Thanks Greg. For anyone reading that thread, I would say that Oroblanco (Roy) had it right.
For all: There’s a lot of confusion and misleading history regarding the location of the Bloody Tanks Massacre, which is why I brought it up. Dave made a comment in the “Trails Along The Salt River” thread about the cliffs from Bagley Flat to Canyon Lake. It was those cliffs I was thinking of when I asked the question about the real location of the Bloody Tanks Massacre.
Just because there is a place named “Bloody Tanks Wash” southwest of Miami doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the Bloody Tanks Massacre. I haven’t found one shred of historical evidence linking that wash near Miami, to the actual event.
The bulk of the actual historical evidence points to another place, and that’s the beginning of the Salt River Canyon, somewhere under Saguaro Lake before Bagley Flat. That's one of many factual locations, very well described and easy to locate even today, of Woolsey’s first expedition in January of 1864.
I’ve read Woolsey’s account and many others. They differ only in small details. Those accounts clearly state that the expedition camped near the junction of the Verde and Salt while a supply party was sent to the Pima Villages. While there, they constructed and named Fort Badger. The construction of Ft. Badger has been attributed to John D. Walker, but there’s no contemporary source for that. There is a contemporary account of Woolsey’s party building Ft. Badger on this expedition, in January of 1864. It’s possible that since Walker came there later, he repaired/improved it and operated out of that location, as well as regular Army troops.
From Ft. Badger, Woolsey & Co. went upriver on the Salt to the “Big Canyon” (Edit: before Bagley Flat), and somewhere between 12 and 15 miles up the Salt River Canyon, veered off on a tributary and found the Indians who had stolen all the stock. This event was not the “Pinole Treaty”, which was a different event in the Bradshaws. The two events, the Bloody Tanks Massacre and The Pinole Treaty, are often confused even in “historical” documents.
To me, the participant’s accounts sounded like they had gone up Tortilla Creek or possibly LaBarge Canyon. Some people think it was Fish Creek, but I don’t think they could have been that far in, based on travel times reported both going in, and coming back out.
Cyrus Lennon, half-brother to Ammi White, was killed in the battle. Afterwards, the accounts state they brought him out of the Salt River Canyon, and buried him at the junction of the Salt and Verde, carving his name and the date into the trunk of a cottonwood tree. They built a fire over his grave hoping to conceal it from any Indians on their trail. At this point the party split up, the Maricopas left for the Gila, while the miners went back to the mines on the Hassayampa.
Several “historical” accounts came years later, like Farish’s, which is inaccurate to say the least even though he had talked to Woolsey’s widow. Over time, and after the actual participants in the Bloody Tanks Massacre had passed on, the place near Miami named “Bloody Tanks Wash” was promoted as the location of the massacre.
