Fort Bowie and Apache Pass - A road trip report

Helen's Dome overlooks Ft Bowie

Apache Pass was a crossroads of human history at a place General George Crook once described as so barren “a wolf couldn’t make a living on it.” But there is a perennial spring here. The water just trickles now, but it was once a reliable enough source that travelers made it a point to stop; good water sources are few in the southwestern deserts. The spring at Apache Pass was an important resource and the Army built a post here in the 1860s to protect it – Fort Bowie. 

The location was a place where wildly different cultures came together, sometimes peaceably, sometimes not. The lush desert mountain setting was a favorite camping place for Apaches and others who were traveling past. Quite possibly, white Americans first met Cochise here. Teamsters stopped at the spring for water while freighting from the Rio Grande Valley to Tucson. The Butterfield Overland Stage, America’s first trans-continental stagecoach company, built a station there and at first, the locals and the stage crews got along fine. But (soon) the Cochise War began (and ended) at Apache Pass and many years later, the Apache wars were finally brought to a close altogether at Fort Bowie in 1886.  Today it is a peaceful ruin.

Fort Bowie is south of Interstate 10 in southeastern Arizona. To get there, Geneviève and I drove from Phoenix to Cochise, AZ, about 220 miles, and then took Apache Pass Road south about 15 miles to a trailhead. After a picnic lunch, we donned our hiking boots for the walk to Fort Bowie. The day was a dramatic one weather-wise, with a sometime-sun creating shadows and contrasts through broken clouds -- a perfect day for a hike. 

Genevieve at Apache Spring

Gen could tell you, I never tire of telling stories about Apache Pass. Along the trail, you pass the ruins of the Butterfield stage station. The foundations of the stone building, fireplace and adjacent corral can still be seen and the ruts of the stage road are still visible; Cochise himself reportedly provided firewood to the station personnel in the early days, before the Bascom Affair ended any amity that had existed. Farther along the trail, you pass the now-abandoned post cemetery and the ruins of Tom Jeffords’ Chiricahua Apache Agency (the Chiricahua's first reservation was established here with Jeffords as agent at Cochise's request). While some Apaches did not trust him, Jeffords and Cochise were close friends; it was a very unusual relationship considering the realities of Indian-White interactions in frontier America. Beyond the agency ruin, there are replications of an Apache wickieup and ramada, and then before reaching Fort Bowie, you pass the spring. Its trickle of water still creates a shady oasis.

 

Ruined walls of Ft. Bowie

What's left of Fort Bowie has not been “restored.” After closure in the 1890s, local residents came and stripped it of any useful building materials. Over the years, rains have washed away most of the remaining adobe walls. As a result of its ruined condition, there is a mystical or spiritual feel to the place – a feeling I’ve encountered before at a few places like the Gettysburg battlefield, the Greasy Grass battlefield and the Alamo in Texas. You can almost sense the history as a tangible thing. Because Fort Bowie is a ruin, you have only your imagination (and a few old photographs) to divine what it was like with hundreds of horse-mounted troops in residence or in review on the parade ground, and how the business of the Apache Wars kept things bustling. Or I suppose you could just watch one of John Ford's cavalry pictures...

We spent a few moments looking around in the visitor’s center, talking with the ranger and walking the perimeter of the ruins. You can see the foundation of the post commander’s home, and pick out stones still visible today and match them to the ones plainly visible in frontier-era photos of the house. You can pick out the exact spot where Geronimo stood for a photo, after his surrender in 1886. You can see the parade ground, the Stars and Stripes still flying over it, and imagine a troop of tired cavalry men – perhaps Buffalo Soldiers – as they awaited the order to “fall out” after a dusty, hot and tedious (and perhaps dangerous) patrol through the deserts of southern Arizona or northern Mexico.

After our visit, we trekked over the hill that stands over the fort to its northeast and from the top, looked down on the slopes where the Apaches staged the only “pitched” battle they ever fought against American troops (one reason the fort was later constructed here). The Apaches led by Mangas Coloradas, from their positions in the rocks above, had a commanding view of the soldiers as they approached the spring and firing down on them, were winning the fight, until the troopers deployed a couple of small field artillery pieces. Rather than risk heavy casualties from the bursting shells, the Apaches disengaged and disappeared, melting into the landscape like rainwater after a desert storm.

Butterfield Trail route near Apache Pass and Ft. Bowie

Back in the truck, Gen and I drove westward over Apache Pass, stopping to look at the old stage coach road and other sites associated with the Bascom Affair and the Cochise War, before heading back toward Phoenix.

This area was a favored camp site for many of the Apaches who were associated with the great Apache leader, Cochise.  So a little more about Cochise and his people is in order..."Cochise" is a white bastardization of the Chiricahua leader's name -- the name was actually closer to "Cheis" which I have read means something like "has the strength or quality of oak." Cheis was one of very few Apache leaders of these few related southwestern bands who could unite and command respect from all of them as a group (the basic groups were the Chokonen or Chiricahua; Mimbres or Warm Springs and Chihenne or "Red Paint people," the Bedonkohe, and the Nednai or "those ahead at the end"). They were usually separated into smaller, familial groups. Leaders of these groups (in their last days as free peoples) included Cheis, Mangas Coloradas, Victorio and Nana, Naiche, Geronimo and Juh. The Bedonkohe were centered in the Gila River headwaters area around present day Clifton, AZ. The Chokonen with Cheis were further south in the area of the Chiricahua Natl Monument and Ft Bowie; the Warm Springs, Mimbres, Chihenne groups were located around Silver City, NM; the Nednai considered the fastnesses of the Sierra Madres of Sonora and Chihuahua their homelands. All these groups ranged widely over the whole Arizona/New Mexico/Sonora landscape.

If you go: 

The road over and through Apache Pass is graded dirt, wash-boarded in a few places but easily passable for passenger vehicles in good weather. From I-10 at Bowie, AZ, take Business I-10 to the center of town and turn south on Apache Pass Road. From Bowie, it is about 12 miles to the parking area for the monument. After your visit at Fort Bowie, you can continue to follow the road all the way out to SR186, another 9 miles or so. This takes you through the pass itself and is the same route used by the Butterfield Overland Stage 150 years ago; you will be able to spot the ruts of the old trail still visible in the area, as it crosses and re-crosses the present road. 

Other attractions in the area include the Chiricahua National Monument, Cochise’s Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains, Tombstone, Bisbee and Kartchner Caverns. The best time to go is in the spring or fall when temperatures are mild, or in winter when the weather is clear. Lodging can be found easily in Wilcox, Douglas, Sierra Vista, Benson, or even Tucson.

Rangers have a permanent presence at the Ft. Bowie site and if you might want to purchase books at the visitor’s center, carry a small daypack for toting them. The trailhead area (and parking lot) has shaded picnic tables and a privy for visitors’ convenience. The ruins of Fort Bowie are reached by means of a moderately easy 1½ mile hike (one way). Time for a short visit is about 2 hours, but a more thorough look requires 3-4 hours.

Bob on the trail...

Wear sturdy hiking shoes or boots and carry drinking water; watch for snakes and other critters. They won’t bother you if you don’t bother them, but you need to see them. Be watchful, conscious of your movements and don't put your hands or feet anywhere you cannot see. The return hike can be made on the same trail, or on the alternative trail over the hill (recommended, but much more rigorous). Accommodations can be made for persons needing assistance under the ADA (contact the rangers). Fort Bowie’s URL is http://www.nps.gov/fobo/index.htm.