The bloody tale of the 'wholesale murders' at Eldorado Canyon
'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' series: In May of 1897, a wronged Paiute man took revenge. Years before, the miners had forced him to kill his brother and return with his head as proof.
Quintus Hopper of Nevada, published in January 2022, is a historical novel that follows the epic and peculiar life of a frontier newspaper typesetter. As part of my research I made extensive use of newspaper archives and, in this series, I’ll share some of my often surprising findings. Here are history, commentaries and contemporary newspaper articles as they relate to my latest novel. This time a look at one of those rarest of cases where a lone Southern Paiute Indian, named Ahvote, ran amok. Little is known about him, no one actually saw him commit the murders - and so all that was later published in newspapers are flights of fancy, suitably embellished for the white readership that gleefully devoured those types of stories.
Below article was published in the Pioche Weekly Record. At the time, there were still no newspapers in Southern Nevada. Pioche, the county seat, was far away. That also meant that the sheriff was far away. Therefore, when white men felt the need to act, they self-organized. As the opening of the article describes – they were known to tell tribes to kill their own and if they didn’t, white men would kill every member of the tribe.
Ahvote plays an important part in the novel. Quintus meets him in between two key moments in the Paiute’s life: The time he was forced to take his own brother’s life, and the time he runs amok and kills men in Eldorado Canyon. How much is true of any of the below, cannot be ascertained. It is known that the miners had accused Ahvote’s brother. They had threatened the whole tribe and so Ahvote had taken his brother’s life. As proof that he had done the deed, he had been forced to bring his brother’s head. As mentioned before, in almost all cases, there’s hearsay and assumptions. Did Ahvote really run amok? I think he did – but I also think he wasn’t responsible for the numerous additional murders that would be ascribed to him. However, it must be restated: No one actually saw him kill any of those men.
As explained, the white men in that remote region were afraid and took matters into their own hands as they saw fit. Truth was, what the white men said it was. And even when the sheriff showed up eventually, that was all the information he – or the papers – ever had. Ahvote’s story was told as fact, embellished in various papers, and printed and reprinted, enriched with engravings (as the above in the Los Angeles Herald on 13 June 1897), across the country. In the novel, Quintus meets Ahvote who, as a guide, introduces him to Spirit Mountain, one of the regional tribes’ most important sacred places.
May 20, 1897
Pioche Weekly Record, Pioche
WHOLESALE MURDERS.
A RED FIEND NAMED AHVOTE,
MURDERS TEN WHITE MEN
AT EL DORADO.
Miners Take the Law in Their Own Hands – Force Members of the Tribe to Hunt Down the Murderer – Threaten to Kill Every Piute Met if Ahvote is Not Run Down.
A week ago yesterday, at Eldorado, this county, an Indian named Ahvote killed three white men, two ore haulers and a prospector, and is thought to have killed others. The ore haulers were shot from their seats while on the road and the prospector was murdered while at his cabin.
The particulars which we have from Sheriff Freudenthal, written from Las Vegas ranch, which point he had reached on his way here when two messengers, J. W. McGregor and Alvin Crosby arrived from Eldorado canyon with word from Mr. Gracey, superintendent of the Southwestern company, that an Indian, named Ahvote, had shot and killed his two teamsters while they were hauling ore from the mine to the mill, and asking him to return to Eldorado at once.
McGregor and Crosby reported that the bodies were found by John Heuse and Billy Warnecke, whose camp is on the road between the mine and mill. The ore teams did not pass down as usual, and after waiting some time Heuse and Warnecke went up the road looking for them. The teams were found at a standstill about 150 yards apart some distance up the canyon with both drivers lying dead.
Ben Jones, a son of T. J. Jones of Overton, drove a four-span team. His body was found in front of the wagon with a bullet wound near the heart. L. Fransen of Elsinore, Utah, was the other teamster. He was shot three times and had fallen off the left side of his wagon.
Further investigation up the road discovered the dead body of Charley Wilson, a prospector and an old Piocher. He had been shot at his cabin.
After those startling discoveries, Heuse and Warnecke immediately went on to the Wall St. mine and warned the men there, who left at once for the mill at Eldorado, some 13 miles distant, with the exception of N. Stine, a miner from Phoenix, Jack Wheatley and the Chinese cook, who remained to look after the place.
McGregor and Warnecke on their way to the Vegas for the Sheriff, stopped at the mine but the place was deserted, the men having no doubt gone to Kay’s camp to warn the men there.
The general belief was that the Indian had killed two other prospectors. No cause for the murders is known except that the Indians have been riding between the mine and mill on the ore wagons and a short time ago Fransen refused to let the Indian Ahvote ride. Ahvote’s headquarters have been at the canyon, and as he left on the morning of the murders he said he would “kill the teamsters and more too.”
This makes thirteen men who have been killed by members of this tribe within the past three months. The Indians are said to have become impudent and saucy of late, and a general uprising was feared. The messengers said that word had been sent to all prospectors and to the several camps. A great many men were congregated at Eldorado and much excitement prevailed.
Anticipating a general outbreak Governor Sadler was wired to prepare to have troops sent out. If no outbreak occurs he was asked to give a reward of $300 for Ahvote’s capture and the miners would add $200 more.
Eldorado canyon is on the Colorado river and 35 miles from the White Hills on the Arizona side. It is difficult of access, and the quickest means of communication is by wire via Kingman and the White Hills, Arizona, with a special messenger from the last named place to the canyon.
The latest dispatch from Kingman, Arizona, is as follows:
Kingman, Ariz., May 15. – Ahvote the Piute Indian who had in the last three days murdered no less than ten white men, is dead. He met his fate at the hands of members of his own tribe, who were compelled by the miners in Eldorado canyon to trail the murderer to his death, the penalty for their failure to do so being fixed at the annihilation of every Piute the miners could reach.
Eight years ago a brother of Ahvote killed a mail-rider, and Ahvote was ordered by the tribe to kill him and bring back convincing proof that he had executed the order. Two days afterward he brought the head of his brother. Since that time Ahvote has been morose and sullen and lived apart from the tribe.
Three days ago he took a rifle and killed Lars Fransen and Ben Jones, teamsters; Christian Neilson and Charles Monaghan, miners; Judge J. Morton, assayer and millman, known all over the coast. John Powers and W. Connolly, well-to-do mine-owners, and three other men, names unknown. The killings were all cold-blooded butcheries. The miners congregated in Eldorado canyon and told the Piutes that if they did not bring in or kill Ahvote they would kill every Piute they could reach. Six Piutes immediately took the trail and followed it to the places where his victims were killed. From side to side of the Colorado river went Ahvote on his pilgrimage of murder. The Indians followed him down the river, found where he had made his last landing and trailed him ten miles up the canyon into the mountains where they crept up and shot him as he was going over the range. An Indian went to the river and signaled to John Apple, who was going down the stream in a boat with the body of Monaghan, to come ashore. He tied up his boat und went with the Indian and viewed the body of Ahvote. Over 100 white men and Indians joined in the chase of the murderer.
Telegraphic advices from White Hills, fifty miles north, state that fifteen armed Piute Indians came into town this evening and made threats that if the whites molested them they would do some killing. A deputy sheriff attempted to disarm them, but got only one gun. Three Indians were placed under arrest and the others left town. It is feared they will kill many men in the hills who are unarmed, and a posse may go after them in the morning.
One must go into that country, which is very like the Arizona country, to appreciate how completely the white man, be he miner or traveler, is at the mercy of the Indians. The Eldorado canyon miners did the only thing they could. They are to be congratulated upon the death of Ahvote.
S. L. Herald.
