Guadalupe Canyon Massacre
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The Guadalupe Canyon Massacre was an incident that occurred in August, 1881, in the Guadalupe Canyon area of Arizona, during which five men were killed during an ambush. The canyon is located in the southern Peloncillo Mountains, which straddles the modern Arizona and New Mexico state line borders. This canyon connects the Animas Valley of New Mexico with the San Bernardino Valley of Arizona.
The incident is shrouded in mystery, and there are few facts about the murders, short of the number of dead. At that time, based on a ranch near Tombstone, Arizona, a loosely knit group of outlaws called the "Cow-boys" was in operation. Although not an organized gang, members of the "Cow-boys" faction often rustled cattle and committed other crimes, to include murder and robbery.
In July 1881, several Mexican Smugglers, carrying silver, had been ambushed and killed in an area called "Skeleton Canyon". The killers were never positively identified, but Mexicans just across the border always suspected that those murders were committed by members of the "Cow-boys" faction. Old Man Clanton was always referred to as the leader of the "Cow-boys", due mostly to the fact that they operated off his ranch. At that time, his ranch was one of the most profitable cattle ranches in that part of the country. However, there is no evidence that he ever helped plan or organize any of the rustling or robberies committed by members of the "Cow-boys" faction.
In August, 1881, Old Man Clanton and four ranch hands were herding cattle through Guadalupe Canyon. They were ambushed by persons unknown, and all killed. There is one suspect in the killings. The theory is that the Mexican Rurales led by Captain Alfredo Carrillo, who had survived an earlier ambush in 1879 in Skeleton Canyon, had ambushed them while sleeping. However there is no evidence to support any of these ideas, and so it will remain a mystery.
The five men killed were all buried where they were killed, by members of the Clanton family. However, in 1882 two of Old Man Clanton's sons removed his body and moved it to the Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone, where he was buried beside his son Billy Clanton, who had been killed in the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
