Cochise was born in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona in 1805. Cochise's father and grandfather had been chiefs of the Central Chiricahua. Cochise married, Dos-teh-seh, the daughter of Mangas Coloradas. They had two sons, Taza and Natchez.
Cochise became an important Apache warrior and took part in a battle with the Mexicans in May 1832 on Gila River. In 1847 Cochise was involved in raids in Sonora and by the 1850s he had emerged as one of the main leaders of the Apache tribe. On the death of Narbona he became war leader of the Chiricahuas. In September 1858, Cochise joined Mangas Coloradas, his father-in-law, in a attack on Fronteras Presido.
On 27th January, 1861, Apaches stole cattle and kidnapped a boy from a Sonoita Valley ranch. Second Lieutenant George Bascom was sent out with 54 soldiers to recover the boy. Cochise met Bascom and told him that he would try to recover the boy. Bascom rejected the offer and instead tried to take Cochise hostage. When he tried to flee he was shot at by the soldiers. The wounded Cochise now gave orders for the execution of four white men being held in captivity. In retaliation six Apaches were hanged. Open warfare now broke out and during the next 60 days 150 white people were killed and five stage stations destroyed.
Cochise and Mangas Coloradas killed five people during an attack on a stage at Stein's Peak, New Mexico. In July, 1861 a war party murdered six white people travelling on a stage coach at Cooke's Canyon. The following year Cochise ambushed soldiers as they travelled through the Apache Pass. The Apaches also attacked stage coaches and in 1869 killed a Texas cowboy and stole 250 cattle. Cochise and his men were pursued but after a fight near Fort Bowie the soldiers were forced to retreat.
In 1872 General Oliver Howard had a meeting with Cochise in the Dragoon Mountains and eventually it was agreed that a reservation would be established for the Chiricahuas in Arizona.
Cochise died of cancer on 8th June, 1874. He was replaced as leader of the Chiricahuas by his son, Taza.
The Apache Wars Part I: Cochise
The Bascom Affair
Chief Cochise was leader of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache, local to the Chiricahua Mountains, in the mid-1800s. He was a natural born leader. His father-in-law, Chief Mangas Coloradas, who was chief of the Mimbreno band, helped him foster these skills. Through this connection, Cochise would gain more influence over the Chiricahua Apache.
In 1861, the Arivaipa band of Apache (not a part of the Chiricahua) raided the farm of settler John Ward and were seen heading toward the Chiricahua Mountains, known to be Cochise’s territory. The raiders had taken livestock and kidnapped John Ward’s stepson Felix Ward. The young and eager Lieutenant George Bascom was ordered to bring the raiders to justice.
Bascom invited Cochise to a meeting near the Butterfield Stage Station on Apache Pass. Cochise agreed to meet him and brought along a few of his family members. In the privacy of his tent, Bascom accused Cochise of the raid. Cochise told him truthfully he had no knowledge of the ordeal, but would help track down those who did. Bascom refused Cochise’s offer and his release until the property was returned. Cochise quickly cut a hole in the tent and escaped. Bascom took Cochise's family members hostage.
In the days that followed Cochise ambushed a wagon train and Butterfield stagecoach, taking prisoners of his own. Although both sides wanted to make an agreement, miscommunication and hostilities prevented it. Cochise tried to coordinate an exchange with Bascom, but Bascom refused. Cochise killed his prisoners,and the soldiers killed theirs in retaliation. Among the Apaches killed was Coyuntura, a favorite brother of Cochise. Cochise was devastated and furious.
The Battle of Apache Pass
One year later, in 1862, Chief Cochise and Chief Mangas Coloradas assembled the largest war party of the Apache Wars, roughly 200 warriors. With the advent of the Civil War, Union troops were stationed in the area to prevent the Confederacy from gaining the Southwest. On July 15, 1862, about 120 Union soldiers, part of the California Column, were marching east from Tucson. They were tired and thirsty. The soldiers made their way through Apache Pass toward Apache Spring near Fort Bowie. The Apaches probably saw an opportunity to plunder the military wagon train.
The Chiricahua attacked the soldiers from the hills above. The Battle of Apache Pass, one of the largest battles in the Apache Wars, ensued. The Chiricahua might have been successful had it not been for two Mountain Howitzer cannons.
In reference to the Mountain Howitzers, an Apache warrior stated, “We would’ve won if you hadn’t fired wagons at us.”
Bewildered by the destruction, the Chiricahua scattered and retreated. In the aftermath of the battle Mangas Coloradas was badly wounded. His warriors carried him all the way into Mexico where they threatened a doctor into helping him.
The first Fort Bowie was built near Apache Pass and Spring to guard the area from future attacks.
The Apache Wars
Mangas Coloradas
Public Domain/ Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.
Cochise on the Run
Chief Cochise began to operate primarily from the impregnable mountain rock formation known as Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains. Tall rock spires allowed lookouts to see anyone approach from far off. Many hiding spots allowed for easy ambush. The Stronghold was never taken. Cochise still ranged across a huge area--from Tucson, Arizona to Mesilla, New Mexico, and from Safford, Arizona to several hundred miles into Mexico. The United States military sought Cochise, but he proved far too elusive when chased, and far too effective a commander in battle. He was also unrivaled with a spear. The Chiricahua people were more adapted to the land, better at hiding in it, and had better knowledge of it than United States soldiers. The military had many fights with Cochise and the Chiricahua Apache, but no single fight ended the war.
The people of the United States did not understand Native American culture very well. They did not understand the separation between tribes. For example, they often thought the actions of one tribe were directly tied to that of another. This was rarely the case. Lieutenant Howard B. Cushing fell victim to this very ignorance. Cushing was attempting to pursue Cochise while another Chiricahua leader, Juh, (pronounced “who”) was pursuing him. Every time Cushing’s party got in skirmishes with Juh, Cushing assumed he was closing in on Cochise. However, he could not have been farther from the truth. Juh’s band eventually ambushed and killed Cushing.
General Crook Comes to Arizona
General George R. Crook was a stoic man. He graduated from West Point near the bottom of his class. After some success in the Civil War, he was hired to “fix the Apache problem.” He was a discreet and calculating man, speaking rarely and listening carefully.
Crook chose to ride a mule while in the Southwest. He felt it handled the heat and terrain better than a horse. He also developed the use of pack trains. Whether the task was battle or hard labor, Crook usually worked on the front lines with his men. Crook witnessed firsthand the ineffectiveness of the white man at tracking the Apache. He came up with perhaps the United States' most effective strategy in the Apache Wars--tracking Apache with defected Apache. He would later recall his time in the Apache Wars as some of the most difficult work of his life.
Reservation Proposals
Finding or defeating Chief Cochise had proven futile for the U.S. Army. The strategy shifted to relocating him and the Chiricahua Apache to a reservation. Cochise was tired. He and his people had found life on the run and in hiding exhausting. The Chiricahua were very effective warriors. They were often able to take down many soldiers before falling. However, the U.S. had what appeared to be an inexhaustible supply of soldiers and provisions.
Chief Cochise was asked repeatedly to meet and discuss relocating his people to a reservation. He would always refuse because reservations at the time had poor conditions. The San Carlos Reservation, for instance, had bad water, rampant sickness, mandatory role call, and forced menial labor which the people believed beneath them as warriors. Cochise bided his time and continued to avoid capture and defeat.
The Chiricahua Reservation
In 1872, General O.O. Howard and Tom Jeffords, an Army scout, prospector, and employee of overland mail in Arizona, put their lives at risk by approaching Cochise Stronghold with few troops. When confronted by the Chiricahua, Howard and Jeffords told them they were not there to fight but to talk.
Cochise made Howard and Jeffords wait several days before granting them entry into his camp. Cochise held an audience with Howard and the two entered into reservation talks. Both sides were very stubborn but after some time Cochise got the upper hand. Cochise procured a reservation for his people that spanned much of modern day Cochise County in southeast Arizona.
The local newspapers slandered General Howard for giving up so much ground in the negotiations. Tom Jeffords became agent of the reservation. He would go on to become a Native American sympathizer, as well as the only white man Cochise ever considered a friend. On the reservation, the Chiricahua were able to roam free and camp wherever they wanted. There was no roll call taken. They were even allowed to leave the reservation, and often raided in Mexico, which stirred tensions.
The reservation brought about a peaceful period in the war which would last four years. Settlers did not approve of the reservation’s loose authority over the Chiricahua. In Washington, D.C., the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of War fought over jurisdiction of the reservation. Given the peaceful period, however, General Crook headed north to fight with Lieutenant Colonel George Custer in the Dakotas.
The Death of Cochise
Cochise began experiencing intense stomach pains and could not always eat. In 1874, he died of what was likely stomach cancer. The whereabouts of his grave are still unknown, though it is thought to be somewhere in his Stronghold. Cochise was one of the Chiricahua’s most effective leaders during the time of the Apache Wars. He was the only one able to bring prolonged peace and freedom to his people, even if it did not last long after his death.
Cochise College History
Cochise College opened its doors in 1964 as one of the first community colleges in Arizona. It is located in an area rich in history and cultural diversity and has come a long way from its humble beginnings, when the administration offices were housed in the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas.
From the first semester, the college has been committed to serving citizens throughout the county. In October 2003, the college extended its service area to neighboring Santa Cruz County through an agreement with the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. Cochise College is Arizona’s largest rural community college, serving approximately 15,000 students annually.
The establishment of the college can be attributed to the efforts of the dedicated citizens of Cochise County, who voted in 1961 to create a community college district. A 1962 bond election resulted in the construction of the Douglas Campus, a 540-acre facility featuring unique architecture and panoramic views of the Mule and Chiricahua Mountains, as well as neighboring Sonora, Mexico.
The growth of population at Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista and the increased interest in higher education created a need for a second campus in the western part of the county. The campus in Sierra Vista evolved from a handful of temporary buildings at Buena High School in the early 1970s to the full-fledged separate campus that opened its doors to classes in 1978 at its present location on North Colombo Avenue. In partnership with Fort Huachuca, Cochise College also occupies a facility on post, providing classes and support services to active military and community-based residents.
The Willcox Center, opened in 2010 on Willcox Unified School District property in a historic ranching and farming area in northeastern Cochise County, offers classes to residents of the area under the supervision of Extended Learning and Workforce Development. The Benson Center, which opened in the fall of 2000, is located in the northwestern part of Cochise County. These centers provide a variety of programs and services throughout the region.
The development of community-directed college programs and services has included the Center for Lifelong Learning, the Small Business Development Center, the Virtual Campus, the Correctional Education Division, Adult Education, and the Center for Economic Research.
The college has experienced growth and development in many ways over the last 50 years. As Cochise College expanded its partnership with the region’s largest employer, Fort Huachuca, it has experienced significant growth in the number of students enrolled and credit hours taken by students. The college has increased its offering of programs while expanding partnerships with local K-12, university and industry partners, such as health care providers. Cochise College has a rich array of opportunities for students of all ages who visit its campuses and centers for education, training, or enjoyment, or to find similar opportunities online.
In recent years, the college has put significant resources toward facility renewal projects across the district. On both its Douglas and Sierra Vista campuses, new construction coupled with major renovations reflects space more appropriate to meeting the needs of the 21st-century learner and teacher. In addition, the college has made major technology investments in its classrooms, faculty and support areas.
