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OLD MINES AND GHOST TOWNS AWAIT ALONG CROWN KING'S ALMOST FORGOTTEN WAGONER ROAD MOST VISITORS TO CROWN KING,

the tiny tourist town on the ram-parts of the southern Bradshaw Mountains, stop for a cool drink and a hamburger after the dusty, bumpy ride up the mountain from Interstate 17.

Then they turn around and go back down. After all, they temporize, what else is there to see?

Well, besides the matchless scenery with views of Black Canyon City, Lake Pleasant, and Wickenburg, there's a marvelous back road long ignored by tourists and residents alike. Called the Wagoner Road for the long-gone post office beside the Hassayampa River, the 45-mile-long dirt road (Forest Service Roads 52 and 362) crosses the roof of the Brad-shaws and wends its way downward from Crown King to Kirkland Junction. The wagon road dates from 1871 when construction began on a five-mile stretch through the mountains to the newly discovered gold and silver mines. The road was necessary to bring supplies and mining equipment from California, most of which was shipped by steamship around the Baja California peninsula and then up the Colorado River to the La Paz landing.

From the river, wagons carried the freight eastward across the open desert and then up Date Creek to Walnut Grove, the jumping off place for the scattered mines in the southern part of the mountainous interior.

"This place is loaded with history," said Grant "Butch" Van Tilborg, a Prescott National Forest employee. "There's remains of old ghost towns, gold and silver mines that produced millions of dollars of ore, stage stations, Indian battle sites, and old graves."

As our truck climbed through the pines on the dusty up and down stretch of Senator Highway out of Bradshaw Basin, Butch, who was born and raised in Crown King, pointed out the site of Ma Reed's cabin and the gulch named for her. "Pretty popular place in its day," said the rangy 47 year old whose fore-bears ranched and mined throughout the Bradshaws. "She had a bunch of little cabins where her 'daughters' stayed. Each one had a little red light above the door."

Two miles from Crown King, we came on the site of Bradshaw City, once a riproaring boomtown known as the "capital" of the southern Bradshaws.

"They say Bradshaw City had a population of 5,000, but I find that hard to believe," said Butch. "There were log cabins and other buildings, but I think most of it was a tent city. The cemetery had a lot of interesting old headboards, but between the weather and graveyard vandals, all the graves are unmarked now."

Most of Bradshaw City's prosperity stemmed from the 1870 discovery of the Del Pasco Mine. One of the mine owners, Jackson McCracken, was a member of the original 1863 party that discovered gold in the Bradshaws after crossing the desert from California. McCracken's desert trek apparently impressed on him the need to conserve water, for he never bathed.McCracken was elected to the First

'THERE NEVER WAS A TOWN HERE, JUST THAT BUILDING. ED WAGGONER BUILT THE STORE TO SERVE THE SURROUNDING RANCHES, AND IN 1893 A POST OFFICE WAS ESTABLISHED, GIVING THE PLACE AN OFFICIAL NAME.'

Territorial Legislature in Prescott, but he smelled so bad his fellow legislators would not allow him to take his seat. When he still refused to bathe, they jumped on him, hauled him to nearby Granite Creek, and forcibly washed him and cut his hair and beard.

McCracken later discovered another rich mine, became fabulously wealthy, and retired to a large ranch in California where all the rich, powerful, and intellectual giants of the day shared his hospitality. Which goes to prove that money smells sweetest of all.

After Bradshaw City, we climb up Towers Mountain to reach the road to Wagoner. Up and over Towers Mountain was the site of the Peck Mine, named after Ed Peck, an Army scout and Indian fighter. The mine was extremely rich with three parallel silver ledges as high as 20 feet above the ground, one bearing a vein of silver two feet wide.

Unfortunately, a dispute among the four owners of the Peck led to years of lawsuits. The turmoil was caused, the story goes, by one partner who claimed to have a tapeworm in his stomach that "eternally wanted whiskey" going on a Prescott drinking binge and signing over portions of his interest in the mine "to lewd women of the town."

Past Towers Mountain, you reach the crossroad of Senator Highway and the road to Wagoner; turn right for Prescott, left to Wagoner. Our road, following Ash Creek and then South Pine Creek drainages, passes the burned-out site of the hamlet of Marion at the head of Minnehaha Flat. A few old foundations and some old apple and peach trees are all that's left.

"This was a little community in Minneha," said Butch, using the abbreviated name favored by locals. "They worked some placer claims in the creek. There was a store, a sawmill, and a lot of business from teamsters traveling from Walnut Grove to the mines.

"There's the Lapham Place. He was an old hermit who probably had known hunger. He was found dead one day, and in his house he had bags of beans and rice and cases of canned milk stacked up against the walls three to four feet high to tide him over when times were tough. He's buried out back. There's another grave there, but nobody knows who's in that one," Butch said.

