Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project

Internet Presentation

122307

Wagoner, AZ 1971

Photo courtesy: Bonnie Helten

Wagoner exists today only in the minds and memories of local residents as well as 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 boasted of having the oldest Sinclair Gas Station franchise in Arizona.

Wagoner, Arizona c. 1890’s

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 a distance of seven miles, in 1923. During this time Wagoner didn’t have a telephone and communication of this sort was accomplished at Kirkland.

Mothers from Phoenix 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 diminished once the railroad was completed and mothers would ride the train to the cool climate of 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 Goodwin’s. 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 but rocks will mark this grave.

Lone grave marker – 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

WebMaster: Neal Du Shane

n.j.dushane@comcast.net

Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project

Internet Presentation

Version 122307

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