Member-only story
Legends of Route 66: Two Guns, Arizona
Some of Two Guns’ backstory may be more fabrication than fact.
When I’m at my computer thumping out drivel to be consumed by perhaps dozens of people, I often watch YouTube. I watch a lot of sports content, as well as entertainment nostalgia and historical stuff. Information relating to the fabled Route 66 falls into that latter category. There are probably hundreds of old tourist sites lying in ruins when interstate highways made parts of Route 66 obsolete. Two Gun Arizona is one of them.
Is there evidence to support the legend of Two Guns?
One of the legends of Two Guns involves the so-called death cave in the area. The story goes that 42 Apache were killed by Navajos who bottled them up in a cave and started a fire to smoke them out.
The alleged massacre was supposedly the result of a murderous 1876 raid by the Apache on the Navajos.
While that’s a graphic story, it is also disputed.
The site of that tale has been referred to as The Apache Death Cave.
Did Billy the Kid and his gang really hide out there?
Once again, that’s the legend. Billy was supposed to have hidden out in some ruins in the area in the winter of 1879–80. Once…