Tombstone to Benson Stage Road
by John Rose.
The Earps move to Tombstone-Virgil Earp in fight at Stage Stop as Wyatt watches-Robbery on Stage Road- The Knights of the Road strike again
Stage Road
The Tombstone Stage Road.
The open road has long been a source of adventure in the American story. The fact that long after its heyday had passed, route 66 is still remembered fondly by so many proves the point. Such roadways were part of people’s lives, and, given the sheer enormity of the Western frontier, important life giving arteries for fledgling communities that dotted the American West. These dusty dirt trails and roads allowed passengers go to and fro. Tons of household goods and mining equipment were transported to remote locations, and all other forms of commerce relied heavily on these routes.
The Stage Coach road from Benson to Tombstone is one of the most important when it comes to the thousands of travelers who traversed it to arrive in and help build Tombstone, but also for historical events that later had far reaching impacts.
In October of 1879 Virgil and Allie Earp were starting to enjoy the fruits of their hard work, having established themselves in Prescott Arizona. But the news of a promising mining camp called Tombstone soon had the families attention. In October of 1879, their barking dog signaled the arrival of James and Bessie Earp, along with Bessie’s seventeen year old daughter Hattie, and Wyatt Earp and Mattie.
Limited wagon space caused Virgil to tell his wife that the sewing machine he had bought her had to be left behind. “I sure am sorry Allie. But you’ve got to leave it behind…you know there ain’t any room.” Having already agreed to leaving a number of other possessions, Allie quietly sat down next to the machine and said “All right, Virge. Leave it behind. I’ll stay with it.” It was Wyatt who broke the impass saying “Oh, we can get it in someplace,” and then in a whisper added, “but I don’t know where.” The sewing machine would serve them well when they arrived in Tombstone, as it helped support the family while the men looked for additional work.
They were off to Tombstone on the stage road that is still visible in some areas even today. Though the road would be later improved with advanced drainage, it was at first, primitive. “The road,” as Allie recalled, “wasn’t hardly one at all. The wagons spread out one behind the other and tried to keep in the same tracks. We only met one wagon comin’ toward us, and then in the afternoon the stage from Benson caught up with us. Virge and me were in the front wagon. Lookin’ back I saw Wyatt and Jim’s wagons both almost in the ditch and on the road passin’ them the stage. The driver was crackin’ his whip, shoutin’ and makin’ a big hullabaloo. Right away Virge pulled off to the side. “’Look out! You’ll fetch us in the ditch!” I hollered to Virge when the wagon tipped. “’We’ve got to get over,’ said Virge. ‘The U.S. Mail has got the right to the road over everybody. Nothing can stop it.’
“When we were over as far as we could get, Virge stopped the horses to let the stage get by. The driver, with plenty or room, kept crackin’ his whip, shoutin’ and actin’ real smart. When he got opposite u s, out of meanness and showin’ off, he passed so close he ran into our team and raked one of the horses so bad it began to bleed. Then with a laugh, the driver whipped up his own horses and the stage rattled off in a cloud of dust.
“Virg didn’t say anything. He took one look at the bleeding horse and laid on his whip. They jumped forward and in a jiffy we were racin’ down the road after the stage. Wyatt and Jim behind us must have thought somethin’ was wrong and whipped their horses into a run after us.
“In about five miles we caught up with the mail stage where it had stopped at a stage-station to change horses. The passengers had all got out to stretch and the driver was standin’ with them outside. Virge tied up the reins, got down and walked up to the driver. I got down and followed him just in time to see him knock the driver down. The driver got up and Virge knocked him down again. Then they had a fist fight. Virge just thumped the pudding out of him, knockin’ him down as fast as he could get up. Finally the driver just laid there. All the people had gathered around. Wyatt and Jim had come up and stood there sayin’ nothin’. After a time the driver got on his hands and knees, spit out some blood and teeth, and looked up.
“Don’t you get up until you say you’re sorry you hurt my horse,’ Virge told him. ‘You know we were out of your way.’
“I’ve had enough’, the driver grumbled. ‘Maybe it was my fault!’” From there the Earps returned to the Stage road, closing in on their Tombstone destination, but Virgil’s encounter may have given Allie pause to think about what kind of town they had moved themselves and their aspirations to. “We all got back in our wagons and started out. We were on the top of a hill. I might have known, with a fight on our hands already, what was down there in the Valley. We could see it—it was Tombstone.”
