Camillus Sidney Fly was a Tombstone photographer. Most folks called him “Buck”. The other Tombstone photographer was Mrs. Fly, known as Mollie. Together they chronicled the Old West as no one before them had. Their photographs were published in big city newspapers and major magazines throughout the United States.
The Flys arrived in Tombstone from San Francisco CA in December 1879, the same month the Earp family arrived. They built a 12-room boarding house on Fremont Street with a photographic studio in the back. Molly usually took the portraits indoors while Buck focused on outdoor photographs of mills, soldiers, ranchers and scenic panoramas. He did some prospecting in the nearby Dragoon Mountains, but it never amounted to much.
By the late 1880’s, the photographic works of the Fly Photography Gallery began to attract attention beyond Tombstone. Their photographs were exhibited in Phoenix, Prescott, San Francisco, New York and even London. Although it should be noted that almost all of their photographs were credited to C.S. Fly. We can’t be certain which ones Mollie actually took, except those made after Buck passed in 1901.
Witness To A Gunfight
In October 1881 at about 3 PM, something happened next to Fly’s Boarding House where Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate rented a room. Buck heard shots fired in the vacant lot adjacent to his building. He was standing no more than 10 yards from the first shots fired during the Gunfight Near The OK Corral as it played out over the next 30 seconds.
When the firing stopped, Buck ran outside armed with a useless prop Sharps rifle just in time to take the empty Colt revolver from the soon-to-be-dead Billy Clanton.
Mr. Fly Shoots Geronimo
In the Spring of 1886, Fly got permission to go with General George Crook and document the surrender of Geronimo and the last band of hostile Apaches. The 12 photographs he took on March 26-27 are the only known photographs of American Indians still fully armed and at war with the United States.
Harper’s Weekly published six of them in their April 24, 1886 issue, giving Fly nationwide exposure.
In 1905, Molly published a series of photographs she titled: Scenes in Geronimo’s Camp: The Apache Outlaw and Murderer.
General Crook, a few officers and three interpreters, met Geronimo, Old Nana, his consigliere, and a lot of armed warriors at Cañon del Embudos (Canyon of the Funnels) just south of the International border.
Fly arrived with a wagon load of camera equipment including a heavy box camera, lenses, wooden tripod, and at least 12 8″X10″ glass negative plates.
Fly Discovers A Lost White Boy Among The Apaches
I wondered why Geronimo would consent to pose, not only himself, but his whole band. In doing so, they would have been vulnerable to attack from Crook’s soldiers.
He must have seen photographs and considered it some kind of honor. If Geronimo thought otherwise, most likely photographer Fly would have had his throat cut before he knew what happened.
While taking pictures of some Chiricahua children, Fly noticed that one of them was a white boy, perhaps 10 years of age. His name was Santiago McKinn.
Apparently Santiago had been well-treated by the Apache and during the six months he lived with them he adjusted to their lifestyle and became fluent in Apache.
Captain John Bourke, Crook’s Aide de Camp, would later write:
“A group of young boys raged together freely and safely around; one of them seemed to be of Irish and Mexican descent. After a little persuasion, he told …… that his name was Santiago Mackin (sic) and he had been kidnapped in Mimbres, New Mexico; of his young companions, he seemed to be treated kindly, and no one tried to stop our conversation … Beyond its smart looks which made it clear that he had fully understood everything we told him in Spanish and English, he took no further notice of us.”
Despite coaxing, Santiago refused to leave the Apache camp with any American. On April 6th, Chihuahua, a Chiricahua chief, brought the boy in and gave him to Crook but the lad, “acting like a wild animal in a trap,” insisted he wanted to remain with the Apache. The soldiers tried to persuade him but he would have none of it, defiantly refusing to speak any language except Apache. In the vernacular of the period, young Santiago had become “Indianized.”
In his long life, Geronimo had 9 wives, sometimes more than one at the same time. Successful warriors, and certainly the great chiefs such as Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, Victorio, and Juh engaged in plural marriage. Naiche, youngest son of Cochise and the last hereditary chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, also lived a long time, in which he had 3 wives and 6 children. As a prisoner-of-war, Naiche converted to Christianity and became an accomplished artist.
This photo (above) shows something typical of Apache warriors. Perico, one of Geronimo’s most skilled warriors, is not in the least ashamed to be photographed taking care of an infant. As violent and vicious as they could be toward their enemies, the men were loving fathers who trained both their sons and daughters in the ways of Apaches. Their children learned early not to cry or complain and do what they were instructed. To do otherwise jeopardized the entire camp.
(above) General Crook and Geronimo talk peace. In truth, it was Crook who was dictating his terms of surrender … unconditional. In attendance are Capt. Roberts, Lieutenant Maus, and Capt. Burke. The venerable Nana (Grandpa) is seated to Geronimo’s left. Geronimo, Chief Naiche and the entire band respected the old man’s wisdom and counsel. It would have been unthinkable for these Apaches to have entered into life and death discussions without him. Additionally there are 3 interpreters and at least 10 other Apaches in the background. No doubt there were many more warriors just out of sight, as were Crook’s soldiers.
This could have gone very badly. Had Geronimo sensed any sign of treachery on the part of Crook, all of the White Men here would likely have been killed in seconds. That would have signaled for Crooks soldiers to attack and few if any Apaches would have escaped alive. There were no high mountains nearby to which they could have escaped, as they had so many times before.
Geronimo came back the next day and told Crook that they would not surrender unconditionally. The two men parleyed. Eventually, Crook caved. He offered the Apaches an end to hostilities if they would voluntarily return with him to Fort Bowie. There they would be put on a train and sent to Florida to be with the rest of their people. After two years, they would all be returned to their homeland in Arizona. Geronimo agreed.
Of course, that is not the “rest of the story”. For that, Click Here for our Apache Wars Timeline: Part 5.
Buck Fly died in 1901. It was not a happy ending. But Mollie carried on the family business until 1912 when this happened.
An untold number of glass plate negatives were destroyed in the fire. For history’s sake, I wish Mollie had saved at least some, rather than run out onto Fremont Street and take this picture. On the other hand, I doubt she had any choice in the matter given how fast these dry wood building burnt to the ground.
Sheriff Fly, The Drunk
Buck served as Cochise County Sheriff from 1895 to ’97. But he never achieved the fame and fortune he craved. It drove him to drink … heavily. The couple separated and Buck opened a studio in Bisbee where fire destroyed many more negatives.
Although the Flys had been separated for several years, when Buck became desperately ill from alcohol abuse and other causes, Mollie was at his bedside when he died on October 12, 1901 in Bisbee. She buried him in Tombstone City Cemetery (not Boothill Graveyard).
Finally in 1912, knowing the historic value of the work both she and Buck had done over the years, Mollie donated all of their remaining negatives to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She then retired to a small home in Los Angeles where she died in 1925.
Do Not Miss The Fly Photography Gallery In Tombstone
Personally, I think the re-creation of the Fly Photography Gallery at the OK Corral in Tombstone is far more interesting than The Gunfight reenactments.
