The Black Hawk War broke out in 1865 and was not settled until 1868. Nearly 3,000 men were enlisted and the cost was over a million dollars and at least seventy lives. This Ute unrest was contagious, and the Paiutes in turn were stirred into sporadic resistance.
Hostilities in the south began late in 1865, when, on December 18, a number of Paiutes raided Kanab and made away with some horses. During that winter Dr. James M. Whitmore and his son-in-law, Robert McIntyre, were herding sheep in the vicinity of Pipe Springs. Soon after the first of the new year, a band of Navajos and Paiutes stole a herd of Whitmore’s sheep. The next day the two men went in pursuit and failed to return. This was reported to St. George and a cavalry detachment was organized under Captain David H. Cannon. As his force appeared inadequate, he sent an appeal from Pipe Springs for additional support. D. D. McArthur came from St. George to take charge and brought with him forty-seven men under James Andrus with wagons and supplies for an extended trip designed to drive the Navajos across the Colorado River. When they arrived at Pipe Springs, the snow was two feet deep and no trace of the sheep or men could be found. On January 18, they came upon the tracks of two Paiute Indians following a large steer, tracked them until sundown, and captured the Indians in the act of killing the beef.
After questioning and torture, hanging by the heels and twisting of thumbs, one of the Indians admitted that he had dreamed that Navajos had been there and then revealed the whereabouts of a camp of Indians about ten miles out. A detachment was sent and found that it had been moved another five miles. The militia overtook the camp about sunrise on January 20, killing two Indians and capturing five.
Third degree methods elicited information about the killing of Whitmore and McIntyre. The captives led another detachment to the scene of the killings, where the posse crisscrossed the area on horseback, uncovering the arm of one of the victims in the deep snow. Both bodies had bullet wounds and were riddled with arrows. They had been killed on January 10.
A wagon was sent after the bodies. While the men were recovering the remains the other detachment with the five Indian prisoners arrived. These had in their possession much of the clothing and personal effects of the murdered men. The evidence of guilt seemed conclusive, so the Indians were turned loose and shot as they attempted to run. The Navajos who probably assisted in the killing escaped. The sheep could not be found and it was assumed the Navajos had taken them across the Colorado River. As pursuit was impossible because of the deep snow the party returned home. Charles L. Walker of St. George records in his diary:
They were brought home in a wagon load of snow, frozen stiff and in a good state of preservation. I, with others, washed them and pulled out the arrow points from their bodies and dressed them in their burial robes. Also went to the funeral, which was attended by a large concourse of people.[70]
On February 19, 1866, two days after Erastus Snow was elected Brigadier General, Peter Shurtz, who had built a station at Paria and had kept about twenty Indians around him all winter, reported that he had lost his cattle and wished to move into the settlements. He also reported Navajos camped on Paria River about eight miles below his ranch where the Ute trail reached the stream.
Further information indicated that the Navajos were concentrated east of the Colorado at Cottonwood, intending to raid Kane County in force and that Captain James Andrus with thirty men had gone to Paria to get Peter Shurtz and his family and to reconnoiter. No report of this expedition is available, but a letter written by L. W. Roundy from Kanab on March 9, 1866, tells that Andrus had left Paria fourteen days earlier headed for an Indian camp twelve miles south.[71] At Kanab, three Indians had attempted to kill Oren Clark in the bottoms near the fort and had started to drive off the livestock. Four men from the fort rushed in pursuit and after dark recovered about thirty head of cattle, but the Indians escaped with about an equal number.
The Indian menace was so serious by this time that Erastus Snow ordered all stock in the region south of St. George and the Virgin River as far east as Kanab removed to the north and west of the lines of settlements so that it would be easier to ward off Navajo attacks. This was a difficult task because the grazing was poor around the settlements and the mountains to the northwest were already filled with livestock.
The threat from the Utes in upper Sevier Valley also became acute. Menacing behavior of the Indians in this area and in the Kanab region led to an order from Utah headquarters to General Erastus Snow (March 15) to send a company of men from Beaver and Iron counties over to the Sevier River to build and man an outpost between Circleville and Panguitch. A company of 76 men led by Captain Silas S. Smith served here from March 21 to November 30, 1866. They established Fort Sanford about ten miles north of Panguitch and assisted settlers at Circleville to move to safety. At Panguitch, they helped the settlers transform the town into a fort.