Skull Valley

In 1864, the Postmaster General of the United States first appointed a postmaster in a beautiful valley in Arizona, Skull Valley. Before that the mail exchange had been at a towering rock eight miles south where mail was brought in by travelers going North, East, South or West to exchange with each other and tell of the hunting, rainfall, of deaths and births in this great virgin territory of the Southwestern United States.

Skull Valley is eighteen miles southwest of Prescott, eight miles west of Kirkland Junction on Highway 89. Both Kirkland and Skull Valley are on the old "no grade" highway from Arizona desert country to higher elevations.

The Santa Fe railroad followed this route when building its line from Phoenix to Northern Arizona. Daily trains pass through Skull Valley, the passengers little knowing or understanding why this beautiful place with its magnificent big cottonwood trees, green pastures and wonderland of tufa rock was so named. In 1860, a six wagon Miller's freight, drawn by mules and horses in command of twelve men, was accosted by a band of Tonto Apaches. The freighters were asked to trade their horses and mules for the Indians' buckskins. The trades were not acceptable to the men and when told so the Indians started to cut the pack train animals from their traces. This caused a fight. Forty-two Indians were killed, and one of the train crew was injured. Several years later an army scouting party found the unburied Indian skulls.

The elevation of Skull Valley is 4,250 feet, the top of the divide is 6,600 feet. Most of the valley is used for farming and raising fine horses and cattle. The large fenceless ranges of yesteryear are now cut up into 150 to 500 acre tracts and owned by such men as Yavapai Superior Court Judge W. E. Patterson, Dick Denny, Vernon Pike, Gail Gardner, Prescott's postmaster and cowboy lyricist, the Bochat brothers and others.

Back of these men's ranches to the west live two of the three remaining native born pioneers of Skull Valley. Al Stapp has lived in this one place 70 years. He summer When the old-timers gather in the general store in Skull Valley, tales are told of the early days in this state.

cares for some fifty head of saddle horses for a dude ranch near Wickenburg.

Next to Al lives Chester Shupp, who for 67 years, his entire life, has lived in the same house where he was born. On the north side of this house is one of the valley's show cottonwood trees which has grown from a small stick Chester's father cut to goad his mules across the wash one day 'way back when, stuck it in the ground while unhitching, and there it has been all these 70 or 80 years.

The other native-born pioneer of Skull Valley is Frank Ehle, whose father and grandfather located in the valley the year Frank was born, 1861. That makes Frank 88 years old. He points out the old Ehle ranch where now live the Bochat (pronounced Bo-hart) brothers, the pioneer cemetery on this property where headstones speak of Alfred Shupp born in 1834 and Elizabeth H. Stombs born in 1820 (sister of Chester Shupp), and where the Ehles have a fenced-in area where Frank's ancestors are buried.

Chimney Rock is a Skull Valley land mark. Here Tufa stone is cut. This soft, porous rock hardens when it is exposed.

Mrs. Harry Irving operates the general store at Skull Valley and is the postmaster. Her stock boasts everything from anvils to carpet tacks and if a customer wants anything from a hundred miles of wire fence to an auto, she delivers.

Tufa stone is found in the Skull Valley area. This rock as quarried is soft, can be cut with a hand saw, but being exposed to the air in a short time becomes as hard as granite. It is also very light. Much Tufa stone is in State Capitol.

Freight and passenger trains of the Santa Fe chug through Skull Valley each day, making the trip from Phoenix to Prescott and Ashfork, where connections are made with main line trains. The entire trip is exceptionally scenic.

Skull Valley is broken up into small ranches. Fine cattle and horses are raised here. The area is delightful in summermer and generally mild in winter. One of the valley's enterprises is a fine ranch school for retarded children.