Murderous Mine

Murderous Mines

I'm standing under a perfectly blue sky watching the intersecting waters of Turkey and Arrastra creeks splash over my feet. In this otherwise silent forest with light twinkling through the pines and the exhilaration of spring air swelling my lungs, the sound of the water makes a symphony unlike any other. I live curled up at my desk, awaiting such moments. We all do, I suppose. A pity, but the beauty of this place demands patience. As I listen to the cymbal-crash of the colliding creeks, I think about a fellow named Gus Begold, who near this spot in the Bradshaw Mountains south of Prescott fought for his life against marauding Indians in a story so

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Between 1865 and 1869, the bloodsoaked banks of Turkey Creek were the scene of at least 12 Indian attacks on the Bully Bueno mine. In the summer of 1869, the Indians dealt a deathblow to the gold mine by torching the mill, storehouse, sawmill and other buildings, effectively putting the Bully Bueno out of business. CHUCK LAWSEN To order a print, call (866) 962-1191 or visit arizonahighways.com.

side trips Go for the Gold, or the Copper, or the Silver

By JoBeth Jamison The mining industry of the central Arizona Territory contributed to much of the state's economic wealth and also made it rich with unique history, haunts and folklore. Here are a few spots to dig in.

Sharlot Hall Museum

Location: 15 W. Gurley St., Prescott. Getting There: From Interstate 17, take State Route 69 northwest for 33.8 miles to State Route 89 and turn left. Take State 89 south for 1.5 miles. (89 becomes Gurley Street.) Claim to Fame: Marking the Territory. An astonishing, solid copper dress made to represent Arizona's mining industry earned Territorial historian Sharlot Hall national headlines when she handdelivered Arizona's electoral votes to President Coolidge in 1925. The dress, now housed at this former governor's mansion, still turns heads, but the woman who wore it was by far the greater treasure. The frustrated daughter of a workhorse father and an intellectually inspiring mother, Sharlot longed to leave Dewey and become a writer. She did just that, while writing, collecting and exploring the history of her home territory, now abundantly and beautifully displayed at this renowned Prescott museum. While You're There: Enjoy the area's treasured premining history at the Smoki Museum of American Indian Art and Culture, or discover the art of the American cowboy at the Phippen Museum, or simply dig into Prescott's rich array of restaurants, shops and saloons. Information: (928) 445-3122; www. sharlot.org; www.pvchamber.org.

Vulture Mine

Location: 14 miles southwest of Wickenburg. Getting There: From 1-17, take State Route 74 west to U.S. Route 60. Turn right onto U.S. 60 and drive northwest 36 miles to Wickenburg. Proceed on 60 approximately 2 miles west of Wickenburg to Vulture Mine Road and turn left (south), driving 12 miles to Vulture Mine. Claim to Fame: High times and a hanging tree. Some folks think this place is creepy. How could a mine named after a dark-winged, carrionfeasting lurker who regurgitates rotting carcasses in self-defense, possibly be creepy? The Vulture Mine, located on the Hassayampa Plain, once sparkled as Arizona's most prosperous gold mine. After the mine and the supporting community of Vulture City shut down in 1942, rumors surfaced that the abandoned shafts and structures were haunted by the spirits of more than 18 men who were hanged there for stealing some of the stash. In 64 years, the rumors have never died because, rumor has it, they're true. Creepy. While You're There: Rush on out Wickenburg way for a Wild West wander through the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, relax at the Hassayampa River Preserve, check out the Jail and Joshua trees and make another days-of-yore stop at the Robson's Arizona Mining World. Information: (928) 684-5479; www.jpc-training. com/vulture.htm; www.wickenburgchamber.com.

(Continued from page 32) impossibly Hollywood I can't get it out of my mind.

Begold and another man, identified in news accounts only as Chambers, were asleep in their cabin one night in 1866 when Indians paid a surprise visit. Awakened by a bright light, they discovered the renegades had torched their cabin. Realizing that ambushers awaited outside, the men pulled a shelf off the wall to use as a shield. Begold flung open the door and a cloud of arrows "came hissing at him out of the darkness." When the firing stopped, Begold grabbed a shotgun and went back outside, only to be struck in the gut with another arrow. He collapsed back into the cabin.

