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Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet
Presentation
Version 012209
By:
Kathy Block
This was a US Army fort from 1862 to 1894. The site became a
National Historic Site in 1964, dedicated in 1972. It contains 970 acres
dedicated to preserving the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, the Apache Pass
Stage Station, Apache Spring, and the Fort Bowie complex.
Visitors, except those with special permission to drive in
on a road to the Visitor Center, must walk a gentle trail to the Visitor Center
and ruins. Trail is 1.5 miles each way from parking lot.
It is believed that the laundress had to haul water from a spring
1/4 mile away and live there in this structure.
The cemetery is located about half way to the Visitor Center
from the parking lot. (See map). When we visited the site in Dec.2000,
the cemetery was unmaintained, with tall grass and weeds, little paths beaten
thru the area, a forlorn headstone (see photo), and many unmarked mounds
of stones.
The next year the Park Service commissioned studies and
restoration with a team that used a Geometrics G-856AX magnetometer, and
historic photographs, to locate, survey, and restore remaining graves in
the cemetery.