Rugged Terrain and Outlaws

A friend and I rode up into the Whetstone Mountains today to see if we could find the location where Wyatt Earp allegedly killed Curly Bill Brocius. History says the fight took place at Iron Springs but later accounts gave the name of the place as Mescal Springs. The two springs are roughly in the same place but are in fact two different locations. Recent research indicates, however, that neither of these places was the site of the battle but the battle may have been in a place called Cottonwood Springs which is about a quarter mile further west.

Mescal and Iron Springs are in a pass in the Whetstones mountains and Cottonwood Springs is just to the west of the pass. We studied the pass where the three springs are located using Google Earth. You can adjust the view of the program so you can see the terrain features as if you were on the ground. Once we felt we had a good idea where everything was and could recognize major terrain features, we loaded up the horses into the trailer and headed to the mountains. We struck out along a ranch road heading in the general direction of the pass. After a while, though, the road veered off in a bad direction so we headed off across the desert. The terrain got rough really quick. On Google Earth the pass looks smooth and easy to ride but in reality it was full of ridges and ravines cut back and forth all the way through the pass. The ground was rocky and most of it was loose and broken rock. The horses hated it and struggled with their footing.

Eventually, we came up against a fence that stopped further progress but we found a watering pen with a series of gates in it. On the other side of the pen was a dirt road that headed on up into the pass. We followed the road until it ended at an old well. The well had a pipe running out of it that ran about a mile back to where the watering pen had pen. Unfortunately, the road pretty much ended there and we struggled up through the wash that ran down out of the top of the pass.

We eventually came up upon Iron Springs and not further on, Mescal Springs. We did not ride up into the springs as the terrain was very rocky and would have been hard on the horses. We could have tied up the horses and walked up, but we wanted to get on to Cottonwood Springs and we had already been riding for an hour. The terrain got worse. There were plenty of cattle trails but they were not suitable for men on horseback. We finally had to dismount and lead the horses up through the brush and steep cattle trails to get out of the pass.

I was riding Duke, who didn't seem to grasp the concept of being led through the brush. He'd see the other horse disappearing into the trees ahead and he'd want to hurry up and join him. So it was like a bad Three Stooges movie where the stooges try to go through a doorway side by side. I'd be trying to squeeze myself through a hole in a thicket and Duke would try to squeeze through with me. Sometimes he'd get ahead of me on the trail and I'd be dragged along behind him. I eventually got him to understand that he had to wait for me to go first and walk behind me.

Finally, mercifully, we got out of the pass and onto a saddle before dropping down into Cottonwood Springs. Cottonwood Springs isn't as well defined as the other two. There is no obvious clump of trees to mark the springs just a series of tree lined washes that fork off in different directions. We couldn't really find the location of the gun battle as there were too many possibilities and we didn't have time to explore them all. We were an hour and a half into the ride and knew we had a rough ride to get back to the horse trailer.

Although we didn't find the site of the battle, we are pretty sure that it must have taken place at Cottonwood Springs as opposed to either of the other locations. No one in his right mind would have ridden a horse to either Mescal Springs or Iron Springs. The pass is just too rough. Also, the terrain described by Wyatt Earp at the battle didn't really match the terrain at Mescal or Iron Springs. Earp and his posse came upon the outlaws in their camp with both parties being surprised by the other. That would not have been possible at either of the springs in the pass but entirely possible in the Cottonwood Springs area.

All in all, it was a great ride but next time I think I'll ride to Cottonwood Springs from the west and avoid the pass altogether. Either that or hike through the pass on foot.