Blogs from Tombstone, Arizona, United States, North America - page 2

BRUNKOW’S CABIN Frederick Brunkow was an exiled Bavarian mining engineer educated at the University of Westphalia. He was associated through Herman Ehrenberg with Charles Poston and the Sonora Mining Company. In 1858, twenty years before Tombstone was even a glimmer in Ed Schiefflin’s eye, Brunkow and three partners began prospecting for silver east of the San Pedro River near where Charleston was later to be built. For helpers they hired a dozen or Mexican laborers. They built an adobe cabin and began digging prospect holes. By 1860 they had 6 shallow prospects that were showing poorly. Brunkow was no doubt a stern taskmaster to work for, and the Mexican laborers were probably thinking they were past due for a payday. One of the partners, a man named Williams, went off to Fort Buchanan to purchase supplies. ... read more

O K CORRAL On the morning of October 25, 1881 Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had breakfast at Chandler’s Milk Ranch and then drove a wagon in to Tombstone to pick up supplies and run a few errands. Their brothers, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton had ranch business to attend to that day, but planned to join up in Tombstone the following day. Soon as they got to town Ike and Tom checked their guns in and Ike started right in drinking tangle-foot whiskey and running off at the mouth. By ten o’clock in the evening Ike had been braying like an ass for several hours; generally berating Doc Holliday for an alleged involvement in the Kinnear Stage Robbery. Ike figured that turnabout was fair play because Doc, he thought, had been spreading rumors ... read more

NIEVES DERON Jack Taylor was the leader of a merry band of cutthroats ravaging Northern Mexico in the spring of 1888. Taylor was captured during the course of a bloody train robbery in Sonora and two of the surviving gang members, Manuel Robles and Nieves Deron fled to Cochise County. Robles had a brother named Guadalupe who was living in Contention City and supplied firewood to the town from a wood camp in the Whetstone Mountains. The two bandits sought refuge with Guadalupe at the wood camp. Cochise County Sheriff John H. Slaughter became suspicious when he got word that Guadalupe, usually a loner, was using supplies enough for several men. The sheriff, along with deputies Burt Alvord and Cesario Lucero, located the camp before daylight and surprised the bandits in their beds. When ordered to ... read more

THREE FINGERED JACK DUNLAP On July 17, 1897 Burt Alvord accepted a fulltime appointment as constable in Willcox. It was a fun job that suited him well, but he was having difficulty making ends meet. He and Billy Stiles decided to branch out into train robbery. They put together a gang of toughs and planned the robbery of a train at Cochise Station a few miles west of Willcox. The robbery was success, but it didn’t exactly put them on Easy Street. After the booty was divvied up the gang dispersed. Another train robbery was planned but a new gang of toughs was needed. For the new gang Alvord and Stiles recruited Bravo Juan Yoas, Bob Brown, George and Lewis Owens, and Three Fingered Jack Dunlap. The targeted train rolled into the station at Fairbank, near ... read more

RUCKER BASIN This story begins with a fellow named Col John Finkle Stone. He did not attend West Point, but he did attain the lofty position of Adjutant General in the Department of New Mexico. Col Edward R. S. Canby was the commander of the department in 1862 when the Confederate invasion took place. When his pal Sibley was defeated at Glorieta Pass and the bedraggled rebs headed back to Texas Col Canby was re-assigned and command of the department went to Col Carleton. Stone got pissed off and resigned his commission, moved to Albuquerque and operated the Union Hotel. After the War Between the States ended he sold his interest in the hotel and moved to Tucson. Stone Avenue is named in his honor because he built the first home on it. He ... read more