Dragoon Springs Stage Station. Frontier Relic of Western History and Brutal Violence скачать в хорошем качестве

Dragoon Springs Stage Station. Frontier Relic of Western History and Brutal Violence

On the Lower Emigrant Road, Dragoon Springs Stage Station: A Frontier Relic of Western History and Brutal Violence on the Northern Edge of the Chiricahua Apache "Cochise Stronghold" From the 1600’s, the Chiricahua Apache roamed this land; hunting, gathering, and occasionally raiding Mexican and Native American villages. The Chiricahua considered these mountains and springs theirs. Thanks to historian Doug Hocking for additional information: In 1857, Dragoon Spring, in the canyon over a mile south the station, was on the route of the San Antonio & San Diego Stage Line, known as the Jackass Mail for its use of mules. The Jackass Mail had very few stations, traveling with a cavy of mules and armed outriders, they slept at night beside their wagons. Between September 1858 and April 1861, Butterfield’s Overland Mail Co. had the mail contract and the Jackass Mail, between El Paso & Fort Yuma, CA, ran the same route carrying only passengers and freight. In 1857, the United States government contracted with James B. Leach to build a wagon road from El Paso to Fort Yuma. Butterfield used portions of this route, improved it and shortened it, adding wells and cisterns and stations, making this the preferred route for emigrants headed west. In 1858, Butterfield was still engaged in building stations every 25 miles or so. In Apache country, ten stone stations were erected with walls eight feet high to protect the stock from theft. Dragoons Springs Station was the furthest west of these. Brave men, two and three to a station, worked the line with the nearest towns and military forts often more than 100 miles distant, giving the U.S. its first transcontinental mail delivering letters within 25 days. On the night of September 9, 1858, three Mexican laborer arose at midnight and attacked Silas St. John, James Burr, William Cunningham, and James Laing. Burr was killed instantly. Cunningham and Laing lay wounded in the head by axes and dying. Silas St. John gravely wounded would wait four days for help to arrive. One of his companions died during the wait and the other passed away the next day. These three men were buried in two rock cairns with Silas’s arm between them. In 1860, mining engineer Horce Grosvenor sketched the station showing the cairns in the position we see them in today. He was slain by Apaches the next year. On May 5, 1862, Confederate soldiers rounding up stock were ambushed by Apaches in the canyon near the spring. Three were slain. SGT Ford and a Mexican drover, Ricardo, pressed into service, are buried near the Overland Mail employees. In 1872, Tom Jeffords brokered peace between General O.O. Howard and Chiricahua Apache leader, Cochise. They came to the ruined station to meet with officers from Fort Bowie and have the terms of this oral treaty explained. The treaty endured beyond Cochise’s 1874 passing until 1876. During this time most of surrounding Cochise County was Chiricahua Reservation. Set YouTube Quality (Spoke Wheel at Bottom of Screen) to HD or higher. #apache #cochise #chiricahuas #arizona #tombstone To view more like this:    / wildwesthistoryassociation   JOIN NOW: https://wildwesthistory.org/join/ Please comment, like, and subscribe! Wild West History Association 🖥️ Visit our website: https://www.wildwesthistory.org 👍 Like us on Facebook:   / 297188461422   YouTube:    / wildwesthistoryassociation   Instagram