The open road has long been a source of adventure in the American story. The fact that long after its heyday had passed, route 66 is still remembered fondly by so many proves the point. Such roadways were part of people’s lives, and, given the sheer enormity of the Western frontier, important life giving arteries for fledgling communities that dotted the American West. These dusty dirt trails and roads allowed passengers go to and fro. Tons of household goods and mining equipment were transported to remote locations, and all other forms of commerce relied heavily on these routes.
The Stage Coach road from Benson to Tombstone is one of the most important when it comes to the thousands of travelers who traversed it to arrive in and help build Tombstone, but also for historical events that later had far reaching impacts.
In October of 1879 Virgil and Allie Earp were starting to enjoy the fruits of their hard work, having established themselves in Prescott Arizona. But the news of a promising mining camp called Tombstone soon had the families attention. In October of 1879, their barking dog signaled the arrival of James and Bessie Earp, along with Bessie’s seventeen year old daughter Hattie, and Wyatt Earp and Mattie.
Limited wagon space caused Virgil to tell his wife that the sewing machine he had bought her had to be left behind. “I sure am sorry Allie. But you’ve got to leave it behind…you know there ain’t any room.” Having already agreed to leaving a number of other possessions, Allie quietly sat down next to the machine and said “All right, Virge. Leave it behind. I’ll stay with it.” It was Wyatt who broke the impass saying “Oh, we can get it in someplace,” and then in a whisper added, “but I don’t know where.” The sewing machine would serve them well when they arrived in Tombstone, as it helped support the family while the men looked for additional work.
They were off to Tombstone on the stage road that is still visible in some areas even today. Though the road would be later improved with advanced drainage, it was at first, primitive. “The road,” as Allie recalled, “wasn’t hardly one at all. The wagons spread out one behind the other and tried to keep in the same tracks. We only met one wagon comin’ toward us, and then in the afternoon the stage from Benson caught up with us. Virge and me were in the front wagon. Lookin’ back I saw Wyatt and Jim’s wagons both almost in the ditch and on the road passin’ them the stage. The driver was crackin’ his whip, shoutin’ and makin’ a big hullabaloo. Right away Virge pulled off to the side. “’Look out! You’ll fetch us in the ditch!” I hollered to Virge when the wagon tipped. “’We’ve got to get over,’ said Virge. ‘The U.S. Mail has got the right to the road over everybody. Nothing can stop it.’
“When we were over as far as we could get, Virge stopped the horses to let the stage get by. The driver, with plenty or room, kept crackin’ his whip, shoutin’ and actin’ real smart. When he got opposite u s, out of meanness and showin’ off, he passed so close he ran into our team and raked one of the horses so bad it began to bleed. Then with a laugh, the driver whipped up his own horses and the stage rattled off in a cloud of dust.
“Virg didn’t say anything. He took one look at the bleeding horse and laid on his whip. They jumped forward and in a jiffy we were racin’ down the road after the stage. Wyatt and Jim behind us must have thought somethin’ was wrong and whipped their horses into a run after us.
“In about five miles we caught up with the mail stage where it had stopped at a stage-station to change horses. The passengers had all got out to stretch and the driver was standin’ with them outside. Virge tied up the reins, got down and walked up to the driver. I got down and followed him just in time to see him knock the driver down. The driver got up and Virge knocked him down again. Then they had a fist fight. Virge just thumped the pudding out of him, knockin’ him down as fast as he could get up. Finally the driver just laid there. All the people had gathered around. Wyatt and Jim had come up and stood there sayin’ nothin’. After a time the driver got on his hands and knees, spit out some blood and teeth, and looked up.
“Don’t you get up until you say you’re sorry you hurt my horse,’ Virge told him. ‘You know we were out of your way.’
“I’ve had enough’, the driver grumbled. ‘Maybe it was my fault!’” From there the Earps returned to the Stage road, closing in on their Tombstone destination, but Virgil’s encounter may have given Allie pause to think about what kind of town they had moved themselves and their aspirations to. “We all got back in our wagons and started out. We were on the top of a hill. I might have known, with a fight on our hands already, what was down there in the Valley. We could see it—it was Tombstone.”
