Deep in the pines at the base of Mount Elden outside Flagstaff, Arizona, stands a grave that got too big for the truth. The sign beside it tells a murder story: in September 1877, a mule skinner shot a little boy dead over spring water, and a posse killed him for it. But research by John Westerlund and Beth Wilson, great-great granddaughter of John Elden, found the murder was never part of the family's own stories. The family was real. The grave is real. The murder is pure fiction, a tale that grew step by step from a small grave in the pines into print, books, magazines, and a trail guide. The real story is quieter: a baby boy who died just after birth and was buried here before the family left Flagstaff for California in late 1884.
The grave is still there. The sign still tells the murder story.
Midnight Dispatches: strange but true stories, told after midnight.