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Revised 111312
Wagoner, AZ 1971
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
The town was named for Jaye Edward Wagoner, who founded the community in the early
1800’s and his wife Minerva served as postmaster.
Gone are the two-story hotel with ten
rooms, the bar with stalls for stagecoach horses, the dance hall, the old store
with its hand pump gasoline tank and gone too are the miners who once depended
on the store for their supplies.
Wagoner was a busy place with the
construction of Walnut Grove Dam, about a mile south of town.
The hotel burned in October 1942, the
dance hall was brought to a fiery end in 1948 all sings of Wagoner were
bulldozed away in 1997.
Source: Ghost Towns and Historical
Haunts in Arizona Thelma Heatwole.
The following written by:
Bonnie Helten
Wagoner
exists today only in the minds and memories of local residents and people that
have traveled Wagoner Road in years past. Only a water tower and windmill
remain to mark the location of this historic community.
Wagoner Water Holding Tank c. 12/19/07
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
In the early
1800’s Wagoner was named for Jaye Edward Wagoner, founder of the community. His
wife Minerva was postmaster. During its existence, according to local historian
and rancher, John Cooper, Wagoner boosted of having the oldest Sinclair Gas
Station franchise in Arizona.
Wagoner, Arizona
Photo courtesy: Mrs. John Cooper
There was a
two story hotel with ten rooms. A barn with stalls for
stagecoach horses. A dance hall with all the
trimmings. The old general store with its hand pump that deposited gas
in a vehicle via hand pump and gravity feed. A corral to hold
horses and live stock. The old 500 gallon gasoline holding tank still
remains if you look close enough.
Like all historical
Arizona Ghost Towns Wagoner had its highlights and lowlights. Being on the main
thoroughfare between Phoenix and Prescott kept the town thriving and full of
activity. Local merchant Peter Verdier was murdered at his store by a Mr. Lopez
who was shot and captured by Charley Genung. Lopez was tried, convicted and
sentenced to 99 year in prison.
Wagoner was
the gathering place for government officials and newspaper reporters for the
double homicides at Tussock Springs in 1923. During this time Wagoner didn’t
have a telephone and communication of this sort was done at Kirkland.
Phoenix
mothers would bring their ailing young children to the Wagoner area via stagecoach
during the summer months to escape the sweltering heat in the valley. This
practice stopped once the railroad was completed and mothers would ride the
train to cool Iron Springs, AZ several miles farther west and north of Wagoner.
Many of the graves in Wagoner Cemetery are those of children who died during
these summer visits.
Reservoir before dam broke
Photo courtesy: Mrs. John Cooper
The workers
on the Walnut Grove Dam project are also buried in the Wagoner Cemetery. A beautiful cemetery setting about one mile east of Wagoner.
The only headstone remaining is of James Clark Hunt a veteran. Unfortunately
someone with a bulldozer started prospecting the area and has disturbed much of
the ground here destroying many of the graves.
The winter of
1889/90 was unusually wet and the reservoir behind Walnut Dam just a mile
southeast of Wagoner, soon filled. Storms and snow melt pushed the reservoir to
its limit in February 1890. Trees and brush choked the spillways. The dam
superintendent, Thomas H. Brown, grew concerned that the pressure may cause the
dam to break.
Swollen flood
gates could not be opened, not even with dynamite. By the afternoon of February
21, a torrent of water 3 feet high had crested the dam. Only then did Brown
order an employee to race down the 22 mile stretch, to warn the more than 50
people at Gulch Camp that the dam may break.
Dan Burke,
employee and prospector, was chosen to deliver the message because of his
supposed familiarity with the territory. But Burke, obviously more thirsty than
concerned, stopped in at Goodwin's Station said to have been somewhere along
Oak or Cherry Creek, to have a drink.
Late that
evening, a second messenger, William Akard, caught up
with a drunken Burke at James Cameron's ranch, not far from Goodwins.
Still within sight of the lower diversion dam, the unleashed river would claim Akard's life. The message of warning was never delivered.
It was around midnight of that fateful day, a deafening blast and a blinding
flash marked the snapping of an immense steel cable that connected the water
tower of Walnut Dam to its east bank. Witnesses would later claim they thought
a giant box of gunpowder had exploded. They watched in horror as the tower
teetered and fell. In the next instant, the entire dam, including 90,000 tons
of rock, seemed to move bodily downstream in slow motion, sweeping clean
everything in its path.
A roaring
maelstrom of water, its crest a florescent glow in the darkness, towered 100
feet high and was said to "sound like Niagara Falls, only tenfold
greater", was moving at over 60 miles per hour. It took the mass of rubble
and water less than a half hour to sweep away the lower dam and main camp,
fifteen miles downstream. Between the lower dam and Wickenburg, approximately
150 people were living. One of the few survivors, fittingly named Mr. Hardee,
claimed that the flood filled the 200 yard wide valley, 60 foot deep.
Notably
Wagoner could have been a resort community on the edge of the reservoir if only
the dam had held. An attempt to rebuild the dam failed in the late 1920’s or
early 1930’s. Wagoner was a bustling community with the construction of the
Walnut Dam, which sat about a mile southeast of town.
J.C. Hunt grave at Wagoner Cemetery c.
2007
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
As you stand
on the high bluff there is only one headstone remaining but ample evidence of
many graves exist. If you pause and look to the southwest once on this bluff
you can see the flat lake bottom that would have been Lake Walnut Grove in the
valley below. Pictures still exist of boats and people enjoying the resort
atmosphere in this lovely area.
