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143 An O.K. Corral Obituary The weather improved—dramatically—during the last week of August. Train schedules and regular deliveries of mail resumed. It was not long before the newspapers were once again complaining of the dust. Before they did, the Arizona Weekly Citizen printed two timely and incisive articles on the last Sunday of August. One article followed up on the discovery of a coal seam in a place called Deer Creek. The locators of the coal beds were eager to draw investors such as Charles Crocker of the Southern Pacific into their mining project. The coal would supply cheap power to his railroad. The Citizen article listed others who were taking part in the speculation, among whom were United States Surveyor General John Wasson, rancher and erstwhile railroad investor, Henry C. Hooker, and the Indian Agent, Colonel Joseph C. Tiffany. The problem with the whole proposition was that it was located very near—and probably within—the San Carlos Indian Reservation. Like other mining ventures, the discovery of coal could make men rich quickly. Crocker was willing to build a spur line to the site of the coal beds and possibly procure exclusive rights to the coal. Surveyor Wasson was quoted in the article as assuring potential investors that the coal beds lay outside Indian land. If agent Tiffany kept a lid on the nearby Apaches—what use had they for coal?—the scheme could work.1 The Apaches had been relatively peaceful for over a year. Since the illfated outbreak of a band under Victorio in the summer of 1880, Arizonans had come to assume that all was quiet and under control. Despite the year of peace, some Apaches were growing restless again. In a different article, the Citizen reported an outbreak at San Carlos. A company of cavalry engaged in a conflict with Indians in mid-August. The Indians were agitated over the workings of a medicine man who claimed he would raise many dead warriors back to life. According to the article, 200 ponies had already been sacrificed. The medicine man was now blaming his failure on there being too many whites and proclaiming that they must get rid of all the whites in the region.2 “Glad You Are on the Alert” Nineteen 144 The McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona The powder keg had a fuse. All it needed was a spark. Agent Tiffany, concerned that the medicine man would foment more unrest and possibly rioting, sent a request to the military post, asking them to intervene. The wording was stark: “Arrest him, kill him, or both.”3 On the 31st of August, Colonel Eugene A. Carr and a military detail came to where the White Mountain Apaches had gathered along Cibecue Creek, more than 70 miles north of Tucson. The arrest went smoothly at first, but before sunset a large contingent of Apaches forcibly objected to the arrest. Fighting broke out, and the company of soldiers found themselves greatly outnumbered. The medicine man was one of the first to be killed, yet the most scandalous turn of events was when Indian scouts—employed and trusted by the Army—turned and fired on the soldiers. Despite the loss of an officer and six infantrymen, Carr managed to withdraw his troopers to nearby Fort Apache. The Indians continued to attack the fort and as the soldiers held out against them, they also attacked ranches nearby. Weeks of wet weather had brought down the telegraph wires connecting the town of Willcox to Fort Thomas, San Carlos agency headquarters and further north to Fort Apache. As the improved weather was so recent, none of the wires had been repaired. Riders and messengers came to the San Carlos agency headquarters carrying news of a massacre on the Cibecue. Carr and his entire command were said to have been wiped out. From agency headquarters, word spread to the Army and to the news services. From the nearest telegraph offices in Willcox and Tucson, rumors flew unchecked. Newspapers as far away as New York and San Francisco carried word of a disaster that either matched or surpassed Custer’s. If Fort Apache was gutted, then 400 White Mountain Apaches were probably whipping the other tribes into a frenzy of all-out war. By the same reasoning, the Apaches’ course would be to head for Mexico by way of the San Simon and Sulphur Spring valleys, along the Chiricahua Mountains. Every white settlement was a potential target. Panic swept through Galeyville...

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