Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground~Earle Forrest~1950~First Edition~Second Printing~Rare Book~Free Shipping

Arizona’s Dark and Bloody Ground~Earle Forrest~1950~First Edition~Second Printing~Rare Book~Free Shipping.

The book is in good condition. Worn and stained cover. Inscriptions. See photos. A rare account of a very bad range war.

The Pleasant Valley War, sometimes called the Tonto Basin Feud, or Tonto Basin War, or Tewksbury-Graham Feud, was a range war fought in Pleasant Valley, Arizona in the years 1882–1892. The conflict involved two feuding families, the Grahams and the Tewksburys. The Grahams were ranchers, while the Tewksburys, who were part Native American, started their operations as cattle ranchers before branching out to sheep.

Pleasant Valley is located in Gila County, Arizona, but many of the events related to this feud took place in neighboring Apache and Navajo counties. Other neighborhood Arizona parts, such as Holbrook and Globe, were the setting of its bloodiest battles. Although the feud was originally fought between the Tewksburys and the Grahams against the well-established cattleman James Stinson, it soon involved other cattlemen associations, sheepmen, hired guns, cowboys and Arizona lawmen. The feud lasted for about a decade, with its most deadly incidents between 1886 and 1887; the last-known killing took place in 1892.

The Pleasant Valley War had the highest number of fatalities of such range conflicts in United States history, with an estimated total of 35 to 50 deaths, and the near annihilation of the males of the two feuding families. The Pleasant Valley War gave Arizona Territory a reputation for not being ready for statehood. Years after its end, many books and articles were written about the feud.

Edwin Tewksbury was the last survivor among the men involved in the Pleasant Valley War. He died in Globe, Arizona, in April 1904. Today, the graves of many of the murdered men can still be seen in the Young, Arizona, cemetery, and the Perkins Store still stands as a museum. In total, over 35 to 50 individuals were killed, with some participation from local vigilantes, hired hands and cowboys from both sides; and arrests by law enforcement were rare. The range war and the ongoing Apache Wars caused opposition to statehood for Arizona, because many legislators in Washington saw these as proof that the territory was not civilized enough to be part of the Union. - From Wikipedia

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