January 11, 1886 Captain Emmet Crawford is on the brink of victory. Yesterday, his punitive raiding party of three officers, one medic, one...
Tragic Fight on the Devil’s Backbone
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Bob Boze Bell
Not So Gentle Tamers
Although some have portrayed early Arizona pioneer women as being “gentle tamers” the term does a bit of disservice to the toughness of these women....
Lozen, Woman Warrior
“Lozen is my right hand. . . strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy,” said the Apache leader Victorio about his sister. She also...
Wyatt the Farmer?
In June 1880, Philip M. Thurmond walked around the newly formed mining camp of Tombstone and asked for the vital statistics of every person he could...
Pearl Hart, Highwaywoman
In 1898, Pearl Hart was either a cook or a soiled dove (depending on who you believe) in Mammoth Arizona. When the mine closed (or, she got word her...
“Uncle Jim” Roberts Had Sand
Arizona lawman “Uncle Jim” Roberts upheld the law around Jerome well into the 20th century. State historian Marshall Trimble shares one 1890s...
Arizona Rides Tall in the Saddle
From the days of the dime novels to the cowboys of the silver screen, Arizona has been the setting for numerous classic Western stories and films....
The Arizona Rangers vs. Criminals
Arizona has had three different Arizona Ranger law enforcement groups. The first Ranger group was created in 1860, the second in 1882 and the third...
The Hairy One Hangs
Sonoran bandito, Augustine Chacon, alias Peluda (“The Hairy One”), robbed and killed in Arizona, and then hid out in the Sierra Madres until his...
Vaquero: Master Horsemen of the Southwest
The American cowboy owes so much to the master horsemen—Mexican vaqueros—who were rounding up cattle on horseback several hundreds of years before...
Named By Their Enemies
The Spanish asked the Zunis who those renegades were who were running off with all their horses and a Zuni said, “Enemies,” which sounded to the...
First in War, First in Peace
Perhaps the greatest chief of the Chiricahua Apaches who ever lived, Cochise fought his way through southeastern Arizona and into Mexico in the...