Manifest Destiny

Saturday 25 April  -  Scrapped today’s original plan in favor of something we saw on the way to the campground last night.  Those of you who are “mature” enough to remember the TV series “Broken Arrow” know that it was the sanitized story of the famed Chiricahua Indian Chief Cochise, and Tom Jeffords, the local Agent who was the intermediary between Indian Tribe and US Government.  What you probably don’t know is that much of the story took place (in real life) at Fort Bowie Arizona,  (and no, none of my relatives were there), about 30 miles from our last night's campground. 

So today, we’re headed to Fort Bowie National Historical Site.  The trailhead to the site is a scenic 10 mile drive up the dirt Apache Pass Road into the Chiricahua Mountains.  

From there it is a short 1.5 mile hike up through hilly Arizona desert country to the remains of what was a large Army Post located in a high isolated valley.

The back story is that in the 1861 Cochise was believed to have been involved in a wagon train massacre and the kidnapping of a small boy from near this location.  He was arrested by the Army and escaped, but 6 others of his band were summarily executed.  This was the start of a 10-year war for control of Apache Pass, through which the famed cross-country Butterfield Stage Road ran, and in which existed the only natural spring in the area. (It was later proved that another band was actually responsible for the massacre.)

The trail first takes you up the valley past the ruins of the stage station and the faint track of the stagecoach road, the primary purpose of the fort being to protect immigrants passing along that route.

A bit further along is the cemetery where those who perished in the pass from natural or (more often) unnatural causes, were interred.  Many headstones were simply marked “Killed by Indians”, names lost forever to history and to loved ones.

As we near the site of the fort, we pass Apache Springs.  The small trickle of water flowing over a rock ledge must have looked like the fountain of youth to any passersby of that early era.  Even after the short distance we’d hiked so far, it was an inviting sight.

Above, on top of a small hill overlooking the spring, stands a low stone wall where the first defenders of the spring set up camp prior to the building of the more substantial post a year later. It would have been a pretty miserable place, completely open to the elements, as well as to fire from those who owned the hill before.

Just up the trail from the spring is the foundation of the “Agency Building” occupied by Tom Jeffords during a later period when an uneasy peace replaced the long violent conflict.  (Probably the time-frame of the TV show.)

By this point we (I anyway) are immersed in the story and the place.  Nothing is physically changed from 150 years earlier when the next breath you took may have been your last.

At the end of the trail, is Fort Bowie.  A large American flag raised above the parade grounds surrounded by 40 or 50 acres of what would be barracks, corrals, store houses, officers quarters, a hospital and even a tennis court.  The fort in its prime was very large and would have been home to several hundred troops as well as some of their dependents and other civilians.  After its abandonment in 1894, what remains is only adobe walls and foundations.  But it takes little imagination to picture what would have been a busy frontier military community.

On the recommendation of the resident ranger, we take a different return route up a steep rocky trail to a ridge overlooking the entire valley. There is a forest of bright red flowered ocotillo on an otherwise drab hilltop, and the “brisk” 30 plus mph wind is actually welcomed, canceling out the rising afternoon temperatures.

For anyone who is a history buff, I’d highly recommend this as one of the best sites I’ve visited over the years.  Although the fort site is fairly small, it is tucked into a corner of a huge and beautiful landscape that was critical to development (good and bad) of the American West.

By now late afternoon, we head for Catalina State Park, north of Tuscon (with a stop at Olive Garden).

So Goodnight From Tuscon

Brad and Val