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right now we're going to talk to Larry Hedrick who is the co-creator of the
Superstition Mountain Museum and responsible for making it what it is today
Larry you know there's a story that I
heard you tell once about some lost military pistols or something could you
relate that story to us
forty or fifty years ago a person that became my friend
in the early 70s was riding in the superstitions and he run across an old
gentleman and after talking to him for a while it was obvious that gold was not
involved and what this gentleman was interested in
and he loosened up and
told him, my friend a story about some lost Dragoon pistols that the army was
shipping out west after the Civil War
and he had documentation he had the
serial numbers of the weapons he had proof that the weapons had reached fort
Lowell in Tucson and evidence that they had reached camp Pinal in Superior but
no evidence they have reached fort Mcdowell which was their ultimate
destination so anyway after I heard this story two or three times I decided
To investigate it the the documentation had stated that that when they left camp
Pinal.. Picket Post Mountain and they follow the old stage routes for three
and a half to four hours and they were attacked at the Narrows
well remember I
am... this was in 1871 or 72 and remember I worked at Queen Valley and were Whitlow
Dam was raised and that's the narrows where the dam is is the narrowest place
you could could be in coming from superior towards Apache
Junction and so I went and I drove the whole route at five miles an hour and
timed and it got me just about to that point. they were attacked there and there
if I remember right there was four soldiers a sergeant a packer and a
lieutenant and all but the sergeant and the lieutenant were killed almost right
away and they began back tracking towards superior when over a ridge or
two and were cut off and took a northward Canyon that was in a northward
direction as what they were saying and the Apaches followed him until the
sergeant turned and killed one of them and then they disappeared
and there were
24 guns packed on this mule they took that mule with him they didn't want the
Apaches getting those guns whether they knew that they were whether the Apaches
knew that's what was in there or not I don't know but anyway after they killed
one of the Apaches and the rest of them had retreated they was stayed up there
for several hours and then they decided to hide the guns
and they said they hid
them in a small cave underneath a large boulder across from us just distinctive
pointed peak okay now we're over at Queen Valley we're not talking about
weavers needle and I remembered my trip with Hart Mullins to Byose Butte
which is a finger-like peak but it sets cut out by itself the mountain behind it
has a very distinct pointed peak on it and it's very high and they said across
from a dominant pointed peak so the Byose Butte area is were I think that
these guns were buried in the wash because the road didn't exist
now you drive up there you go right by Byose Peak because there's a road
there it's not much of a road but it's driveable but they would have been
taking the wash because and the wash kind of curves away from Byose butte at
that point in time well a few years later
so what kind of guns are we actually talking about here.
and by the way let me show you what kind of gun
were talking about
24 Colt Walker Dragoon pistols
that will do some damage
this is a replica but this is exactly
what the guns would have looked like 24 of them 12 in each box on each side of
the mule and this is what they hid and they were probably wrapped and wrapped
and greased so you know they would whether it would sustain for quite some
time being buried in a place where maybe water wouldn't get to them.
ah
the I don't remember the year that I started researching this I didn't necessarily
think that I was going to find him I was just curious about the everybody was
thinking weavers needle again and all that kind of stuff and is that there's
no way the the army didn't go through the mountains with that small number of
people the stage route came right through the Narrows at Queen Valley in
fact about half a mile before the the Narrows where the dam is to the east was
a stage Depot and in the 50s I saw what was remaining of that Depot people had
teared it all apart using metal detectors and stuff like that today there's no
trace of it just like there's no trace of those the arrastors anymore at bluff
Springs Mountain so I think it was about two thousand six or seven a highway
patrolman come out to see me at the Museum
he was retired and he was from up north and he'd heard about this thing and he
wanted information I gave him every detail that I could
know and he's living in a trailer court and in Mesa he still it comes down here
during the winter he's a winter visitor and he got some guys from his court and
he went out there and they found a cave underneath a boulder across from Byose Butte
the predominant peak and they began excavating it you couldn't stand
up in there water had got down in there and it was hard as the dirt was hard as
a rock and they dug and tell them the ceiling of the rocks and the ceiling
were starting to come down and they had to quit now I don't know that they've
actually got the right cave but I don't know that they'll ever go back. but I am
absolutely convinced this is the area where those guns were lost
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you