[Music]
we're here at the bottom of fish creek also known as the old Apache Trail and
this is the area where the infamous hacksaw Tom used to rob the stages as they go through
Hacksaw Tom was a I guess you'd call her but Mike wasn't a
train robber I wasn't really a stagecoach robbery there you could just
rob people when they were going up the apache trail because contrary to popular
belief it was not a stagecoach route oh no that trail was built in order to get
materials up to build a Roosevelt Dam it wasn't people like to think it was a
stagecoach route but it really was and that was used later on and people used
to tour the area and go up to the dam and there used to be an inn up there
that people can go to but it was non stagecoach route
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so Larry is the area where Hacksaw Tom would stop the coaches yeah this when
they decided to build Roosevelt dam of course they had to have a road to take
supplies up to and this was originally called the Tonto wagon road and it had a
couple of different names from time to time but, the Southern Pacific Railroad
that's the one that tagged it with Apache Trail because it was so scenic
and they were taking scenic tours up in here and this particular spot there was
a bandit was tagged by the name of Hacksaw Tom who held up the wagons
and coaches that went by here so he'd come he had a perfect view of them
coming down the hill and he'd come bounding out from behind a rock and
level a young cannon at them is what they said he just relieved everybody of
whatever money they had he never fired his weapon he never shot anybody it got
to be to the point that drivers were bringing her friends along just so they
could say they've been held up.
so why would hacksaw Tom pick this spot
Well you know the road has been widened somewhat since the beginning of the
trail and some of these heavy loaded wagons were driving teams twelve and
fourteen head on them and when they come to a curve like this you had to have
some skill to be able to make this turn that you were moving real slow
and this would be an ideal opportunity to come bounding out and put a stop on him
So you are saying he came out right here well it could have been a knife right
here I mean it's as good as any and it's good cave back there too that's kind of
an interesting cave he could have been hiding out in. but it's very deep here it's very
deep you don't realize until you get on the bridge and look down just how deep
it is here but so there was a bridge here at that time wasn't this bridge but
it was I don't know could have been I don't know what time what time free well
we're talking 1903 is when they started the Apache trail.
they had started with 200 Mohave not Mohave but Papago Indians down at
government Wells and 200 Apache indian up at Roosevelt and they met in between
oh well yeah very well could have been this one then it's amazing things are a
lot like they were back then here and it's a it's just a beautiful area and a
great hiking area too
however Hacksaw used to rob people up there probably
you're talking around the turn of the century the turn of the 19th or 20th
century and no one ever discovered his his identity he disappeared as just as
he came and the thing was somebody found at one point in a cave what you see
there they found his mask which they identified as his those straps that were
on top of a those are actually held luggage on top of a stagecoach those
were found again no proof that they came from there but they were found in that
cave and all those other artifacts that you see and they were also found in the
cave along with those things
so why did they name him Hacksaw Tom sounds like a serial killer
well he wouldn't name that right off it was many years afterwards
that you know a friend of mine Hank Brown and his brother were prospecting
along the Salt River they started down by Saguaro lake and and was working east and
they come across a tributary canyon at the canyon that they wanted to explore
and in this Canyon was a cave that was kind of well up off the bottom and they
went up in there and they found a military wagon one of the square
bowed like an ambulance wagon yeah it was in good condition but they just left
it there wasn't anything they could do about it and 20 years later as 1958 and
20 years later they were in buying something some place and some guy was
telling a story about a sub she framed Nanna that had held up a military
payroll and hid it in a cave with the wagon they got all excited and they had
to make 2 or 3 stabs out they run out of water it was a dead summer and and
finally they got back in there and the wheels had been taken from the wagon and
the wagon had been partially burn for firewood only and they were
disappointed but they sat down on a rock and was eating their lunch and Hank
noticed a depression in the ground underneath where the wagon was so he dug
it up and up came to Satchel about this long but this wide had the two handles
that opened up like this and all the stuff that you see in the museum was in
there including this sawed-off shotgun and he had made three cuts on the gun
cut the barrel off and two cuts on the stock to make it a pistol grip so that's
why they named him hacksaw Tom so me grizzly and from what I understand he
never harmed anybody when he was ever fired his weapon once never fired and as
I said that the drivers brought their friends along just to say they'd been held up
I believe that all he did was hold them up at that sawed-off shotgun demand
their valuables and then disappear I never hurt a person never hurt a Soul.
never caught and they never found out who he was
so hacksaw was kind of a
celebrity here yes come on in get in let's go get robbed by Hacksaw Tom well and
if they'd report it to the sheriff but think by the time you got out here that
you could report anything and the sheriff could get back it's two days you know
[laughter]
Pretty wise guy. well they set traps for him they had some
posse members in some of those wagons but he never fell for it
they never caught him and there's no clue whatsoever as to who he really was no, not one at all. and he
vanished just vanished. stopped we figure..
yeah he retired he was even accredited what's the first
automobile holdup in 1906 and that was in the newspapers
Wow!
and I think the heat might have got a little heavy on him because it's a
little quicker to get here
[laughter]
now it's more well-traveled you know to speak and so he...
well he could have gone somewhere else and been known as a
different name different thing you know you've just moved on and just a quarter
mile from here after the car start traveling the road they put up the Fish
Creek Canyon Lodge and this was a major tourist stop
now this is something I did know about was the lodge it is major tourist stop and then they finally built one up
at Roosevelt but this one burnt down in 1929 and the the Governor of Arizona
wanted the road to make all the the complete circuit that it does now from
Globe to Apache Junction and in 1922 he ordered that done and they finished the
military Road from Superior to Oak Flats that the they abandoned and that made a
complete circuit and then lots of vehicles start driving this all we're
getting lots of vehicles today
[laughter]
but yeah well you know like I said hacksaw may
have not stopped he may have just moved on down the road a bit good well what
what fascinates me is that there was an actual Lodge down at the at the base
here and it was a very popular lodge very popular mmm-hmm and they would travel
this road to get to it right wow you must have been a great we're talking
real old cars now yeah some of them are still at the bottom of the canyon
[laughter]
[Music]
just imagine Hacksaw Tom coming down right here and stopping a stage and
robbing them I would like to thank Larry Hedrick again for the story of Hacksaw Tom just
another mystery of the Superstition Mountains
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