Apache Wars of the Southwest

You will begin your journey in Tucson, Arizona, to witness the evolution of some of the Southwest’s earliest inhabitants who dwelled in small farming villages along precious waterways that would evolve into the present-day thriving desert metropolis now home to one of the nation’s largest universities.

Your first visit will take place at the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum, a re-creation of the many scattered outposts that once dotted Spain’s New World northern borderlands’ empire. Founded in 1775, the same year that Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza’s expedition passed nearby on its overland trek to establish what became the city of San Francisco in Alta California, this walled fortress stood as a remote bastion against the Apache. You will learn about life in the Santa Cruz Valley for early Native American Indians, Presidio residents, and Territorial period settlers. The archaeological remains of an ancient pit house stand as mute testimony to the longevity of human habitation in the region. Walk along the original Presidio wall and stand within a 150-year-old classic Sonoran Rowhouse.

From there, en route to Fort Huachuca, you will stop in Patagonia at Irish-born John Ward’s Ranch. During the early 1860s, a roving band of Apache captured Felix Martinez (aka Mickey Free), an event that triggered one of the longest wars fought by the United States military. Then it’s on to Fort Huachuca for a tour of the museum conducted by a leading authority, ending with a ride along the old parade ground, through the cemetery where Apache Indian scouts who served as a mainstay of military operations during the 1870s through 1890s lay at rest, and drive-by other vestiges of this 145-year-old garrison.

Your first stop this morning will be the Amerind Museum in Dragoon, Arizona. This institution was started as a labor of love by its founders and seeks to foster and promote knowledge and understanding of the Native Peoples of the Americas through research, education, conservation, and community engagement. Spectacular boulders of Texas Canyon surround the museum, adjacent gallery, and research center dedicated to archaeology, Native cultures, and Western art.

Nearby, Cochise, wise in war and respected in peace, once lived with his people amidst the security of the boulders, canyons, and cliffs that bear his name. Because of its relative remoteness, the Stronghold can be reached only by a narrow, winding unpaved road.

More of the same striking scenery welcomes you to the Chiricahua National Monument. This inspiring “Wonderland of Rocks” also includes a cross-cultural lesson about Apache who thrived here, a military camp manned by buffalo soldiers of the 10th U.S. Cavalry, and the dream of a transplanted Swedish immigrant—Neil Erickson, who after his stint as a horse soldier in the American Army, established Faraway Ranch. He and his spouse Emma Erickson raised their three children at what became a headquarters for their cattle ranch.

As the day draws down, your final stop in Arizona will be Fort Bowie National Historic Site. After parking the bus in the upper lot, the group will hike down a meandering dirt trail for nearly a mile, peeling back the modern world to emerge past the old stage stop. Before the Civil War, overland coaches traversing a rugged route from San Antonio, Texas, to San Diego, California, halted momentarily to exchange teams, feed passengers, and provide a respite before moving on east or west. At first, the conveyances rolled along without incident. With the passage of time, however, the Apache and ever-increasing numbers of newcomers collided particularly as more and more settlers, miners, and ranchers invaded lands of those they called the Chiricahua had long held. Duplicity, misunderstanding, the kidnapping of Felix Martinez, and a series of unfortunate events erupted into a quarter of a century of fierce fighting turning the borderlands into a “vast domain of blood.”  A tour of the ghostly adobe ruins and the visitors center will help unravel the complex clash of cultures that had raged since Spain laid claim to the region, as did Mexico from the 1820s through the early 1850s, followed by civilians and soldiers from the United States.

Departing Fort Bowie, you leave Arizona for Silver City, New Mexico, via Lordsburg. You’ll cross the Continental Divide, skirt the ranch of ill-fated Judge H.C. and Juniata McComas, and drive through the towering walls of one of the largest operational copper mines in the country before checking in to the Art Deco Hotel Murray in the boom-and-bust town of Silver City. The community took its name from one of the minerals that enticed wealth-seekers bent on resting fortunes from the earth for more than a century and a half. The quest for gold, silver and copper came at the expense of the American Indians, who before recorded time considered this countryside their birthright. In fact, somewhere not far to the northwest a member of the Bedonkohe band of the Apache called in his youth Goyaałé (“The One Who Yawns”) was born. He later burst on to the scene becoming better-known from a name given him by interlopers to his place of origin—Geronimo. While uncertain when or exactly where Geronimo was born, some sources say he came from Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Gila River not too distant from Silver City.

This morning you will visit Fort Bayard National Landmark. The existing structures reveal little about the post’s past, yet some visitors have deemed the surrounding hills as “eerily beautiful.” The story of the garrison that came into being during 1865 to protect the surrounding mining district unfolds at the nearby Santa Clarita visitors’ center. After orientation, it’s a short jaunt by bus to the museum and national cemetery where burials dating from the earliest forces to staff the fort intermingle with the military dead and their family members from conflicts through the 20^th century and beyond. Two Medal of Honor recipients are among the graves. During its heyday, seven soldiers stationed at Fort Bayard would be recognized with this, the nation’s highest tribute for valor in combat.

