People can make arguments against an Apache presence in the Superstition Mountains all day long as long as they are pulling them off the top of their heads and not quoting from reliable references.
Even the earliest maps of the area which include the superstition Mountains call them Apacheria all the way back to Kino's time.
The following quotes concerning the Apache presense in the Superstitions come from Tom Kollenborn's book:
"CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE SUPERSTITION WILDERNESS".
1450 A.D.
The predatory Apache made their appearance in the region about 1450 A.D.
1864
May 11, 1864, the Rancheria Campaign against the hostile Apaches in the Sierra Supersticiones and Sierra Pinals. The first raids were lead by Brevet Lt. John D. Walkers and his 1st Arizona Volunteers. The Volunteers were made up of farmers and Pima Indians.
1867
May 11, 1867, elements of the U.S. 23rd Infantry encountered hostile Yavapai-Apaches in a Rancheria near Picacho (Weaver's Needle). Several hostile Indians were killed by a surprise attack.
1872
Major John Brown, with elements of the 5th and 10th U.S. Cavalry led campaigns against Apaches in the Superstition Mountain area near Reavis Ranch.
1784
Captain Don Pedro de Allande led several campaigns against the Apaches in the Gila country. Allande planned a mass invasion of the Apacheria.
The 5th United States Cavalry conducted their Pinal Mountain Campaign against the Apaches from March 8 –15, 1874. This campaign included several skirmishes near the Reavis Ranch in the Superstition Wilderness Area.
1879
June 30, 1879, King S. Woolsey died at 3:00 a.m. at the Lyle Ranch, southeast of Phoenix, Arizona Territory. Woolsey had pursued Apaches in the Superstition Mountains.
December 5, 1879, a Mexican reported to the Phoenix Weekly Herald that he and his partner were attack by Indians while prospecting in the Superstition Mountains. The Apaches killed one of the partners.
1893
June 15, 1893, Apache Kid reported seen near the Bark-Criswell Ranch.
1897
September 16, 1897, Apaches from San Carlos scatter cattle near Superstition Mountain.
And Finally... 1907
September 2, 1907, John D. Walker's daughter, Juana Walker, is suing for the Vekol Mine.
Walker lead the 1st Arizona Volunteers against the hostile Apache in the Superstition Mountains between 1864-68.
Some will continue to argue that the Apaches were not in the Superstitions, but I don't think they would have been able to convince Captain Don Pedro de Allande, King S. Woolsey, Dr. Walker and the 1st Arizona Volunteers, or the U.S. 23rd Infantry.
And from Tom Kollenborn's book -
"A RIDE THROUGH TIME" comes the following quotes concerning the Apache presence in the Superstition Mountains:
Arizona is a fascinating state with diversity in its culture, land, and people. Unique to Arizona is the Superstition Wilderness Area, a land of some 124,120 acres of adventure, tantalizing legends and unbelievable tales. First there were the Salado, then the hostile Apache, followed by Elisha M. Reavis "Hermit of Superstition Mountain," and then came Jacob Waltz of Lost Dutchman Mine fame.
Following the departure of the Salado from the Superstitions, the Apaches inherited the high, mountain fortresses to which they retreated from their raids in the low deserts. The Superstitions provide many high bluffs which can be easily defended and many canyons which make pursuit of a fleeing enemy impossible. This "hit-and-run" tactic proved very successful for the Apaches until the 1800s when cavalry units from the U.S. Army, led by Apache scouts, began to seriously threaten the Indians' mountain stronghold. The Apache era in the Superstitions provides a host of intriguing chronicles which have been the basis for factual history and tall tale alike.
After the American Civil War, soldiers from Fort McDowell, located in the Salt River Valley, chased marauding Apaches into and through the Superstition wilderness. One of these blue-coated soldiers was Major William Brown who, with two companies of 5th Cavalry, combed the Mescal, Pinal, Superstition, Sierra Ancha and Mazatzal ranges in December of 1872.
