Arizona Department of Public Safety
In the beginning... The "Arizona Rangers"
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Arizona's reputation as the West's last refuge for hard-bitten
desperados was a major reason its admittance to statehood was
delayed so long. The proximity to the Mexican border, bad
roads, poor communication, and rugged terrain made pursuit and
capture of outlaws almost impossible. To make matters worse,
rural residents were sometimes hesitant to assist peace
officers because many of their neighbors were outlaws, and
they didn't want to incur vengeance.
The hard men who rode the Arizona Territory were products of a
lawless, and violent post-Civil War era characterized by range
wars, feuds. Apache fighting, and the lust for gold and
silver. Today they and their deeds have slipped from reality
into the realm of romance. Trail dust has settled and the
false-front saloons are gone, but their stories linger on and
are deeply ingrained in our culture.
The types of men hired to keep the peace were as varied as the
rest of the wide gamut of frontier society. Jeff Milton was
the son of a Florida governor; Wyatt Earp was a restless
entrepreneur whose skill with a six-shooter and nerves of
steel made him a formidable adversary; Jim Roberts earned his
reputation as a fearless gunfighter. Entire libraries may be
stocked with the dime novels, paperbacks and western adventure
stories involving Arizona outlaws and the men who devoted
their lives to putting those outlaws behind bars or on the
gallows. It seems certain that Arizona's lurid reputation as a
haven for the lawless element delayed the achieving of
statehood.
During the Pleasant Valley War; Burt Mossman was a rawhide-
tough ranch boss before he was appointed first captain of the
Arizona Rangers; and Carl Hayden was a Stanford graduate with
political hopes. All had one thing in common: they had little
fear of God and none of the ole Devil. Milton is best known
for his part in breaking up the Fairbank train robbery in
February, 1900. Bravo Juan Yoas, Three-finger Jack Dunlap, and
three cronies decided to rob the Wells Fargo express car while
the train was stopped at Fairbank. However, the outlaws didn't
figure on Jeff Milton riding shotgun in the express car. They
opened fire as the train pulled in, and a bullet struck the
lawman as he stood in the open door of the car. Bleeding from
a wound in his arm, Milton opened up with a 10-gauge sawed-off
scattergun. Three-finger took a full, fatal blast while Bravo
Juan took evasive action and caught a load of buckshot in the
seat of the pants.
A band of the Rangers, shown about 1903,
preparing to ride out after the bad guys.
They didn't get the strongbox and were eventually captured.
Milton survived and died with his boots off in Tucson in 1947.
Earp made his reputation during the so-called "Gunfight at the
OK Corral," or Cochise County War, in the early 1880s. Wyatt
and his brothers Morgan and Virgil, along with their pal Doc
Holliday, represented a law and order group known as the
Citizens Safety Committee. They were organized to rid the
county of a lawless element of politicos, along with some
cattle rustlers known as "the cowboys." Earp's career as a
lawman is controversial because the opposing faction had a
large number of supporters who despised him and his
organization. But one thing should be remembered: all the
Earps were shot from behind, while their victims were plugged
in front. That says a lot about who were the good guys and who
were bad.
Partisans on both sides of the Pleasant Valley War, pitting
cattlemen against sheep men, agreed that the best man with a
gun in that feud was Jim Roberts.
He might never have taken sides, but some of the Grahams stole
his Collection prize horse. He rode with the Tewksburys during
the most violent days of the war before becoming a lawman in
Yavapai County. Roberts had his last gunfight in 1928 in
Clarkdale when two desperados held up a bank. They tried to
make their getaway in a car, but Roberts stood his ground and
put a bullet through the driver of the speeding auto. Old Jim
was nearly seventy at the time. When the Arizona Rangers we
reorganized in 1901, Burt Mossman agreed to a one-year
enlistment as captain. Modeled after the famed Texas Rangers,
Mossman's rugged men rode the Arizona Territory, breaking up
the last of the large outlaw gangs.
Captain Mossman's last hurrah as an Arizona Ranger was the
daring capture of the notorious Augustine Chacon, a dark,
handsome outlaw who boasted of killing fifteen Americans and
thirty-seven Mexicans during his career. He'd been captured
and sentenced to hang at Solomonville, but, just before the
sentence was carried out, he escaped and hightailed it to
Sonora. Mossman persuaded Burt Alvord and Billy Stiles, two
ex-lawmen turned outlaws, to arrange a meeting with Chacon in
exchange for leniency. Posing as a rustler on the lam, Mossman
got close enough to the cagey Chacon to get the drop on him.
He brought back his man, and this time the hanging took place
on schedule.
Knowing the Mexican government would be furious when the
details of the capture below the border became known, Mossman
resigned from the Rangers and headed east until the heat was
off.
In a desperate effort to bring law and order to Arizona
Territory, the Arizona Rangers were formed in 1901 under
Captain Burt Mossman. One of the prime targets of the Arizona
outlaws was the stagecoach, which usually carried money or
valuables and was an easy target. This one, a Modoc coach, ran
from Tucson to Tombstone.
One of southern Arizona's most respected Arizona Rangers was
Bisbee's Johnnie Brooks. The theory flourished in Arizona
Territory that public hangings helped to deter potential
criminals from their foul deeds. This execution of a young
murderer in 1889 was the first hanging in Globe. The crowd
must have found the victim's anguished expression haunting
their memories for decades to come.
Finally, there's the tale of Maricopa County Sheriff Carl
Hayden, best known for serving in the U. S. Congress longer
than any other person in history (fifty-seven years). Few
people remember Hayden's role in the capture of two train
robbers in the desert south of Maricopa in 1910. It was at
Maricopa that he borrowed a Stoddard-Dayton automobile from
its owner, J. F. McCarthy, who was drafted into service as the
chauffeur. The powerful car raced across the trackless desert
and caught up with the Woodson brothers, known as the
"beardless boy bandits," after their horses played out. Hayden
ordered the robbers to surrender, but one refused to drop his
pistol. So Hayden walked fearlessly toward the young man who,
after a long moment, put up his hands. Only then did Hayden
pocket his unloaded revolver. It's the first recorded incident
of a posse pursuing outlaws in an automobile. Yep, the
twentieth century had at last reached Arizona.
Copyright © 2001 Arizona Department of Public Safety