Cochise College is on the move as it continues its journey as a learning community. This direction focuses on teaching and learning, access and diversity, and the use of technology and innovative instruction, including online classes, interactive television/distance learning course delivery, collaborative learning classes, interactive webcast, and blended learning delivery.
Articles Featuring Cochise From History Net Magazines
In the summer of 1872 a truly extraordinary development took place in our nation’s capital. President Ulysses S. Grant, hoping to bring an end to the Apache war in southeastern Arizona, dispatched Brigadier General Oliver O. Howard to Arizona to make peace with Cochise, the celebrated leader of the Chokonen band of Chiricahua Apaches. That his activities occupied the thoughts of America’s military and civil leaders would have come as a surprise to the aging chieftain, who was provincial and unpretentious by nature. Yet, Cochise’s reputation had convinced the top officials in Washington that he was the key to obtaining a lasting peace with the Chiricahua Apaches. At that time–except perhaps for Red Cloud, the great Lakota chief–Cochise may have been the most famous Indian in the West.
That designation would not have flattered him. After 12 years of war against the Americans–a bloody, merciless conflict that had begun after American troops had betrayed him in 1861–Cochise had come to the conclusion that he must make peace to ensure the survival of his people. Age was beginning to take its toll, his health was deteriorating, and the long war that he had waged against Mexico and the United States had taken the lives of many of his people. Accordingly, when General Howard rode into Cochise’s camp in the Dragoon Mountains in southeastern Arizona, accompanied by his aide, Lieutenant Joseph A. Sladen, and by Thomas J. Jeffords, a frontiersman trusted by Cochise, they found the chief ready to make peace.
Cochise and his Chokonen band ranged throughout southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Born about 1810, he had matured during a relatively peaceful period of Apache-Mexican affairs. In 1831, however, relations deteriorated sharply, and treachery and war replaced harmony and tranquility. This precarious state of affairs with Mexico would continue throughout Cochise’s life, although truces and armistices occasionally interrupted hostilities. From time to time, Mexican officials, unable to defeat the Chiricahuas in combat, turned to mercenaries and scalp hunters to exterminate the Apaches. The infamous Johnson and Kirker massacres of 1837 and 1846, in which mercenaries slaughtered some 175 Chiricahuas, left indelible impressions on Cochise. He lost his father, an important band leader, in one of those premeditated massacres, probably during Kirker’s slaughter. Naturally, such chicanery and deceit served only to exacerbate hostilities, for revenge was an important factor in Chiricahua warfare.
Subscribe online and save nearly 40%.
In 1856 Cochise became the principal war leader of the Chokonen band after the death of its chief, Miguel Narbona. Two years later he experienced his first contact with Americans at Apache Pass (in present-day Arizona), where he met Apache Agent Michael Steck. He had no reason to act militarily against these newcomers, who had done nothing to earn his contempt and were then not a significant force in southern Arizona. Relations became strained in 1860 because of a few Chiricahua stock raids–raids that the Apaches did not consider to be warlike.
In February 1861, war between the Chiricahua Apaches and Americans erupted in a senseless and violent encounter at Apache Pass. First Lieutenant George N. Bascom, with a detachment of soldiers, arrived at Apache Pass and requested a parley with Cochise. Bascom, seeking a boy recently captured by Western Apaches, believed that Cochise’s people were responsible. Bascom ordered his soldiers to surround the tent when Cochise and his family came in to parley. Cochise, discovering that he was a prisoner, cut his way out of the tent to freedom (the Chiricahuas would forever refer to this incident as ‘Cut the Tent’). But five members of Cochise’s family were unable to escape. A few days later, Cochise captured a stage employee and soon after attacked a freighter train, killing all the Mexicans with the train and capturing three Americans. He offered to exchange the hostages for his relatives, but Bascom refused to budge unless Cochise returned the boy. Frustrated, Cochise tortured his prisoners to death. Bascom retaliated by hanging Cochise’s brother and two of his nephews. Later, Bascom released Cochise’s wife and son.
The execution of his relatives aroused in Cochise a passionate hatred of Americans and touched off the fierce conflict that was to last throughout the 1860s. It mattered little that only a few Americans had betrayed him he hated them all. Initially he raided and killed for revenge later, even as his rage abated, he continued to wage war, for the conflict had evolved into a bloody cycle of revenge–American counterstrikes and Apache retaliation. Cochise assumed an aggressive posture for the first five years of the war as he enlisted the aid of other Chiricahua bands, notably the Bedonkohes and Chihennes under his father-in-law, the 6-foot 5-inch statesman Mangas Coloradas (whom Americans had also driven to war).
During the summer of 1861, the Chiricahuas ambushed several parties at Cooke’s Canyon in New Mexico Territory and, on September 27, 1861, openly assaulted the mining town of Pinos Altos, N.M., but the miners repulsed their attack. By that time most Anglos had abandoned southern Arizona, leaving it virtually uninhabited by whites except those living in Tucson and at a few isolated mines. Cochise naturally concluded that his people had driven the Americans from his country. ‘At last your soldiers did me a great wrong, and I and my whole tribe went to war with them,’ he said. ‘At first we were successful, and your soldiers were driven away and your people killed, and we again possessed our land.’
In June 1862 the California Column under Brig. Gen. James Carleton halted at Tucson before resuming its journey east to drive the Confederate forces back to Texas. The column’s route lay through Apache Pass. Cochise and Mangas Coloradas, believing that the troops had come to punish them, prepared an ambush, hoping to prevent the whites from obtaining water at Apache Springs. Captain Thomas Roberts led an advance detachment that clashed with the Chiricahuas on July 15-16, 1862. Cochise had positioned most of his men on the hills overlooking both sides of the spring. The Americans finally drove the Indians from their breastworks when Roberts unleashed two mountain howitzers that lobbed several shells near the Indian positions. Both sides fought hard, and both lost men.
Cochise’s fury was ignited again in January 1863 when Americans duped Mangas Coloradas into a parley and executed him–which, to the Chiricahuas, ‘was the greatest of wrongs.’ For Cochise, the loss of his father-in-law and fighting ally was a deep and unquenchable grief. Mangas’ execution reminded Cochise that he could not trust Americans, especially soldiers.
In early 1865 the Chihenne band in New Mexico, under Victorio, discussed terms with Americans, but Cochise refused, declaring that he would never make peace. He still feared Anglo treachery. In fact, 1865 was destined to be one of his most active years in Arizona. He attacked ranches, travelers and troops on both sides of the border. Yet with the Civil War winding down, military affairs in Arizona were changing, and Cochise soon learned that American troops and citizens were more determined and better armed than their counterparts below the border. Therefore, from 1866 through 1868 he was forced to adopt guerilla warfare against Americans and Mexicans. By late 1868, however, Mexican campaigns had pushed him northward into Arizona, and now, for the first time, he reluctantly considered the prospect of making peace with the Americans.
Subscribe online and save nearly 40%.
Over the next four years (18691872), Cochise came to understand clearly the inevitability of peace. Yet he was fighting his own inner battle. He had never been a reservation Indian, and he still distrusted Americans. His first meeting with Americans since the Bascom Affair occurred in his beloved Dragoon Mountains in early February 1869. He wanted peace, but he refused to go near a military post to consummate a treaty. That fall his people fought two major battles in the Chiricahua Mountains against troops from Fort Bowie that cost the lives of several Chokonens. Soon after, Cochise sent word to the Apache Indian agent in New Mexico that he would discuss a truce once he was convinced of the Americans’ good faith.
In the summer of 1870 he visited Camp Mogollon in Arizona and admitted to an American officer there that he had killed ‘about as many as he had lost’ and that he was now ‘about even.’ Two months later he joined his Chihenne relatives at Cañada Alamosa, near today’s Monticello, and held talks with William Arny, special Indian agent for New Mexico. Cochise reiterated his desire for a truce with the Americans, declaring, ‘If the government talks straight I want a good peace.’ Yet he also revealed his contempt for reservation life by declaring his people’s desire ‘to run around like a coyote they don’t want to be put in a corral.’ The idea of a reservation, with its inherent restrictions, was completely alien to an Apache warrior’s view of his universe.
After remaining a month, Cochise left Cañada Alamosa in November 1870, ostensibly to round up more members of his band. However, while he was absent, Washington assigned a new agent, and Cochise heard rumors that officials were planning to consolidate the Chiricahuas with the Mescaleros east of the Rio Grande. He therefore remained in Arizona, where, during the spring and summer of 1871, the troops allowed him, in his words, ‘no rest, no peace.’ In late September he returned to Cañada Alamosa and stayed until late March 1872, when the government relocated the agency to Tularosa, north of the Mogollons. At that point he returned to the Dragoon Mountains in Arizona, where in October 1872 General Howard met him and consummated a treaty, one that Cochise kept until his death in those same Dragoon Mountains on June 8, 1874.
In his day, Cochise embodied the essence of Apache warfare. But he was more than just a warrior–much more. He was an Indian who so loved his family, his people and the mountains in which he was reared that he would fight fiercely to protect and preserve all that was Apache. There can be no question that he was capable of unspeakable cruelties and violent acts of revenge upon innocent whites. The fact that Cochise was terribly wronged and misunderstood and forced to witness the disappearance of his homeland and his people perhaps cannot, in the view of history, justify everything that he did. Still he represents, probably as well as any single figure, a people’s natural resistance to the invasion of their land.
The warrior known as Cochise will enjoy forever a giant place in the history of the American Southwest. In consistently heroic fashion, he occupied his place at the head of his threatened people through the violent years. His physical skills were so extraordinary that those skills alone would have conducted him to the head of his Chokonen band. One American frontiersman who knew him well insisted that Cochise ‘never met his equal with a lance’ another frontiersman claimed that no Apache ‘can draw an arrow to the head and send it farther with more ease than him.’ And we have many eyewitness accounts to testify to Cochise’s prowess as a horseman. During one furious encounter on horseback, an American scout tried over and over again to dispatch Cochise, but his efforts were all in vain, for the Indian ‘would slip over to the side of his horse, hanging on the horse’s neck.’
Yet it was more than his strength and physical skills that inspired the warriors of Cochise. The Chiricahua chief had often expressed his great regard for those who displayed two attributes: courage and devotion to the truth. Nobody exhibited both more persistently and dramatically than did Cochise himself. His courage in skirmishes and battles is now legendary. He always led his men into combat and was frequently the central figure throughout the fight. One American officer reported that ‘many efforts were made to kill Cochise who [led] his mounted warriors’ in several charges.
Always during an engagement, no matter how chaotic and confused, Cochise managed complete control of his men. ‘A private soldier would as soon think of disobeying a direct order of the President as would a Chiricahua Apache a command of Cochise,’ one observer declared.
The warrior-chief also respected and much admired bravery when it appeared in his enemies. One reason that his friendship with General Howard and Lieutenant Sladen developed so quickly and so firmly was that they had the ‘courage to visit him when to do so [might] have caused their death.’
And Cochise scorned a liar. He held to a simple philosophy about the truth: ‘A man has only one mouth and if he won’t tell the truth he [should be] put out of
the way.’ He clearly had a great instinct for the truth and a keen capacity for distinguishing deceit and falsehood. All Americans, with but a few notable exceptions, he distrusted out of both instinct and experience. This distrust of Americans prevented him from revealing much of his career to inquisitive whites. He remained honest to his creed as he steadfastly refused to discuss the past. If pressured, he would simply say, ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’
Subscribe online and save nearly 40%.
