The Apache Death Cave is a natural geological feature in Canyon Diablo located below the nearby Gift Shop. Its tunnels reportedly stretch for hundreds of meters below the surface and are easy to get lost inside of. Featured on the interior are fake cave dweller ruins, originally built there by Harry Miller.1 Overtop the cave mouth sits the old wooden pathway leading down from the surface, though it is in a very ruined state.
The mouth of the cave (2023)
History
The history of the Apache Death Cave is shrouded in legend and mystery. Though they vary in detail, most stories follow the same narrative. Supposedly, around 1878, a band of Apache warriors were chased down by a band of Navajos. In their attempt to flee, the Apache people hid inside the cave. Unfortunately for the Apache, the Navajo warriors discovered them. They asphyxiated the Apaches inside the cave by lighting brush on fire in the cave mouth and killing any people who tried to escape. Afterwards, their bodies were stripped of valuables and left in the cave for decades until Two Guns opened. It is said that Harry Miller took the bones from the cave and sold them to tourists.2 Though it is probably one of the most well-known aspects of Two Guns today, the cave's story is dubious. In fact, under Miller's ownership, the cave was simply referred to as "Apache Cave" as Miller had constructed fake dwellings inside it to attract tourists.2 The first record of the Apache "Death" Cave story is from Gladwell Richardson, who wrote over 300 western novels and thousands of magazine articles. He detailed the story of the cave, as well as the dubious legend involving nearby town Canyon Diablo, in his book Two Guns, Arizona. The story told in his book was taken as fact and now permeates historical recountings of the town despite its completely false nature.
References
1. Two Guns, Arizona.
2. https://neverquitelost.com/2020/10/29/the-man-who-invented-the-apache-death-cave/
