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Our story today on Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains is about the Apache strongholds
in the Wilderness Area proper. I would recommend that you go back and review our Apache Wars
program which will have a lot of information I won't be able to cover here today one of
the first things. I want to clear up though is that the Apaches were not indigenous to
Arizona the archaeologists say that they were originally from Southwestern Canada and Parts
of Alaska and they came into the United States proper and worked their way down into the
plains or the Comanches drove them out and they ended up in Mexico and some in the mountains
of New Mexico and eventually came into Arizona around the 1300s
from there they established communities in the Superstition Mountains from which they
raided everybody it there was nobody they left alone in fact you know the the Apaches
were pretty well subdued by the military until the start of the Civil War when the Civil
War broke out many of forts in Arizona and New Mexico were totally abandoned and others
just had skeleton Crews and the Apaches went crazy they thought they had driven the white
man from their territory and there was no stopping them in fact there was something
like 300 murders between 1864 and 1870 in in Yavapai County alone where Prescott was
the territorial capital of Fort McDowell was established in 1864 to deal with the problem
and the soldiers were not U.S military soldiers they were militia units that had been formed
with the Pima and the Maricopa and some Papago Indians to protect themselves against the
Apaches who were raiding them constantly in fact the population of Arizona I had very
few white people in it the first White child was born in Phoenix in 1875 and we're talking
well before 1875. so it was largely the existing indigenous Arizona Indians the Maricopa the
Papago the Pima and a lot of Mexicans were living here and that was what the first militia
units were formed of the Maricopa and the Pima were the ones that went up and done the
first Adobe work on the first buildings at Fort Apache and they were the ones that done
all the fighting tracking of Apaches until 1871.
there were two periods of Indian history in Arizona one was the Rancheria period before
1871 and the other was the Renegade period after 1871. some historians will vary a year
or two on those dates but I picked 1871 because that's when the fort Grant Massacre took place
at the massacre of Fort Grant in 1871 there were approximately 100 Papago Indians 40 Mexicans
and six white men that took reprisals on a group of Apaches that had been raiding in
the area the problem was they didn't realize that the Apaches had already surrendered and
were under the protection of the army well President Grant called this murder and he
wanted the he wanted the civilians and the Indians to be brought under control so he
replaced Stonemen with General Crook now Crook no longer would use Papago's and Pimas and
Maricopas as Scouts and soldiers so he started using Apaches against Apaches and this was
quite successful as well so back to the Rancheria area a period of time the Pimas and Maricopa
has made up the entire military force except for the leaders and the chiefs of the tribes
were put in and made sergeants over all the one of them all the rest of them so that there
wasn't any Communications problems but it was the Pima and the Maricopa mostly that
went out and tracked down the Apaches in the Wilderness Area where their camps were which
were semi-permanent camps until at least they were discovered but there were many battles
in the Superstition's property that we've never talked about and I'm going to show you
here where some of these locations were our first location was at Hackberry Springs which
was formerly known as frog tanks um there was two ways to get to Hackberry Springs and
one of them would you would be easily recognized by the guards that were at at the Apache Camp
so they will usually take the long way around are a different route to sneak up on them
mostly they done it at night and by Dawn they were ready to make their attack a large encampment
of Apaches was a Garden Valley, Garden Valley is on the edge of the Superstitions it's in
the wilderness but before you get any do real Canyons or mountains Garden Valley was a major
location of the Hohokom in years before then there was a couple of battles at Pinion camp
which is located where Weaver's needle is and you can begin to realize that many different
Canyons would have to be accessed to get to these places another one and which I've never
been to is Hell's Hole I've never been able to locate that properly it's approximately
where it shows on the map here and then there were several battles over in the Eastern edge
of the western part of the Wilderness one was at Indian Springs on the way to Dismal
Valley, dismal Valley was a major encampment of Apaches and a lot of Apaches met their
end at Dismal Valley, Dismal Valley is where Tortilla Ranch was located many people will
recognize that place then at Fish Creek Canyon was two battles one was called Coil springs
and that was a a pretty large settlement of Apatches at that point then of course off
the map here is Reaves Ranch where it was a major Apache stronghold and a couple of
battles took place at Reaves Ranch and then as you left the Wilderness on the very end
Eastern edge of the Wilderness was Tonto Basin and this was a really major settlement of
Apaches and a lot of great battles took place in that area so that's our story of Apache
strongholds in the Superstition Mountain. Thank you for watching this episode of Mysteries
of the Superstition Mountains [Music]
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