Around mid-morning, about six miles from Wickenburg, the stagecoach was allegedly attacked by 15
Yavapai warriors, who were sometimes mistakenly called Apache-Mohaves, from the
Date Creek Reservation.[1][2] Six men, including the driver, were shot and killed. Among them was
Frederick Wadsworth Loring,[3] a young writer from
Boston working as a correspondent for Appleton's Journal and assigned to cover a cartographic expedition led by Lieutenant
George Wheeler.[4] One male passenger, William Kruger, and the only female passenger, Mollie Sheppard, managed to escape.[5] According to Kruger, Sheppard eventually died of the wounds she received.[6]
Memorial plaques have been installed near the site several times, including in 1937 by the Arizona Highway Department and in 1948 and 1988 by the Wickenburg Saddle Club.[7]
Bill W. Smith. A Collection of Newspaper Articles, Letters, and Reports, Regarding the Wickenburg Massacre and Subsequent Camp Date Creek Incident. Phoenix: Privately Published, 1989. 68 pp.
ASINB00KJ80PLM,
OCLC22103156