Editing Gila County, Arizona (section)

==History==
The county was formed from parts of [[Maricopa County, Arizona|Maricopa]] and [[Pinal County, Arizona|Pinal counties]] on February 8, 1881.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arizona Cultural Inventory Project |url=http://cip.azlibrary.gov/Collection.aspx?CollID=1170 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012233914/http://cip.azlibrary.gov/Collection.aspx?CollID=1170 |archive-date=October 12, 2012 |access-date=July 14, 2013}}</ref> The boundary was then extended eastward to the [[San Carlos River (United States)|San Carlos River]] by public petition in 1889. The original county seat was in the mining community of Globe City, now [[Globe, Arizona|Globe]].

Popular theory holds that the word "Gila" was derived from a Spanish contraction of Hah-quah-sa-eel, a [[Yuma language|Yuma]] word meaning "running water which is salty".<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 4, 2003 |title=Gila National Forest (archived) |url=http://www2.srs.fs.fed.us/r3/gila/about/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060111100317/http://www2.srs.fs.fed.us/r3/gila/about/ |archive-date=January 11, 2006 |access-date=October 16, 2007 |publisher=[[United States Forest Service]]}}</ref>

In the 1880s, a long range war broke out in Gila County that became the most costly feud in [[United States of America|American]] history, resulting in an almost complete annihilation of the families involved. The ''[[Pleasant Valley War]]'' (also sometimes called the ''Tonto Basin Feud'' or ''Tonto Basin War'') matched the cattle-herding Grahams against the sheep-herding Tewksburys. Once partisan feelings became tense and hostilities began, [[Frederick Russell Burnham]], who later became a celebrated scout and the inspiration for the [[Scouting|boy scouts]], was drawn into the conflict on the losing side.<ref name="arizonadarkandbloody">{{Cite book |last=Forrest |first=Earle R. |title=Arizona's Dark and Bloody Ground; an authentic account of the sanguinary Pleasant Valley vendetta that swept through Arizona's cattleland in the latter eighteen eighties – the Graham-Tewksbury feud |publisher=Caxton Printers, Ltd |year=1936 |location=Caldwell, Idaho |pages=15, 292 |oclc=1825248}}</ref><ref name="scouting">{{Cite book |last=Burnham |first=Frederick Russell |title=Scouting on Two Continents |publisher=Doubleday, Page & company |year=1926 |pages=2; Chapters 3 & 4 |oclc=407686}}</ref>

Burnham shot many men in the feud, and was himself nearly killed by a bounty hunter.<ref name="lott1981">{{Cite book |last=Lott |first=Jack |title=America – The Men and Their Guns That Made Her Great |publisher=Petersen Publishing Co. |year=1981 |isbn=0-8227-3022-7 |editor-last=Boddington |editor-first=Craig |page=90 |chapter=Chapter 8. The Making of a Hero: Burnham in the Tonto Basin}}</ref> [[Tom Horn]], an infamous assassin, was known to have taken part as a killer for hire, but it is unknown which side employed him. Both sides suffered fatalities. No one was ever charged or prosecuted.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In the 1960s, it was home of [[Gerald Gault]], who was the subject of the 1967 [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruling, ''[[in re Gault]]'', that stated juveniles have the same rights as adults when arrested to be notified of the charges against them, the rights to attorneys, for family members to be notified of their arrests and to confront their accusers and to not be punished more harshly than adults who are convicted of the same crime, especially if an adult's penalty for the crime would be less than that accorded a juvenile convict.<ref>{{ussc|name=In re Gault|volume=387|page=1|pin=4|year=1967}} Primary Holding</ref>