Crosses along Indian Route 15 represent the nine lives lost in the October 25, 1951, accident on the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona. Image from Google Maps
An accident in October 1951 claimed the lives of nine people on the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona. Writer Bill Coates has more on the tragedy, which also caused injuries to a 4-year-old boy named Edward Manuel, the current chairman of the tribe:
Travel south from Casa Grande on Chuichu Road. You’ll end up on Indian Route 15. It runs north-south through the Tohono O’odham Nation. It’s a scenic drive. The desert is filled with mountains and saguaros. And crosses. Nine of them appear 15 miles or more south of Casa Grande. They’re lined up, side-by-side. Another, larger one, looks over them. Each smaller cross stands for a life taken, all in one horrific accident. Johnny Crawford’s sister-in-law, Rosemary, was in it. She does not count as one of the crosses. She lived to tell Crawford what happened. I met Crawford, 64, to hear the story. We sat near the back of Denny’s on Florence Boulevard. His wife, Maltilda, sat next to him. They met in high school. She’s Navajo. He’s Tohono O’odham. They live in North Komelik Village off Indian Route 15, near the Pima County line. Rosemary died about a year ago, Crawford said. He couldn’t remember her maiden name. And he hadn’t kept in touch, he said. She and his brother had parted ways some years back. She lived into her 80s, he added. She would have been 15, maybe a little older, when the two trucks approached each other on a narrow bridge over a wash. It was Oct. 20, 1951 — a Saturday evening, about 7:20.Get the Story:
9 crosses tied to tragic story on a reservation road (The Casa Grande Dispatch 4/10)
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