After tending his partner's wound, Chambers grabbed the shotgun and punched out a gun port in the chinking between the logs. When he spotted a renegade, Chambers gave him both barrels and "the would-be arsonist dropped like a stone."

I know it's nonsensical reflex, but all morning I've been hiking with my eyes down, hoping to discover that arrowstudded board. Prescott residents Dwight Bennett and Dick Huffman and I have all come to this place looking for the gold mine that Begold and Chambers were guarding.

It had a fabulous name, an alliterative mix of English and Spanish, a burst of verbal exuberance only gold could produce. They called it the Bully Bueno.

The forest long ago swallowed the mine's hoisting works, stamp mill and other large remnants. Yet the Bully Bueno story speaks to Prescott's beginning, and therefore Arizona Territory's beginning, the power of gold, and the character of the brave and foolhardy pioneers who hoped to build a life in a wild place.

Chambers grabbed the shotgun and...when he spotted a renegade, gave him both barrels...

The tall, analytical Bennett, a former Prescott schoolteacher who loves prowling ghost towns and abandoned mines, used early maps to pinpoint the Bully Bueno's likely location, near the intersection of two creeks some 3 miles south of Palace Station.

We get an early bit of luck when Huffman spots a tailingslike mound, perhaps residue from the milling process. Bennett plunges a shovel into the mound, while Huffman sifts the dirt through his fingers.

"See, it's more fine than the dirt from the ground, and the color is lighter," says Huffman, a retired miner with 39 years experience. "I think we've found the mill site."After a moment scanning the surrounding terrain, Bennett chooses the best place to start looking for the mine itself, on the hillside bordering Turkey Creek's east bank. "I think that's our best bet," he says eagerly. "Let's go."

Bucks County, Pennsylvania, native George Harlan Vickroy probably experienced the same excitement in the fall of 1865, when he and partners Jack Swilling and Henry Bigelow began working the Bully Bueno under the auspices of the Walnut Grove Gold Mining Co.

Vickroy had gotten a promise of protection from Arizona's military commander, Gen. James Carleton, and startup capital from Eastern investors who believed that Arizona was civilized enough for large-scale mining.

Both assumptions were pipe dreams. The initial detachment of soldiers soon packed up and went home, despite the excitement generated by the new mine just two years after the gold strike on nearby Lynx Creek, which led eventually to the founding of Prescott.

"My mill was the first in the Territory, and the whole community, as well as the civil and military authorities, were anxious to see it erected and in operation," Vickroy said later. With $77,000 in seed money, he purchased a 20-stamp mill, a 40-horsepower engine, 26 wagons and 268 mules, "with needful appurtenances, assay outfit, etc.," as Vickroy put it, and hauled them to Prescott. Using a 16-mule team, the miners hauled the massive equipment south of Prescott along the Agua Fria River to near present-day Mayer, according to the Journal of Arizona History.

ious to see it erected and in operation," Vickroy said later. With $77,000 in seed money, he purchased a 20-stamp mill, a 40-horsepower engine, 26 wagons and 268 mules, "with needful appurtenances, assay outfit, etc.," as Vickroy put it, and hauled them to Prescott. Using a 16-mule team, the miners hauled the massive equipment south of Prescott along the Agua Fria River to near present-day Mayer, according to the Journal of Arizona History.

They began building a road west through the wilderness to the Bully Bueno. Daniel Ellis Connor, who helped in that effort, wrote: "The Indians who saw those great boilers, as they came over the road, thought that they were great guns which the pale faces were going to locate on Turkey Creek." Vickroy said it took two weeks to reach the mine, "and [we] had some fighting with these Indians every day."

On September 21, 1865, the very day they reached the mine, the Indians drove off Vickroy's entire beef herd of 22 head. The next day at nearby Pine Flat the Indians attacked again, killing one teamster, capturing eight mules and burning one wagon. The attacks continued with shocking regularity, one involving more than 200 warriors. Yet Vickroy and his partners persisted.