In the end, Cochise came to the best terms ever really possible for him. His last years were a time of peace in America, the kind of peace that came only because the struggle was over. He obtained a reservation in his ancestral homeland, an agent in whom he could repose absolute and complete trust, and the promise of freedom from military interference. Today, he enjoys a hallowed place in the history of the great American Southwest: Cochise, the Chiricahua Apache, the leader of his people.
This article was written by Edwin R. Sweeney and originally appeared Wild West magazine.
For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today!
Local History of the Apaches – Cochise County
Chiricahua Apaches: 1886. Image by C.S. Fly, Tombstone photographer.
Today, no one can understand the history of Tucson and Southern Arizona without first understanding the Apache Wars. For this reason Southern Arizona Guide has many articles about this complex and fascinating era of our history: America's longest war.
Cochise County in Southeast Arizona is where many major 19 th century battles took place between the Apaches and the United States Army. Today, you can visit the historical sites made famous by the great chiefs, such as Cochise, Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves), and Victorio and the fearless, ruthless shaman Goyathlay, better known today by his Spanish name &hellip Geronimo.
Taking side trips and back roads through the beautiful countryside of Southeastern Arizona, you can stand in their shadow and begin to understand what it was like to live here on the frontier during the Apache Wars. Click on this link to view the Apache Wars Timeline.
Ruins of Ft Bowie Calvary Barracks at Apache Pass
The Forts
A series of forts were built to house the United States Army whose presence was needed by Anglo Americans to protect them from the dreaded Apaches. No such forts were built to protect the Apaches from the dreaded Anglos.
On the east side of Tucson is the restored Fort Lowell&rsquos officers quarters and military museum. See our Arizona Historical Society Ft. Lowell video here.
Within a two-hour drive east from Tucson, you can visit the ruins of Fort Bowie once a frontier outpost that guarded Apache Springs for the stagecoaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail Company. Near Fort Bowie ruins are Chiricahua National Monument with its magnificent &ldquoStanding Up Rocks&rdquo and well-preserved Faraway Ranch and Cochise Stronghold which served as a high, rocky fortification and lookout station for the Chiricahua Apaches.
South of Tucson at Sierra Vista is the still-active Fort Huachuca, home of the Buffalo Soldiers. It is here that their story is told in exhibits at a small but fine military history museum. (Actually there are two fine museums on Fort Huachuca. The other is about the history of U.S. military spying.)
North of Tucson, there are other forts built to subdue the Apaches, including Fort Apache on the Fort Apache Reservation and the nearby San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation that the Apaches feared most because of deplorable conditions there, including killer diseases, such as malaria. On the way is the site of Camp Grant where a mob of Tucson Anglo and Mexican civic leaders and Papago (now Tohono O&rsquoodham) Indians massacred over a hundred Apaches, almost all women and young children, and took the few surviving children as slaves.
Background
From 1840&rsquos until the final surrender of Geronimo in late 1886, farmers, ranchers, miners, & merchants attempting to settle the American Southwest and Northern Mexico lived in terror of the Apaches.
For centuries prior to the coming of the Europeans, the Apache had it pretty good. Theirs were small hunter-gatherer, kin-related bands that moved frequently according to the seasons and other factors, such as the availability of game and fresh water. Sometimes they traded peaceably with neighboring Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Papago, Pima, Yavapai, and other tribes. But often these encounters were hostile. Perhaps it was the Yavapai, or was it the Zuni, who were the first to call them &lsquoapache&rsquo, which means &lsquoenemy&rsquo?
The Raiders
They were frequent and feared raiders, which is a polite way of saying the Apaches were marauding thieves and murderers when they wanted food, horses, guns, ammunition, and captives for slaves and ransom.
Apaches. Photo by Edward Curtis.
Usually they killed for what they considered necessity or self-defense. As the wars of the 1870&rsquos and &lsquo80&rsquos wore on, as often as not they killed for revenge, as did the Americans, who tried to herd them into concentration camps called reservations, and Mexicans who tried to exterminate them.
If the Apaches could not intimidate other tribes into turning over the fruits of their hard labor, their food stores and herds, the Apaches typically killed the males and older females, plundered whatever they could carry, and then sold the young women and children into slavery in Mexico. The Mexicans frequently forced the young Indian slave women into prostitution. They suffered greatly and eventually died from disease, abuse, and despair. From the Apache perspective, and for centuries, it was good to be the alpha predators of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.
The Invaders
Miners, such as Ed Schieffelin of Tombstone fame, swarmed over the Apache's ancestral homeland in search of gold and silver.
However, by the 1850&rsquos, the table was turning. With the arrival of significant numbers of Anglos into what became New Mexico and Arizona, and ever-greater numbers of Mexican settlers arriving in Chihuahua and Sonora, the Apaches were beginning to realize that they were being supplanted by other, more powerful super-predators. It took most of them years to realize that their continued efforts to repel the avaricious, heavily armed invaders, remain free to live on their ancestral lands and pursue their predatory way of life, were utterly hopeless. By 1886, even the recalcitrant Chiricahua under Geronimo realized that their only options were (a) the dreaded San Carlos Reservation, (b) confinement as prisoners of war in a faraway place, or (c) annihilation.
The Americans
Compared to the Mexicans, the American&rsquos &lsquoIndian Removal Policy&rsquo was generous, at least officially. On the one hand, the Apaches were offered reservation lands on which they could receive rations, learn farming, get an Anglo education, convert to Christianity, and become 'civilized'.
On the other hand, Apaches found off the reservation were fair game. Whether man, woman, or child, Anglos would seldom be questioned for killing free-roaming Apaches like vermin.
The Mexicans
The official Mexican policy was somewhat different. No reservations. Assimilation or death. The Mexicans hated the Apaches. The Apaches hated the Mexicans. And for decades, they slaughtered each other whenever possible.
Apache Women Collecting Water In Jugs
Mexican civilians near the U.S. border would sometimes lure Apache men with their families into town to talk trade and peace, get the Indians drunk, then kill them all. Conversely, Apaches were known to kill and mutilate Mexican men, women, and children and not always in that order.
A never-ending cycle of vengeance was the way of the border from roughly 1847 through 1886 when Geronimo surrendered for the fourth and last time. Even then, some renegade Apaches continued to raid, kill, and be killed in Northern Mexico until around 1915. Both Apaches and Mexicans adhered to the Old Testament principle of &ldquoan eye for an eye.&rdquo Such is the way of most primitive people everywhere in every time, including the present.
The Reservations
General Phil Sheridan: "A good Indian is a dead Indian."
For the American&rsquos part in this violent collision of cultures, they felt that Native Americans in general and the Apaches in particular had no rights any White man was bound to respect. As General Sheridan was famously misquoted, &ldquoA good Indian is a dead Indian.&rdquo The United States government, through its military and Bureau of Indian Affairs, broke treaties as if they were dry twigs.
The American government directed its army to herd the Apaches onto reservations far from their homeland, where they would suffer tremendously and die from exposure, contaminated food, lack of clean drinking water, malnutrition, and disease, primarily smallpox and malaria. Once on the reservations, corrupt Indian agents stole their government-issued food and blankets, which the agents then sold for personal profit. The Apaches were to be subdued or eliminated by any means necessary.
To be fair, it wasn&rsquot so much that the American Anglos treated the Apaches with intentional cruelty. Certainly acts of extreme cruelty occurred &ndash on both sides. But such was not the general rule. Rather most Anglos were simply indifferent to the needs and suffering of their vanquished charges. If the Indians died en masse on reservations, very few Americans really cared and far fewer acted to prevent it.
Prisoners-of-War: Geronimo, wife & children farming melon patch, Ft. Sill. 1890's
Apache leaders, such as Cochise, Victorio, Juh (pronounced &lsquoWhoo&rsquo or 'Ho'), Nana, Chihuahua, and Geronimo, often led their people off their reservation in order to survive. Once off their reservation, the U.S. Army considered the Apaches &lsquohostiles&rsquo and pursued them with the invaluable assistance of Apache scouts, otherwise known as mercenaries. The Army's mission: either return renegade Apaches to their reservation or exterminate them.
Skirmishes, ambushes, full-blown battles, and bloody massacres ensued.
Next:
Cochise County, Arizona History
Cochise County was set apart from Pima County and organized in 1881, and was named for the famous Apache chief, Cochise, who, with a band of Chiricahuas, made his stronghold on the Dragoon range of mountains, and, like an European robber-baron of the ‘Middle Ages, swooped down on those who passed along on the plains below and robbed and murdered without mercy. So bold was he in his depredations, and such terror did he inspire in the breasts of all, that no one finally dared venture within striking distance of the raids of this terrible mountain bandit. Indeed, it was not until he was starved out of his stronghold and happily hanged, that anything like an attempt was made to settle up the county, now called by his name, or to develop its varied and valuable resources.
Little was done in this section of the Territory prior to the Civil War, save a few settlements on the San Pedro and at minor points. Hence the history proper of this county may be said to have begun with the discovery of the mines in the Tombstone district in 1878, antedating the organization of the county by the space of three years.
Prior to 1878 the country beyond the San Pedro was given over to a domination of the Apache outside of the one traveled wagon road to the east. The grassy plains and hills were bare of cattle, and its mineral treasures were but in the imagination of the curious. In February, 1878, Ed Scheffelin, a prospector, who had tramped much of the territory in vain, stumbled across the droppings of what is now known as the Toughnut mine and located several claims upon the ledge. It was about the time that the Comstocks and Bodie were showing signs of collapse, and the miners of the coast flocked by the hundreds to the new discovery. A city of tents sprung up and by June 1879 a stampmill was in operation. The mines had not been overrated: they were veritable bonanzas. and (luring their season of activity have produced over $25,000,000, about $5,000,000 of which took the form of dividends to the stockholders. Full $7,000.000 more was spent upon hoisting plants and milling machinery. Up to 1885 was the busy time, when the burning of the hoisting works of the Grand Central mine cast a gloom over the camp, and the water gained upon the miners, and the main properties were closed down for a long season of inactivity. The ore on the lower levels is of high grade, and there yet remain vast quantities of it. But to reach the ore it would be necessary to inaugurate a combination pumping plant that would cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,000, and this expense the mine owners are not inclined to put upon themselves until assured of the future of silver. With a combination of capital the mines will yet be cleared of water, and operations resumed on as grand a scale as ever before.
Mr. John Montgomery, one of the early correspondents of the “Citizen,” writing from San Pedro, A. T., February 7th, 1871, gives the following description of the settlement and subsequent growth of the San Pedro valley, and the afflictions they endured at the hands of the remorseless Apaches up to that time. It will be appreciated by many of the old-timers:
“The lands here were first located December 15. 1865, by Mark Aldrich, John H. Archibald, F. Burthold, Jarvis Jackson, John Montgomery and H. Brown. of Tucson. A crop of wheat and barley was planted. In February, 1866, the work was commenced on the ditch to convey water to the land. By April 25 all were ready to plant a corn crop. Houses had been built and land secured. The detachment of soldiers that had been promised us to be permanently stationed here had
Index of Cochise County Historical Society Publications
Many past journals more than ten years old are available for free download on this page by clicking on the issue in the list below. Newer journals are available for purchase at $6 for members and $10 for non-members.
