The Coconino sun., 1925-04-10
ARIZONA BILL, FAMOUS
SCOUT, WAS FLAGSTAFF
VISITOR ON WEDNESDAY

ARIZONA Bill''-maybe you saw
him on Flagstaff streets Wednesday
was an interesting caller at The
Sun office. He had been spending
several months in the Salt River val
ley, and is hiking to Philadelphia to
take in the 150th anniversary celebra-
tion of the signing of the declaration
of independence.
This old Indian fighter and one-time
crony of Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill,
with his long silken brown hair and
whiskers, doesn't look like he was 78
years old. But he is. He says he's
well preserved because he don't jazz
along with. modern civilization.
| Arizona BilPs real name is R. E.
Gardner, and he is a colonel. Not
content with his Indian fighting, he
had to go through the late World war;
Then for several years he was a
ranger in Yellowstone National park.
He had not been in Flagstaff before
since 1915. Naturally he noted big
Improvement and many changes.
While here he picked up a couple of
burros to carry his pack outfit and
make hiking easier.
To the average westerner the name
Arizona Bill is strange one and
sounds like character from a Bill
Hart or Tom Mix movie. But to the
few old pioneers who have memories
of the early west, the west of Indians,
trackless plains, stage coaches and
the pony express, the west of scat
tered forts and occasional gold excite
ments, the name might recall some
happenings of the past
A relic of the real wild and woolly
days, when six-gun was law and the
man with the quickest draw lived
longest, is Arizona Bill, or Col R. E.
Gardner, Indian fighter, scout, guide
and friend of Kit Carson and Buff
falo Bill.
He has a mission, the writing Of
book of his life, his life among the
Indians as boy, his young manhood
as an Indian fighter, guide and a
scout for Uncle Sam.
Started Three Times
81 have started to write that book
three times," he says. "This time
maybe I'll get it done"
Arizona Bill, he prefers that title
to colonel, was born in Texas when
white families were few and far be-
tween. When he was three years old
his parents, answering the call of
gold to the newly-discovered Cali
fornia fields, started by prairie
schooner across the Panhandle of the
Lone Star state. One day young
Gardner strayed from the wagon
train and was captured by band of
Comanches. Until he was nine years
old he lived the life of wild Indian
passing from the Comanches to the
Apaches, then finally getting back to
people of his own color.
Then followed years spent in the
saddle, roaming through the western
country and fighting the redskins, his
former captors.
He was at Fort Omaha (Nebraska)
in 1866, later drifting to Colorado. At
Manitou he had his last meeting with
his friend, Kit Carson. After time
he drifted north into Wyoming and
attached himself to government
troops as a scout. He was serving in
this capacity at Fort Reno at the time
of the Custer massacre in the Little
Big Horn and that historic disaster is
one of the poignant memories among
the many that are his.
Saw Much Fighting
The building of the Union Pacific
railroad, opening up of historic gold
fields and the almost continuous war
with the savages of the plains as the
white settlers gradually crowded the
red men back where chapters in the
life of Arizona Bill. Buffalo Bill was
one of his cronies of the scouting and
buffalo hunting days, and troopers at
Fort Phil Kearney and Reno were his
companions in many foray.
Arizona Bill got his name in the
Geronimo campaign in Arizona while
he was with the government troops.
He was with Black Jack Pershing in
the expedition into Mexico after Pan
cho<Villa and he was in Alaska when
the party Of the late President Hard
ing visited there.
-O--