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Reavis and the Peralta Grant

How did James Reavis a nobody in the Old West a century ago come to be known as the Baron of Arizona claiming 18,500 square miles including Phoenix and the Southern Pacific’s right of way? In this book you have the complete story of one of history’s most enormous frauds. Before it was over, the fraud involved Washington and Wall Street and the nobility of Europe. Reavis, the son of a frontiersman, had been a confederate soldier, a tram conductor, a clothing store clerk, and a real estate agent before his great inspiration opened before him. In handling land claims for clients, he saw how dubious some of them were; and having toyed with minor transgressions that included forgery while in the Army, he now began to see what wonders could be conjured up with land claims. He went about painstakingly to improve his forgery and to make himself an expert on old documents. The end result was that with the aid of a crooked Spanish lawyer and other associates, a claim was laid to a gigantic property in Arizona and New Mexico. In the telling of this engrossing story the reader sees fraud develop and then unravel, as well a picture of pioneer life in the West, of the founding of Arizona Territory, the early days of Phoenix, the growth of California, the great railroad battles of Huntington and Gould and many sidelights. It was a small-town newspaper man suspicious of the type face on a certain “ancient” document who stuck the first pin into Reavis’ bubble. You’ll love learning how Reavis built this lavish hoax and how after the dike sprung a leak,it was torn apart bit by bit.

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