1. — Vol. 1, No. 1, March 1971 — Out of Print
Life and Times of Wyatt Earp — John W. Gilchriese
Casas Grandes Water Control System — Charles C. Di Peso
Prelude to the Battle of Cibicu — John H. Monnett
Salado Culture in Cochise County — Jack & Vera Mills
2. — Vol. 1, No. 2, June 1971 — Out of Print
Early Hunters and Gatherers in Southeastern Arizona — Ric Windmiller
From Rocks to Gadgets: A History of Cochise County — Carl Trischka
A Cochise Culture Human Skeleton from Southeastern Arizona — Kenneth R. McWilliams
3. — Vol. 1, No. 3, September 1971 — Out of Print
A History of Cochise County, Arizona — Carl Trischka
Lizze Leake Never Owed But One Debt and Paid It — Ervin Bond
4. — Vol. 1, No. 4, December 1971 — Out of Print
The New Mexico Territorial Mounted Police — Richard D. Myers
Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains from Two Sites in Arizona — T. M. J. Mulinski
The Jacob Scheerer Story — Glenn G. Dunham
5. — Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1972 (Printed in error as "Summer")
The Confederate Intrusion into Arizona Territory 1862 — Richard D. Myers
6. — Vol. 2, No. 2 & 3, Summer/Fall 1972 — Out of Print
The Cochise Train Robbery — Glenn G. Dunham
Ghost Riders in the Sky — Stan Jones and Capp Watts — Ervin Bond
The Battle of Cibicu — John H. Monnett
The Life of Irene Glenn Brodie — Lucille Wilbourn
7. — Vol. 2, No. 4, Winter 1972 — Out of Print
Cochise County Characters and Capers — Archie L. Gee
Archaelogical Problems Existed in the San Pedro River Valley — Richard D. Myers
Tales of Early Bisbee — Mrs. L. R. Peterson
8. — Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1973 — Out of Print
Some Ethnographic Notes on Mexican Pottery — Richard D. Myers
Who Shot Johnny Ringo? — Larry Christiansen
John Ringo's Death — Murder or Suicide? — Ervin Bond
Cochise County Characters and Capers — Archie L. Gee
9. — Vol. 3, No. 2 & 3, Summer/Fall 1973 — Out of Print
Butterfield's Route — John O. Theobald
Pioneers in Profile — Glenn G. Dunham
The Amos Wien Family — Pioneers in Profile — Beatrice Wien
The Gadsden Hotel — Kay Gregor
10. — Vol. 3, No. 4, December 1973 — Out of Print
The Last Cattle Drive — Sally Powers Klump
"Bisbee No Good for Chinaman" — Richard Stokes
Dos Cabezas — Kay Gregor
Taped Interview Program at the Bisbee Civic Center and Mining and Historical Museum — Roger N. Weller
Cowboy Garb and How It Grew — Erma Laux
11. — Vol. 4, No. 1, March 1974 — Out of Print
Sweet Adaline — Gladys E. Dunham
"My Five Ways to See Cochise County from Douglas" — Ervin Bond
Pottery and Its Archaeologicaly Significance — Erma Laux & Shirley Fralie
12. — Vol. 4, No. 2 & 3, June/September 1974 — Out of Print
Introduction — County School Records — Ruth D. Elliott
Sketch of Tombstone Schools, 1879–1974 — Mary B. Price
Some of the Teachers in Bisbee from 1881 to 1908 — Cora Thorp
A Pioneer School — Wm. E. Moore
St. David — Calvin S. Bateman
Benson Schools — Clara Ann Eder
Buena District Schools & The First School at Fort Huachuca — Rosa Farrell
Wilgus School — Irene Knott Sproul
Forrest School Double Adobe School District No. 45 & Lone Oak School — Ruth D. Elliott
Senator A. R. Spikes of Bowie — Nellie Decherd Spikes
Douglas Schools — Kay Gregor
Those Were the Days — Barbara Spark
Douglas 1911 — Finding a Place to Live — Helen B. Keeling
Early Rural Schools in Cochise County as told by Elsie Toles, County Superintendent, to Myriam Toles Apache District No. 42 & Swisshelm School District No. 35 — Ruth D. Elliott
Palominas School — Mrs. Ruth Tripp (Liendecker)
Beatrice Wien: Pioneer Teacher in Profile, as told to Glenn G. Dunham — Glenn G. Dunham
Parochial Schools in Arizona & Cochise College — Ruth D. Elliott
13. — Vol. 4, No. 4, December 1974 — Out of Print
Bullets Across the Border: Part I — Larry Christiansen
Pioneer Judgment — Sally Powers Klump
Elsie Toles — Author Unknown
Miss Edith Stowe — Gladys Woods
14. — Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1975 — Out of Print
Capt. John Gregory Bourke — John A. Turcheneske, Jr.
Bullets Across the Border: Part II — Larry Christiansen
Marie Harr Leitch — Vera Mills
15. — Vol. 5, No. 2 & 3, Summer/Fall 1975
Christianity Came to Cochise County — Dr. Charles C. Di Peso
Benson: The First Baptist Church — Clara Ann Eder, from materials supplied by Mary Lou Turner
A Brief History of the Catholic Church in Benson — Msgr. F. D. Rosettie
The Episcopal Church in Benson — Clara Ann Eder, aided by Helene Figy
The Community Presbyterian Church of Benson — Clara Ann Eder, from materials supplied by Rev. & Mrs. Gary Gard
Bisbee: First Baptist Church, St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Christian Church, Latter Day Sts. (Mormon), Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (an article on each church) — Millicent W. Kasun
St. John's Episcopal Church — Mila Johnson Jolley
St. Stephen Nemanja Serbian Orthodox Church — Nick Balich & Mamie Bugen
Douglas: First Baptist Church — copied from Anniversary Booklet, April 30, 1975
Immaculate Conception Church St. Bernard's Catholic Church, & St. Luke's Church — Ruth D. Elliott
Christian Science Society — Paula Nietert
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — Author Unknown
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church — Alice E. Cooper
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church — Rev. H. J. Hagedorn
Grace Methodist Church — Garth Johnston
First Presbyterian Church — Mrs. E. J. (Ann) Huxtable, Jr.
The Mormon Church in St. David — Gwen Mayberry, from material supplied by Ruth Tilton
Pomerene Ward Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Sts. — Shirley E. Barney
Tombstone: Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church St. Paul's Episcopal Church & Other Tombstone Churches — Irene Sproul
Willcox United Methodist Church — Elizabeth R. Craig
16. — Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1975 - Out of Print
Bullets Across the Border: Part III — Larry Christiansen
The Southwest's Mounted Police — Phyllis W. Heald
Good Guys 'N Bad Guys — Jeanne L. Graham
17. — Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 1976 — Out of Print
Ghosts of the Past: Don Ignacio and Dona Eulalia Elias and the History of their Hacienda on The Babocomari, Camp Wallen — Robert W. Munson
Ghost Towns of Cochise County — Charleston and Millville, Contention City, Sunnyside, Courtland, Fairbank, Dos Cabezas, and Pearce & Bibliography — Jeanne E. Graham
(There are no other issues for 1976.)
18. — Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 1977 — Out of Print (Printed in error as Vol. 8, No. 5)
The Story of Fort Bowie — Author Unknown
The Willcox Dry Lake: The Miracle Maker — Ervin Bond and Larry D. Christiansen
19. — Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 1977
The Old Douglas International Airport — Ruth M. Reinhold (Reprinted from the Journal of Arizona History, Vol. 15, No. 4)
20. — Vol. 7, No. 3, Fall 1977 — Out of Print
Heritage '76, chronology — Author Unknown
Number Seven (Nacozar) — Jeanne L. Graham
21. — Vol. 7, No. 4, Winter 1977 — Out of Print (Printed in error as Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter 1977)
The Gadsden Hotel: Douglas' Most Enduring, Magnificent Frontier Showpiece in the West — Author Unknown
A History of Benson — David Dyer
Arizona, The Land God Forgot — Charlie Brown
22. — Vol. 8, No. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 1978 — Out of Print (Printed in error as Vol. 9, No. 1 & 2, Winter/Spring 1978)
Saga of a Southeastern Town (Douglas) — Author Unknown
The Merger and Other Phelps Dodge Activities — Author Unknown
Rodeo Days in Douglas, Arizona — Author Unknown
23. — Vol. 8, No. 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1978 & Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1979 (Triple Issue) - Out of Print
Henceforth and Forever Aimee and Douglas — Larry D. Christiansen
24. — Vol. 9, No. 2, Summer 1979
The Canyon Named For a Hero — Jeanne L. Graham
Apaches, A Lost Nation, A Lost People — Jeanne L. Graham
25. — Vol. 9, No. 3, Fall/Winter 1979 — Out of Print
The History of Bisbee — Earl Simmons
Eleven additional articles concerning Bisbee first published in the Brewery Gulch Gazette
26. — Vol. 10, SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION
Fun and Good Times in Cochise County in the Early Days: All four issues in one volume (99 photos with captions)
27. — Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 1981 — Out of Print
Tenth Anniversary of the Cochise Quarterly
Earp–Clanton Gunfight (Tombstone) Bibliography — Charles K. Mills
Hiking Nell — Ida K. Meloy
28. — Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 1981
The Line Rider & History of Elfrida — Diana Sanford
The Fort Bowie Story — Wilton E. Hoy
29. — Vol. 11, No. 3, Fall 1981 — Out of Print
Foreword
Douglas History as Recalled Back in 1936 — Dr. L. J. Tuttle
The Dean's Tale — Dr. E. W. Adamson
30. — Vol. 11, No. 4, Winter 1981
Foreword
National Register of Historic Places in Cochise County
Old Fort Huachuca
A Fort Bowie Christmas
The Brewery Gulch Gazette and The Cochise Quarterly
Brief History of the Brewery Gulch Gazette of Bisbee, AZ
The Cochise Quarterly contents, listed chronologically
Notes on The Gringo
31. — Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring 1982
Ranch Life, The Border Country, 1880–1940: The Way It Really Was A partial catalogue of The Cowbelles collection of historic ranch photographs
32. — Vol. 12, No. 2, Summer 1982 — Out of Print
ARCHAEOLOGY ISSUE
Traces of Early Man in Cochise County (with bibliography) — John L. Kurdeka
The Amerind Foundation Cochise College Archaelogy Resource Center Digging for History — Diana M. Wakefield–Sanford
Join the Crusade to preserve Arizona's Past — Cathy Wertz
What You Can Do as an Untrained Amateur Interested in Archaeology
33. — Vol. 12, No. 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1982 — Out of Print
Cochise County, Cultures in Conflict — Charles K. Mills
34. — Vol. 13, No. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 1983 — Out of Print
The making of a Boundary Between the United States and Mexico: A Study in Political Geography — Don Bufkin
