MASSACRE AVENGED

The following is a true and authentic account of the widely-famed General Crook's settlement of the Wickenburg Massacre, committed in 1871, near the city of Wickenburg, Arizona. The story was told to Mr. Bowen by John Mahoney. Mahoney, now a resident of Prescott, Arizona, witnessed the settlement for the murder of five stage-coach passengers, told in this story.

The settlement and punishment of the murderers shows the sincere friendship that existed between the frontiersman and the Indians, especially the Indian leaders, when their people reverted to savage practices.

Near the spot where the Wickenburg Massacre took place, a stone monument has been erected. This can be seen on the left-hand side of Highway 60-70, just before arriving in Wickenburg, Arizona.

MASSACRE-cruel and suddenlay ahead of a rickety stagecoach one November morning in 1871, as seven happy passengers jogged over La Paz trail, nine miles west of Wickenburg, Arizona. As the stagecoach rocked down the tortuous trail through a steep-walled canyon, the driver lolled back in his seat, cheerful and unsuspecting. Suddenly from the rocks above, a volley of lead and arrows riddled the stagecoach. The lead horses stumbled and piled clumsily into the dirt. A mad horde of paintsmeared Indians swooped down upon the passengers. Scalps were taken; the passengers quickly robbed of their belongings. As suddenly, the savage band scuttled back into the bleak hills-leaving five dead, two wounded. The gory Wickenburg Massacre was completed.

The two wounded passengers managed to stumble a few miles along the trail into Culling's Well Station, and there As news of the massacre spread throughout Northwest Arizona, General Crook, in command of the United States Army detachment in this territory, took the problem of capturing and punishing the killers in his hands.

General Crook knew Eritaba, chief of the Indians at Date Creek Reservation, and rode up from Wickenburg to see him, accompanied by a small group of soldiers. Eritaba heard of General Crook's coming, and in two days over six hundred Indians from all of Arizona were encamped at Date Creek.

Under a canopy of dried hides and grass, General Crook and his soldiers sat at a wooden table across from Eritaba. Slowly, Eritaba cut a black plug of tobacco into eight pieces. He looked fixedly up at General Crook.

Eritaba picked up the pieces of tobacco; then slowly dropped them, one by one, into his other hand, still looking at General Crook. He then stood up.

Eritaba walked through the large encampment, from one Indian hogan to another. Eight times he stopped and handed one of the Indians a piece of the divided tobacco plug. General Crook's detachment moved closer to the hogans.

The Indian chief put the last piece of tobacco into the hand of a garishlypainted Indian buck. General Crook, who was following Eritaba, suddenly drew his revolver and shot the painted buck through the head. General Crook's shot was immediately echoed by several others from his detachment. Each Indian who received part of the tobacco plug, dropped dead near his hogan.

Eritaba walked slowly back to the table. General Crook grasped Eritaba's hand firmly.

"The great white father and I thank you."

The Wickenburg Massacre was avenged..

related the bloody story. Immediately a posse was formed; a band of forty revenge-bent cowmen and miners followed eight distinct trails left by the murderous Indians.

After two days of weary trail-work, the posse staggered back into Wickenburg with only one tangible sign-all the