Prescott Arizona Corral TIMES of Westerners International
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TT T T TERRITORIAL Prescott Arizona Corral TIMES of Westerners International TT T T A publication of the Prescott Corral of Westerners International Volume IV, Number 2 TT T T The TERRITORIAL TIMES is a publication of the Prescott Corral of Westerners International, Prescott, Arizona, a non-profit organization dedicated to the study, preservation, promotion and dissemination of information with respect to the real history of the American West. Price per copy is $7.50 ($10.00 by mail). Back copies of available issues may be ordered by mail. CORRAL OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS Sheriff Pat Moore Co-Swamper Patti Moore Deputy Sheriff Cindy Gresser Co-Swamper Coleen Pena Trail Boss Roger Pena Symposium Coord. Fred Veil Keeper of the Chips Jack Hoeft WI Liaison Al Bates Brands Recorder Mike Piacenza Historian Bruce Fee Immediate Past Sheriffs: Roland Michaelis, Don Shaffer and Mike Shepard. PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE The Corral members responsible for this publication are: Al Bates, Jay Eby, Bruce Fee, Russ Sherwin, Fred Veil and Andy Wallace. PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION CREDITS Photographs and illustrations in this publication were obtained from the following institutions and individuals: Sharlot Hall Museum (pages 3, 11, 16, 19, 20, 29 and the back cover); James E. Babbitt (pages i, 3 and 7); Tom Jonas (map page 2); the Linda Kowall Woal Collection shared by David Lindbloom (pages 8, 10 and 13); Gary Melvin (pages 14 and 30); Don Bufkin maps from Historical Atlas of Arizona (pages 24, 26 and 28); photo from World’s Oldest Rodeo (page 30). John Huff Designs prepared the front cover layout. Cover Photo: An undated postcard view of the historic Gadsden Hotel in Douglas, Arizona. Located within a mile of the United States’ border with Mexico the hotel is named in honor of James Gadsden who had much to do with establishing that border. It is renowned for its ornate two-story lobby and broad marble staircase. Originally opened in 1905, much of the structure was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1920. © Prescott Corral of Westerners International, Box 11086, Prescott, Arizona 86304-1086 A publication of the Prescott Corral of Westerners International May 2011, Volume 4, Number 2 CONTENTS 1 James E. Babbitt—Ambush in Sycamore Canyon 8 Mona Lange McCroskey—Early Movie Making Comes to Prescott, 1912 16 Thomas P. Collins—Dan Thorne: Whiskey Row Success Story 23 Al Bates—The Creation of Arizona: Spoils of the Mexican-American War 29 The Disappearing World’s Oldest Rodeo Trophy i Walter Hinchman’s sketch of the Ambush in Sycamore Canyon (See article note 14) ii AMBUSH IN SYCAMORE CANYON By James E. Babbitt n late November of 1867 a little-known episode in the Arizona Indian wars took place just below the Mogollon Rim in the depths of Sycamore Canyon. A I party of railroad surveyors, accompanied by a cavalry escort, was making its way down the bed of the canyon toward the Verde Valley when it was attacked by an Indian war party. For several hours, arrows, bullets and bould- Eastern Division (UPED). It would become ers rained down on the survey party from both the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1869.i canyon rims. Soldiers scaled the steep can- yon walls, returning fire and eventually driv- During the Civil War, Palmer had com- ing off the attackers. The manded the 15th Cavalry Indians melted into the Regiment of Pennsylvania surrounding countryside volunteers. Soon recog- with unknown casualties, nized for his military com- while the surveyors and petence and leadership, he troopers suffered only was promoted to brigadier minor injuries. They general in 1864. At war‘s continued toward the end he employed several mouth of the canyon, fol- veterans of his old regiment lowed up the Verde River to work on the surveys for to Chino Valley and pro- the UPED, of which he was ceeded on to Prescott, the secretary-treasurer. capital of Arizona Terri- One wartime associate, tory. Lieut. Charles Hinchman, recommended his younger The survey party was led brother, Walter, to Palmer by William Jackson Pal- as a member of the expedi- mer, a Pennsylvania rail- tion and Palmer hired Wal- road developer and Civil General W. J. Palmer ter for his artistic skill.ii War hero who in 1869 would become president of the Kansas Pacific In the summer of 1867, the UPED topograph- Railway Company. In 1862 Congress had ical engineers, under the leadership of Gener- authorized construction of the first transconti- al Palmer and General W. W. Wright (the nental railway from Omaha to Sacramento. ―general superintendent‖ of the UPED), went While the Union Pacific Railroad built a line into the field to survey feasible routes from westward from Omaha to connect with the western Kansas through southern Colorado, Central Pacific in Utah Territory, other