Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-10-23
Murders in Cooks Canron.


 Last Thursday morning, while ten ranchmen from .he Gila were following the trail of a lot of cattle that had been stolen from them, and were passing through Doubtful canyon, or Cooks canyon as it IS generally called, near Steen's peak, they were fired upon by ambushed Indians and five of their number were killed. One of the killed was named Purdy and another Charles. The names of the other three were not learned.
 Cooks canyon has been the scene of many bloody tragedy from the time the whites first entered it up to the pres ent time. The old Butterfeld road from Apache pass to Shakespeare and to the East passes through this narrow, rocky and tortuous defile for distance of three miles or more, and in past years the Indians have made use Of its pecu- liar advantages in their method of war fare to massacre travellers. It is esti- mated that the bones of no less than one hundred and fifty victims of Indian cruelty lie scattered throughout this
 
 tales of horror and bloodshed, and al- most any old resident of the Territory can recall some blOOd-curdling episode that transpired in its shadowy depths. Onelit- tie instance that will be remembered by many a resident of the Territory, occur red in 1870. Font Wins, the noted stage driver of those perilous days, was going down tine canyon with his load of pas sengers and guard of soldiers. The stage was attacked by the Indians, whose first fire killed one of the leaders ot the stage team, and brought the stage tO halt. The soldiers immediately jumped to the ground and fled down the canyon. The brave and intrepid driver was not to be captured so easily, nor would he abandon his stage and passen- gers to the hostiles. He leaped to the ground amid showers of bullets and with few well-directed strokes of a Bowie knife cut the dead horse loose from the vehicle, and coOly remOunted his seat and drove with a spike team safely past the Indians at the highest speed possi- ble into the safe country beyond. He passed by the covardly guard, and when they called to him to stop and take them along,he shouted back derisively for them to go to h-hades, and made all possible haste into Shakespeare. Here he reclted to the citizens what had occurred. and told them they had better go back and rescue the soldiers who would surely be killed by the Indians. It Is unnecessary tO add that the soldiers were not killed.
 The injunction issued Saturday week by the District Court at Boulder, Color
 n h.. n Pacific Railroad, has never taken effect, on account of Given and Abbott, plain tiffs, failing to give the required S20,0OO bond.
 There is a fine coal field at Parowan, Southern Utah. One vein of coal 300 or 400 feet above the canon. The three seams of coal, with intervening shale, measure about 22 feet The lower seam is three feet, the second about seven, and the third about four. The coal is of fine quality.
 Ex-GUv. Hiland Hall, of Vermont, must be venerable indeed. At the Gar field memorial meeting at Bennington he is reported ss having said: |" l heard the announcements of the deaths of all the deceased Presidents at the time they occurred beginning with that of Washing ton and ending with Garfield, whom we mourn today"
 The Elmira Advertiser laments the fact that while school children are week after week drilled on the geography of foreign countries, not one in a dozen has the least idea about the general location of towns and cities in the State of New York and the railroads it would be nec- essary to take in going from one point to another.