ArizonaRealCountry.com 47 December 2017 February of 1867 found Snively back in Arizona Territory in Yuma County. He located the Star Light, Limeric and Red Banner claims while in Yuma County. Salt Headwaters Goldless In 1869, Snively rode to the Salt River Valley to join a prospecting expedition headed up by C. E. Cooley. This party joined another from Prescott headed by Calvin Jackson and converged on the area where Canyon Creek joined the Salt River. The joint parties combed the headwaters of the Salt throughout October of 1869 but found no gold. The Cooley party returned to the small settlement at Phoenix. Wickenburg His Last Home August of 1870 found Jacob Snively at Wickenburg, where he listed his occupation as a surveyor, a useful occupation in a Territory that for the most part had yet to be surveyed. This occupation did not fully occupy Snively, now 61 years old, whose main occupation had been prospector for many years. Snively’s long and ardent pursuit of gold and silver claims drove him in March of 1871 to team up with Andrew Starr, Henry Reed, P. Morgan and George Roe, all of Wickenburg in that year, and head to Picacho Peak, sometimes called the White Picacho, some 65 miles from Wickenburg. The Fatal Trip Near Picacho, the small prospecting party was attacked by Indians, most likely Apaches. Survivors placed the number of Indians at about 180, but this was most likely an exaggeration as Indian warriors rarely moved in such large bands. Jacob Snively fell in the volley of fire from the Indians. His companions vastly outnumbered, fled, leaving Snively to die of his wounds. A week later, an expedition of 20 men left Mill City, site of Bill Smith’s mill near Wickenburg, to return to the scene and bury Snively. Thomas Barnum, who came into Arizona Territory in 1863 seeking gold in the Walker district near Prescott and later joined Jack Swilling in building the first irrigation canal from the Salt to farmlands near the small Phoenix townsite, headed up the party to recover Snively’s body. At the first Maricopa County election in 1871, Barnum was elected Sheriff, getting 200 votes, 29 more votes than his opponent. Barnum and his men reached the battle scene and found Snively’s body a few yards from where he fell in a dry, sandy arroyo. The body was badly decomposed by the hot spring sun and coyotes had eaten nearly half the corpse. The party decided due to the condition of the body, they would bury Snively at the spot. Proper Grave, 7 Years Later Snively and pioneer Jack Swilling were described as extremely close, like brothers, and had known each other since their earliest days in Arizona Territory. Neither Swilling nor Barnum was pleased with one of the earliest of Arizona Territory pioneers lying in a remote grave at White Picacho. Seven years after Snively fell, Barnum, Swilling, George Monroe and Andy Kirby rode out of Black Canyon, where Swilling was living at the time, to bring Snively’s body in from the White Picacho and give the old pioneer a decent burial. It was late April 1878, that the party arrived at White Picacho. Swilling and George Monroe had, by this time, developed a record of recovering the bodies of fallen original pioneers of the Territory and bringing them in for proper burial. Snively was the sixteenth “old timers” body recovered by George Monroe and the seventh such recovery for Swilling. Grave near Black Canyon City After exhuming Snively’s body, it was learned that the veteran prospector had both arms broken, perhaps by his attackers before he died. He also had an Indian arrow point embedded in his skull that had almost gone completely through his head. The party returned to Black Canyon with Snively’s remains. He was buried in a grave near the Prescott to Phoenix wagon road through Black Canyon, at a place some five miles from Gillette, where ore from the famed Tip Top mine was processed. The grave site was neatly prepared and a headboard cut by the party. It was, to Swilling, a suitable place for his old friend, just a few miles from Swilling’s stone cabin. Snively Holes, a watering place east of Bill Williams Mountains, Arizona, is named for him. Castle Dome Landing