Skeleton Cave is a remote rock shelter high on the north wall of Arizona’s Salt River Canyon, remembered chiefly for the 1872 attack on Yavapai people during the Battle of Salt River Canyon. Used by Yavapais as a hideout from George Crook and the 5th Cavalry, it became the site of the first principal engagement of the 1872 Tonto Basin Campaign, part of the wider Yavapai War, and more than seventy victims were left there. Forgotten for decades, it regained attention after remains were found in 1908, later suffered looting, and came to symbolize violence, loss, and survival connected to the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.