The Two Gun Eyes of Diablo ­ a northern Arizona History

Halfway between Winslow and Flagstaff is Two Guns, Ariz. It is located along the thirsty Canyon Diablo, and proprietor of one of the most sordid histories a small local could ever hope to avoid.

When the early Atlantic and Pacific Railroad came steaming west from New Mexico, by the time it reached Canyon Diablo in 1881, it came to a screeching halt due to the need for a large bridge coupled with their financial difficulties. The railroad workers had to wait until they could begin spanning the 255-foot deep gorge, so the temporary town of Canyon Diablo laid with its mouth open at the end-of-the-line to swallow-up those less inclined to fight back from being punched, robbed or shot in the street

During its flash-in-the-pan life of little over a year, Canyon Diablo saw the establishment of 14 bars, 10 gambling dens, two dance halls and two houses brothels that faced each other between the typical supply shops, all on what was called Hell Street.

Before this brief outlaw's outpost rose and fell, Canyon Diablo is said to have been a migration route for the Apache to go over the Mogollon Rim and into the Verde Valley. The Navajo, by which where much of the Canyon Diablo history came, has settled in the desert north of the canyon's mouth in what is now known as Leupp, Ariz.

In 1582, a party of Spanish explorers gave the canyon its name. In 1680, the pueblo revolt drove the Spanish conquerors back to Santa Fe, but 12 years later, the Spanish permanently re-conquered the pueblo area tribes. In 1767, the Spanish crown claimed all gold and silver in the New World and by 1769, a group of padres and soldiers were leading a mule-train load of silver bars mined from central Arizona, until they got to Canyon Diablo. They were ambushed and cut-down. Of the survivors, five ran west for California and were never heard from again, and five others made it to the San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe where this incident was documented. They claim to have stashed the silver in an abandoned pre-settlement village somewhere in the area.

Towards the end of territorial expansion, on July 17, 1882, one of the last Calvary massacres of the Native Americans occurred just south of Two Guns where almost 50 Apaches and their chief, Natiotish, were killed along the rocks of the canyon before the rest were taken prisoner.

Treasure seekers have been drawn to this canyon looking for everything from the silver bars to train heist stashes. Even diamonds were alleged to be found in meteorite fragments and collected by a man named Adolph Cannon who lived for many years along side a pack-mule in the canyon looking for his precious gems. Hating city life, he would come to Winslow for supplies about once or twice a year until they found his skull years later in 1928, with a bullet in it, in a gravel pit along the Little Colorado River outside of town. Not long after this discovery, a fatally wounded man staggered into a cowboy camp near Jack's Canyon outside of Winslow with a pouch of diamonds that was part of the Cannon stash that he was shot over. The man died at the hospital in Winslow. The cowboys had the diamonds confirmed by a local jeweler, boarded the train to California, and were never heard from again.

In 1925, Harry "Indian" Miller, a drifter who came in off Route 66 that passes over Canyon Diablo, leased land from a couple in the area, and began working to build a tourist attraction called "Two Guns."

Using local Native Americans, stone buildings were erected to look like "Indian ruins," around the canyon next to the road. Miller ran a business courting tourists from the "ruins" down into the Apache Death Cave where carefree couples could purchase a soda from the fountain. The cave is another story.

Miller also kept native southwestern animals caged in one of his larger structures in Two Guns. One day he was disemboweled by a linx he kept there. Miller decided to get out of Dodge in 1930, especially since the widow of property owner around Two Guns had been giving him grief after he was acquitted of killing her husband in a gunfight.

Over the years, more skulls turned up in the area as new owners moved in to run the gas station, restaurant or trading post. Then in Aug. 1971, after this site was scheduled to be the location of the 1999 World's Fair ­ someone started a fire in one of the buildings that spread to the gas tank, causing it to explode ­ whereby, this location considered to be cursed by some, reclaimed its honor.

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