Pleasant Valley War

The Pleasant Valley War was also known as the Graham-Tewksbury Feud and the worst of it was fought in the northern part of what became Gila County, Arizona. During the 1800s, the entire north-central Arizona Territory was under lead and smoke confrontation between the sheep raisers and cowmen, the Hashknife Outfit and the homesteaders, the horse thieves and the Mormons, the cinch-ring artists and the ranchers. To add a little fuel to the fire, a few bronco Apaches could be counted on to keep everyone on their toes. Men rode with their rifles in hand, and in town the tie-down loops were clear on the tops of the six-gun hammers. To this point, the law had been little more than a minor faction in a civic train wreck.

"Jinx Pyle is a walking encyclopedia of information on events in Gila County, Arizona and now he's written a history of the notorious Pleasant Valley War - one of the most complex and vile blood feuds in America's history, which left about 40 men dead. Even the storied Hatfield's and McCoy's, with 13 dead, can't compare. These two feuds took place during essentially the same time [1880s], but parts of the Pleasant Valley War or Graham-Tewksbury Feud, as it is often called, have never been told. Good books on the subject have been written by such gifted writers and researchers as Earle Forrest, Don Dedera, Lee Hanchett, and others, but the identity of the man who started the war is revealed here for the first time."

- Marshall Trimble
Official Arizona State Historian