Arizona Rangers
| Rangers | |
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Patch of the Rangers
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| Agency overview | |
| Formed | August 1861-May 26, 1865; 1882; 1901; 1957- |
| Dissolved | 1909 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Tucson, AZ |
The Arizona Rangers are an Arizona unpaid, non-commissioned civilian auxiliary agency that is available to assist and support law enforcement modeled on the Texas Rangers. The Arizona Rangers were created by the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1901, disbanded in 1909, and subsequently reformed in 1957. They were created to deal with the infestations of outlaws in the sparsely populated Arizona Territory, especially along the Mexican border. The rangers were an elite, well-trained, and originally a secretive agency mounted on quality horses and well equipped with modern weapons at the state's expense. The rangers were very effective in apprehending members of outlaw bands.
The first Arizona Rangers were organized to police the new gold boom towns and mining camps in the western half of the New Mexico Territory that arose after the first gold strike in 1858 in Gila City. In his history of the Arizona Rangers, stretching back to 1861, Arizona State Historian Marshall Trimble revealed "Arizona’s first Ranger may have been one of the founders of Phoenix, Jack Swilling."
After the establishment of the Confederate Arizona Territory, Territorial Governor John Robert Baylor decided he needed to supplement existing militia companies with a regiment of militarized Rangers modeled after the war-time Texas Rangers. He intended this regiment to consist of several companies of cavalry. On January 25, 1862, the first Confederate ranger company, Company A Baylor's Regiment of Arizona Rangers commanded by Captain Sherod Hunter, was mustered into service at the town of Dona Ana located just north of present-day Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hunter's Company consisted of about 75 men for the most part residents of the newly-created Confederate Territory of Arizona.
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Wikipedia