35. — Vol. 13, No. 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1983 — Out of Print
The Mormon Battalion in Cochise County and Adjacent Areas — Larry D. Christiansen
Some Recollections of Marvin L. Follett — oral history transcript (edited)
36. — Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring 1984
When the West Was Young — Ann L. Bright
The Apache Scare of 1924 — Beth Noland Willis
37. — Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer 1984 — Out of Print
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA
The Day the Valley Shook — Loraine Mackintosh
The Upper San Pedro Valley — Richard V. Francaviglia
The Wonderland of Rocks — Enid C. Howard
38. — Vol. 14, No. 3, Fall 1984 — Out of Print
Douglas Under Fire: An Account of Villa's Battle for Agua Prieta — Carl H. Cole
Ervin Bond: "Mr. Cochise County" — Larry D. Christiansen
An Historic Landmark: The Cochise Hotel — Enid C. Howard
Book Review of Mining Town Trolleys: A History of Arizona's Warren–Bisbee Railway, by Richard V. Francaviglia — Tom Vaughn
39. — Vol. 14, No. 4, Winter 1984 — Out of Print
Early Bisbee and the Region, 1899–1918 — Tom Vaughn
40. — Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 1985
On the Search for the Hidden History of Naco School — Jesus Rubio
Some Cochise County Pioneers: As Seen by One of Them — edited by Winifred G. Meskus
41. — Vol. 15, No. 2, Summer 1985 — Out of Print
A Different Look at Some Pioneers — Glenn G. Boyer & Betty A. Boyer
Merchant and Miner: Two Serbs in Early Bisbee — Mary Nicklanovich Hart
42. — Vol. 15, No. 3, Fall 1985 — Out of Print
ARCHAEOLOGY ISSUE
Rock Art and Its Presence in Cochise County — Jane Kolber, art by Jane Kolber
The Amerind Foundation, Dragoon, AZ — Anne I. Woosley
Archaelogy on Foot: The San Bernardino Valley Survey — John E. Douglas
Anthropological Research Center, Cochise College, Update '85 — Diane Langston
The Christiansen Border Village Site (AZ:FF:9:1) — John L. Kurdek, art by Irma F. Andrews
43. — Vol. 15, No. 4, Winter 1985 — Photocopy Only
SLAUGHTER RANCH
The San Bernardino Ranch Slaughter Ranch Outpost & The "Mormon House" — Reba B. Wells
"The Camp Smile" — Harriet O. Warning
Frankie Howell Stillman Manuscript, "Memories of San Bernardino Apache May"
44. — Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 1986 — Out of Print
Streetcars to the Smelters: Historical Overview of the Douglas Street Railways, 1902–1924 — Richard V. Francaviglia
45. — Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 1986 — Out of Print
"From Hell Itself": The Americanization of Mexico's Northern Frontier, 1821–1846 — David J. Weber
The Sosa/Soza Family of Arizona — Sharon Johnson Mariscal
46. — Vol. 16, No. 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1986
A Memory — Helon T. Hendrix
40-Odd Years Ago — Robert D. Ellis
Absolam Benton Harvey's Diary (February – September 1864)
47. — Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 1987 — Out of Print
Rogue of the Mascot Mine — Edward H. Saxton and Phil C. Bowman
Apache Indians in Eastern Sonora (During the First Half of the 1900s) — Alvin Fenn
48. — Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer 1987
Cochise–Graham Cattle Growers' Association (1912–1987): 75 Yers of Dedication to the Cattle Industry in Southeastern Arizona — Terry McNair McEuen
49. — Vol. 17, No. 3, Fall 1987
Border Boom Town: Douglas, Arizona (1900–1920) — Diana Hadley
50. — Vol. 17, No. 14, Winter 1987
How the Spring of Contention Got its Name, As told by Stewart August "Pug" English — Mary B. Magoffin
The Power Affair of 1918 and Cochise County's Part in Arizona's Greatest Manhunt — Dan R. Roberts
A Tribute to Winifred Meskus — Cindy Hayostek
51. — Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring 1988
The Garfield Monument: An 1886 Memorial of the Buffalo Soldiers in Arizona — Mark F. Baumler and Richard V. N. Ahlstrom
The Chiricahua Apaches: A Selected Bibliography — Becky Orozco
The 1887 Earthquake — William B. Loring
52. — Vol. 18, No. 2, Summer 1988 — Out of Print
My Father, The Doctor — Adeline Greene Parks
Growing Up in Douglas, Arizona — Charles B. Fleming
Taming Floodwaters: The SCS Effort in Bisbee — Fred E. Johnson
53. — Vol. 18, No. 3, Fall 1988
An Analysis of the Great Register of Cochise County, Arizona Territory, 1884 — James M. Crane
The Story of the San Pedro Valley During the Historic Period from 1535 to 1853 — Larry D. Christiansen
A Brief History of Photographic Processes and Some Suggestions for Preservation of Old Photographs — Joan Metzger and Barbara Bush
54. — Vol. 18, No. 4, Winter 1988
Some Observations Made on a Pack Trip into the Sierra Madre Mountains — Burt N. Smith
One View of the 1929 Battle at Naco — Celina Sheppard
The Back Pages
55. — Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 1989 — Out of Print
Introduction
The Camp at Bonita Canyon — Cindy Hayostek
The Erickson Legacy: Faraway Ranch — Eileen Rowedder
Working for the Lady Boss — Larry Cannon
Bonita Canyon Reflections — Cindy Hayostek
The Back Pages
56. — Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer 1989 — Out of Print
BISBEE MUSEUM PHOTOS
A Guide to the Photograph Archivse of the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum — Thomas Vaughn
57. — Vol. 19, No. 3, Fall 1989 — Out of Print
Arizona's Forgotten Artist: Mrs. A. Y. Smith — O. Carroll Arnold
Pioneer Painter — Myriam Toles
Douglas's Copper City Brewery: Largest in the State — Cindy Hayostek
58. — Vol. 19, No. 4, Winter 1989 — Out of Print
SLAUGHTER PHOTO ALBUM
A Treasured Patchwork Quilt: My Mother's Stories — Adeline Greene Parks
The Slaughter Family Photograph Albums — Reba N. Wells
The Family Photo Album — Tom Vaughn
59. — Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 1990 — Out of Print
Douglas Airman Survives 2,000-foot Fall & Training at Douglas Army Air Field — Don J. Armand
History of Tenth Street USO, Douglas — Lewis Orrell
Mexican Crystals: A Douglas Contribution to the War Effort — Lewis Orrell
Book Reviews — Cindy Hayostek
60. — Vol. 20, No. 2, Summer 1990 — Out of Print
Teacher at Hilltop — Maryan Stidham
Letters to the Editor
61. — Vol. 20, No. 3, Autumn 1990 — Out of Print
Badger Clark in Arizona — Roy Sterrett and Harry Woodward
A Badger Clark Sampler
A Picnic to Remember — Nicky Owenby
Letters to the Editor
62. — Vol. 20, No. 4, Winter 1990 — Out of Print (Printed in error as Vol. 19, No. 4, Winter 1990)
Major Graham's Road — Larry D. Christiansen
A Short, Tragic Life — Lester L. Lawson
The History of Extension Homemakers in Cochise County, Arizona — Annette M. Firth
63. — Vol. 20B, No. 1, Spring 1991 — Out of Print (Printed in error as Vol. 1, No. 1)
CELEBRATING OUR 20th
Articles and Excerpts Over the Past 20 Years
"Cochise County — Cultures in Conflict" (Fall/Winter 1982)
Excerpts from "The Garfield Monuments: An 1886 Memorial of the Buffalo Soldiers in Arizona" (Spring 1989)
Excerpt from "Bisbee's Transition Years: 1899–1918" (Winter 1984)
"The San Bernardino Ranch" (Winter 1985)
"Ghost Riders in the Sky" (Summer/Fall 1972) — Stan Jones and Capp Watts
64. — Vol. 20B, No. 2, Summer 1991 — Out of Print
Outlaw Baseball in the Old Copper Leagues — Lynn Bevill
The Back Pages
65. — Vol. 20B, No. 3, Autumn 1991 — Out of Print
The Untimely and Unnecessary Deaths of Two Famous Army Officers — Richard A. Wood
Mabel Magill Brown — interviewed by Sherry McWilliams
Alicia Gomez — interviewed by Henry Wilkinson
Herlinda Tafoya — interviewed by Michelle Irey
Rose Smith — interviewed by Cheryl Cox
A Dog's Best Friend — Adeline G. Parks
66. — Vol. 20B, No. 4, Winter 1991 — Out of Print
Vignette of Huasabas, Sonora — Francis "Paco" Leyva
67. — THE COCHISE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1992 CALENDAR
68. — Vol. 21, No. 1, Spring 1992
Douglas As I Remember It, 1904–1919 — A. Knickerbocker
A Letter to Tenna: The Superintendent's Daughter — Ellen L. Patton
The Back Pages
69. — Vol. 21, No. 2, Summer 1992 — Out of Print
Depression Days on the Ranch — Maryan Stidham
The Back Pages
70. — Vol. 21, No. 3, Autumn 1992 — Out of Print
Murder at NO Springs — Homer Ferguson
The Day Amelia Landed — Peter Middleton
The McNeal Ladies Aid Society — Mabel Brown
Cochise, Zwing and Ringo… Ideas, Markers and Myths — Larry Christensen
71. — Vol. 21, No. 4, Winter 1992 — Out of Print
Comments on Weldon F. Heald's "Sky Islands" or "Chiricahua Mountains" — Vincent D. Roth
How I Went to Portal — Myriam Toles
An 1864 Scout Through the Chiricahuas — Alden C. Hayes
The Back Pages
72. — Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring 1993 — Out of Print
Honoring the Mosons — Grace McCool
The Gateway Times: 1959–1967 — Richard "Dick" W. Fulton
Fort Huachuca's Role in World War II — James P. Finley
The Back Pages
73. — Vol. 22, No. 2, Summer 1993 — Out of Print
The Bascom Affair — Charles K. Mills
Two Forgotten Photographers of Arizona's Gilded Age — Bruce Hooper
The Back Pages
74. — Vol. 22, No. 3, Autumn 1993
Arizona Days (An excerpt from "The Twilight of the Cavalry: Life in the Old Army, 1917–1942)") — Lucian K. Truscott
Two Camp Jones Officers Who Boarded at Our House — Charles B. Fleming
Narrative Batt. B 6 F.A. — Edgar H. Yule
The Back Pages
75. — Vol. 22, No. 4, Winter 1993 — Out of Print
A Letter to a Niece — Millard Haymore
The Life and Times of Rex McDonald — Marry Magoffin
Family Information in Two Bibles Belonging to CCHAS
The Back Pages
76. — Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring 1994
Stronghold Memories — Richard Shaw
The Back Pages
77. — Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 1994
A Few Years on the OB Ranch, 1927 to 1936 — Ellen Thompson Quimby
The Back Pages
78. — Vol. 23, No. 3, Autumn 1994
Aimee in Douglas: A Portfolio — Larry Christiansen and Cindy Hayostek
The Life of John W. Light — Robert E. Yarmer
An Archaeological Survey of the International Border in the Douglas–Naco Area — Rick and Sandy Martynec
The Back Pages
79. — Vol. 23, No. 4, Winter 1994
The Flying Tortilla and Other Stories — H. C. Groton
The Back Pages
80. — Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring 1995 — Out of Print
Roots of the Calument and Arizona — H. Mason Coggin
