Swilling and the Rangers

A founder of Phoenix also started a territorial militia.

Arizona’s first Rangers may have been led one of the founders of Phoenix, Jack Swilling. In 1858, he joined Arizona’s first gold strike on the Gila River a few miles east of Yuma. Frequent raids on the prospectors by Tonto Apache led to the forming of a militia called the Gila Rangers. The men elected Swilling leader and on January 7th, 1860 the group upon the Hassayampa River, previously unknown to Whites.