Part I: After the Civil War Editor’s Note. It’s not like the Apache Wars are ancient history. When my father was born in Tucson in 1919, Geronimo had been dead for only 10 years. Moreover, we have excellent contemporary accounts from participants on all sides of these brutal conflicts. They … Continue reading
The Sierra Madre Occidental in Northern Sonora and Chihuahua Mexico is vast and extremely rugged. The interior consists of high lave rock plateaus covered with fertile soil, thick pine and oak forests, and deep river canyons, including magnificent Copper Canyon, four times larger than Arizona’s Grand Canyon. People could get … Continue reading
Camillus Sidney Fly was a Tombstone photographer. Most folks called him “Buck”. The other Tombstone photographer was Mrs. Fly, known as Mollie. Together they chronicled the Old West as no one before them had. Their photographs were published in big city newspapers and major magazines throughout the United States. The … Continue reading
Many of Tucson’s first streets were named for early pioneers, folks who came to the Old Pueblo in the 1860’s or early ’70’s. I was struck by how many of our street names honor pioneers who were killed by Apaches. Then I got to wondering, how many Tucson street names … Continue reading
Some of you may be familiar with our Downtown History & Libation Tour that we use to host once a month. NOW AVAILABLE is our Self-Guided Tucson History and Dining Tour: A Walkabout the Old Pueblo in Search of Saloonkeeper George Hand’s 1870’s Tucson. Just in case you cannot make one … 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
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
Part III – The Tucson Ring If you have not read Part I or Part II of this series, start here; How Tucson Pioneers Perpetuated The Apache Wars: Part I. There were no successful Tucson pioneer businessmen who were not a party to the fleecing of the federal government to … Continue reading
For a quarter century, 1861 to 1886, Ft. Bowie was prime real estate known as Apache Pass. The Americans wanted it for their stagecoaches & supply wagons. The Chiricahua Apaches wanted it because their people had lived here for at least two centuries. Both sides were willing to pay for it in blood.
Continue readingOur perfect 3-Day Road Trip started in Tucson and headed east to (A) Willcox. From there we continued on I-10 over the AZ-New Mexico border to NM Hwy 80. Then south to Rodeo, NM where we visited the Chiricahua Desert Museum. Leaving Rodeo, we continued south on 80 to (B) … Continue reading
