Part II – This is the second in a series on the great Chiricahua Chief, Cochise, and his part in the fascinating history of Southern Arizona. For the First Part in the series, Please see the post on Cochise Becomes a “Reservation Indian”. Confederate Soldiers Occupy Tucson In February 1862, … Continue reading
In the late 1870’s, to engineer the official Indian policy of “concentration”, the United States government forced Victorio and his band of Warm Springs Chiricahua Apaches to move from the land they held sacred in New Mexico to the dreaded San Carlos Reservation about 35 miles east of Globe, AZ … Continue reading
John Clum became one of those legendary characters from Tombstone’s infamous past. His life before Tombstone is just as interesting, but that story is known only to a few. He was born in upstate New York in 1851 and attended a military academy before enrolling at Rutgers College where he … Continue reading
Do you know what a heliograph is and what it’s most famous use was for? The heliograph was a mirror attached to surveying equipment that sent beams of light several miles using Morse code to alert the next station of upcoming newsworthy events. In the case of Arizona, the heliograph … Continue reading
Arizona Weekly Citizen: August 7, 1881 Back in the 1860’s to 1880’s, the terrorist threat to Anglo and Mexican Tucsonans was local and ever-present. Only back then, they weren’t called “terrorists”. They were called “Apaches”. Click on the picture to enlarge the article. Background to the Article In the 19th … Continue reading
How Tucson’s Wealthiest & Most Prominent Civic Leaders Committed Mass Murder & Got Away With It. Today, there’s nothing there. Nothing to suggest what happened in the early morning of April 30, 1871. Nothing to commemorate this blood-soaked ground where between 118 and 144 people, almost all women and children, … Continue reading
“Texas” John Slaughter was the sheriff who cleaned up Cochise County after the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday left Arizona. He was as tough as they come and, among the outlaw class, earned the moniker “that wicked little gringo”. As despised and feared as he was by the outlaws, he … Continue reading
Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to simply as TR, was a highly successful American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer … this latter much to the chagrin of the rich and powerful; particularly J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller; and Andrew Carnegie … not to mention the political bosses of his … Continue reading
Like so many others, I enjoy local histories. Understanding history is how I get a sense of the places and people I visit as I travel around Baja Arizona creating my videos, photographs, stories, and reviews to share with you on my Southern Arizona Guide. Of late, I have been reading extensively about the Apache […]
Continue readingStronghold: A place fortified against attack. Such a place is Cochise Stronghold, a series of natural rock formations that the Chiricahua Apaches used to hide from the U.S. Army and the growing number of Arizona settlers. At the base of the Stronghold rocks is a campground. This is where we … Continue reading