John Rose discovers a horseshoe on the Tombstone Stage road as it forks off toward the Contention area, and well before the road crosses into the BLM owned area. Even the portion of the road before reaching the BLM property line had so much overgrowth that it could only be found from the air. Years of on the ground research and hiking, as well as map analysis, have led to this all important discovery. This dramatic overgrowth is likely due to the fact that though the Tombstone to Benson road was used for many years even after the RR arrived in Tombstone, the road to Contention which spurred off of the Benson to Tombstone road, had little reason for use after Contention City became a ghost town.
Although this Stage Robbery isn't of the same importance as the Kinnear and Company event that lead to the killing of Bud Philpott, it nonetheless shows that lawlessness was still well in session in early January 1882. This robbery remains one of my favorites as the robbers, aka, the "Knights of the Road" were clearly disappointed at how little reward they found when robbing this particular group of travelers. "What kind of layout is this," asked one very disappointed bandit. As if to shame them for not being an enriching group to rob from he added in disgust, "It's the poorest crowd I ever struck."
Of greater embarrassment is that the list of robbed passengers included Wells Fargo special agent J.B. Hume, who "donated" to the robbers cause by handing over two pistols, while staring down the business end of a shotgun. That Hume would be robbed by the very outlaws he was tasked with helping to stop was an irony not overlooked at the time by anyone.
The old stage road to and from Tombstone served as a route for commerce but also recreation. As Tombstone diarist George Parsons noted in his diary on February 22nd, 1882...."Celebrated day by going to Contention City on horseback-quite a party of us for ride and to see the cars, it being a little more than two years since I had seen a steam engine-locomotive-cars and track.[this would be the N.M. &A highlighted on our Contention City page] Mrs. Glover chaperoned party. She, Miss Bessie Brown[first operator of the Grand Hotel], Miss Herring[daughter of Colonel Herring and latter Earp attorney], Miss Thomas, Miss Locker and Miss Moses were the ladies and Jimmy Eccleston, Herring, Frank Earle, Casey Clum and I were the gentlemen. We were joined on the road by Ross and Strong, who were not very cordially welcomed by the ladies." Parsons soon learned that all were not up to the journey as it pertained to horseback skills.
"The poor girl-Miss L- had never ridden horseback outside of a yard before and was bold enough to venture on a 25 mile ride, not knowing any better. Result was I had to look after her very closely and had a hard day's work of it and no pleasure to speak of, being afraid all of the time that something would happen....Good lunch at Myer's new hotel Contention..." Parsons was concerned that Miss L could not make the return journey on horseback, but she had refused to get into a wagon while in Contention, so Parsons and others "put her in one though on the road." Perhaps they should have looked more closely at Miss L's fellow passenger in the wagon. Only after placing her in the wagon did they notice "a manacled prisoner in behind and that the driver and another were armed." A few miles later and closer to Tombstone, thoughts of her arrival in town seated next to a prisoner, may have caused Miss L to rethink her traveling companion, and her lack of horseback skills, as she again remounted her horse and returned to Tombstone, no longer sitting next to the prisoner.
"The poor girl-Miss L- had never ridden horseback outside of a yard before and was bold enough to venture on a 25 mile ride, not knowing any better. Result was I had to look after her very closely and had a hard day's work of it and no pleasure to speak of, being afraid all of the time that something would happen....Good lunch at Myer's new hotel Contention..." Parsons was concerned that Miss L could not make the return journey on horseback, but she had refused to get into a wagon while in Contention, so Parsons and others "put her in one though on the road." Perhaps they should have looked more closely at Miss L's fellow passenger in the wagon. Only after placing her in the wagon did they notice "a manacled prisoner in behind and that the driver and another were armed." A few miles later and closer to Tombstone, thoughts of her arrival in town seated next to a prisoner, may have caused Miss L to rethink her traveling companion, and her lack of horseback skills, as she again remounted her horse and returned to Tombstone, no longer sitting next to the prisoner.
This roadway also played host to a minor part of the Earp drama. "Yesterday Earps were taken to Contention to be tried for killing of [Billy] Clanton." Quite a posse went out. Many of Earp's friends accompanied armed to the teeth. They came back later in the day, wrote Parsons on Wednesday February 15th, 1882. That the Earp's were forced to travel to a Contention City courtroom has long given rise to the theory that the real point was a possible ambush on the Tombstone to Benson Stage road, given it's may remote areas. The fact that the Earp party was escorted by many friends "armed to the teeth" means that they believed an ambush was possible as well.