A Potato Chip Factory in Douglas — Junior Historian Christopher Magoffin
Jefferson Davis Milton — Junior Historian Ginger C. Lee
The Story of my Great-Great Grandmother and Geronimo — Junior Historian Cynthia Margaillan
For Everything There is a Season — Junior Historian Bessie Mathewson
Growing Up in Cochise County — Junior Historian Samantha Kohn
The Back Pages
81. — Vol. 25, No. 2, Summer 1995
Lest We Forget: James Murphy of Bisbee Doolittle Raider: "Chappie" Macia of Tombstone They Also Served: Ashley Packard of Douglas Khaki Doll Beneath a Green Lampshade: Joe Perotti of Tombstone & Japan Surrenders: Ed Huxtable of Douglas — Cindy Hayostek
The Back Pages
82. — Vol. 25, No. 3, Fall 1995
A Kid in Arizona — William R. Gibson
The Back Pages
83. — Vol. 25, No. 4, Winter 1995
Orisoba O. Spence: A Footnote in Arizona History — Robert R. Weilacher
The Robert Davis Hall Family — Virginia Hershey
The Back Pages
84. — Vol. 26. No. 1, Spring 1996
A History of Pearce Arizona — Lillian Cheng
The Back Pages
85. — Vol. 26, No. 2, Summer 1996 — Out of Print
Sew What? Club, Then Until Now — Delane Bolndeau
History of the Old Reed Place
Grandmother's Tales — Junior Historian Alba Romero
My Family's History — Junior Historian Luis Rene Valenzuela
In the Army — Junior Historian Joel Hernandez
My Grandfather's Tales — Junior Historian Mike Magoffin
The Glenn Family: One Century of Ranching in Cochise County — Junior Historian Bessie Matthewson
The Back Pages
86. — Vol. 26, No. 3, Fall 1996
A Study of Lawlessness and Irrational Violence in the Urban Frontier Community of Tombstone, Arizona, Circa 1879 — Dorothy Virginia Hershey
87. — Vol. 26, No. 4, Winter 1996
Anna Mac Clarke: A Pioneer in Military Leadership — John M. Trowbridge
Multi-Engine Instructor: Douglas Army Air Field, 6 Dec. 1943 to 27 May 1944 — Don J. Armand
Letters to Rosa Lee — selected and annotated by Cindy Hayostek
Book Reviews
88. — Vol. 27, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1997
LOUIS C. CURRY'S MEMORIES OF WHITEHEAD RANCH
Letter from the President — John Lavanchy
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
Memories of Whitehead Ranch: Louis Curry's Early Days on Rucker Creek — Louis Curry Biography
Tom Whitehead: Nineteenth Century Rancher & Restauranteur
Guardian of History: Mary Burnett Magoffin
Junior Historians: "Sylvia Anne Miranda Calderon" — Daniel Calderon "Danny Ortega, Sr." — Chris Romero "Clarence Cecil Collum" — Jessica Ramirez "Juan and Carmen Greer" — Alexis Greer "Elsa Flores" — Greg Obregon & "Nora Romero" — Arely del Rio
Letters to the Editor
89. — Vol. 27, No. 2, Fall/Winter 1997/1998 — Out of Print
A HISTORY OF THE ARIZONA MARBLE COMPANY
Letter from the President — John Lavanchy
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
A History of the Arizona Marble Company — Page Bakarich
Marble Quarrying in Arizona—Special Correspondence
Page Bakarich Biography
LaDorna and Amos Chenowth: Guardians of History
Howard Chenowth: The Story of a Cowboy
Junior Historians: "Brave Salvador Changes My Way of Life" — Virginia Araiza "Ida Ruth Huish" — Jesse Huish "A New World" — Leslie Flannigan "Ernestine Hoffman" — Robert Hoffman "Family History" — Victor Silva "Enriquetta Villalobos" — Jeannette Rios "A Hard-working Man and an Educated Woman" — Cristy Serrano & "My Grandmother" — Dario Henao
Letters to the Editor
90. — Vol. 28, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1998
BENSON AND SOME SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES
Letter from the President — John Lavanchy
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
San Pedro Valley Arts & Historical Museum 1982–1998 — Lucille Kowalczyk
Gone But Not Forgotten — Bette Oldfather
Chinese Culture — Liz Brenner
Doctors and Medicine: Territorial Medicine — Rose Veselak Land Dr. C.S. Powell — Janice L. Powell Dr. J.N. Morrison — Mary Scott & Poem: To Doc Morrison — Maud Post
Mary Benne Aquirre — Nedra Sunderland
Railroads and Their Effect on Benson's History — Carol Tompkins
Kartchners and Kartchner Caverns
History of St. David
History of Pomerene — Ruth Choate
Apache Dream — George Hall
Timeline — Jane Williams & Gloria Saunders
Vay Fen: Guardian of History — Ruth Choate
Poetry Section: Old Country — Ruth Choate A Cowboy's Promise — Maud Post All Kinds of Cowboys — Everett Brisendine The Country Kitchen — Bill Brandal & Pancho, Three Shots and a Skunk — JoAnne Ellsworth
Letters to the Editor
91. — Vol. 28, No. 2, Fall/Winter 1998/1999
President's Letter — John Lavanchy
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
Paul Spur Prologue
Paul Lime Plant
The Alfred Paul Family
Liz Ames Remembers
Early Days at Paul Spur
Christiansen Ranches
Rancho Sacatal/San Jose
Naco, Arizona
Arizona Cactus
Pioneers in Profile: Rose Clinton Smith & Samuel Leindecker's Family
Old Camp Wallen — Conrad McCormick
Roxie Revisited
Guardians of History: George Brown & Conrad McCormick
Remembering Alden Hayes — Jeanne Williams
Junior Historians: "Elena Figueroa" — Ryan Allmon "Janet Varela" — Mike Torres "Lawrence H. Wicke" — Tyler Wicke "Virgia B. Heard" — Tyler Johnston "Elizabeth F. Viboch" — Christina Viboch "Andrea T. Diaz" — Melissa Gamez & "Melvin H. Sherwood" — Jonathan Sherwood
92. — Vol. 29, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1999
President's Letter — John Lavanchy
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
Death Signs the Guest Register—Part 1: The Em-Bar-Bee Desert Lodge Part 2: Murder on the High Desert & Part 3: VisionQuest
Mabel Brown Writes: Webb Mothers' Club McNeal Ladies Aid Society (Poem) McNeal Ladies Aid by R.L. Burton McNeal Cemetary The Elfrida Post Office & Van Meter Park in Elfrida
Mabel Brown's Biography
Pioneers in Profile: Robert Tyler—Webb, AZ and Edith Wooldridge
Guardians of History: Mamie Trappman Grizzle — Mary Magoffin and Vera (& Jack) Mills
Dale Mortenson: All Arizona Superintendent — Xavier Zaragoza
93. — Vol. 29, No. 2, Fall/Winter 1999/2000
President's Letter — John Lavanchy
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
The Mascot & Western Railroad — Phyllis de la Garza
Historic Railroad Aveue, Willcox AZ — Phyllis de la Garza
Arizona in the '50s, Capt. James Henry Tevis, Founder of Bowie AZ — Belle Waller Thumm & Minnie Tevis Davenport
Larry Areingdale & Capt. Tevis — Larry Areingdale
Trailing Apaches — Capt. H.F. Jordan, US Army, Ret.
Pioneers in Profile: "J. Ernest Browning" — Page Bakarich "Marie 'Milla' Allaire" — Betty Accomazzo
Guardians of History: Marie Wien & Rose Gill Bree — Page Bakarich
Junior Historians: "Rudy Ramirez" — Natasha Ramirez & "Two Stories of the Whelan Family" — Tirza and Amy Whelan
Rex Allen — Mary Leighton
We Get Letters
94. — Vol. 30, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2000
Map of Benson Area
President's Letter — Page Bakarich
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
Benson's Interesting People: Jack the Ripper — Kerney Egerton Dr. J.M. Hesser Val Kimbrough W.A. "Bill" Jones & Soledad Wo — Sharilyn Rogers Cox
Benson's Interesting Places: Public Library Skyline Pavilion & Cascabel Flood — Jessie Miller
Dragoon Past & Present — Shirley Harris
Dragoon Springs — Grace McCool
Pioneers in Profile: Leonard D. Redfield & Dr. Isaac Henry and Sally Watkins — Janice Ryan Bryson
Junior Historians: "Interviews of the Past" — Grail and Zeliegh Reilly "Pomerene's First Name" — Kelsey Webb & "Cochise County" — David Peterson
95. — Vol. 30, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2000/2001
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
1871 Cavalry Patrol — Conrad McCormick
Tombstone Gets Connected — David F. Myrick
Carr Reff Commerce — William B. Gillespie
Some Ghost Towns — Jeannie L. Graham
Guardian of History: Jouise Fenn Larson Pioneers in Profile: Parker Family History — Howard Lindsey Parker Canyon Memories — Mary Burnett Magoffin & Grace McCool Bring Your Father — Mike Bakarich
The Ranch — James E. Bakarich
Junior Historian: "Ranch Grandma" — Jacey Jones
96. — Vol. 31, No. 1, DOUGLAS CENTENNIAL ISSUE 2001
President's Letter — Bill Hudspeth
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
Douglas History: 1936 — Dr. Lynn J. Tuttle
Growing Up in Douglas in the Early Days — Ernie Ruterman
Soldiers Hole Monument
My Father, The Doctor — Adeline Green Parks
Sweet Adaline — Gladys E. Dunham
Guardian of History: Liz Ames
In Memorium, Page Bakarich
97. — Vol. 31, No. 2, DOUGLAS CENTENNIAL ISSUE 2001
President's Letter — Bill Hudspeth
Editor's Notes — Ellen Cline
King Copper
Railroad in Douglas
Note from Peter Atonna
Streetcars — Richard V. Francaviglia
Arizona Days (Camp Harry J. Jones) — Lucian K. Truscott
Flight in Douglas
Relampago's Story
Race on the Wind — Bud Strom
Pioneers in Profile: Dan C. Best Family & Douglas As I Remember It, 1904–1919 — A. Knickerbocker
Guardians of History: Nanette and Harry Ames
98. — Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2002
Organizations of the Douglas/Williams House
President's Letter — Bill Hudspeth
Editorial Letter — Mary magoffin
Wagons Ho! — John Lavanchy
Butterfield Stage Rides Again — John Lavanchy
Boy Scouts Re-Fence Slaughter Cemetery — Gary Thomson
Cochise County Historical Society — Mary Magoffin
Douglas Historical Society — Nanette J. Ames
Nan and Harry Ames Receive Award
Douglas High School Alumni Association — Pat Davis
Cochise Genealogical Society — Jennings Lee Johnson
CCHS Quarterly and Journal Index 1971–2001
99. — Vol. 32, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2002/2003
SKELETON CANYON
President's Letter — Bill Hudspeth
Editorial Letter — Norma Lavanchy
Skeleton Canyon — Mary Magoffin
Glenn Era at Slaughter Ranch — Wendy Glenn
Slaughter Ranch Museum — Harvey Finks
Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum
The Muheim Heritage House
Henry F. Hauser Museum
Rose Tree Inn Museum
Frontier Relics Museum
San Pedro Valley Arts & Historical Museum
Guardians of History: Paul Huber and Roy Manley
100. — Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2003
PEARCE
Editorial Letter — Norma Lavanchy
Harry Ames Memorial
Pearce's Commonwealth Mine — Pat Robertson
Pearce or Price?
