HISTORY3 - Southeastern Arizona's Wild West

In my first group of history articles on this blog, I want to provide a flavor of my recent writing that I collected and self-published in three electronic books available for reading on my website, ringbrothershistory.com, under “Bob’s Projects.”  This article is adapted from Southeastern Arizona Reflections - Living History from the Wild West.

Over a period of a little more than 25 years, from the late 1870s to the early 1900s, southeastern Arizona earned its legendary reputation of being the “Wild West.”  The time was characterized by fierce Apache resistance, increased ranching operations, rapidly growing mining boom towns, smuggling and cattle rustling across the U.S.-Mexico border, and a blooming network of stagecoach lines and railroads.

Besides Apache raids across southeastern Arizona until 1886, Cochise County, and particularly Tombstone, was where most of southeastern Arizona’s Wild West action was.  There was considerable tension between the rural residents who were for the most part Democrats from the agrarian Confederate States, and town residents and business owners who were largely Republicans from the industrial Union States.  During the rapid growth of Cochise County in the 1880s, at the peak of the silver mining boom, outlaws frequently robbed stagecoaches and brazenly stole cattle in broad daylight.  Between 1877 and 1882, bandits robbed 36 stagecoaches in southeastern Arizona. 

In 1876, teenager Henry McCarty, who would later be known as William H. Bonney and then Billy the Kid, fled to territorial Arizona from New Mexico after stealing clothing and firearms, and was hired as a ranch hand by Henry Hooker at the Sierra Bonita Ranch, north of Willcox.  After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in 1877, McCarty returned to New Mexico, participated in the Lincoln County War, and was eventually shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881.

Cattle rustlers from both the U.S. and Mexico used the International border to raid across in one direction and find sanctuary on the other side.  Bandits were even stealing horses from the Santa Cruz River Valley and selling the livestock in Sonora, Mexico.  Mexican authorities complained about American outlaw Cowboys who stole Mexican beef and resold it in Arizona.  The Clanton and McLaury clans were among those allegedly in the cross-border livestock smuggling from Sonora into Arizona.

Note:  A cowboy in that time and that part of the country was generally regarded as an outlaw.  Legitimate cowmen were referred to as cattle herders or ranchers. 

Between 1878 and 1881, there were a number of deadly engagements along the border (including the First and Second Skeleton Canyon Massacres, and the Guadalupe Massacre in the Peloncillo Mountains) involving American Cowboys, Mexicans, or the Mexican militia - each trying to get the upper hand in local smuggling and cattle rustling operations.

Shootings were commonplace, especially in and around Tombstone.  The townspeople and business owners welcomed the Cowboys who spent money in the numerous bordellos, gambling halls, and drinking establishments.  As officers of the law, the five Earp brothers (Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan, James, and Warren) held authority at times on the federal, county, and local level.  They were resented by the Cowboys for their rough tactics, including buffaloing drunken troublemakers.  And the lines between the outlaw element and law enforcement were not always distinct. 

Here are a few examples of the Wild West mayhem that occurred over a three-and-a-half year period, during Tombstone’s peak mining years:

In mid-June 1880, a drunken, estranged husband shot at his rival on the porch of Tombstone’s Cosmopolitan Hotel, but missed, and was in turn shot and killed by his rival.

On October 28, 1880, Tombstone town marshal Fred White was trying to break up a group of late night revelers shooting at the moon on Allen Street.  He attempted to confiscate the pistol of Cowboy Curly Bill Brocius and was shot (supposedly accidentally) in the abdomen and later died.

On January 14, 1881, Tombstone gambler Michael O’Rourke got into a disagreement with the chief engineer of the Tombstone Mining and Milling Company and shot and killed him.

On February 28, 1881, Tombstone professional gambler and gunfighter Charlie Storm was killed by Luke Short in self-defense after being confronted by Storm for the second time that month.

On October 1, 1881, in nearby Charleston, drunken James Hickey taunted and harassed gun fighter Billy Claiborne until Claiborne shot and killed him.

The most famous shooting occurred in Tombstone on October 26, 1881 when a group of lawmen led by Marshall Virgil Earp and two brothers Wyatt and Morgan, plus the infamous John “Doc” Holiday, tried to arrest five Cowboys for violating a city ordinance against carrying weapons in town - in a confrontation that became known as the “Gunfight at the OK Corral.”  The lawmen prevailed, but the Cowboys would seek revenge.

Pictorial representation of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  Gunfight lasted approximately 30 seconds.  Cowboys Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed.  Virgil and Morgan Earp and “Doc” Holiday were wounded and survived.  Wyatt Earp was unharmed.  It is regarded as the most legendary gunfight in the history of the Wild West.   (Courtesy of pdxretro.com)

                           

On December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp was shot-gunned and maimed while walking the streets of Tombstone.

On March 18, 1882, Morgan Earp was shot through a window and killed while playing billiards in Tombstone.

On March 20, 1882 Cowboy Frank Stillwell was killed by Wyatt Earp in Tucson, on Earp’s so-called Vendetta Ride in retaliation for the shooting of Virgil and Morgan Earp.

On March 24, 1882, Curly Bill Brocius was killed by Wyatt Earp in the Whetstone Mountains, about 20 miles from Tombstone, also on Earp’s so-called Vendetta Ride.

On July 13, 1882, Cowboy and gunman Johnny Ringo was shot near Chicauhua Peak.  His death was ruled a suicide, but alternate theories suggest Ringo was killed by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, or others.

On November 14, 1882, Frank Leslie became involved in an argument in Tombstone with Billy Claiborne who shot at Leslie but missed, and was killed by Leslie who returned fire.

On February 23, 1883, in Tombstone May Woodman shot and killed William Kinsman, who although living with her at the time, had published his intentions not to marry her in the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper.

On December 8, 1883, six outlaw Cowboys robbed a Bisbee mercantile store, killing four people, later referred to as the Bisbee Massacre.  Six men were arrested and convicted, and five of them were hanged on March 28, 1884 - the first criminals to be legally hanged in Tombstone, then the county seat.  The sixth outlaw was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Grave marker in Tombstone's Boot Hill Cemetery for the five outlaws who were hanged for committing the Bisbee Massacre.  (Courtesy of Wikimedia)

With the onset of Tombstone’s mining difficulties in the mid 1880s, the pace of gunfights and outlawry slackened also. 

But in 1886, Cochise County Sheriff John Slaughter was chasing the Jack Taylor gang, wanted for robbery and murder, who were visiting relatives in Tombstone.  In the ensuing gunfight, at Contention City, near Tombstone, two of the gang members were shot and killed.  Two others escaped but were later killed in Mexico. 

As late as the early 1900s, there were active outlaw gangs in southeastern Arizona. Former lawman Burt Alvord resigned his post as a sheriff’s deputy in 1899 and together with partner Billy Stiles, began a series of armed robberies, including train robberies.  They were captured, escaped, and wounded, but persisted until they were captured for the final time in Mexico in 1904.

Some towns became refuges for outlaws of the day.  One such town, Galeyville, on the eastern edge of the Chiricahua Mountains, was a silver mining site for a short period, before it busted, and became the home of a pack of outlaws led by Curly Bill Brocius, who for a time was known as the outlaw king of Cochise County.  The mining town of Pearce was, for a period, the home of the Alvord-Stiles gang.

With the rapid decline of Tombstone in the late 1880s and the final surrender of Apache leader Geronimo in 1886, the so-called Wild West started to wind down, and by the early 1900s, had ceased to exist.