Big Mike Noonan, Victim of Apache Terrorists in our Neighborhood

By Paul McKnight

Big Mike Noonan, a cattle rancher near our land in the Sulphur Springs Valley of Southeast Arizona, was one of the last victims of Apache terrorism in our area. He died in the fall of 1885. Geronimo surrendered for the last time on September 3, 1886.

On May 17, 1885 the final breakout of Apaches from the San Carlos Reservation took place. Mangas (son of Mangas Coloradas), Nachite, Chihuahua, old Nana, and Geronimo were among the thirty-five men who left. They took along eight boys and one hundred and one women and younger children. The term that was applied to these escaped Apaches as well as to the Apaches who never went to the reservation in the first place was "Broncos". Most or all of those who initially refused to go to the San Carlos Reservation went into hiding in Mexico.

Bronco Apaches existed in the high mountain areas of Mexico until the 1930s. Therefore one cannot say for certain whether the act of terror perpetrated against Big Mike was done by members of Geronimo's band of escapees or by other Bronco Apaches. Geronimo's band spent time in Mexico as well as Arizona and New Mexico during the 1885-1886 breakout. The Mexican Broncos raided up into Arizona and New Mexico. All we know for sure is that Big Mike died at the hands of Broncos during the time Geronimo was running around loose in Cochise County and neighboring areas.

Before we tell the tale of Big Mike Noonan's assasination, perhaps we should review the record of his earlier encounters with Apache terrorists. He came to Cochise County in 1881 from Mohave County where he was a "pocket miner". Pocket miners are independent prospectors who look for small pockets of highly mineralized ore and clean out those pockets. Apparently Big Mike hit at least one good pocket in Mohave county, enough to get together a stake to start a new career as a cattle rancher. He settled near Grapevine Canyon, which today is the location of the Grapevine Canyon Ranch, a Dude Ranch that is quite popular with vacationing Europeans. It lies about 15 miles west of our land and slightly north, nestled in the foothills of the Dragoon Mountains.

In 1881 Tombstone was one of the biggest boomtowns in the American West and there was ample demand for beef there. Noonan's ranch was about 25 miles east of Tombstone. His first year as a cattle rancher was very successful.

With his profits he bought an expansion herd of 76 cows and placed them in a box canyon about a mile from his original herd, which was near his cabin. The area where he kept his expansion herd was later known as the Buckley Peach Orchard. Noonan divided his time between caring for his original herd near his cabin and keeping an eye on the expansion herd to make sure it did not stray from its assigned area. This was fairly simple because there was only one exit for the expansion herd from the box canyon and it was easily guarded by Big Mike and his horse.

Big Mike was no tenderfoot. He was a good shot and took many precautions to assist his survival in this untamed area. His cabin was on the bank of a wash. His well was dug in the wash. After he figured out where the static water level was (much higher than that of today's wells in the same area), he dug a tunnel from the well shaft above the water line back toward the bank of the wash. He figured he needed a place to hide from outlaws and Apaches and the tunnel was his emergency hideout. The well served as the water source for Mike and for his original herd. He used a bucket to draw water from the well.

Mike's cabin was a one-roomer made with thick walls of rock and adobe. With this fortress-like cabin and the secret hiding place in the well, he felt prepared for anything that would come his way.

The expansion herd was the first target of Apache terrorism. Shortly after Big Mike established this herd, it was completely wiped out by a band of Apaches that was heading south along the base of the Dragoons after attacking a wagon train up near Willcox. They had killed the teamsters and removed everything that was of any value to them from the wagons. As they fled south with the booty, they came upon Big Mike's expansion herd.

Rather than stealing the cattle and driving them south into Mexico or just killing one to eat, these Apaches decided to kill every single cow in the expansion herd. This was not a difficult task as the cows were confined by natural geographical features to a small area. If there were 15 Apaches, they would have had to kill only 5 cows apiece to reach their goal. It only took a few minutes using rifles, arrows, and perhaps a couple of spears.

Apologists for the Apache terrorists will tell you that the Apaches only raided to obtain food and supplies necessary for survival in the harsh high desert area they had occupied for a few hundred years. Cochise himself once excused the raids being made into Mexico from the short-lived Chiricahua Reservation by saying something to the effect that his people had to "make a living" somehow. But this slaughter of Big Mike's expansion herd does not fit that pattern at all. It was killing for the sake of killing, much like the killing done by a Bobcat who successfully forces its way into a chicken coop and kills every single bird inside.