The Old Pearce Merchantile
Brief History of Pearce School — Jim Burnett
Old Timer's Rendezvous — Mary Magoffin
Cornishman Discovers Gold — Patty Burris
Guardians of History: Bill Hudspeth and Bonnie J. Matney
Jay Van Orden Retires — Ann I. Woosley, Ph.D. and Jay Van Orden
Book Review, "Ramona" — Mary Burnett
101 — Vol. 33, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2003
TURKEY CREEK
Editorial Letter
Guardians of History: John & Norma Lavanchy and Ellen Cline
El Coronado Ranch 1900–2003 — Mary Magoffin
The Neighborhood: Grandma Price — Mary Burnett The Sanders Family — Mary Magoffin and Ethel & Jerry Sanders The Smiths — Louise Smith William Knott — Mary Ella Cowen Sunglow — Susan Nunn & Olive Bernett
Book Review: "Sequel to Ramona" — Mary Burnett
102. — Vol. 34, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2004
DRAGOON
Editorial Letter
Guardians of History: Elizabeth Husband and Ruby Spurgeon
Memories of Dragoon — Ruby Nuttall Spurgeon
Reminiscences of Uncle Billy Fourr
4F Ranch Today
WWII Japanese Spies at the Triangle T — Jane Eppinga
Memories of a Little Kid — Dale A. Adams
Book Review — Mary Burnett
103. — Vol. 34, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2004
Sulphur Springs — Harry O'Neil
About the Author
Editoral Letter
104. — Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2005
LITTLE SCHOOL IN THE CANYON
With notes on Paradise, Lone Oak and Apache
Editorial Letter
Compiler's Notes — Jeanne Williams
Area School Notes — Alden Hayes
How I Went to Portal — Myriam Toles
School Recollections: Sally Richards, Fin Richards, Rosalie Gilliland, Elvira Cox Scott, Ralph W. Morrow, Alice & Scotty Anderson, Eric Hayes, Marilyn Bagwell Hoffman, Zoe Chew, Carl Chew, Paul Chew, Sheila Rivers Clark, and Ted Troller
105. — Vol. 35, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2005
Tres Alamos: A Place Forgotten — Harry E. O'Neil
106. — Vol. 36, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2006
Sierra Vista 50th Birthday Edition — Ethel Jackson Price
Part I: Honoring Ethel Berger
Part II: Early Days
Part III: Recent History
Special Publication:
The Story of Soldiers Hole — Mary Magoffin
107. — Vol. 36, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2006
Settling in East Cochise Stronghold Canyon — Jonetta Holt
Editorial Letter
Timeline (1871–72 - June 6, 1917)
Introduction
Cochise's Stronghold
The Chiricahua Reservation
John A. Rockfellow et all, start at the Stronghold
1885–86: Soldiers Occupy the Canyon
Homesteading in the Canyon
Red Warren's Home
A Few Acres (The Walns)
An Old Adobe
Those Passing Through
The Rockfellows Remain
The Shillings Build a Rock House
Rangers in the Canyon
108. — Vol. 37, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2007
First Watch: The History of the Sierra Vista Police Department
The First Fifty Years: May 26, 1956 to May 26, 2006 — David A. Santor (Chief of Police, Retired)
109. — Vol. 37, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2007
First Watch: The History of the Sierra Vista Police Department
The First Fifty Years: May 26, 1956 to May 26, 2006 — David A. Santor (Chief of Police, Retired)
110. — Vol. 37, No. 3, Special Winter 2007
Celebrating the Life of Mary B. Magoffin, 1927–2007 — Ethel Jackson Price
111. — Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2008
Douglas International Airport
The Dedication of the Douglas International Airport — Chris Overlock
The Old Douglas International Airport — Ruth M. Reinhold
112. — Vol. 38, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2008
Doing What Needed to Be Done: Jessie Bevan and Susie Cardiff Patrick, The Stories of Two Women in Early Cochise County History — Janolyn Lo Vecchio and Rebecca Orozco
113. — Vol. 39, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2009
The Territorial Industrial School: A Failed Institution — W. Lane Rogers
Guadalupe Canyon: A 19th Century Overview — Mary B. Magoffin
114. — Vol. 39, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2009 & Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2010
Special Issue: Reprint of the First Four Issues of the Cochise Quarterly from 1971
115. — Vol. 40, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2010
The Men and Women who have served as Cochise County Treasurer, 1881–2012 — Marsha Bonham, Mariann Fletcher, Pam Munsey, and Kevin Pyles (Arizona Centennial Legacy Project)
116. — Vol. 41, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2011
The Towns of Cochise County: Tombstone
Goose Flats, Arizona Territory — Janice Hendricks
Endicott Peabody in Tombstone Arizona — S. J. Reidhead
A Monument to the Pioneers and Settlers of Tombstone — Rita Ackerman
Keeper of the Flame, George Whitwell Parsons — S. M. Ballard
Tombstone's Courthouse — Linda Weiland
Tombstone's Hearts of Oak — Janice Hendricks
FIRE! — S. M. Ballard
Wyatt Earp's Tombstone Home Site Discovered — John Rose
Sin, Silver and the Tombstone Epitaph — Gary Ledoux
Tombstone's Shady Lady — Rita Ackerman
117. — Vol. 41, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2011
The People of Cochise County, AZ
Cochise County Arizona Centennial Committee
Introduction
Brief biographies on thirty-four prominent Cochise County residents by various unnamed authors
118. — Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2012
The Towns of Cochise County: Double Adobe History of Double Adobe — Margaret Bemis
Double Adobe School — Margaret Bemis
Ranching in the Double Adobe Area — Pat English
Farming in Double Adobe — Aaron Cardona
The Farming Families of Double Adobe — Eleanor Hill, et al
Significant Events in Double Adobe History — Margaret Bemis
Rural Electrification Administration (REA) — Pat English
Organizations that Helped Form the Community — Joan Cardona, Eleanor Hill, Margaret Bemis, and Doug & Lou Ann Ralston
119. — Vol. 42, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2012
Our Little Corner of Cochise County 1912
Forward — Tom Shupert
The San Pedro Valley and Our Community in 1912 — David Santor & Tom Shupert
White City — David Santor
Homesteading in the Area — Ed Riggs
Buena Settlement — Tom Shupert
Hereford and Palominas — Suzanne Arnold
Fort Huachuca in February 1912 — Steve Gregory
Transportation in the Nineteen-teens — Tom Shupert
The San Pedro River in 1912 — Gary Noonan
Area Ranching and Farming — Betty Escapule
Life in the Canyons — Rosemary Snapp
Mining in the Huachuca Mountains — Joe Pais
Woodcutters in the Canyons — Tom Shupert
Buena District Schools — Rosa Farrell
Hereford and Palominas Schools — Suzanne Arnold
Book Reviews — Fred Rusch
120. — Vol. 43, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2013
Ghost Towns of Cochise County Arizona: Sunnyside, Gleeson, and Courtland
Sky Island Rigteousness Above a Desert of Sin: "Donnellite" Seeds in Sunnyside Canyon — Bruce A. Peterson
Laws and Lawmen in Gleeson Courtland: An Historical Overview Law and Order in Courtland & Railroads — Glenn Snow
Book Reviews — Fred Rusch
121. — Vol. 43, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2013
An Historic Look at the Chiricahua Mountain Area of Cochise County
Pioneer Graves of the Chiricahua Mountains — Bill Cavaliere
Early Sawmills of the Chiricahuas — Jonathan Patt
The Last Fifteen Years of C. S. Fly: From a Chiricahua Mountain Perspective — Craig McEwan
122. — Vol. 44, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2014
Willcox, Arizona: 1900, The Year Warren Earp Was Killed — Kathy Klump
Book Review — Bill Cavaliere
123. — Vol. 44, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2014
The History of Baseball in Cochise County — Mike Anderson
124. — Vol. 45, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2015
Journey Stories
Native Americans in Cochise County & The Spanish Incursion — Becky Orozco
Journey to Sierra Vista — Tom Shupert
Nola's Journey — Walker Family and Tom Shupert
Journey of the Buffalo Soldiers & Journey to Ft. Huachuca: Colored Officers' Club — Charles Hancock
Journeys to Brown Canyon Ranch — Carol Spessard, Jose Garcia, & Sarah and Rebecca Barchas
Palominas/Hereford Journeys — MaryFrances Clinton, Suzanne Arnold, and John Smith
The Cattle's Journey & Range Conservation Journeys — Rachel Thomas, Ruth Evelyn Cowan, Suzanne Arnold, and Jack Ladd
Memories of Life on the San Pedro River — Betty Foster Escapule
Mormon Battalion Marches Through Arizona — Angela Camara
Journey of the Rails: Early Railroads in Cochise County — Bob Nilson
Journey of the Butterfield Stage, 1858–1861 — Gerald T. Ahnert
Journey to Texas Canyon — Diane and Jack Moody, Elva Lane Shilling, and Tom Shupert
C. S. Fly's Journey to the Chiricahua Mts. & C. S. Fly's Journey to Sierra Vista — Craig McEwan
Journey to Tombstone — Nancy Lewis Sosa
Journeys to Gleeson/Courtland — Glen Snow
Bisbee Journeys — Annie Graeme Larkin and Richard W. Graeme III
One Man's Journey to Camp Naco — Christine Rhodes
Journey to Double Adobe — Tom Shupert
Journey to Flight: Douglas Aviation — Cindy Hayostek
125. — Vol. 45, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2015
The Soldier Naturalists — Bill Cavaliere
The Siberian Doughboys of the Borderlands: The Collective Experience of the Southwesterners Who Went to Russia, 1918–1920 — Craig McEwan
Comprehensive Index of all CCHS Publications, 1971–2015
126. — Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2016
50th Anniversary Issue 1966–2016
List of CCHS Past Presidents
Butterfield Makes the Southern Overland Trail His Own — Gerald Anhert
Butterfield Stagecoaches and Stage Wagons — Gerald Anhert
A Look at the Dragoon Springs Stage Station Cemetery — Gerald Anhert
Book Review — Bill Cavaliere
127. — Vol. 46, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2016
50th Anniversary Issue 1966–2016
Graves of the Victims of the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre — Michael Eberhardt
The Remarkable William "Billy" Fourr: Arizona Pioneer — S.L. Denny
My Great-Grandfather Billy Fourr — Roy Fourr
History of Willcox Lodge #10, Free & Accepted Masons of Arizona — Kathy Klump
Book Review — Craig McEwan
Book Review — Bill Cavaliere
Two New Books About Local History — Kathy Klump
Obituary of John Magoffin
128. — Vol. 47, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2017
100th Anniversary of the Bisbee Deportation Issue
The Bisbee Deportation: Rationalization, Pretexts & Reasons — Daniel Frey
July 1917: The Bisbee Deportation — Charles Bethea
Forgotten Men: The Odyssey of the Bisbee Deportees — Mike Anderson
Rosa McKay and Her Article in "Appeal to Reason" — Laurie McKenna
Letter to the Editor
129. — Vol. 47 - No. 2, Fall/Winter 2017
100th Anniversary Issue of St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Bisbee
Everett "Jay" Jones: Remembering Life in 20th Century Douglas — Everett "Jay" Jones & George Van Otten
Louise Kimble: Matriarch of a Ranching Family — Bill Cavaliere
The Menmoniers of Cochise County — Rebecca Orozco
La Verne Kennedy Williams: A Living Legend — Margaret Bemis
Guy Miller: The End of an Era — Bill Cavaliere
Catholic History in the Bisbee/Naco Area, 1877-2017 — Ruth Dugie
Tell Us More About This Photograph
Letter to the Editor
Essay Contest - Rules
130. — Vol. 48, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2018
The 1882 Tour of General William Tecumseh Sherman to Southeastern Arizona Territory — Brad Smith
The Bisbee–Douglas Jewish Cemetary: An Ongoing Study in Preservation — Jaimie Luria
Corrections to the History of Catholic Bisbee — Craig McEwan
131. — Vol. 48 - No. 2, Fall/Winter 2018
Apaches and THeir Horses — Deni Seymour
An Overview of Human Settlement Along the Banks of the Upper San Pedro River of Arizona — George Van Otten & Doug Hocking
Friends Lost: LaVerne Kennedy Williams — Margaret Bemis & Rebecca Orozco
Friends Lost: Edwin Sweeney, The Loss of a Great Historian — Bill Cavaliere
Opie Rundle Burgess Lea and Corrections to “Corrections…”
Letter to the Editor
Guadalupe Méndez Guerrero, A Eulogy
132. — Vol. 49, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2019
The Great John L.’s Visit to Tombstone — Kevin Bowler
The Schweikart Family — Burl Gottlieb Schweikart, Ellie Schweikart Vaughn, & Margaret Bemis
Our Summer on the Ranch, 1951 — Alaire Tenney, prologue by Peta-Anne Tenney
Doubtful Canyon: It’s Doubtful You’ll Make it Through Alive — Doug Hocking
CCHS Essay Contest — Bill Cavaliere & Craig McEwan
Fort Bowie — Ammanuel “Manny” Tapia
The Boss Ranch: 109 Years and Still Going Strong — Peggy Noland Boss
Book Review: Douglas C. McChristian, Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 — review by Bill Cavaliere
Book Review: Anthony Hernandez & Richard Hernandez, Two for You, One for Me — review by Craig McEwan
Mystery Photograph Solved
Letter to the Editor
Welcome to the Cochise County Historical Society!