The three of us, hiking the slopes above Turkey Creek some 140 years later, get a taste of that same bonanza spirit when Huffman discovers a quartz rock flecked with gold. A minute amount, but Huffman grins. "When you see that sparkle, you know what you've got," says the normally subdued 69-year-old, holding his find up to the sun. "It might not be much gold, but it's in there."

Bennett hovers nearby, giving the yellow metal the onceover through his bifocals. "I think most of the gold these days is in the winter visitors," he cracks.

After Huffman's ministrike, we broaden our search. As we hike, accompanied at times by a doe peering at us through the pines, its saucer ears at full attention, the discussion returns to the relentless attacks that eventually engulfed the old Bully Bueno.

Between September 1865 and early July 1869, Indians

when you go

Location: The Bully Bueno Mine site is somewhere in the Prescott National Forest, about 21 miles south of Prescott.

Getting There: To reach the intersection of Turkey and Arrastra creeks from Prescott, drive 21 miles south of downtown Prescott on State Route 69 to Mayer. Turn onto First Street in Mayer and follow it west as it enters the National Forest as Yavapai County Road 177. Follow this road to the site of the old mining town of Goodwin and turn left, or south, onto Forest Service Road 9268U. From Goodwin to where the two creeks intersect is just over 2 miles. The total distance from Mayer to the intersection is 14.5 miles. Visitors can also get to the site by driving 21.5 miles south of Prescott on the Senator Highway, which begins in downtown Prescott, and following it south past Palace Station, then farther south on FR 9268U.

Attractions: Palace Station in Crook's Canyon on the Senator Highway was built in 1875. The log house, now a private residence, is one of the few remaining stagecoach stations from Arizona's early days and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Respect the privacy of those living in the cabin by staying back of the property's fenceline.

Travel Advsory: Yavapai County Road 177 and the Senator Highway have rough spots requiring at least a high-clearance vehicle, and possibly four-wheel drive. County 177 also passes through private land at Pine Flat. Adhere to all no-trespassing signs and respect posted mining claims. Wear sturdy hiking boots, bring plenty of water and carry a Prescott National Forest map.

Additional Information: For information on antique shops and other attractions call the Mayer Chamber of Commerce, (928) 632-4355.

descended on the mine 12 times, leaving nine men dead, two wounded and another crippled.

Vickroy did everything he could, responding to each attack by hiring replacement workers. He even traveled to Washington to complain to U.S. Army Commander Ulysses S. Grant.

One of Vickroy's hired men-Cornelius Jeff Davis-at least found humor amid the constant harassment. He told Prescott historian Sharlot Hall of the time some of the mine's Philadelphia owners visited and left behind suitcases containing clothing. When the Indians came calling, Davis and another man donned those fancy outfits and hats and ran around camp, trying to convince the raiders the mine was wellguarded-and by men with a sense of fashion. It apparently worked because the Indians, uncharacteristically, left without attacking.

By early 1869, the mine could no longer pay its employees. The deathblow came that summer. According to a statement Vickroy gave to Congress, as part of an 1874 request for reimbursement, "a large force of Indians attacked the premises and burned the mill, store-house, saw-mill, superintendent's house, boarding-house, blacksmith and carpenter shops, and stables destroying machinery, tools, and supplies, together with all the books, papers and accounts."

We never do find the mine or the vein of gold in our long tramp through the woods. But we find treasure of a different sort-in a spring day in Eden, visiting a rich history.

Gus Begold survived his arrow wound when Chambers slipped away and returned with a rescue party and a doctor. But Begold carried that arrowhead in his gut for 29 years before it killed him, a harsh reminder of the blood and sacrifice that marked life at the Bully Bueno. Al ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Prescott National Forest, (928) 443-8000. For conditions of roads in Yavapai County, (928) 771-3177. Tucson-based Leo W. Banks enjoys writing about the early history of Prescott and the Territory. He also wrote the hike story on page 44.