THE BATTLE OF BATTLE FLAT

FIVE PROSPECTORS VS 50 YAVAPAIS

- BOB BOZE BELL

Five American prospectors set up camp near the junction of Turkey Creek and Tuscumbia Creek in the rough Bradshaw Mountains, about 30 miles southeast of Prescott, Arizona Territory. Although warned of hostile Indians in the region, the gold seekers—Frank Binkley, Samuel Herron, Stewart Wall, Fred Henry and D.M. Scott—are all veterans of Indian fighting and confident of their ability to ward off any attackers.

Eight horses (including three pack animals) are picketed away from the camp where there is good grass for feed. A deer killed during the day is skinned and cooked on the campfire.

Heading off on a twilight scout, Wall and Herron ride in a wide circle and turn up no sign of Indians.

After supper, the men turn in early to escape a swarm of mosquitos. The horses exhibit “some uneasiness about nine o’clock,” but the men ignore the disturbance.

An hour before dawn, a barrage of arrows rains on the camp, waking up the men who spring into action. One of the prospectors grabs a rifle, which, being wet, misfires; he takes out his revolver and begins to blaze away. The fight is on.

The Yavapais (estimated at 30-50 strong) open up a steady barrage of bullets, arrows and rocks as the prospectors fire back and dig in at the same time, with their sheath knives and a small shovel. They pile up saddles, packs and rocks to hide behind.

By the time daylight streaks the eastern hills, all the White men are wounded except Herron. A bullet has torn through Binkley’s nose and knocked out one of his eyes. Wall suffers a bullet wound through the body, and Henry is hit in the arm and the breast. Two horses are dead; another, full of arrows, staggers around the flat howling in pain. Binkley lays still in the brush and is presumed dead.