Pieter Burggraaf’s The Walker Party: The Revised Story, Across New Mexico and Arizona Territories and up the Hassayampa River 1861-1863 concerns Walker’s last great expedition—that of leading a party of gold seekers into the forbidden lands of central Arizona in 1863 where few white men had ever dared to venture.
For years historians had relied heavily on the journal of Daniel E. Connor, who accompanied the Walker Party into Arizona. Burggraaf dissects Connor’s embellished manuscript that wasn’t written until years after the event, and borrowed extensively from earlier explorers such as Captain William Emory. The author, who also is a cartographer, created excellent, detailed maps of the area and used extensive resources to make his case.
The Walker Party: The Revisited Story is an important work that will be much appreciated by those of us who continually strive to “get it right.”
—Marshall Trimble, author of Arizona Outlaws and Lawmen
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