The whole country at the time was kept in…
source date: 1889
availability: public-domain

through the gates of hell to get there. The town of Janos was a presidio on the frontier, midway between Santa Rita copper mines and the city of Chihuahua; he left his family there at a place of safety and engaged in the business of trans- porting the copper to Chihuahua. The whole country at the time was kept in commotion by Indian depredations; to the in- habitants they were a holy terror, and every trip they made there was an attack on the pack- mule train going or coming from the mines; but Kirker was so successful in repulsing them that he soon acquired a reputation as an Indian fighter, and some of the principal men of Chi- huahua held out inducements to him to raise a company to fight the Apaches.