The Cochise County Historical Society was formed to promote the study of history in Cochise County to gather and protect facts about the past to publish or make available the information obtained by the society and to maintain and operate a research center.
The Cochise County Historical Society was founded in 1966 and was incorporated under the laws of the State of Arizona on September 13, 1968. Its tax-exemption status is a 501(c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Service and was granted on December 17, 1971.
Cochise County was created on February 1, 1881, when it was annexed out of the eastern portion of Pima County. It takes its name from the legendary Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise and is the only county in Arizona named after an individual Indian. The first county seat was Tombstone until 1929, when it was moved to Bisbee. Cochise County consists of 6,219 square miles.
To say that Cochise County is rich in history is an understatement. From the Paleo-Indians to the Spanish explorers, from the Mexican settlers to the Chiricahua Apaches, from the early Anglo pioneers to the vibrant citizens of today, Cochise County history has something of interest for everyone. In addition to Cochise, names such as Wyatt Earp, Geronimo, Doc Holliday, Naiche, John Slaughter, Rex Allen, Billy Fourr, Nellie Cashman, Tom Jeffords and many others all add color to our famous county.
The Cochise County Historical Society: “To Preserve the Past for the Future.”
This is the new official website of the Cochise County Historical Society. It supersedes any other website claiming to represent the Cochise County Historical Society. We are not affiliated with any other website that uses our name.
Cochise
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Cochise, (died June 8, 1874, Chiricahua Apache Reservation, Arizona Territory, U.S.), Chiricahua Apache chief who led the Indians’ resistance to the white man’s incursions into the U.S. Southwest in the 1860s the southeasternmost county of Arizona bears his name.
Nothing is known of Cochise’s birth or early life. His people remained at peace with white settlers through the 1850s, even working as woodcutters at the Apache Pass stagecoach station. Trouble began in 1861, when a raiding party drove off cattle belonging to a white rancher and abducted the child of a ranch hand. An inexperienced U.S. Army officer ordered Cochise and five other chiefs to appear for questioning. Steadfastly denying their guilt, the Indians were seized and arrested. One was killed on the spot, but Cochise escaped by cutting through the side of a tent, despite three bullets in his body. Immediately he laid plans to avenge the death of his friends, who had been hanged by federal authorities. The warfare of his Apache bands was so fierce that troops, settlers, and traders alike were all forced to withdraw. Upon the recall of army forces to fight in the U.S. Civil War (1861–65), Arizona was practically abandoned to the Apaches.
In 1862, however, an army of 3,000 California volunteers under Gen. James Carleton marched to Apache Pass to reestablish communications between the Pacific coast and the East, putting the Indians to flight with their howitzers.
Upon the death of his co-fighter Mangas Coloradas, Cochise became principal chief of the Apaches. From that time on a war of extermination was waged against the Indians. Cochise and 200 followers eluded capture for more than 10 years by hiding out in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona, from which they continued their raids, always melting back into their mountain strongholds.
In June 1871 command of the Department of Arizona was assumed by Gen. George Crook, who succeeded in winning the allegiance of a number of Apaches as scouts and bringing many others onto reservations. Cochise surrendered in September, but, resisting the transfer of his people to the Tularosa Reservation in New Mexico, he escaped in the spring of 1872. He gave himself up when the Chiricahua Reservation was established that summer.
Cochise Zen Center
Cochise Zen Center was founded in 2003 by Suzanne and Joel Carp, in loose affiliation with Zen Desert Sangha in Tucson. For the first 14 years, the group was known as Bisbee Lotus Sangha. We were self-sustaining, without a teacher, and depended on steady Zen practice to do its work.
In 2017, an authorized teacher from the Kwan Um School of Zen, Barry Briggs JDPSN, retired to Bisbee and began practicing with the community. In 2018, we asked Barry PSN to serve as guiding teacher. We've evolved our weekly practice to the forms of the Kwan Um School and follow Barry PSN's direction in teaching matters.
We serve the borderlands region of Southeastern Arizona with weekly meditation practice, workshops and discussion groups, and retreats.
The Zen center is a non-profit organization incorporated in Arizona and is recognized as a tax-exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service. We are governed by a board of directors comprised of senior practitioners.
Cochise Zen Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, affiliated with the Kwan Um School of Zen. We serve the borderlands region of Southeastern Arizona with meditation practice, workshops, and retreats.
The Chiricahua Apaches
Mangas Coloradas
For generations the Apaches resisted white colonization of their homeland in the Southwest (presently New Mexico and Arizona) by both Spaniards and North Americans. In 1848, when gold was discovered in California, the Apaches were further threatened by incursions of white fortune-seekers on their way to the gold fields.
In an incident at a mining camp, Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Mimbreño Chiricahua, was whipped, an act that resulted in his life-long enmity against white men. Though his son-in-law Cochise had long resisted fighting Americans, in 1861 he too, was betrayed by white men and turned against them.
Together, Mangas Coloradas and Cochise ravaged much of southern New Mexico and Arizona, until Mangas was wounded in 1862, then captured and killed in January of 1863, allegedly while trying to escape from Fort McLane, New Mexico. Upon the death of his uncle, Cochise became principal chief of the Apaches. More on Mangas Coloradas.
Cochise
Cochise had long worked as a woodcutter at the Apache Pass stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland line until 1861, when a raiding party drove off cattle belonging to a white rancher and abducted the child of a ranch hand. An inexperienced Army officer, Lt. George Bascom, arrived and ordered Cochise and five other Apaches to appear for questioning. When they denied guilt or complicity, Bascom ordered his men to seize and arrest the Apaches. (Their claims of innocence were later substantiated.)
In the ensuing struggle, soldiers killed one Apache and subdued four others, but Cochise, suffering three bullet wounds, escaped by cutting through the side of a tent. He soon abducted a number of whites to exchange for the Apache captives, but Bascom retaliated by hanging six Apaches, including relatives of Cochise. This sequence of events is usually referred to as "The Bascom Affair."
Avenging these deaths, Cochise took to the warpath with his uncle, Mangas Coloradas. During the following year, warfare by Apache bands was so fierce that troops, settlers and traders all withdrew from the region. And upon the recall of army forces to fight in the U.S. Civil War in 1861, Arizona was practically abandoned to the Apaches.
In 1862, an army of 3,000 California volunteers under Gen. James Carleton marched to Apache Pass to prevent Confederate attacks and put the Apaches to flight with their howitzers. Although Mangas Coloradas was captured and killed the following year, Cochise and 200 followers eluded capture for more than 10 years by hiding out in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona, from which they continued their raids, always fading back into their mountain strongholds.
In 1871, command of the Department of Arizona was assumed by Gen. George Crook, who succeeded in winning the allegiance of a number of Apaches as scouts and bringing many others onto reservations. Cochise surrendered in September, but, resisting the transfer of his people to the Tularosa Reservation in New Mexico, escaped in the spring of 1872. He surrendered again when the Chiricahua Reservation was established that summer, and there he died June 8, 1874. Today, the southeastern most county of Arizona bears his name it includes Tombstone, Douglas and Bisbee, the county seat. More on Cochise.
Geronimo
Geronimo, a Bedonkohe Apache leader of the Chiricahua Apache, led his people's defense of their homeland against the U.S. military after the death of Cochise.
In the early 1870s, Lieutenant Colonel George F. Crook, commander of the Department of Arizona, had succeeded in establishing relative peace in the territory. The management of his successors, however, was disastrous. In 1874, some 4,000 Apaches were forcibly moved by U.S. authorities to a reservation at San Carlos, a barren wasteland in east-central Arizona.
Deprived of traditional tribal rights, short on rations and homesick, they revolted. Spurred by Geronimo, hundreds of Apaches left 
the reservation to resume their war against the whites.
In 1882, Crook was recalled to Arizona to conduct a campaign against the Apaches. Geronimo surrendered in January 1884, but took flight from the San Carlos reservation in May 1885, accompanied by 35 men, 8 boys and 101 women.
Crook, along with scouts Al Sieber, Tom Horn and Mickey Free (the white child Cochise was falsely accused of abducting) set out in pursuit, and 10 months later, on March 27, 1886, Geronimo surrendered at Cañon de Los Embudos in Sonora, Mexico. Near the border, however, fearing that they would be murdered once they crossed into U.S. territory, Geronimo and a small band bolted. As a result, Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles replaced Crook as commander on April 2.
During this final campaign, at least 5,000 white soldiers and 500 Indian auxiliaries were employed at various times in the capture of Geronimo's small band. Five months and 1,645 miles later, Geronimo was tracked to his camp in Mexico's Sonora mountains.
At a conference on Sept. 3, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona, Miles induced Geronimo to surrender once again, promising him that, after an indefinite exile in Florida, he and his followers would be permitted to return to Arizona.
The promise was never kept. Geronimo and his fellow prisoners were put to hard labor, and it was May 1887 before he saw his family. Moved to Fort Sill in the Oklahoma Territory in 1894, he at first attempted to "take the white man's road."
He farmed and joined the Dutch Reformed Church, which expelled him because of his inability to resist gambling. He never saw Arizona again, but by special permission of the War Department, he was allowed to sell photographs of himself and his handiwork at expositions. Before he died at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Feb. 17, 1909, he dictated to S.S. Barrett his autobiography, "Geronimo: His Own Story." For more details see Geronimo's Last Hurrah.
Geronimo: His Own Story - The autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior
