The Azure Gate: Cochise Stronghold: Dragoon Mountains, Arizona

First some wonderful history:

Cochise Stronghold is a canyon on the East side of the Dragoon Mountains of Southeastern Arizona 50 miles from the Mexican border. This rugged natural fortress was, for some 15 years, the home and base of operations for the famed Chiricahua Apache Chief, Cochise. Cochise and about 1,000 of his followers, of whom some 250 were warriors, located here. Sentinels, constantly on watch from the towering pinnacles of rock, could spot their enemies in the valley below and sweep down without warning in destructive raids. No man, woman or child within a hundred miles was safe from these attacks.

Born in present-day Arizona, Cochise led the Chiricahua band of the Apache tribe during a period of violent social upheaval. In 1850, the United States took control over the territory that today comprises Arizona and New Mexico. Not hostile to the whites at first, he kept peace with the Anglo-Americans until 1861, when he became their implacable foe because of the blunder of a young U.S. Army officer, Lt. George Bascom. In that year, Cochise and several of his relatives had gone to an encampment of soldiers in order to deny the accusation that they had abducted a child from a ranch. The boy was later proved to have been kidnapped by another band of Apaches. During the parley, Cochise and his followers were ordered held as hostages by Bascom, but Cochise managed to escape almost immediately by cutting a hole in a tent. Bascom later ordered the other Apache hostages hanged, and the embittered Cochise joined forces with Mangas Coloradas, his father-in-law, in a guerrilla struggle against the American army and settlers. The capture and murder of Mangas Coloradas in 1863 left Cochise as the Apache war chief. The U.S. Army captured him in 1871 and prepared to transfer the Chiricahua to a reservation hundreds of miles away, but he escaped again and renewed the resistance campaign. The following year after negotiating a new treaty with the help of Thomas Jeffords, his only white friend the band was allowed to stay in their homeland.

The portion of the Butterfield Stage Line run from Fort Bowie to Tucson crossed just off the northern tip of the Dragoon Mountains. This line was a favorite target of Cochise's warriors, they killed 22 drivers in a 16 month period. The Butterfield Stage Line established a station stop on the north end of the Dragoons in 1858. It was called the "Dragoon Springs" station due to the natural springs located there. A massacre occurred at this site on September 8, 1858. On October 5, 1869 a Col. John Finkle Stone, the 33-year-old president of Apache Pass Mine, near Ft. Bowie, headed back to his home in Tucson aboard a mail coach. He had an escort of four soldiers. When they approached the abandoned stagecoach station at the north end of the Dragoon Mountains, a group of Apaches came out of a gully and hit them fast and hard, killing everyone. (The ruins of the station stand today although the springs were rerouted by mother nature in an earthquake in the late 1800's.)

Cochise is reputed to have been a master strategist and leader who was never conquered in battle. For ten years Cochise and his warriors harassed the whites by raiding lonely ranches and attacking stagecoaches and miners. Cochise retired. He died peacefully on the newly formed Chiricahua reservation in 1874. His son, Taza succeeded him as chief. Upon his death, he was secretly buried somewhere in or near his impregnable fortress -- what is now called Cochise Stronghold. The exact location has never been revealed or determined.

There are both picnic grounds and campsites located at the trailhead. A very short walk takes you around several kiosks where the history (a longer version of the above) is explained. There is a half-mile nature trail with spurs for longer trails, including one - the historic Indian Trail -- that goes over the mountain to the west side. The elevation gain is about 1100 feet. These are wonderful hikes with spectacular views.

Christine and I have hiked there 6 or 7 times. I must say that I have never been very lucky finding wildlife to photograph though. Still a great hike. Typically, we are met by a dozen or more Acorn Woodpeckers at the picnic/campgrounds. Both there and as you begin the hike the woodpeckers are joined by Mexican Jays. Since parts of the hike are rocky, there are always lots and lots of lizards. On parts of the hike I always expect -- well, hope -- to come across a black bear, but that has never happened. The canyon which has varying degrees of water would attract coatimundi, but that has never happened either (for me, anyway).

Yesterday, Christine and I picnicked there and hiked about 5 miles. Not a lot to report, but here are a few photos: