By Al Bates 

On May 10, 1863, at a location just a few miles south of today's Prescott, an event happened that had a significant impact on the future development of both this area and of Arizona Territory. On that date, twenty-five men signed a contract that established the first mining district in the Central Arizona Highlands. 

When word of the establishment of the aptly named Pioneer Mining District got back to the "states," it began a flood of immigrants that swelled the number of non-Indians in the area from 25 to over 1000 in a year's time. The special census of 1864 shows the majority of the newcomers were born in the United States and Mexico, but that a significant number had come from nations around the world.

More significantly, the gold discovery caused a change in plans for Governor John N. Goodwin and his traveling party. Instead of heading to Tucson as originally planned, they listened to the advice of General James Carleton who had received significant samples of this area's gold. Thus they traveled across northern Arizona and then dropped down to the site of Fort Whipple, newly established to protect the rapidly growing population. There at Del Rio Springs, a temporary Territorial government was established in January 1864. 

After a tour of much of Arizona in the spring of that year, Governor Goodwin selected the new town of Prescott as the site for the Territorial Government (as well as the County Seat for vast, sprawling Yavapai County) thereby beginning the long struggle over location of Arizona's seat of government. 

The Joseph R. Walker exploratory party was formed by the combination of two small groups that joined together at Grapevine Springs, California in May of 1861. According to Sam Miller, there were seven in the Miller party (Sam, his brother Jake and their father, John plus four others) and nine in the Walker party (which included two Walker nephews, John and Joseph R. Walker, Jr.). Others joined along the way. Their stated goal was the search for precious metals and their path took them across northern Arizona and up into Colorado before dropping down into New Mexico in the fall of 1862. 

According to Sam Miller: "In September 1862 we started with 36 men from Colorado into Arizona and in May 1863 we arrived on the (headwaters of the) Hassayampa River." It wasn't quite that simple; much happened during those few months, including the capture and death of the Apache Chief Mangus Coloradas. 

By January 1863, the Walker Party reached the ruins of Fort McLane near the Pinos Altos mining region, and there they met John W. (Jack) Swilling. The Army had embarked on a harsh campaign against the Apaches and had been making plans to eliminate Mangus and his allies, and Jack Swilling was included as part of those plans. 

Hearing rumors that the old chief had returned to the Pinos Altos area and that Swilling was mining in that vicinity, Colonel West wrote in November 1862, "Jack Swilling is at the mines and is available for service." Thus Swilling's arrival at the ruins of Fort McLane in mid-January 1863 coincided with the planned arrival of Captain E. D. Shirland and twenty Army troopers, and there Swilling encountered the Walker Party for the first time. 

Specifics of the plan to capture Mangus were worked out, including the involvement of civilians to conceal the Army presence. Swilling was the logical leader because of his previous acquaintance with Mangus at Pinos Altos and his experience leading small mounted groups. Captain Walker did not participate in the capture. 

Swilling led a mixed group of Walker Party civilians and Army troops with the intent to keep the Army's presence unknown to the Apaches. Since the military wanted to keep all the credit for the capture, the Army's official account did not credit Swilling or the Walker party with any participation. 

Much of the information we have about the Walker Party comes from Daniel Ellis Conner who joined the party as they traveled from Colorado into New Mexico. Conner, who was on the run from Federal authorities because of failed Confederate activities in Colorado, recreated his account from memory years later. 

Conner provided a detailed account of Swilling's participation in the capture in a 1915 letter to Arizona historian Thomas Edwin Farish: "The soldiers concealed themselves in an old hackle (hut), and behind the rocks and chaparral. The citizen party of sixteen boldly marched across the open ground of the summit, when John W. Swilling uttered a war whoop, loud enough to make an Apache ashamed of himself. This had the desired effect, for Mangus, followed by a dozen of his bodyguards appeared, slowly coming in our direction. John W. Swilling went alone and met them about one hundred and fifty paces from us. Our citizen party leveled our rifles upon them, and Jack Swilling laid his hand upon Mangus' shoulder and convinced him that any resistance would cause the destruction of his party. There was not a shot fired." 

By the time Swilling's group and their captive returned to the Fort McLane ruins that afternoon, General West and the rest of his force had arrived. At that point, the Army took over custody of the Indian chief, and it was while under their control that Mangus was killed "attempting to escape," probably the night of January 17-18. As an eyewitness to what he considered premeditated murder, Conner forcefully and repeatedly denied the Army's official account for the rest of his life. 

Swilling was under contract to the Union Army as a civilian scout stationed at Fort West from January 16 to March 22, 1863, and thus was constrained in his ability to go exploring. Meanwhile, most of the Walker party and some of the soldiers made a five-week expedition west to the San Francisco River. It seems odd today that a group of soldiers would go exploring in the midst of both the national Civil War and a local Indian War, but it made sense then, given the need for gold by the Federal Government. Also, General Carleton was known to allow his troops (while on leave) to combine prospecting with their other duties. 

Following that expedition, the Walker party spent most of a month camped near the newly established Fort West, and did not leave until after the end of Swilling's time of Army employment. That one-month "time out" was taken because Swilling had convinced Walker that gold was to be found up a river he had discovered three years earlier, a river that would come to be called the Hassayampa. 

Not all of the party liked what was eventually proposed, and several of them stayed behind either at Fort West or elsewhere along the way to the new diggings. Nine who had signed a loyalty oath at Santa Fe the previous November were not on the roll of the "original prospectors" who formed the Pioneer Mining District some five or six weeks after the departure from Fort West, but there were seven replacements. 

When the Walker party finally left the Fort West vicinity around the first of April 1863, and headed into the newly created Arizona Territory, Swilling led the way. The evidence is clear: they traveled into an area that only Swilling knew, the unexplored area above the Gila he entered with his Indian-fighting militia just three years before, and where he and the other experienced miners had observed "The finest indications of gold of any they have ever seen." 

The Walker party's route took them through Apache Pass at night, since the Apaches after Mangus' death were even more aggressive than before. They stopped briefly at Tucson, then proceeded to the Pima/Maricopa villages at the juncture of the Salt and Gila rivers, and then went cross-country to the unnamed river, continuing to near its headwaters. There on May 10, 1863, they formed the Pioneer Mining District. 

If there are any lingering doubts about Swilling's importance to the Walker party, a letter written by another member of the party, A. C. Benedict, should put them to rest. On July 3, 1863, Benedict wrote that, "Jack Swilling is the man who first conducted us to the stream (Hassayampa) on which we found gold on our first trip." 

Given Jack Swilling's importance to the Walker Party and to the Pioneer Mining District, he will be given an equal place of honor with Joseph Walker on the monument the Prescott Corral of Westerners International plans to erect at the site of the organizing meeting of the Pioneer Mining District. 

Please join us in celebrating the founding of the Pioneer Mining District on the Hassayampa River May 10, 2007, at 11:00 a.m. sponsored by the Walker Party Exploration Society. The celebration site is located east of White Spar Road at the Junction of 97B and CR 101. Please call Dave Johnson at 445-9196 for more details. 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1599p)
Reuse only by permission.
Joseph R. Walker, c.1870, leader of the expedition credited with discovering the gold on the Hassayampa River and ultimately, Prescott, Arizona. Photo Courtesy of California State Library. 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po0874p)
Reuse only by permission.
John (Jack) Swilling with Apache Indian boy, c.1880. Swilling led the famed Walker party into the unknown territory of central Arizona Territory in search of gold. Swilling was also instrumental in the capture of Apache Chief Mangus Coloradas.