As they were finishing this grisly beef massacre, the Indians noticed smoke signals arising from an area to the north near the Stronghold. They interpreted the signals as a warning from Apaches in the Stronghold that a cavalry detachment from Fort Grant up near Willcox was in the area, following the Apaches because of their raid of the wagon train. As the Apaches finished off the last cow and took off again to the south, Big Mike arrived on the scene. He had been over near his cabin tending to the herd over there. He saw the Indians disappear over a ridge and he saw the smoke signals. Then he realized what they had done and what a sickening mess they had made of his expansion herd. 76 dead cows were scattered over a small area.

In their haste to depart after seeing the smoke signals, the Broncos had left behind some of their horses. When they realized this, they sent a man back to retrieve them. This man saw Big Mike first and fired off a rifle shot that missed him. Big Mike returned the fire and killed the Apache. Then, overwhelmed at the prospect of skinning 76 cows and trying to salvage something from them, he rounded up the Indian horses and took them to his corral near the cabin. The soldiers had arrived on the scene and Mike probably told them to take whatever beef they needed for the pursuit of the Apaches. The next day Mike's neighbor John Rockfellow came over and help him assess the damage.

John Rockfellow was an interesting guy in his own right. He ended up owning the ranchable areas in Cochise Stronghold and eventually one of the big granite peaks atop the stronghold was named for him. He helped Mike recover psychologically from the devastation, although they did not salvage the cows.

Mike was not about to be chased off his ranch by this atrocity. He bought more cattle and ranched successfully for three more years while the Apaches mostly refrained from raiding and stayed either back on the reservation or in Mexico.

This brings us to the fateful year 1885 when Geronimo broke out for his final rampage. One fall day when Rockfellow was visiting Noonan, a man arrived from Tombstone with word that Bronco Apaches had been sighted in the nearby Middlemarch Pass area of the Dragoons. Rockfellow advised Big Mike to evacuate and to come over and spend the night at his ranch. Big Mike apparently had another agenda, possibly one involving revenge for the great beef massacre of 1882. He declined the invitation, assuring Rockfellow that he would stay in his emergency hideout off the well shaft that night and would be extra vigilent during the day. Sensing that his course of action might end badly, Noonan scribbled the name and address of his sister on a small piece of paper and gave it to Rockfellow before he departed.

The night passed uneventfully and at some point during the following day Big Mike met up with the Apache terrorists. Nobody was there to record the details, but the evidence gathered by Mike's neighbors and the cavalry was pretty graphic. He was found lying near his fireplace inside the cabin. His body had been mutilated and everything of value was missing from the cabin. He had a single bullet wound in his chest and his boots were full of blood. There was also blood all over the area near the doorframe of the cabin. Tracks of two Apaches were observed leading up to the door of the cabin.

Here is how I would reconstruct the events:

The Apaches had raided some ranches to the north down in the Sulphur Springs Valley and were headed south with a quantity of stolen horses. When they spotted a cavalry detachment coming north toward them, they detoured up Grapevine Canyon to the area that was the scene of the cow massacre three years earlier. This was about a mile from Big Mike's cabin. Apparently two of the Apaches rode over to Mike's cabin and concealed themselves among some cover on one side or another of the wash that passed in front of the cabin door.

It may have been that Mike's dog smelled the Apaches and bounded out of the cabin to attack them. Whatever the case, something brought Mike to the doorway with his rifle. One of the Indians apparently then shot Big Mike in the chest. The gunshot wound kept Mike from moving out of the doorway. His rifle was never fired that day, so he apparently just stood in the doorway holding the rifle while blood ran down into his boots and spilled over onto the floor. With most of his blood lost, he probably then turned around and staggered over to his fireplace where he collapsed. The Indians then entered the cabin and finished the job if he was not already dead.

It was the end of the trail for Big Mike. His sister was contacted by John Rockfellow and later inherited a sizable sum from the proceeds of Noonan's holdings.

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This story has been told in several places, one of them a 1958 book by Roscoe G. Wilson titled "No Place for Angels" that was Published by The Arizona Republic.