Arizona's Haunted Brunckow Cabin

Southwest of Tombstone, AZ lies the blood soaked ruins of the Brunckow Cabin. At least 21 people were killed here by various persons between 1860 and 1890. Many of these were buried on the property. And, according to some, their disquiet souls make the occasional appearance. Is this a testament to the savagery of frontier American life? Or could there be something about the site upon which the cabin was built, something that reaches into men's souls to twist and corrupt?

Many of those who owned the land, lived at the house, or even just visited briefly found themselves meeting tragic ends.

German immigrant Frederick Brunckow arrived in the US around 1850 with an education in mine engineering from the University of Westphalia. This work eventually brought him out to Arizona where he would eventually open up his own mining operation 8 miles southwest of Tombstone where he built a simple adobe cabin as sleeping quarters for his workers. On July 23, 1860, one of the miners--William Williams--returned from a supply run at Fort Buchanan to find his cousin and fellow miner dead. Williams fetched soldiers from the fort. When they returned the next morning, several men were missing and two more bodies were found--including Brunckow--and over $3,000 worth of materials were missing. The cause of death in each of the men indicated murder. Later that night, the camp cook returned to camp with a tale that he had been taken hostage by some of the Mexican miners who had been hired on by Brunckow. As they crossed the border back into Mexico, the men let the cook go.

In 1873, two men -- James T. Holmes and US Marshal Milton B. Duffield both laid claim to the cabin. Their dispute led to Holmes killing Duffield with a shotgun. The Marshal was buried at the cabin and Holmes was arrested.

Prospector and "father of Tombstone," Ed Schieffelin, recorded that even in 1877 there were already several graves at the cabin, likely men who met their fate at the hands of raiding Apaches.

Outlaw Frank Stilwell owned the land for a bit. On March 20, 1882, Tucson deputy marshal Wyatt Earp gunned him down in a Tucson train station.

In 1897, it was reported that a group of thieves that had recently robbed a Wells Fargo shipment of gold quickly began arguing among themselves about how their spoils should be divided. It didn't take long before weapons were drawn and the men all lay dead at the cabin and the gold was reclaimed.

Since the 1880s, reports of ghostly sightings have made their way to Arizona papers and locals began to give the old adobe structure a wide berth. Some witnesses claimed to have seen the apparition of a man wandering about the cabin at night, seemingly in search of something. Lost gold?

Was the thieves massacre born of an evil in the hearts of criminals or did this blood soaked land reach out with supernatural persuasion to whisper further malice into the hearts of these thieves?

Not much remains of the structure today: the foundation supports a couple of crumbling walls. The graves are still there, but most have lost their markers. Time, the elements, and vandalism have left the Brunckow Cabin as a ruin in the Arizona Desert, home only to the ghosts of its tragic history.