|
 Several
years ago Joe Clary introduced me to the military
records of the Rancheria Campaign in the
Superstition Mountain area. The Rancheria Campaign
against the Apache and Yavapai between the years
1864-1868 eventually ended much of the hostilities
along the Gila and Salt Rivers. Among these field
reports and maps were several new names for various
landmarks within the Superstition Wilderness area.
The region east of Tortilla Creek and west of Fish
Creek Canyon formed a small alluvial flat that was
once the site of the Tortilla Ranch. Cattlemen and
cowboys have used this valley for stock gathering
and raising for more than a hundred years.
Prior to the cattlemen’s use of this valley it was
an important Native American encampment or
farmstead. During the 1860s the Apaches and Yavapais
had a rancheria in the valley. This village was used
on an intermittent basis because of the water
supply. When water was abundant the Native Americans
grew maize, beans and squash along Tortilla Creek.
 The
Apaches and Yavapais had a nasty habit of raiding
their distant neighbors along the Salt and Gila
River for women and supplies. Prior to 1860 there
was very little the Pimas could do to prevent these
raids. It was certain death to challenge the Apache
in their mountain sanctuary to the east, and the
Pimas avoided these mountains because the region was
the home of their dreaded enemy.
This all changed when John D. Walker settled along
the banks of the Gila River near modern-day Florence
in early 1860. Walker soon organized a loose-knit
militia of Pimas and white settlers to combat the
problematic raids of the Apache and Yavapai. This
militia was called the 1st Arizona Volunteers.
Territorial Governor John N. Goodwin commissioned
Walker a brevet lieutenant and promised to help with
supplies.
Walker’s first campaign against the Apache-Yavapai
consisted of several attacks by his poorly armed
group of volunteers. Even under such conditions this
rag-tag militia struck hard against the Apache-
Yavapai rancherias in the Pinal Mountains. The first
campaign consisted of approximately 200 Pima scouts
and forty American settlers.
Camp McDowell was established along the Verde River
in 1864 to control the predatory raids of the
Apache-Yavapai from Tonto Basin down the Rio Salinas
(Salt River) into the Salt River Valley. Units from
under the command of Brevet Colonel Bennett went
into the field in 1866 and continued operations
until the end in 1868. Their mission was to
eliminate hostile villages in the Tonto Basin area,
the Pinal Mountains and the Superstition Mountains.
On May 11, 1866, Brevet Lt. John D. Walker led
elements of the 14th and 24th infantries against
Apaches and Yavapais in what is now known as the
Superstition Wilderness. Their mission was to
destroy all Native American villages or rancherias
and capture or kill all inhabitants they could find
south of the Salt River, north of the Gila River and
east of the Superstition Mountains. Walker turned
southward from the Salt River at a place called
Mormon Flat and then followed Tortilla Creek into
the mountains. His column first attacked a large
encampment of Native Americans above Hell’s Hole on
Tortilla Creek. The infantry unit killed 15 warriors
at Hell’s Hole and then moved up Tortilla Creek to
Dismal Valley. Walker’s command attacked a large
rancheria in Dismal Valley killing 57 Native
Americans, including several women and children.
During the mopping up operation, the mosquitoes were
so fierce, the stench of the dead so nauseating and
the heat so extreme that the site became known as
Dismal Valley.
Walker led several other campaigns into the
Superstition Mountain area during the period 1860 to
1868. It was this involvement which led to his name
being prominently attached to the story of the
Dutchman’s Lost Mine. Some storytellers believed
Walker received a map from Jacob Waltz’s partner
Jacob Wisner. It was believed this map was given to
Walker because of his knowledge of the Superstition
Wilderness Area. Walker eventually passed this map
on to Thomas Weedin, the editor of the Florence
Blade newspaper (now the Florence Blade-Reminder).
Joseph Clary’s work with military records in
Washington D.C. opened another interesting area in
the history of the Superstition Wilderness area. His
research located many new names for landmarks in the
area around Tortilla Mountain and in Dismal Valley.
Prospectors and treasure hunters have always linked
John D. Walker with Jacob Waltz and his alleged
partner Jacob Wisner (Weiser). It is apparent the
most logical site for this link was during the
military campaign of 1864-1868. The irony is the
fact that Waltz was not in the area until at least
1868. These skirmishes had already been fought.
It is highly unlikely that Walker came across Waltz
or Wisner in the Superstition Mountain area. It is
very interesting how facts get mixed with
supposition and faith. Walker was not involved with
the second campaign against Apaches in the
Superstition Mountain region-- a Major Brown led
units of the 5th and 10th United States Cavalries
against the Apache in this campaign of the 1870s.
The Walker-Waltz connection is strictly supposition
and there is little or no documentation to support
it. It is just another tale about the legendary
mountain range east of Apache Junction. |
