M A G A Z •: - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

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OCTOR THORNE, an Arizona
pioneer, spent the last 39 years of
a long and eventful life in and
around the rugged ravines of the Four
Peaks country, northeast of the city of.
Phoenix, Arizona, searching for a fabulously
rich gold ledge said to have been
shown to him by the Tonto Apache Indians
during the many years that he was
held a prisoner by the tribe.
It was in 1849 that Thorne, then a
young physician just out of school set out
across the great plains infested with hostile
Indians. A year later he was captured
by the Tonto Apaches. The Indians treated
him well but recognizing his skill as
a physician, refused to turn him loose.
In the year 1861 about the time the Civil
war broke out, a great drought came upon
the Indian country. Pifion nuts and seeds
of all kinds were scarce, wild game drifted
away in search of feed. The Apache:
MAY, 1 94 1
By JOHN MITCHELL
Illustration by Frank Adams
warriors were all out raiding and to make
things worse disease broke out among the
women and children of the tribe.
The Indians believed that certain kinds
of diseases were caused by different kinds
of animals. If caused by a snake, the medicine
man danced the snake dance to the
accompaniment of weird music made by
a gourd filled with pebbles. If the disease
were caused by a deer, the medicine man
decked himself in a headdress adorned
with deer horns and danced the deer
dance.
When the Apache medicine man had
exhausted his hatful of tricks without
finding a cure and the epidemic continued
to grow worse, the old men of the tribe
appealed to Doctor Thorne for help. Realizing
the seriousness of the situation and
that his reputation as a physician was at
stake, Thorne decided to use one of his
strongest remedies — Hickemia, a tuber
On the day set for his release they
placed Thorne on a horse and headed
out of the mountains.
Only one white man ever knew
where this gold ledge was located
—and after 39 years of search he
died without finding it. If the story
he told was true, a fortune awaits
the prospector who eventually rediscovers
this rich vein of quartz.
that still grows profusely over many parts
of Arizona.
How the Creator of all things managed
to wrap up so much dynamite in such a
harmless looking little root, is beyond the
power of science to determine. One teaspoonful
of the powder made from it was
sufficient to stir the vitals of a drugstore
Indian.
But happy days were just around the
corner. The remedy worked like magic
and Doctor Thorne tapered off the cure
with a gourdful of soothing squaw tea,
made from a bush found all over the west.
By tom-tom, smoke signal and the grapevine
telegraph the doctor's fame spread
far beyond the borders of Apacheland.
Indians, like elephants, never forget.
So when the warriors returned from their
raids, a powwow was held and it was decided
to release the doctor in order that
he might return to his own people. To