Once in a Lifetime Adventure

Bob Stuart

Arizona Pathfinders, a nonprofit volunteer group of the Arizona Historical Society, is conducting a five-day tour Sept. 9 through 13 to one of the most beautiful valleys in Arizona, tucked under the Mogollon Rim. This was the site of America’s bloodiest decade of frontier violence; it exploded into a range war involving the Tewksburys and the Grahams, the Daggs and the Blevins, the Apache Indians, and the Hashknife cowboys—a volatile mix that ravaged Gila County at the end of the 19th century.

This tour, accompanied by Eduardo Pagan, noted Arizona State University historian and author of Valley of the Guns, offers a unique opportunity to explore sites not typically open to the general public, view the remaining evidence of this frontier war, and hear stories about its effect on settlers who struggled not only to stay but to survive.

You will visit the Rim Country Museum, the Pleasant Valley Historical Museum in Young, The Q Ranch Pueblo, the shoot-out-sites, the cabins with gun ports, the cattle trail to Holbrook, St. Joseph’s Pioneer Museum, the Rock Art Ranch (with its collection of Hashknife artifacts), and one of the best preserved and most extensive collections of ancient petroglyphs in the world at Chevelon Canyon.

On the way home, on the fifth day, we will visit Tonto Natural Bridge State Park and the Shoofly Village Ruins.

Spend two nights in historic Zane Grey country at Kohl’s Ranch Lodge, one night at the Best Western Hotel in Holbrook with dinner at the Mesa Italian Restaurant, and one night at La Posada in Winslow with dinner in the Turquoise Room.

The tour will be by private car. The cost is $749 per person/double occupancy. The single supplement is $270 for a total of $1,024. Full cancellations are accepted until Aug. 9. Please contact Bob Stuart at 520-825-4239 or Mary Lee Fitzgerald at 973-202-4276 for a registration form and further information.