A Visit To The Cochise Hotel, Cochise AZ

It was a Sunday in mid-September when Ms. Karen and I left our home in the Tucson Mountains to travel to the Cochise Hotel to visit with the proprietor, Phil Gessert. We arrived at noon and Phil was sitting on the front porch waiting for us. The Cochise Hotel is the oldest hotel in Arizona and, I must say, it looks the part. It sits across the tracks from the active railroad midway between Benson and Willcox. The Cochise hotel is more than a Hotel, it is a Bed & Breakfast, a museum and a historical landmark.

In the mid-1890’s, John Rath, a telegraph operator at Fort Bowie, founded the little town of Cochise and dug a well, whereupon he encouraged the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a proper depot there. He also built and managed the Rath Hotel, which became the Cochise Hotel. Most of the men who worked in Cochise were Irish and Chinese at that time. Cochise became a shipping port for ore from the mine at Pearce and also for cattle raised in the Sulfur Springs Valley.

In 1897, the Southern Pacific started a regularly routed Sunset Limited train that stopped at Cochise. By then, Mr. Rath was railroad agent and Wells Fargo agent, Cochise Justice of the Peace and Postmaster. As Postmaster, he was paid $58 per year.

Phil Gessert purchased the hotel several years ago from a member of the Fulton family, founders of the Amerind Museum in Dragoon. It needed some loving care and restoration. Phil is a historian and a collector of western memorabilia. His is a labor of love. He gave us a tour, the photographs and story you can see in the following slideshow.

Cochise Hotel Front

Cochise Mercantile

JIm and Phil on the Front Porch

Cochise Hotel Front Desk

Cochise Hotel Safe

Cochise Hotel Single Bed

Cochise Hotel double beds

Cochise Hotel Double Bed

Cochise Hotel Photo Case

Cochise Hotel Plates

Cochise Hotel Organ

Cochise Hotel Jockey

Cochise Hotel bottles

Cochise Hotel Bottles 2

Cochise Hotel Lucky Day Mine

Cochise Hotel Colt Gas

Cochise Hotel Pharo Room Entrance

Cochise Hotel Pharo Room

Cochise Hotel Pharo Bank

 

Visit the Cochise Hotel website for more information and history, and there is a lot of history. Make a reservation to stay in the oldest hotel in Arizona. There is a lot of history here and possibly learn to play Pharro. Some say the Hotel is haunted. We will let Phil tell the rest of the story.

Recently Phillip delivered a Pharro table which he made to the newly opened Mescal Movie Set we presume as a donation.

Cochise Hotel 
5062 Cochise Stronghold
Cochise, AZ 85606
Reservations by appointment only.
818-480-8047
phillipgessert@gmail.com