Jean Carhart's Web Site
Jean Carhart's Web Site
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TRAPPERS Written by Alice B. Hewins It is probable that many Americans drifted through the gila
and Salt River valley even before the Patties, Sylvester and his son, James,
left Cincinnati to trap the Southwest. The younger, in 1826, accompanied a
party of French trappers down the Gila -- He tells, in a work published in 1845,
of a conflict with the "papawar" Indians at a village near the junction of the
Gila and Salt, called by him the "Black". He wrote that the French party
of which he was a member, was almost annihilated, but Pattie and the companion
had separated during the night and this saved their lives. For observation
they climbed a hill, that night -- have and they joined by the French captain
and later by a score or more of Americans, they marched against the offending
village in the ruins of which 100 Indians were left on the field after the
villagers fled. -- The following year Patties (and his father) again
trapped down the Gila to the Yuma country." Lockwood states that the party Pattie joined was probably
headed by a Ewing Young. It is probable that Bill Williams trapped through Central
Arizona "Bands of Trappers would meet him everywhere from British Columbia to
the Colorado and the Gila" In 1827, at the age of 17, a year after Kit Carson had left
Missouri, he was on the upper Gila. Soon thereafter, a member of trapping
party led by Ewing Young, he had his first Indian fight with Apaches on Salt
River, in which 15 redskins were killed without loss of a white man. Young
trapped along the San Francisco (Verde) and Salt. In 1829 Carson's return
was made to New Mexico by the Gila route with trouble on the trail with Indians.
He passed over the same route again in 1846 -- having dispatches from Fremount
with whom he had been in California. He was turned back in New Mexico to
guide the Kearny column. In 1847 with Lieut. Beale, he carried dispatches
back along the Gila route with a guard of a dozen men. In August, 1853,
with a well armed force of herders, he drove 6500 sheep from the Rio Grande to
California." In 1832 Isaac J. Sparks led an expedition down the Gila
having much trouble with the Indians. A party of nearly fifty passed through Arizona in 1844
including Francois de van Coeur who was one of Kearny's scouts two years later
-- Southern Arizona was reached by following the valley of the San Francisco
(Verde) to its junction with the Salt. "Pauline Weaver, a French trapper and guide, was in Arizona
as early as 1832 among the Pimas, and his signature is to be found on an
interior wall of Casa Grande ruin with the date 1835" "In 1845 He led the Mormon Battalion across Arizona.
In 1863 he was picked up by the Peoples party at gold diggings on the Colorado
river and led the way across the deserts to the wonderful discovery at Rich
Hill. A couple years later he was guide for Colonel Bennett's expedition
that established Ft. McDowell and that penetrated into Tonto Basin. The
journey back from about the location of the present Roosevelt Dam was across the
Superstition Mountains ending at Maricop Wells on the Gila. The old
scout's name still is borne by Weaver Needle, a shaft of rock clearly visible
from either Apache Trail or the Superior Highway." ### James C. Fermont, the "Pathfinder" passed
through Arizona in 1849 making his way to California by the Gila route through
Socorro Santa Cruz, Tubac and Tucson but apparently without incident of
importance before the separation of Arizona from New Mexico; during the
Civil war New Mexico was considered roughly as the land lying between Texas and
the Rio Colorado; the north boundary was indeterminate. Two years after the way had been made clear by
American military expedition in 1848 a party organized in New Orleans and headed
by Dr. C. M. Wozencraft made its way through Southern Arizona. "Down to 1835 the Apaches are said to have
been friendly to the Americans; but about that time the famous chief Juan Jose
was treacherously killed by one Johnson and the Apaches immediately attacked and
killed Charles Kemp's party of 22 trappers on the Gila, as well as parties
father east in New Mexico" "The Indians, knowing that the United States had been at war with Mexico, welcomed the first American expeditions, seeing in them helper in raids into Mexico, where much rich plunder could be had in towns the Apaches had been unable to take. There was a change of sentiment when it was found the Americans were not robbers like themselves." Col. McClintock, like all the residents of Arizona in early times feels with Col. Bridwell, whom I have heard say "the only good Indian was a dead one" in regard to the Indians of the Sulpher Spring Valley. Judge Nichols said that the Apaches never attached a well ?? force but picked off the small parties that he had often gone out from Willcox to sit as coroner on some "poor devil" who had been travelling through the country alone. If they had the superior force they would attack. Aubrey, F. X. was one of the early explorers
of the Gila region. He was through on the Gila route about 1852 when he
took sheep and wagons to California. The next year he returned to explore
the country evidently to find a suitable route for a railroad. He
considers the Gila country too much of a desert and too uninhabitable for it to
be profitable for a railroad to build although the country would be easy.
He says "I have not interest in recommending one of these routes more than
another. I took sheep and wagons to California by the Gila route and I am
about to return to California that way again with sheep. Upon the route I
have just travelled I encountered many hardships and dangers, and met with
serious pecuniary losses yet I say it is best for a railroad and would be
excellent for ordinary travel but for the Indians." This is now the Santa
Fe R.R. After 1949 the Gila River was the route for many of the gold
seekers going to California. Among these were the Oatman family. |