Dragoon Springs Stage Station. Frontier Relic of Western History and Brutal Violence
Thanks to historian Doug Hocking for additional information in reference to the 4 graves labeled Confederate. On the night of September 9, 1858, three Mexican laborers arose at midnight and attacked Silas St. John, James Burr, William Cunningham, and James Laing. Burr was killed instantly.
Cunningham and Laing lay wounded in the head by axes and dying. Silas St. John, gravely wounded would wait four days for help to arrive. One of his companions died during the wait, and the other passed away the next day. These three men were buried in two rock cairns with Silas’s arm between them.
In 1860, mining engineer Horce Grosvenor sketched the station, showing the cairns in the position we see them in today. He was slain by Apaches the next year. On May 5, 1862, Confederate soldiers rounding up stock were ambushed by Apaches in the canyon near the spring. Three were slain. SGT
Ford and a Mexican drover, Ricardo, pressed into service, are buried near the Overland Mail employees.