How to Walk Where Rude Walked And Stand Your Ground

 September 14, 2024

   Get ready to experience history on a whole new level. Yes, to better understand what actually happened to Willie B. Rude on July 14 of 1861, we are going to give you the the specific directions so you can walk where they walked.

I Believe This Is The Mesquite Thicket

Where Rude Made His Stand

   In March of 2024, Stuart Rosebrook and I met historian Greg Scott at the Green Valley post office and we trekked out to the area where Rude made his brave stand 163 years before. Although this is just an educated guess, this thicket, above, fits the description by Pumpelly and others about the defensive position Rude took. There are literally hundreds of these in the area so it's impossible to say if this is the exact one, but it certainly speaks to the flimsiest of defensive positions anyone could make. And, believe me, when you are hunkered down in there, you certainly can sense the desperation he must have felt having to defend such an inferior position.

   I certainly felt his presence as I stood on the immediate ground he chose to fight to the death on.

Directions to The Rude Gunfight Site

   Here's how to get there. Starting from Tucson, go south on I-19 through Green Valley. From Canoa Ranch exit go South on the east frontage road about 3 miles to Elephant Head Road. Turn left, which is East. Go about a quarter mile to the Elephant Head/Anza Trailhead on the left.

Google Map Overview of the Anza Trailhead

 There’s parking, a shaded picnic table but no rest room or water.  There’s information signs and the Anza Trail wends its way northward eventually all the way to the San Francisco Bay! For our purposes the True West reader should walk eastward across the usually dry Santa Cruz River bed. 

Just north of the bridge and on the east side of the river (where the words Head and Trailhead appear, above) is the location of the mesquite thicket where I believe Rude held off a band of Apaches in 1861.

   When you go there, send us pictures of you and the thicket so we can experience how happy you are. And, trust me, it will make us happy to know you stood your ground.

"To study the past is to unlock the prison of the present."

—Jill Lepore, "These Truths: A History of The United States"