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Category Archives: Apache History

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John Clum: The Only Man To Ever Capture Geronimo!

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Wyatt Earp; John Clum. Alaska 1920's.

John Clum became one of those legendary characters from Tombstone’s infamous past. His life before Tombstone is just as interesting, but that story is known only to a few. He was born in upstate New York in 1851 and attended a military academy before enrolling at Rutgers College where he … Continue reading

The Illustrated Life and Times of Geronimo: A Book Review

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Portrait of Geronimo

Recently I heard about a relatively new book about Geronimo. so, I went to Amazon to look up reviews of the book, The Illustrated Life and Times of Geronimo, by Bob Boze Bell. And there I read the following: “Get ready for an in depth look at the most famous … Continue reading

Powerful Apache Warrior Women: Lozen & Dahteste

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Lozen

In the late 1870s, to engineer the official Indian policy of “concentration”, the United States government forced Victorio and his band of Warm Springs Chiricahua Apaches to move from the land they held sacred in New Mexico to the dreaded San Carlos Reservation about 35 miles east of Globe, AZ … Continue reading

Apache May: An Indian Girl On The Slaughter Ranch

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
This is the dress and vest Apache May wore when Sheriff John Slaughter discovered her.

“Texas” John Slaughter was the sheriff who cleaned up Cochise County after the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday left Arizona. He was as tough as they come and, among the outlaw class, earned the moniker “that wicked little gringo”. As despised and feared as he was by the outlaws, he … Continue reading

The Most Extraordinary Presidential Inaugural Parade

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
TR's Inaugural Parade, led by American Indians.

Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to simply as TR, was a highly successful American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer … this latter much to the chagrin of the rich and powerful; particularly J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller; and Andrew Carnegie … not to mention the political bosses of his … Continue reading

Cochise Stronghold Campground: A Superb Setting!

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Cochise Stronghold

Stronghold: A place fortified against attack. Such a place is Cochise Stronghold, a series of natural rock formations that the Chiricahua Apaches used to hide from the U.S. Army and the growing number of Arizona settlers. At the base of the Stronghold rocks is a campground. This is where we … Continue reading

The Oatman Massacre: A Book Review

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Olive Oatman

Last month we traveled to Oatman, AZ for a day trip from Wickenburg. There, we ate lunch, petted the burros, toured the old town and left. Before arriving in Oatman, I had a transient understanding of the Oatman Massacre and the captivity of Olive Oatman, the family’s 13-year-old daughter. She … Continue reading

Route 66 & the Burros of Oatman, AZ

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A burro at our car window on Route 66 near Oatman.

We were in Wickenburg for the weekend in May 2021 with Neighbors Ron and Elaine. On Sunday morning we got up early to take the 2 and a half-hour drive up to Oatman, Az, one of the items on my bucket list. We connected to I-40 near Kingman and got off at old Route 66 and continued heading west. Soon, the road became switchbacks with signs indicating “Slow” and also “Burros in the Road Ahead”. For the uninitiated, “burro” is Spanish for “donkey”.

Ms.Karen feeding an Oatman burro.

Sure enough, around a steep corner was a gang of burros waiting for a passing car to give them something to eat. Ms. Karen opened the passenger side window and a burro stuck his head inside the car. We didn’t have any burro food, so she patted his snout and we proceeded on our way.

Oatman burro.

When we arrived in Oatman 10 very narrow, windy miles later, the street was crowded with people touring this old town, visiting open shops and feeding the ubiquitous burros. The burros are holdovers from mining days when the mines were shut down and the miners let their beasts of burden loose into the surrounding desert. While they seem tame enough, they are still wild animals.

Olive Oatman

The name Oatman was chosen in honor of Olive Oatman, a young Illinois girl who was captured and enslaved by Indians, probably from the Tolkepayas tribe, during her pioneer family’s massacre going on their journey westward in 1851. She was later sold or traded to the Mojaves, who adopted her and tattooed her face in the custom of the tribe. She was released in 1856 at Fort Yuma to her brother, who had survived the massacre of the Oatman family.

In 1863, prospector Johnny Moss discovered gold in the Black Mountains and staked several claims, one named the Moss and another after Olive Oatman, whose story was well known. For the next half-century, mining waxed and waned in the remote district until new technology, reduced transportation costs, and new gold discoveries brought prosperity to Oatman in the early 20th century. The opening of the Tom Reed mine, followed by the discovery of a rich ore body in the nearby United Eastern Mining Company’s property in 1915, brought one of the desert’s last gold rushes. The boom of 1915–17 gave Oatman all the characters and characteristics of any gold rush boom town. For about a decade, the mines of Oatman were among the largest gold producers in the American West.

Elaine petting burro.

The district had produced US$40,000,000 (equivalent to $703,801,000 in 2020) in gold by 1941, when the remainder of the town’s gold mining operations were ordered shut down by the government as part of the country’s war effort, because other metals were needed.

Ms. Karen and Ron at the Oatman jail.

In 1921, a fire burned down many of Oatman’s smaller buildings, but spared the Oatman Hotel built in 1902. It remains the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mohave County and is a Mohave County historical landmark. One of the hotel’s major attractions is a room designated as the suite where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard supposedly spent their honeymoon after their 1939 wedding in Kingman AZ. The notion that the couple actually stayed here is in doubt.

Oatman Hotel est. 1902.

The hotel isn’t open for overnight guests but it has a good restaurant and we took lunch there on their back patio. It was crowded but the food was good and so was the service.

Oatman Saloon.

Oatman was fortunate to be located on busy Route 66 as it catered to travelers driving between Kingman, Arizona, and Needles, California. Yet even that advantage was short-lived because the town was completely bypassed in 1953 when Route 66 was realigned between Kingman and Needles. By the 1960s, Oatman was all but abandoned after the completion of I-40. Today, however, at least on the weekends, Oatman is a busy place. If you go, watch out for burros on the road.

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June 21, 2021 by Jim Posted in Apache History, Ghost Towns, Ghost Towns, Local History, Old West, Old West History, Scenic Back Roads N RoadTrips

The Truth About Geronimo: A Review

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Chiricahua Apaches 1886

Like so many others, I enjoy local histories. Understanding history is how I get a sense of the places and people I visit as I travel around Baja Arizona creating my videos, photographs, stories, and reviews to share with you on my Southern Arizona Guide. Of late, I have been reading extensively about the Apache […]

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The Apache Wars: A Timeline Part 1 – Birth of Mangas Coloradas

SouthernArizonaGuide.com
Apache Pass Arizona

This is the first of a six-part series about the longest war in American History. The saga of the Apache Wars is both complex and compelling. For over a quarter-century, roughly 1861-1886, hundreds of ambushes, raids, massacres, and full-fledged military battles occurred over a huge, rugged, and diverse landscape. The … Continue reading

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