Edgar Rice Burroughs Hunted the Apache Kid

Two years soldiering in the Arizona Territory at Fort Grant provided decades of creative inspiration for Tarzan’s creator. 

Dateline: Fort Grant, Arizona Territory, Saturday, May 23, 1896.

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs, age 20, arrived here today to begin a harrowing ten-month tour of duty with the 7th U.S. Cavalry. A graduate of Michigan Military Academy, Burroughs had recently failed the entrance exam to West Point. Yet youthful optimism led him to believe a commission might still be attained from the ranks. Enlisted at Detroit with consent of his father (former Civil War Maj. George Tyler Burroughs), underage Ed had now achieved his rather perverse but expressed desire to be sent to “the worst post in the United States.” At Fort Grant his high hopes for rapid advancement would soon be crushed upon hard Arizona rocks. Unknown to Burroughs, those same jagged rocks concealed a living legend—the Apache Kid. Kid roamed ghost-like through the remote mountain vastness, a $5,000 bounty on his head on both sides of the border. Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose own legend was still unlit, would soon join the hunt for this famed phantom outlaw—thus tying his name forever to the Apache Kid saga. 

Burroughs’ Arizona adventure began the previous day in the roughneck cowtown of Willcox. Arriving by rail with one dollar in his pocket, he had missed the daily mail and passenger stage to the fort. “Terribly hungry and equally sleepy,” Ed found a room at (probably) the Willcox Hotel. Bedeviled by bed bugs Burroughs abandoned his cot, spending most of his first night in Arizona perched uncomfortably on the hotel’s front porch. The following morning Burroughs boarded the stagecoach for Fort Grant (possibly driven by Warren Earp). Decades later, Ed recalled of this trip: “There were other passengers, but only one whom I remember, a painted lady from the hog ranch three miles from the post… She was not very old, but she was motherly and kind hearted. We dropped her at the hog ranch and I never saw her again.” One can only wonder if this “painted lady” voiced some encouraging words to new recruit Burroughs, headed to his first duty station. Her kindly impression lingered with him for life.

ERB at Ft. Grant (standing, left)

 Sworn in and assigned to Troop B, U.S. 7th Cavalry under command of 1st Lt. Selah R. H. “Tommy” Tompkins, Pvt. Burroughs now began his training and indoctrination.  An accomplished horseman, he easily adapted to mounted cavalry drills. Saber exercises he quickly mastered as well...For relaxation soldiers could patronize the post canteen. Beyond that a motley collection of saloons, dance halls and gambling dens beckoned from nearby Bonita. Come payday a lonely trooper might visit the local bordello or “hog-ranch,” there to have his saddle-weary ashes hauled with the professional assistance of a soiled dove. For relaxation soldiers could patronize the post canteen. Beyond that a motley collection of saloons, dance halls and gambling dens beckoned from nearby Bonita. Come payday a lonely trooper might visit the local bordello or “hog-ranch,” there to have his saddle-weary ashes hauled with the professional assistance of a soiled dove. Fortunately, the future author of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars preferred to indulge his creative muse in his spare time. Burroughs enjoyed sketching scenes of post life, jotting down notes and impressions, and writing letters home. These creative efforts, combined with vivid memories, later inspired Burroughs to pen two insightful novels of the Apache Wars: The War Chief (1927) and Apache Devil (1933)... Burroughs’ legacy of frontier soldiering lives on in his two masterful Apache War novels written nearly a hundred years ago. Within their pages Geronimo, Juh, Cochise and Victorio live again, along with Shoz-Dijiji the Black Bear and his beloved Ish-kay-nay, Cibeque medicine man Nakay-do-klunni and others. Painstakingly researched, written from the heart, and daringly presented from the Apache point of view, The War Chief and Apache Devil contain all the love, hatred and pathos of human existence caught in the crucible of war.

 

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A life member of The Burroughs Bibliophiles, Frank W. Puncer has collected, studied and written about the life and works of Edgar Rice Burroughs for 45 years. As a resident of Arizona, Puncer has a special interest in Burroughs’ Western novels.