User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Seneca Spring Station

Seneca Spring Station, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail between 1858-1861 in what is now Pima County, Arizona. It was located 35 miles from Tucson, and 24 miles from San Pedro Station. It later became known as Cienega Spring Station, as the original Seneca was corrupted into the similar sounding Spanish word cienega, the language of most of the population of this region of New Mexico Territory, recently annexed from Sonora, by the Gadsden Purchase.

Location

Anhert, Gerald T., Retracing the Butterfield Overland Trail through Arizona; a guide to the route of 1857-1861; Westernlore Press; Tucson AZ; 1973. Anhert, located the site of Seneca Spring Station in the northern quadrant of Pima County, AZ, Township 16S, Range 17E, Section 19

Talbert, Dan: Historical Guide to the Mormon Battalion and Butterfield Trail; Westernlore Press, 1992. Talbert located the site of Seneca Spring Station at the northeast corner of Pima County, AZ, Township 16S, Range 17E, Section 30. Pima County, AZ, Township 16S, Range 17E, Section 30

Site southwest of approximate coordinates 32°01′08.03″N 110°38′46.48″W

Anhert, 2011 32°01′08.4″N 110°38′33.72″W

"The location of the Seneca-Cienega Stage Station in my book, page 47, is from an accurately surveyed General Land Office map Township 16S, Range 17E, surveyed in 1874. There is no doubt a good part of the station is under the railroad tracks. The trail is also accurately surveyed on this map. The main Butterfield trail ran up the Cienega Wash. There are numerous references from the time of Butterfield to support this. You state that the station layout was taken from Conkling’s layout and was “presumably taken from Butterfield’s records.” It was not. The station that the Conklings’ describe was a later built station on top of the old ruins. I give ample primary references for this in my book. You will note that all the twenty-six Butterfield stations in Arizona were made of adobe, except the Apache Pass Stage Station and Dragoon Springs Stage Station which were fortified and built of stone. The original name of the station, as named by Butterfield, is Seneca Spring Stage Station. G. Bailey, as the inspector for Postmaster-General Brown, on the the first Butterfield stagecoach going east named the stations in his official government report. He states that it is “Seneca Springs” stage station. There are other first-hand newspaper articles of that time also calling it Seneca station. Because the name Seneca is so close in pronunciation to “cienega” and was located on Cienega Wash, the name Cienega usurped the name Seneca. After all, the Spanish language was the primary language of Arizona in Butterfield’s time. The name Seneca is one of five Upstate-New York names given to Butterfield’s Arizona Stage Stations. The others were Mohawk, Oneida, Stanwix, and Kinyon’s. These are all familiar names near the administrative headquarters for the trail in Utica, New York. This was also the home of John Butterfield. Many of the employees, and especially the stagecoach drivers were from Upstate-New York."

Wray / OCTA 32°01′12.81″N 110°38′22.59″W

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32°01′08″N 110°38′33″W Asa Mckenzie’s ranch / Gerald T. Ahnert, Way Out West October 23, 2012 at 7:50 am

Asa was the only settler on the immediate route of the Butterfield Trail from the New Mexico border to Tucson. It is listed on page 2 of the 1860 census for Arizona. It is listed under the heading of dwelling 14 and starts from there. It existed during Butterfield’s time therefore contains artifacts of that time. I give an account of this ranch in my new book “The Butterfield Trail and Overland Mail Company in Arizona, 1858-1861, published in April 2011. The account is on page 48 and is from the primary reference from a newspaper article in the Sacramento Daily Union, March 7, 1861.

From THE APACHE PASS DIFFICULTY, Sacramento Daily Union, March 7, 1861, p.1, col.6:

"... A party of Pinals, numbering about a dozen, attacked the rancho of Asa McKenzie, on the afternoon of the 20th. Two men were there at the time, and offered them vigorous resistance; but unable to contend against such odds, were compelled to retreat. They halloed lustily, in hopes of calling to their assistance the men at the Cienega station of the Overland Mail Company, half a mile distant; but the three employees of the line beat an ignominious retreat to the chaparral and hid themselves, regardless of the trust reposed in them as custodians of the Mail Company's property at that point. The Indians set fire to McKenzie's house and completely destroyed it. He was in Tucson on that day, and the men in charge of the ranch walked to the station for help. Upon arriving there they found it deserted, but by vigorous shouting soon coaxed the timid Goldsmith and his confreres from their hiding places. Finding them too much frightened to remain, and resolved to seek safety in flight, McKenzie's men had no other recourse than to accompany them to the San Pedro Station, whither they had decided upon going. They started with four mules, but subsequently abandoned them on account of the trouble and delay they occasioned. The mules were found on the road by a party who had started from the San Pedro for the purpose of recovering them, and returned to their old station. Arrangements were made by Oury to place agents at that point who could be depended upon; and if the Indians revisit that locality they will not be required to beat round the chaparral to find objects of attack. ...

Reference

Category:Former populated places in Pima County, Arizona]]
Category:History of Arizona]]
Category:San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line]]
Category:Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory]]
Category:Ghost towns in Arizona]]
Category:1858 establishments in Arizona]]
Category:History of Pima County, Arizona]]
Category:American Old West]]