True West Magazine
1878 Cavanaugh Gang Eagar, AZ
America’s wild and wooly West is marked by reminders of its legendary, lawless frontier days. Apache County (Yavapai County) in the Arizona Territory of the late 1800s doesn’t get a lot of attention but it had more than its share of gunmen and horse thieves. Many of the refugees from the rustler war in Cochise County, including Ike and Phin Clanton made their way to that remote part of Arizona. In 1877, Bill Caveness, who also went by the name Snyder, led a gang that plagued the area along the Little Colorado River, preying on miners, ranchers and other settlers, until the outlaws started killing one another.