A raised portion of the Stage Road before the BLM property begins
In 2004 new information related to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday was published by renowned Tombstone expert, William Shillingberg, author of Tombstone A.T. Dr. Gary Roberts, author of "Doc Holliday" listed this same article by Shillingberg as one of his sources when using another portion of it in his Holliday book. An additional portion of this new information in the same article also pertained to Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, and the Tombstone Stage road. Perhaps one of the most remarkable trips on this roadway took place over four decades after Tombstone's best days.
Referring to the wanderings of Wyatt Earp and his close friend John Flood, Mr. Shillingberg wrote the following: "They also traveled to Tombstone, which [John] Flood had first seen with Wyatt during a quick trip in the early 1920's...The young novice and veteran frontiersman spent only a day in the decaying mining camp, having come to Benson by Train. Borrowing a car from a trusted friend, with the understanding that its owner keep quiet about Earp's arrival-they drove over the old wagon road to Tombstone."
Shillingberg wrote that that this pair of day travelers, Earp and Flood, drove the same stage road that a younger Wyatt Earp had traversed many times as a Pima County Sheriff's deputy. After resigning from that positon, Earp would later venture down this same roadway riding on a posse in pursuit of Bud Philpott's murderers, and a year after that dramatic chase he also traveled the same route when he delivered Morgan Earp's remains to the N.M. & A. Railroad Depot at Contention. Given that Flood was to write Earp's story, "Wyatt showed Flood all the important sites," Shillingberg notes, "so that when they started work on the manuscript he could better visualize what had happened.
"No-one recognized Earp, slightly stooped and dressed in a conservative grey business suit; but then, there was no reason for anyone to expect him to make an appearance. Walking the deserted streets, they lingered at the location of the famous gunfight, Wyatt pointing out the shallow embankment leading into the roadway from the vacant lot where it all began, explaining how his brother Morgan had tripped over an exposed pipe of the Sycamore Springs Water Company, probably saving his life that day. Earp became sadly reflective only once, in front of the spot where Campbell and Hatch's billiard parlor and saloon once stood. It was there, on the evening of March 18, 1882, that Morgan was murdered. With an emotional voice, Earp confided to Flood, 'This is one place I can never forget.'
"By late afternoon they drove back over the dirt road to Benson, catching the evening coach to Tucson and points west."
Referring to the wanderings of Wyatt Earp and his close friend John Flood, Mr. Shillingberg wrote the following: "They also traveled to Tombstone, which [John] Flood had first seen with Wyatt during a quick trip in the early 1920's...The young novice and veteran frontiersman spent only a day in the decaying mining camp, having come to Benson by Train. Borrowing a car from a trusted friend, with the understanding that its owner keep quiet about Earp's arrival-they drove over the old wagon road to Tombstone."
Shillingberg wrote that that this pair of day travelers, Earp and Flood, drove the same stage road that a younger Wyatt Earp had traversed many times as a Pima County Sheriff's deputy. After resigning from that positon, Earp would later venture down this same roadway riding on a posse in pursuit of Bud Philpott's murderers, and a year after that dramatic chase he also traveled the same route when he delivered Morgan Earp's remains to the N.M. & A. Railroad Depot at Contention. Given that Flood was to write Earp's story, "Wyatt showed Flood all the important sites," Shillingberg notes, "so that when they started work on the manuscript he could better visualize what had happened.
"No-one recognized Earp, slightly stooped and dressed in a conservative grey business suit; but then, there was no reason for anyone to expect him to make an appearance. Walking the deserted streets, they lingered at the location of the famous gunfight, Wyatt pointing out the shallow embankment leading into the roadway from the vacant lot where it all began, explaining how his brother Morgan had tripped over an exposed pipe of the Sycamore Springs Water Company, probably saving his life that day. Earp became sadly reflective only once, in front of the spot where Campbell and Hatch's billiard parlor and saloon once stood. It was there, on the evening of March 18, 1882, that Morgan was murdered. With an emotional voice, Earp confided to Flood, 'This is one place I can never forget.'
"By late afternoon they drove back over the dirt road to Benson, catching the evening coach to Tucson and points west."
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