A bootlegger, well-digger, wanderer, and storyteller of early Oro Valley
Written by Devon Sloan, January 2025
In June 1927, Buster Bailey moved to Arizona from Texas when he was 16 with his parents and one sister (there were 5 other siblings). The family bought a ranch formerly homesteaded by Francisco and Teodoro Marin north of the entrance to Catalina State Park, on both sides of Oracle Road (paved only with oil and gravel), as well as a gas station in that vicinity.
Buster worked on the farm but returned with this family to Texas during the years leading up to
the Depression. However, he came back to Tucson where he worked many jobs, mostly digging wells for various families in the area. Wells were between 25 – 100 feet, and digging was a very dangerous job since the walls of the well could collapse on the workers below. That didn’t deter Buster – the Depression was coming, and Buster needed to work.
Bootlegging became a great alternative. (Remember, prohibition in Tucson started in 1915.) Buster made the “adult beverage” in the Catalina Mountains and drove a Ford Model A to Tucson where he would sell it to various locales willing to pay his asking price of $22.00/gallon. (It cost him between 65 – 85 cents to make.) Once prohibition ended, Buster worked on farms, as a handyman, and as a mechanic and also leased a ranch of about 1,000 acres that was located in Catalina State Park.
In 1942, Buster enlisted in the military and handled 15 – 20 jeeps and trucks in the motor pool in California where he was stationed, raising to the rank of Sergeant. Transferring in 1944 to New Guinea, his Captain had heard of his “adult beverage” expertise and asked him to make some moonshine. After having the camp doctor test it, Buster made 10 gallons each week for his comrades in arms. It is unclear whether that was the same Captain that took away Buster’s Sergeant stripes for refusing to take a medicine that prevents malaria. (Did Buster know at the time that it could also cause neurological damage?)
Buster returned to the Oro Valley area after the war and had many odd jobs. He even lived on Steam Pump Ranch during the Leiber era, and loved to roam our area, exploring our mountains and streams. He was actually a prolific writer and kept an amazing journal about his life, along with stories and even poems about cowboys. Although he wasn’t a cowboy by any means, he knew their way of life and shared it using his own imagination. The library at the Arizona Historical Society has these manuscripts, and they are really interesting to read and to learn more about his life. (His handwriting is even pretty good, for dropping out of school at the end of 8th grade!)
To get a feel for more of Buster Bailey’s personality, pick up Barbara Marriott’s book Canyon of Gold: Tales of Santa Catalina Pioneers (paperback – January 2005) and read the chapter “The Hiker and the Mountain Man”. Buster will come alive for you there!
Buster Bailey
Doesn’t he look like the kind of guy who would perform dangerous jobs, be a bootlegger, roam our mountains, tell great stories and be very missed when he died in Tucson at the age of 84?
Buster Bailey Gravesite Headstone at Evergreen Memorial Park, Tucson, AZ
Buster is buried in Evergreen Memorial Park in Tucson, Arizona (Pima County), Block 11, Sec. B, Row 1, Grave 9