The Amazing Escape

A woman’s travails in getting back to civilization.

Larcena Page was captured by Apache on March 16, 1860 in southern Arizona. When she was unable to keep up they stripped her of her clothing, lanced her, tossed her over a cliff and left her for dead. She managed to make it back to the camp after 16 days of eating wild berries, drinking melted snow, crawling and walking back to the camp. As she drew near, nearly naked, sunburned and emaciated. Her friends didn’t recognize her until she called out her name. Larcena died in Tucson in 1913 at the age of 76.