Pleasant Valley History

Pleasant Valley was home to the west's most deadly range fued. Known as the Pleasant Valley War, it lasted over fifteen years.

It was a time when the west was untamed. Strangers entering Pleasant Valley disppeared completely. Horse thieves infested the area. Cattlemen or farmers never knew if they would ever find their horses again when they turned them out on the range.

Two families, the Tewksbury's and the Grahams were at the heart of the war. In the early days, there was a tacit understanding where the dividing line was between their respective ranges. Heavily armed cattle men, including the tough cowboys from the Hash Knife Cattle Company from Texas, glared at one another across the intangible line for over fifteen months before the fighting actually started.

Between 1882 and 1886, quarrels lead to shooting at cattle roundups. In February 1887, a band of sheep, driven over the Mogollon Rim under the protection of the Tewksburies, was halted and turned back by cattlemen and cowboys, led by Tom Graham. The lead herder, a Navajo, was ambushed and buried where he fell. The site of his grave has been marked and can be seen near Young. The sheep drives through Pleasant Valley from Tucson to the high country near St. Johns still take place today.

In September 1887, Commodore Perry Owens of Apache County gunned down three of the Blevins family. Later that month Sheriff Mulvernon of Prescott led his posse to Young and killed John Graham and Charles Blevins in a shootout at the Perkins store, which still stands today in Young as a museum.

In August 1888, three prisoners in the custody of James D. Houck, who had been arrested on alleged fictitious charges, were met by masked men while on route to Pleasant Valley near the Canyon Creek trail. The lawman and his men were ordered to move on. The prisoners were found next morning hanging near the Verde road.