pro- New Mexico, and Arizona to the Pacific moters envisioned a transcontinental line Coast. West from Albuquerque they explored through the Southwest to California. This two lines in detail. The first followed the Rio second road, chartered by Congress in 1863, Grande south to the Thirty-second Parallel, was first called the Union Pacific Railway, then turned west along the Gila River to San Diego. A second line traced the Thirty-fifth 1 Parallel westward across northern Arizona to stripped and mutilated several of the fallen Los Angeles. At conclusion of the survey, soldiers. Palmer would recommend the northern route that was later followed by the Atlantic and This battle cast a pall over Palmer‘s party and Pacific Railway in the 1880s.iii caused them to take extra precautions as they struck out for Colorado including military es- When Walter Hinchman accepted General corts.v Palmer's invitation to join the UPED survey, he was given the title of ―tapeman‖ and assigned to the second of two divisions under the direction of a civil engineer, J. Imbrie Miller. His duty was to assist Miller‘s crew in measuring and recording ele- vations and grades. It seems Miller also expected Hinchman to walk the whole way from Kansas to California. General Palmer, however, upon disco- vering Hinchman's drawing tal- ent, promoted him to the posi- tion of ―sketchist,‖ and assigned him to document the landscape, people and events encountered on the way west. Palmer also assigned Walter a horse to ride, which made him ―happy as a lark.‖iv The UPED crews assembled at Salina, Kansas, in early June 1867, then marched west some two hundred miles to Fort Wal- lace, the official embarkation point for the expedition. While there, the fort was attacked by Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Sioux warriors led by Cheyenne war chief Roman Nose. A furious battle ensued near the fort, and seven members of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry were killed and five more were severely Map of the Ambush Area wounded. The Indians scalped, 2 Traveling up the Arkansas River, the engineer Whipple on November 14, 1867, and five corps also explored the Purgatoire Valley in days later they started back toward the Rim southern Colorado before turning south to country and the sources of the Verde River.vii Santa Fe. The crews regrouped south of Al- buquerque at Fort Craig, and General Wright Dr. Bell, who later chronicled the Thirty- returned east to report to the UPED directors second Parallel survey, also described much on their progress. Palmer then divided the of the northern Arizona survey. Using Pal- survey into two parties: the first, including Dr. mer‘s notes he wrote, ―It was not the wish of William A. Bell, a British physician and ama- our surveyors to carry a line of railway over teur photographer who ac- the actual base of the San companied Palmer and Francisco Peaks at an ele- Wright, was to go south to vation exceeding 7,000 the so-called ―Gila route‖; feet for 100 miles.‖ Pal- the second, including Gen- mer, therefore, ―after hav- eral Palmer and his sketch ing pushed rapidly for- artist Hinchman, would go ward in advance of the west along the Thirty-fifth parties to Prescott, deter- Parallel. At Fort Craig, mined to retrace his steps Company L of the Third through this intricate can- U.S. Cavalry replaced the yon country, and ascertain previous cavalry escorts.vi if there was any possibili- ty of finding a practicable The rugged, mountainous way through it. Hin- topography of northern chman accompanied him Arizona presented major during these excursions. challenges to construction At some point General of a railroad. Steep grades John Irvin Gregg, at that ascending the San Francis- General J. I. Gregg time commandant of Fort co volcanic field, eleva- Whipple, joined him with tions that exceeded 7,000 feet, and tortuous an escort.‖ Like Palmer, General Gregg also canyons and gorges draining to the Verde and had commanded a regiment of volunteer ca- Little Colorado rivers were formidable ob- valry early in the Civil War, and, although stacles. Palmer conducted exhaustive exami- Palmer had a company of the Third Cavalry nations of east-west routes north of the Mo- with him, Gregg chose to personally escort gollon Rim. A potential line around the north Palmer‘s surveyors with some of his Eighth side of the San Francisco Peaks was consi- Cavalry troopers back to the rugged edge of dered but was discounted because of its length Sycamore Canyon.viii and cost. Palmer then turned his attention to possible lines that descended to the Verde and A military escort was a prudent safeguard, but Chino Valleys south of the San Francisco until now the UPED survey had not been Mountains. In need of supplies, and of a base threatened in Arizona by Indians and they had from which to examine this southern route, just passed through Yavapai Indian country Palmer led the expedition directly west along en route from the San Francisco Mountains.