You’ll head east from Fort Bayard to Hatch, New Mexico, considered by many as the chile capital of New Mexico. Somewhere in the area, on Christmas Eve, 1853, a site later dubbed Fort Thorn would be occupied by soldiers sent to protect the Santa Rita copper mining operations from Apache raids. In 1889 the flooding Rio Grande washed away any evidence of the buildings which stood “a stone’s throw of the swampiest portion” of the muddy river that provided the fort with its water as well as gave rise to noxious odors and hordes of mosquitos, the then-unknown culprit contributing to high rates of malaria. Within a half dozen years, the army abandoned this “miserable place to live.” By the way, the town’s namesake and its much sought-after crop came from Colonel Edward Hatch, who for more than two decades commanded the 9th U.S. Cavalry, another buffalo soldier regiment.

While Fort Thorn disappeared into memory by 1865 a new more than 9,600 military reservation assumed its mission. At Fort Selden Historic Site, a leisurely drive from Hatch, you will see a sprawling compound of adobes that once resembled a martial village where a hospital, corrals, storehouses, barracks, and officers’ quarters served varying sized garrisons. One of the youths who lived there was Douglas MacArthur, whose father reported with his family in 1884 as an infantry captain and commanding officer. As a lad, Douglas had not yet adopted the stature of the stoic future general that he became. In fact, one afternoon the youngster became so frightened that his shrill scream sent up an alarm. Were the Apache attacking? No, Douglas unexpectedly faced a strange beast—a camel that had survived from an antebellum army experiment to replace horses and mules with these “ships of the desert.” The distressed little boy soon was safe with his mother while a few soldiers evidently sent the dromedary on its way. You will find details of real bravery at the fort’s visitor center, where the deeds of five enlisted men cited for courage in battle earned them Medals of Honor.

As you will see, White Sands National Park could be on another planet, and so it has been in more than one science fiction film. Approximately 10,000 years ago the lush grasslands covering this basin attracted the first humans. These nomadic hunters followed herds of mammoths, camels, bison, and other large game that roamed the area. Over millennia the ice sheets melted causing drastic environmental changes forcing the ancient hunters to adapt or die as the dunes formed. Those people who remained began pottery making, built permanent houses, and farmed, staying the course for upwards of 1,200 years when inexplicably they abandoned their homes and fields during the mid-14^th century. At approximately the same time, bands of people whom the Spanish and others referred to as Apaches followed herds of bison from the Great Plains to the Tularosa Basin. They settled from the mountain slopes to mounding dunes where for centuries they fiercely kept out the Spanish and those who came afterwards. Their descendants remain on the Mescalero Indian Reservation maintaining their culture and stunning lands.

After breakfast, you will visit the Mescalero Apache Cultural Center & Museum. For 50 years this intimate facility has presented a vivid picture of the Mescalero, Chiricahua, and Lipan Apache People. Ancient stone tools, weapons, clothing, and an impressive collection of beautiful baskets accompanied by a video, and other enriching elements will add to this unique experience.

Then, you will move on to Fort Stanton State Monument. Established in 1855, Fort Stanton lays claim to be one of the most intact 19th-century military forts in the country and the best-preserved fort in New Mexico. As an outpost of the Indian Wars and a pawn during the Civil War, over its 160-year history, its walls have stood as silent witnesses to westward expansion, the lawless days of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, the tuberculosis epidemic that peaked in the 1920s, the New Deal–era Civilian Conservation Corps, as well as the internment of German civilian sailors during World War II. Fort Stanton’s 12-building parade ground appears much as it did in the late-1800s, making it easy to imagine military life in the Old West. Here, you can also learn about some of the most unusual and little-known chapters in New Mexico’s history.

Arguably, had it not been for the lucrative government contracts required to feed the men of the fort and to supply the reservation the brutal fighting in Lincoln County may never have occurred. A short distance from Fort Stanton, Lincoln State Historic Site traces the complex political and economic power struggle, which included actions by the U.S. Army that sometimes fanned the flames rather than helped keep the peace in its capacity as a federal agency dedicated to law and order. You’ll walk the very streets where this tragic event sacrificed lives and ruined or made reputations.

Perched at 7,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the southern Rocky Mountains, Santa Fe is the highest and oldest state capital in the U.S. Founded by the Spanish between 1607 and 1610, Santa Fe also lays claim to be the nation’s second-oldest city. Its existence, however, was challenged during August 1680 when the native peoples rose up during what has come down through history as the “Pueblo Revolt.” That pivotal incident and many more will unfold at the Palace of Governors, your first formal stop after a leisurely breakfast. Once you’ve concluded your visit to the Palace, you’ll have free time to explore shops, sites such as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and have lunch on your own at one of the many choices open to you in the Plaza such as the famed La Plazuela at La Fonda.

Your day will conclude with an early evening farewell group dinner at the tour hotel.

There will be one morning transfer to Albuquerque International Airport (ABQ) in New Mexico to catch your flight home.