Wagoner, Arizona c. 1996
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
A local rancher
and property owner bulldozed all remains of Wagoner into a hole in 1997. The
old general store was a derelict structure of days gone by, at the time. And of
course was an irresistible adventure for anyone passing by to explore as it sat
on the edge of the road. Safety we are sure was an issue to eliminate any
potential accident or injury.
Wagoner, Arizona in 1996, one year
before it was bulldozed.
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
In addition
to the water holding tank, windmill there are still some graves in and about
the area if you know what to look for. In 2007 one grave still has a wooden
cross marking its location. It is an adult male but nothing else is known about
the grave according to John Cooper. Sadly when termites complete their work on
the wooden structure nothing by rocks will mark this grave.
Believed to be the grave of William Chautran
Wagoner, Arizona c. 2007
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
About 4 miles
to the west is the community of Walnut Grove that still can be identified by
the School House and local Church. The Walnut Grove Cemetery is a beautiful
well maintained cemetery. It is on private property, do not trespass, and ask
permission before you venture out to the cemetery.
Al Francis who built and named Fort Misery on Humbug Creek, was
a neighbor of “Kentuck” by ½ mile to the north. Al
freighted ore and supplies in and about Crown King is buried in the Walnut
Grove Cemetery. Al died on the James Minotto’s
Mission Ranch on January 23, 1946.
Wagoner Hotel c. 1890’s
Photo courtesy: Mrs. John Cooper
The Wagoner
Hotel burned in October 1942, the dance hall came to
the same demise in 1948.
Mr. John Cooper 12/19/07 recalls
history of the area,
standing at the remains of downtown Wagoner.
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten
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William Andrew Woodward
By Neal Du Shane
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William Andrew Woodward
Photo Courtesy: Marilyn Woodward
Blumell - APCRP Booster
It has not
officially been historically documented that the cemetery one mile SE of
Wagoner was ever recorded as the Wagoner Cemetery. We are referring it as the
Wagoner Cemetery as it seems logical as a historical reference name.
APCRP
received an email from Marilyn Woodward Blumell of Las Vegas, NV with an
inquiry if we could locate the final resting place of her great grandfather.
“Neal – Are
you still involved with The Arizona Pioneer Cemetery Research Project? Is
this project ongoing? My great-grandfather was William Andrew Woodward
who died 3 Sep 1925 while working on the Cooper Ranch. Roy Cooper paid
for his coffin and William was believed buried on the Cooper Ranch. On a
Jan. 30, 2009 you posted that “a couple of APCRP professional research teams
work the grave site extensively and found an additional five graves in and
about Capt. Hunts grave.” Do you have any additional information on these
graves and who is buried in them? I believe there’s a good chance William
Woodward is in one of these graves.”
Subsequent
emails were exchanged and a research trip by APCRP Certified Coordinator Bonnie
Helten was forthcoming. Some locals estimated William was buried in the Walnut
Grove Cemetery but no documentation could be found to substantiate this belief.
However Williams Death Certificate was found and it stated he was buried “near
Wagoner, Ariz. 9-4-1925”. Bonnie was able to identify in which cemetery William
was interred and was also able to identify the unmarked (without headstone)
grave for which he was interred.
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L-R: Shelly
Rasmussen, Ivan Rasmussen, Marilyn Blumell,
Bonnie
Helten, Mel Blumell
On
October 5, 2012 the APCRP team along with the Blumell’s
met at the cemetery and placed a marker at the grave of William Andrew
Woodward. We were joined by local rancher Barbara “Bobbie” Davis who felt what
we were doing was extremely honorable and fitting to pay respect to those that
pass before us.
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Photo
courtesy: Neal Du Shane
In
research on this cemetery several possible internments were discovered. APCRP
has performed initial research here and it is believed there could be up to 20
grave sites, all but two unmarked. Local legend that residents tell, mothers of
the Phoenix area (before air-conditioning) would pack up their ailing children
and come to Walnut Gove reservoir in the heat of the summer to a cooler place.
Many of the children did not survive do to their illness and there are children
buried here. More research on this subject is ongoing.
July
19, 1902: Word was received at the sheriff’s office yesterday that Tom Clark was found dead either mile’s northeast of Wagoner on Thursday. Deputy Sheriff
Jack Nelson of Crowned King was notified to go and look after the body. The
dead man is said to have been a placer miner who has resided in that section
for a number of years.
July
10, 1903: The remains of the late Louis
Wagoner, who was killed in a mine accident recently were shipped to San
Francisco, CA today by P. Mohn & Co. R.C. Ackley,
a friend of the family came to Prescott and accompanied the remains to the
above city.
A telephone
message was received last night stating that Jacob Merchant a resident of Wagoner, 55 years old had
committed suicide by blowing himself up with a giant powder.
Nov. 15,
1907: Jack Minor, colored, indicated for the murder of William Chautran, colored, near
Wagoner. APCRP research believes the grave (wooden cross) behind the old
Wagoner general store is the grave of William Chautron.
Minerva
Wagoner it has been researched was buried in California, but our research finds
an unmarked grave of what is believed is that of Jaye Edward Wagoner just north of Capt. Hunt’s grave site. Research
will continue to document this.
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WebMaster: Neal Du Shane
Internet Presentation
Revised 111312
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used
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gain.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer &
Cemetery Research Project (APCRP).
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