b'THE BANDITS OF COLOSSAL CAVEBy M.K. and E. Lendell Cockrum Maierhauser Reprinted from the Colossal Cave websiteE VEN BEFORE TOURS WERE TAKEN IN COLOSSAL CAVE in the late teens and early twenties, it was reputed to have been a bandits hideout, and one or another version of what is termed the Bandit Legend has been told. It took on a life of its own, and while certain details and embellishments have been added and subtracted over the years, the basic story has remained pretty constant.In 1884, four men held up a mail train near Pantano,headed down the track from Pantano toward Tucsonin the early 1860s and was later rebuilt, only to burn a tiny town east of Tucson and just south of Colossalwas ambushed by four masked men. They broughtagain. Throughout its history, the ranch has been Cave, and got away with $72,000 in gold and currency.it to a halt by setting off explosives on the tracks,tied to the nearby Colossal Cave, a major tourist They hightailed it into the Rincon Mountains. Sheriffsignaling with a red train lantern, and shooting theattraction. Today, the ranch is combined with the Bob Leatherwood got a posse together and trailed thecars full of holes. As Wells Fargo Express messengercave to form Colossal Cave Mountain Park, a Pima bandits to a hole in a mountainsidea cave entrance.Charles F. Smith barricaded himself behind theCounty park.When the Sheriff stuck his head in, he was greetedlocked door of the express car, the bandits forced by gunfire, so he decided the best thing to do was tothe engineer to carry a heavy explosive back to theThe Mountain Springs Ranch (sometimes called starve the bandits out. He sat in front of that hole forexpress car and tell Smith to unlock the safe and getMountain Spring Ranch) appears in written two weeks, till one day a deputy came riding up to tellout or they would both be blown to kingdom come.documentation and on maps starting in the late him that four men were whooping it up in the CornerSmith did. 1870s. The ranch included the Mountain Springs Saloon in Willcoxthats about 70 miles from theHotel and the Mountain Springs Station, a stagecoach cavethrowing gold around and bragging about howThe bandits uncoupled the engine, express, and mailstop. The hotel and station were located along the theyd left the Pima County sheriff sitting in front of acars from the rest of the train, hopped on the engine,creek in the ranchs riparian area. The proprietor of cave in the middle of the desert while they took a backand steamed toward Tucson, leaving the passengerthe Mountain Springs Hotel in 1878 was Mr. E.H. way out. cars and crew behind. They ransacked the express andBridwell. An Edward H. Bridwell, aged 40, is listed in mail cars, and a few miles from town; they got off,the Arizona 1890 Great Registers as being a resident The posse took off for Willcox and cornered the menput the locomotive in reverse, and sent it back towardof Tucson at that time, but no further information on in the saloon. In the gunfight that followed, three ofPantano while they took off into the desert. Althoughhim has been located.A newspaper article written by the men were killed. The fourth, named Phil Carver,they got away with several thousand dollars, theya traveler who stopped at the hotel in 1878 describes was arrested and sentenced to twenty-eight yearsmissed thousands more which messenger Smith hadthe area:in the Federal prison at Yuma. The cave, of course,hidden in the stove in the express car.was thoroughly explored, and the back entrance andWhat We Saw, Admired And Appreciated bandits lair found: the remains of a campfire, food,In the days before the robbery, the bandits made Mountain Springs RanchTres Alamos clothes, all therebut not a trace of the $72,000. Mountain Springs Ranch, known today as La Improvement In Prospect At The Latter Posta Quemada Ranch, their hideout. Nestled inPlaceThe Crops, Etc. On The Go;Phil Carver served eighteen years and, upon histhe foothills of the Rincon Mountains adjacent toMarch 19, 1878release, came right to Tucson. Sheriff Leatherwood,Colossal Cave, the La Posta Quemada Ranch has aLeaving Tucson Sunday morning, at about 10 who was still in office, had him followed relentlessly,history that includes train robbers and stagecoaches,oclock, we passed through a country (new to me) but Carver gave his trackers the slip and headed forsquatters and cattle-empire builders, cave explorersvery pleasant to ride over, together with excellent Colossal Cave. By the time a posse got there, he wasand Civilian Conservation Corps workers, ranchersroads and the best of company by the person of gone. All that remainedslit open and abandoned inand easterners dreaming of being cowboys, andReuben Woods Esq. made the trip one continual a hole in the cavewere several empty mailbags. finally developers and conservationists. pleasure from beginning to end. We arrived at the What the Legend really is, is a mosaic made up ofMountain Springs Ranch at about one oclock in the fragments of several actual occurrences. Here are theThe ranch has been known as Mountain Springsafternoon and of course were amply prepared for true tales as far as we know them Ranch, Shaws Ranch, part of the Empire Ranch,the repast spread before us. The proprietor, Mr. E.H. Days Ranch, and the La Posta Quemada Ranch. TheBridwell, has a valuable property in the Mountain On April 27, 1887 in the darkness before moonrise,name Posta Quemada (burnt station) comes fromSprings Ranch, which is bound to speak for itself as westbound Southern Pacific passenger Train 20a nearby 1858 Butterfield Stage Station that burnedbefore any great lapse of time passes by. The valley 56 November 2021'