Legendary Pete Kitchen comes alive

The name Pete Kitchen meant nothing to me when I first came across it in my great-grandfather Sanford’s Southern Arizona letters and diaries. However, I soon learned that Kitchen had been a legend of sorts, renowned as an Indian fighter whose ranch was used as a stronghold against attacking Apaches. Historian Anne Merriman Peck described him as “probably the first American rancher in Arizona” and author Rufous K. Wyllys called him “a crack shot feared by both Indians and bandits.” Born in Kentucky in 1822, Kitchen joined the U.S. Army and went west, honing his fighting skills and arriving in Southern Arizona at the age of 31. He built his Potrero Ranch five miles above what is now the Mexican border and hired 30 Opata Indians from Sonora to help protect it. He raised cattle and hogs and was known for his excellent hams and bacon. (Based on Sanford’s above statement, for his mescal as well.) According to historian Jay J. Wagoner, Kitchen described the road to his ranch back then as “Tucson, Tubac, and to Hell.” He married a Mexican woman and is said to have worn a Mexican sombrero and serape, which may be the reason my great-grandfather often called him “Pedro.”...From the Nogales Bulletin.