A MONUMENT TO EARLY TRAVEL

A MONUMENT TO EARLY TRAVEL Victims of the Loring Massacre Find Immortal Remembrance

HIGH SPEED cars whizz-z by on the smooth pavement to California.There is the throbbing of a motor with smooth, full-throated power; the faint drumming reflected from the asphalt lingers for a moment, then trails away after the disappearing auto. A small boy nudges his sister beside him in the car, points, and leans forward toward the front seat.

"Gee, Pop, what was that?"

"Just some kind of an advertisement, I guess. Nothing. Think we'll make Aguila by 3 o'clock."

The two youngsters in the rear seat twist about and stare back.

A new interest rapidly pushes aside the old. "Can we get some soda in Aguila, Pop?" The sculptured stagecoach beside the road is forgotten.

From the perspective of the car, the coach grows smaller behind them. The 20th century rushes on at ten times the speed of the 19th, fleetingly recalled by the replica of the coach, new marker of a scene of blood and disaster in early Arizona history.

The circumstances of six deaths are recalled by the new monument of the Arizona highway department a few miles west of Wickenburg-among the most important deaths of Southwestern history. Thousands of tourists will see the monument this summer; a few will read the inscription on the base. Sealed inside will be records of the event, records of bravery, cruelty and death.

It was 1871. For years Arizona pioneers, miners, ranchers, cowboys, gamb-

By Dyke Williams

Settlers, men and women had pleaded for aid against Indian depredations.

Hundreds died beside Apache campfires, tortured by the tribe's squaws, to whom prisoners frequently were given, unless they were attractive white women.

Others died by their own guns-the frontier rule was to save one bullet in a fight with Apaches.

To stress the historical importance of the monument and the Wickenburg or Loring massacre it commemorates, governors and representatives of three states were invited for the April 25 dedication.

Nine miles out of Wickenburg, on the road to Ehrenberg, the stage was ambushed as it entered a growth of heavy mesquite, between two sloping banks, November 5, 1871.

It was eighteen hours since the stage, with seven care-free passengers and a new driver making his second trip over the route, "Dutch John" Lanz, left Wickenburg.

The parting had been a gay one. One of the stage's passengers, Miss Mollie Sheppard, was a beautiful and reportedly fashionably inclined dance hall girl, and considerable merriment had accompanied her setting out with the seven men.

Five of the passengers were en route to Eastern and California homes. The others were making business trips or visits to the Coast.

Among the passengers was a 22-yearold newspaperman and magazine contributor, Fred W. Loring, of Boston. His name was familiar to thousands of eastern readers, and his death caused bitter denunciations of the federal government's Indian policy.

While for decades Eastern sentiment, coddled by stories of injustices done the Indians, had viewed apathetically the murder, scalping, and torture of isolated and unknown settlers, miners, and travellers, the wholesale slaughter of prominent persons marked a turning point.

P. M. Hammel, of San Francisco, and Frederick Shoholm, of Philadelphia, were said to have died with the driver and Loring from wounds received in the first volley, which was poured down upon the stage and occupants as the Indians burst from hiding above.

C. S. Adams, and W. G. Salmon, both returning to San Francisco, were hit. Adams fell to the floor of the coach, while Salmon jumped from the stageon the wrong side. He fired, and though seriously wounded, fled into the brush.

Miss Sheppard and William Kruger leaped out on the opposite side, and Kruger turned his pistol upon the Indians.

Apparently they had expected to find the entire party dead, for the fire delayed pursuit.

They reformed and charged again, killed Adams, and looted the stage. Two demijohns of liquor were in the cargo, and were found immediately.

Most of the Indians stayed by the stagecoach to loot, or took the trail of Salmon. He was caught and scalped some distance away.

Kruger and Miss Sheppard began a running fight toward Wickenburg.

Pursuing Indians split into two parties, (Continued on Page 16)