It was in the Superstitions that Major Brown's forces met and combined with the troops of Captain James Burns. Captain Burns had just returned from a skirmish in the Four Peaks area and had captured two prisoners, one a young Apache boy whom they renamed Mike Burns. Lieutenant John G. Bourke was also on this Apache chase and documented the ensuing fight which came to be known as the Battle of Skull Cave. Skull Cave is located high above what is now Canyon Lake at the north end of the Superstitions. This particular encounter had disastrous results for the Apaches.
Weapons and men for these outposts did not begin to flow immediately, however, but by 1869 men and equipment began to arrive. The old sergeant claimed that a shipment of Colt .44 Dragoon pistols were shipped to Tucson (Fort Lowell) for distribution among the military outposts. He had documents (photostatic copies) which revealed a consignment of Whitneyville-Walker Colt .44 Dragoons being shipped from Fort Lowell via Camp Pinal to Fort McDowell in April of 1871 or 1872. He further claimed these pistols were freighted by pack animals from Camp Pinal through the Superstitions to Fort McDowell. His documents also revealed that this pack train included a packer, a junior grade officer, a sergeant and six enlisted men. There were two mules carrying feed for the Army mounts, two mules packing camp gear and one mule carrying twenty-four Dragoon pistols. Somewhere between Camp Pinal and the Salt River, this pack train was ambushed by hostile Apaches.
One of the legends most often associated with the Apaches in the Superstitions is the story of Dr. Abram Thorne's gold. According to the legend, Dr. Thorne was a medical doctor assigned to Fort McDowell. He saved a young Indian boy who, as it turned out, was the son of an Apache chief. To reward Dr. Thorne for this act of kindness, the Apaches took him on a horseback trip, but, following the instincts of the curious, he peeked from time to time. Thorne later related that they had crossed two rivers, the Verde and the Salt, and wound their way into the mountains until they reached a point at which the peeking Thorne saw a pointed peak. The Apaches then filled his saddlebags with gold and returned him to Fort McDowell. In actuality, military records of Fort McDowell do not list a Dr. Thorne as ever having been assigned to that post or even in the Army. The Thorne story, however, has become well known through the years and has been recounted in many books written on the Superstitions.
All that now remains of the early Indian groups who once inhabited the Superstitions are the dwellings, petroglyphs and burial grounds which provide the evidence for anthropologists and archeologists to piece together the history of these people. Because of their marauding ways, all the Apaches left behind in the Superstitions are stories of bloody encounters with everyone else who ventured into the area and some legends of Apache thunder gods.
Although other Spaniards, such as Father Garces and Juan Bautista de Anza, traveled extensively through what is now Arizona, the desolate region of the Superstitions remained relatively untouched until the early 1800s. It was then that miners from Mexico invaded the Superstition wilderness in search of gold.
The name always associated with the early mining history of the Superstitions is the name Peralta. There are several theories as to just who the Peraltas were and exactly how much gold, if any, they recovered in the Superstition Mountains. The most popular story has Don Miguel Peralta, a wealthy miner and land owner from northern Mexico, initiating gold mining expeditions into the Superstitions in 1847-48. Several trips were made, and vast quantities of gold were returned to Mexico. The Apaches, however, became irritated with these uninvited "guests" in their mountain sanctuary. This resulted in the famed episode at Massacre Grounds, located at the western end of the mountains. Here, according to legend, the Peralta-led mining expedition was exterminated. At least one Peralta survived, however, and returned to Mexico with maps to the gold mines and a tale of terror.
This story of the Peraltas in the Superstitions is the basis for many of the later expeditions which have ventured into the Superstitions to search for gold. Glenn Magill, a private investigator from Oklahoma, traced the ancestry of the Peralta family to the town of Arizpe in Mexico. In an interview with Maria Peralta, Magill discovered that "the grandfather of her husband had been named Don Miguel Peralta. And his father, who was named Don Miguel Peralta also, had been killed in Arizona by the Apaches, along with several of his sons. They were miners also."'
Best,
Jim
