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HOW THE CAVALRY SETTLED THE SOUTHWEST
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By Gary Dillard
Great Southwest
Westernhistory.com

LT. RUCKER AND BISBEE'S DISCOVERY

A man made lake in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona is the only contact most folks have with Lt. Rucker.  But the name is also tied with the fabulous copper camp that would develop in the Mule Pass Mountains to the west beginning in 1877.  The story of John Anthony "Tony" Rucker is one which should be better known in Arizona.  Rucker was a third-generation soldier who entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with the Class of 1872. His father was a general and his brother-in-law was General Philip Sheridan.  Because of academic problems, young Rucker was dropped from West Point after two years, but was commissioned in 1872 and assigned to the Sixth Cavalry, which was transferred to Arizona in the Summer of 1875.  A trip to the Mule mountains in 1877 was to prove fateful.  Rucker was leading a troop from Fort Bowie in search of Apaches, a common activity for the cavalry in those days, a decade before the end of the Apache Wars.  Camping at a place then known as Iron Springs, in what today is known as Tombstone Canyon (then Mule Gulch), the troops found the water less than tasty.  The troop's scout, John "Jack" Dunn, looked for a nearby alternative source of water.  Near Castle Rock, a prominent natural landmark, Dunn found fresh water and outcroppings of mineralization.  At that time, many scouts sought gold and silver as well as signs of Apaches.  What Dunn found was cerrusite, a lead carbonate often found in conjunction with silver ores.  Dunn told Rucker and another soldier, T.D. Byrne, on August 2nd, and the three men filed on the Rucker claim, the first one located in what was to become Bisbee and the beginning of a multi-billion-dollar copper camp.  The claim was named for Rucker because Dunn had one with his name on it in nearby mountains.  Because the discoverers were busy with soldiering, they asked another soldier to locate other claims and prove them up.  Rucker probably had no further contact with his claim in the Mule Mountains.
THE COURAGEOUS SOLDIER
A famous historian once pointed out that the Roman army marched on its stomach.  This means simply that the job of providing food and supplies to the army in the field was vital to its success.  This is what started most of the cattle industry in the west, which in turn lead to towns, etc.  The army, which started it all, was here to protect the prospectors and miners who were providing the nation with metals, precious and otherwise.  It is no wonder, then, that there were at one time during the Apache Wars at least four outposts in Arizona known as Camp Supply.  One such post is in the Chiricahua mountains, not far from Dunn's namesake.  It was here that Lt. Tony Rucker performed his last heroic act, a year after the Bisbee discovery.  Camp Supply was staffed with two companies of cavalry. Company C., commanded by Lt. Austin Henely, and Company D, commanded by Rucker.  The primary function of these troops was chasing Apaches.  What happened on July 11, 1878, was one of the most tragic events in Arizona history.  Heading for headquarters in heavy rain, they had to cross a major stream to save supplies.  Here's what one witness wrote about what happened next:  "Lt. Rucker started once more to cross the stream at the suttlery.  He was followed immediately by Henely.  Those who were watching the latter cross the stream saw his horse stumble and throw his rider into the cataract, which carried him down with a velocity which made it impossible to catch the rope thrown to him."  "Lt. Rucker was struck dumb for a moment....then, dashing his spurs into his horse, he darted around a bend below which Henely was still to be seen and, from a little height, plunged into the stream.  With frantic earnestness the men watched 'Toney' as he jumped from his horse, he was swept along by the stream which was carrying Henely to his death."  Both men drowned.  On October 1st, 1878, Camp Supply became Camp Rucker, and when a dam was built there in later decades, a lake was to be known for the courageous soldier whose name is on Bisbee's mining claim.

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