Lapham figured in an 1896 robbery and murder of a Minnehaha Flat storekeeper. Lapham and the murder victim, a man named Smith, were in the store one night when two masked men burst in waving revolvers. Smith made a run for it and was shot and killed. Lapham was pistol-whipped into unconsciousness. The bandits then escaped after emptying the cash drawer.

We passed a little building resting in the shade of some old trees.

"That's an old schoolhouse. It's very small, but this was a very small community. Probably was a church, community center, and everything else, too," Butch mused.

"Over there is the Bleadsoe Place. Mary Bleadsoe, I think that was her name, ran off two husbands with her .30-.30. She also shot one guy. He was prowling around, so she shot to scare him. He made the mistake of shooting back, and she wounded him in the leg. That was in the late 1950s, so you see all the violence didn't happen in the old days."

The road dipped through a grove of pine trees on Johnson Flat. These were the last pines we'd see as we continued to drop to lower country. Butch pointed out L.F. Ridge where the old wagon road once climbed. Then we were out of the mountains and crossing Cherry Creek, marked by an in-credibly twisted cottonwood tree so big and old that its limbs sag to the ground. A short distance from the tree is an old corral made out of huge rocks where teamsters using the road secured their animals at night.

Next we passed the Cooper Ranch, where gunplay a few years ago took the life of a miner.

"Some guys were placer mining for gold in the creek bottom and the Coopers, two brothers and their wives, thought they shouldn't be there," recalled Butch. "Well, there was an argument, guns were drawn, and one man was killed, and the Coopers were shot up pretty bad before it was over."

On the left, just before the road dips into the Hassayampa riverbottom at Walnut Grove, is a fortified hill. This, said Butch, was the site of a one-sided Indian fight.

"Some cavalry troopers found a large number of Indians on the hill hiding behind the rocks. Their officer, who was just out of West Point and very gung ho, ordered his men to charge the hill. Most of his troopers were veterans who knew trouble when they saw it. They held back while the officer charged the hill alone and was shot to pieces," said Butch.

Later, after the Indians left, the men retrieved the body and buried it at the base of the hill overlooking the river.

"Somebody put up a nice headstone on the grave," said Butch. "But it's gone now, thanks to these graverobbers we've got nowadays."

The road here skirts the edge of the Hassayampa River at Walnut Grove, where an 1887 dam held a lake 60 feet deep and a mile and a half long. The site of the rock and earth-fill dam is just downstream in the narrow gorge that is visible from the road. Walnut Grove Lake, stocked with fish andequipped with row boats, quickly became a tourist attraction, especially for desert residents of Phoenix and Wickenburg.

But in February, 1890, nine straight days of rain inundated the area, and the resultant flood washed out the dam, sending a wall of water down the Hassayampa River toward Wickenburg. Between 50 and 60 lives were lost in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the state.

We passed Wagoner but didn't stop. There are no road signs and the only building, the store-post office-living quarters, is a ruin of collapsed lumber.

"There never was a town here, just that building," said Butch. "Ed Waggoner built the store to serve the surrounding ranches, and in 1893 a post office was established, giving the place an official name. Trouble was, the Post Office changed the spelling of Waggoner to Wagoner."

At Blind Indian Creek, we turned right onto a ranch road that leads to Bains Spring, scene of a sensational early-day murder. A Mrs. Bain ran a little roadhouse for teamsters traveling the old road over L.F. Ridge to Minnehaha. Because she never left her place and spent little, it was rumored that she had a secret stash of gold. Some bandits showed up one day, tied her up, and horribly tortured her to make her tell where her money was hidden. When she didn't, or couldn't, they killed her, said Butch.

The ruins of the roadhouse and the extensive system of rock walls that enclosed the corral and vegetable garden rest amid giant cottonwood and sycamore trees. The old wagon road is still visible as it winds past the ruins at the edge of the creek.

The road from here to Kirkland Junction is partially paved and runs through open grazing land marked by showcase ranch-es. Visitors can turn left onto U.S. 89 for Yarnell, Wickenburg, and Phoenix, or turn right and continue to Prescott.

There's plenty to see and remember - along the old Wagoner Road, for those who take the time.

WHEN YOU GO

There are no facilities of any kind between Crown King and Kirkland Junction. Fill your gas tank in Crown King, take drinking water, some extra food, and a Prescott National Forest map. Wagoner Road is passable by a family sedan, but a pickup truck or high-clearance vehicle is best. Always contact the Prescott National Forest's Bradshaw Ranger District, (520) 445-7253, for current road, forest, and weather conditions. Weather can change quickly in the Bradshaws, making roads impassable and the dangers from lightning and flash floods frighteningly real.