Filled With Graves Of Men

Pantano means marsh in English.  How in the world could there be a marsh in the desert?  Originally, it was called Cienega Station after nearby Cienega Creek, better known as the secret hideout.  I have to admit, in my experience hiking around the creek, it IS very marshy.  Pantano was built by the Butterfield Overland Mail Company in 1858 over the site of a Hohokam Indian village, as a stop on their stagecoach route.

It's been known since then by several different names .. Pantano Station, Marsh Station, Tulleyville and Empire.  Hostile Apaches were a constant problem.  Today, you can get there by driving these dirt roads.  Even with 4-wheel drive, it took me two tries to finally access the property.

I passed on the first try, being afraid I might slip off the highly canted road like this guy did, requiring a tow to extricate himself.  

In 1867, a pioneer named "Shotgun" Smith and three of his buddies were attacked by Apaches.  All three of his friends were killed.  According to Walter Vail (of his namesake Vail Arizona), living at his nearby Vail Cattle Ranch, the Pantano cemetery is filled with graves of men killed by Indians.  After all, it WAS their territory.

The railroad station and actual town of Pantano was established in 1880 when the Southern Pacific railroad entered Pima County and began building along the creek.  This location attracted lots of settlers who built a blacksmith shop, a carpenter's shop and small homes, along with a couple of warehouses.  Seventy Five people lived on the South side of the creek until in 1887, severe flooding forced them to relocate the town to the Northern side of the creek where a few remnants remain today.

The largest is of course the water tower used to fill the steam engines that chugged by just behind this structure.  The trains still use the same tracks to this day.  It's probably not a good idea to take every little road like I did.  They are very much overgrown, resulting in lots of scratches in your pretty paint.  I think I need a dirt bike.

All I could find were some adobe foundations.  By 1905 the population increased to 100, with a Deputy Sheriff, a Justice of the Peace and six small businesses, including a general store and a livery stable. This building was rather large, and possibly the store.  

By 1922, it reached it's zenith, having added a bank, a schoolhouse, a telegraph office and a post office, all serving the now 500 residents.  This corral still exists for working cattle scattered over the rangeland, although I didn't see anything other than a couple of birds.  

Even the old stock water tank is out of business.  When the great depression hit, the population declined to less than 40.  By 1956, railroad operations ceased completely and the town was abandoned.  In a huge stroke of bad luck, Southern Pacific leveled all the buildings once standing.

In December of 1914, a Pima County Ranger named Jimmie Mercer and Robert Fenton, a rancher, were fired upon by a Mexican cattle rustler named J. Padilla.  The gunman escaped, leaving Mercer severely injured.  He died about a week later.  Today there is a small memorial to him near Pantano.

Local Pantano resident Felipe Bejarano happened up a safe in Pantano Wash one day.  No one knew where it came from, but guessed it was the result of one of the many train robberies back in 1887.  He called upon goat rancher and miner Ed Hilton to help him get the safe loaded up in Ed's truck and back to Felipe's ranch.  There it rested on his front porch for many years.  I wonder where it is now?

There is a cemetery hidden here, but I won't tell you where.  It took me quite some time to find it.  There's no use giving out directions so some nimrod can deface or destroy what's left.  If you want to visit, send me a message and I'll tell you where to go.

This is the only wooden "headstone" left, and even with manipulating the image, I could not get the letters to show up.  As you can see, people still come here and decorate the area with flowers, however fake they may be.

They last longer that way.  This is Philip Navaro Bejarano, born in 1969 and died in 2016.  I'm guessing he's a relative of Felipe who saved the safe.  

This is Lucia Reyes Martinez who passed in 1931.  People still come to visit her.  Many of the graves are in shambles with cactus growing everywhere.  I think on my return trip, I will spend some time here tidying things up a bit. 

And so there you have it ... from the days of cowboys and Indians, train robberies, good guys and bad guys.  It's too bad the railroad decided to level the buildings.  This would have been the perfect spot for me to rehab an adobe building and make it into a QUILT SHOP!!!!