 1877-1890.Creswell, Lucien, old Hashknife cowboy.Cannon, Adolph. The old prospector who collected meteorite diamonds formore than thirty years. Died under mysterious circumstances. Known to theauthor.Croxen, Fred W., Sr. for many years a peace officer in Coconino County(Flagstaff). One of the officers who brought out Montgomery's body fromElliot Canyon. Later organized the Law & Order Department for the Navajotribe.Cundif, Earle. He established Two Guns.Cundiff, Louise (Hesch). Mrs. Earle Cundiff. She lived at Two Guns for nearlythirty years.Drye, Walter, One time had ranch near Two Guns.Diamond, Jack. Cattleman in area.Daw, John. Indian scout with the U. S. Cavalry and later a tribal policeman.Durham, Walter S. In the Elliot Canyon fight and was Hashknife cowboy1880's to 1910.Fiske, E. F. Inspector, U. S. Indian Service, who investigated the ElliotCanyon battle and other depredations along the Little Colorado River.Henning, Lloyd C. Published the Winslow Mall, 1909-1914. Premier historianof northern Arizona.Hatch, Lafe, Clerk, Superior Court, Navajo County, Holbrook. Ex-sheriff andcollector of historical records.Howard, "Bear". Came to Canyon Diablo in 1874 as an escapee from SanQuentin prison.Hoebdeffer, Colonel George. Commander of the Flagstaff Blues. Early daypioneer.Heach, Phillip E. (Phil), Married Louise Cundiff. Rebuilt Two Guns on Highway66.Hogan, Daniel (Dan), Coconino Deputy Sheriff who led the posse in the ElliotCanyon fight.Hubbell, Lorenzo, Sr., old time Indian trader.Hubbell, Lorenzo, Jr., son of Lorenzo, Hubbell, Sr. Knew all the Navajos






concerned in Two Guns history and one time owned the Canyon Diablotrading post.Houck, C. I. (Chet), was sheriff of Navajo County when John Shaw killed.Hatch, Ed, knew Earle Cundiff well and served in the army during World WarI with him.Jim, Silversmith, lived all his life along the Little Colorado River in thedisputed territory.Jensen, Reed, chief of police at the Leupp Indian Agency.Jacobs, Donald E. Sr., was trader at Two Guns for four years.Long, Ben. Navajo cattleman during the river war with white stockmen.Lee, Joseph Hyrum, Jr., (Joedy). Lived all his life among the Navajo and atone time worked for Herman Wolf at Wolf Post.McCormick, George, old prospector in the Two Guns area and knew all theIndians and whites concerned.McAdams, George W., author's great uncle. Bought Wolf Post, 1899, with hisnephew. Came to the Navajo country in 1877.MeAdams, J. H. (Higgs), brother of G. W. McAdams. Ran trading posts inthe area in 1904-1910.Miller, Harry E. (Indian Miller) put in the animal farm at Two Guns andcleaned out the Apache cave.Miller, Mrs. Harry. Harry Miller's wife who lived at Two Guns.MeKinney, Joe T., long time peace officer at Winslow, before 1900.Natani, Hosteen, district chief who fought the Apache raiders and wipedthem out at Apache Cave.Patton, Francis, one time trader at Two Guns.Red Rock Woman's Boy, Hosteen, Navajo who fought red and white enemieswith the early day chiefs.Rudd, William (Bill), cowman and deputy sheriff, Navajo County in the earlydays.Runke, Walter Sr., early day Indian agent.Richardson, S. I., author's father. Bought Wolf Post, 1899, with his uncle.Knew all the Indians and whites concerned in the fights around CanyonDiablo.Richardson, C. D. early day Indian trader. Author's uncle.Richardson, Hubert, Indian trader for half a century and once had wholesalehouse in Winslow. Author's uncle.Redshirt, Hosteen, leader who took a big hand in the Navajo fights withraiders.Roden, William (Billy), Little Colorado River cowman who came to Arizonawith his father in 1884 and established ranch at Roden Springs.Randolph, Ed, early day prospector & frontiersman who lived at Two Guns.Sorensen, William E., Winslow, Arizona, collector of northern Arizona history.Sagney, Hosteen. As a young man engaged in the fights against enemyraiders.Sugar, Big, rode with the chiefs defending ancient hunting grounds.Sugar, Little, Navajo fighting man and clan historian.Secakuku, Chief Joe, had a business at Two Guns at various times from1924 to 1935.Thomas, Thomas (Tommy), government stockman at Leupp Navajo Agency.Tinnin, Earl, manager Two Guns trading post under lease in early 1930's.Turpin, Tobe, Indian trader at Canyon Diablo station.




Thompson, Foster, Manager Meteor Crater Enterprises.Volz, Fred, statements to S. I. Richardson, 1899-1910.Volz, Miss Jeanette. Daughter of Fred Volz who lived at Canyon Diablo as ayoung girl, 1890-1910.Wheeler, Harold, trader, son-in-law of C. D. Richardson and one time chiefof police, Winslow.Windainger, Hosteen, medicine man.Walker, C. L., U.S. Indian Service special officer, inspector and Agent. Wolf,Herman, statements to S. I. Richardsonstatements to George W. McAdams. statements to Joe Lee. statements toW. F. Williams. statements to Fred Volz.Walker, William (Bill) prospector in area.Wetherill, John & Louise, Indian traders in the Navajo country from 1888 to1935.Williams, W. F., came to Arizona in 1881.Young, W. S., Indian trader at Leupp and elsewhere. Author's uncle.


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Early History Death Cave Drink for the Dead Two Guns ...api.ning.com/files/UlNjvG5vpZPii-NEdQeJuxhzxF-4T*T0TOq9wy0f3nt0-4... · its history, legends and Indian lore. Early History