# @downinnadesert on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdabJvTm-4X
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70597292-downinnadesert-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/0b6d907628.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-18T03:02:38.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Down In The Desert🌵 (@downinnadesert) — https://gondola.cc/downinnadesert

## Caption

Arizona once made fourteen men responsible for 113,000 square miles.

By 1901, Arizona Territory had a reputation for cattle rustlers, stagecoach robbers and smugglers along the Mexican border. Some major cattle operations were reportedly considering pulling out, while Arizona was still fighting for statehood.

So the territorial legislature created the Arizona Rangers.

The original force had just fourteen men: one captain, one sergeant and twelve privates. They were given quality horses and modern weapons, and unlike county sheriffs, could pursue suspects across the territory.

Their first captain was Burt Mossman, a Bisbee cattleman who helped write the law creating the Rangers. The force was later expanded to 26 men.

Thomas Rynning, a veteran of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, became the second captain before leaving to become warden of the Yuma Territorial Prison.

Harry Wheeler became the third and final captain. Of the 107 men who served during the Rangers’ eight-year run, Wheeler was the only one to serve at every rank.

But the Rangers weren’t taken down in a gunfight.

They were abolished by the legislature in 1909 after growing tension with county sheriffs and arguments over the force’s cost and authority. The governor vetoed the bill, but lawmakers overrode him.

Arizona became a state three years later.

Wheeler later became Cochise County sheriff and played a leading role in the 1917 Bisbee Deportation, when roughly 1,200 striking mine workers and others were forced onto railroad cars and removed from Bisbee.

The Arizona Rangers exist again today as a volunteer nonprofit, but they do not have independent law enforcement authority.

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#ArizonaRangers #Bisbee #ArizonaHistory #ArizonaNews #DownInnaDesert

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## Tags

arizonarangers, downinnadesert, arizonahistory, bisbee, arizonanews

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