Massacre At Guadalupe Canyon

Like many incidents in Arizona’s history, this one is also shrouded in mystery, and there are few facts about the murders, short of the number of dead. As a result of this, the validity or factuality of this story has always been shrouded in doubt. At that time, there was based on a ranch near Tombstone, Arizona, some outlaws known collectively as "Cow-boys" who were operating in the area. Although not an organized gang, members of the "Cow-boys" faction often rustled cattle and committed other crimes, including murder and robbery according to the story’s telling.

 

It all starts in July of 1881 when several Mexican Smugglers, carrying silver, had been ambushed and killed in an area called Skeleton Canyon. The killers were never positively identified, but Mexicans just across the border always suspected that those murders were committed by members of the "Cow-boys" faction. Now it just so happened that Old Man Clanton was always referred to as the leader of the "Cow-boys", due mostly to the fact that they operated off his ranch. Also, it just so happened that at that time, his ranch was one of the most profitable cattle ranches in that part of the country. However, there is no evidence that he ever helped plan or organize any of the rustling or robberies committed by members of the "Cow-boys" faction.

 

The story goes that in August, 1881, Old Man Clanton and six others were herding cattle through Guadalupe Canyon, which is close to the Arizona New Mexico boarder. It was there that they were ambushed by persons unknown, and five were murdered (Clanton; Charley Snow, a ranch hand who thought he had heard a bear and was the first killed; Jim Crane, who was wanted for the stagecoach robbery near Tombstone that resulted in the death of Bud Philpott and was a source of angst between Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp; Dick Gray, 19, son of Col. Mike Gray; and Billy Lang, a cattle rancher). Clanton, Crane, and Gray were either still in their bedrolls or in the act of getting dressed when killed; Lang was the only one who had a chance to fight back. Harry Ernshaw, a milk farmer, eluded death by fleeing (but not before being grazed by a bullet on the nose); Billy Byers feigned death until the perpetrators left.

 

Harry Ernshaw is said to have made his way to the ranch of John Pleasant Gray (Dick's brother) who enlisted help from a mining camp 20 miles away and they all set off for Guadalupe Canyon. Upon arriving at the camp, they found the dead, stripped naked of their clothing, as well as a dazed Byers five miles away. How he managed to get that far was still and item of controversy to those familiar with the story.

 

Charley Snow received the most grievous of treatment at the hands of the attackers and was buried where he fell due to the state of his body; the others were taken back by wagon and buried about ten miles east of Cloverdale, NM. This didn’t sit too well with two of the Clanton sons so in 1882 the two Clanton sons removed Old Man Clanton’s body and moved it to the Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone, where he was buried beside his son Billy Clanton, who had been killed in the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

 

There is a theory that this ambush and the murders were committed by a group of the Mexican Rurales led by one Captain Alfredo Carrillo. It is said that he had survived an earlier ambush in 1879 in Skeleton Canyon and was convinced that the Clanton’s were behind the ambushed. It’s said that the members of the first group that had been ambushed were also sleeping when the attack came.

 

Again, there is no evidence to support any of these ideas, and so it will remain a mystery. There was also talk that the Earp brothers were also suspected as being the murderers. It seems that at the time, the Earps were searching the area for Jim Crane, a casualty of the massacre and a suspected stagecoach robber.

 

Many more pieces of Arizona History can be found in our book Tales From The Arizona Prospector

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