Two Ranges in Southeastern Arizona
The Chiricahua Mountains and the Dragoon Mountains rise from the desert grassland of Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. They are separated by a broad valley, and both are among the isolated ranges often described as sky islands. The Chiricahua Mountains lie farther east, near the New Mexico border, and the Dragoon Mountains to the west, between the San Pedro and Sulphur Springs valleys.
The Chiricahua people take their name from the mountains, or the mountains from them; the origin of the word is uncertain, and it is better not to guess. What is clear is that these ranges were part of the country of the Chokonen, one of the Chiricahua bands, whose leader Cochise is the figure most often associated with this area.
The Chiricahua Mountains
The Chiricahua Mountains combine desert at the base with oak, pine and fir forest on the higher slopes. Volcanic activity in the distant past left odd rock spires and columns in the northern part of the range, which are the main attraction of Chiricahua National Monument, established in the 1920s. The monument’s exhibits include some Chiricahua Apache history, and the same terrain offered shelter, water and plant foods to the people who lived here.
Apache Pass, at the northern end of the range, is covered in its own article. Together with other canyons and springs in the range, it formed part of the network of places the Chokonen and neighboring groups used.
Cochise Stronghold
The Dragoon Mountains contain the area known as Cochise Stronghold, a rocky granite canyon system on the eastern side of the range, now within the Coronado National Forest. The name comes from the tradition, widely repeated in histories, that Cochise and his followers used the area as a refuge during the conflicts of the 1860s. The word “stronghold” is an outsider’s term, and it reflects the army’s perspective; for the Chokonen it was part of their homeland, and a place where families could live with some security.
Cochise’s story needs to be told with care. He was a leader of the Chokonen band during years of escalating conflict with the United States, following the Bascom affair of 1861. In 1872, after negotiations involving General Oliver O. Howard and Tom Jeffords, an agreement was reached under which a Chiricahua reservation was set up in the Chiricahua Mountains region. Cochise died in June 1874 on the reservation. Accounts agree that he was buried in a place that has not been made public, and respect for that privacy continues. Visitors to the Stronghold should be aware that the story of his burial in the Dragoons is surrounded by traditions and rumor, and that nothing publicly known identifies a grave site.
The Reservation That Did Not Last
The Chiricahua reservation operated from 1872 to 1876. After Cochise’s death, political and administrative pressures grew, including concerns about raids across the border and the wish to consolidate Apache groups. In 1876 the reservation was closed and many of the Chiricahua were moved to San Carlos. This was a major loss: the people were taken from a homeland that had been formally set aside for them, only a few years earlier, and conditions at San Carlos were far harder.
The sequence reflects themes found elsewhere, which are covered in the article on shrinking Apache territory. Later events, including the campaigns of the 1880s and the imprisonment of the Chiricahua after 1886, took many descendants far from the Dragoons and Chiricahuas. Nednhi Apache families, whose homes lay mostly in the Sierra Madre of Mexico, were also among those swept up in these events.
Visiting the Ranges
Both ranges are largely public land, and the Chiricahua National Monument and the Coronado National Forest have trails, campgrounds and visitor information. The Stronghold has a campground and several marked trails, and the forest service provides current details. Some roads are unpaved and become difficult after rain. Summer afternoon thunderstorms are frequent, and heat in the lower elevations can be severe.
Visitors should leave artifacts and plants undisturbed, stay on marked trails, and treat the area as a place that matters to Chiricahua descendants. The Fort Sill Apache Tribe and the Mescalero Apache Tribe both include Chiricahua descendants, and their official websites are the best source for how these communities want their history shared.