Visiting Fort Bowie National Historic Site in Arizona

[Music] in this video we travel to fort bowie national historic site which is a pretty unique property in america's national park system located in southeastern arizona what makes fort bowie unique is that you can't drive into the park instead you have to take a one and a half mile hike to get to the park's visitor center there is a parking lot at the park's trailhead that you reach after traveling on a well-graded dirt road for about a mile at the parking lot you will find restrooms and a few informative signs about the park from the parking lot it's a mile and a half hike to the main fort bowie ruins and the visitor center but it's the hike that makes visiting fort bowie so special because you pass through so much history in that mile and a half now we aren't big time backpackers or anything with multiple trips along the pacific coast trail but we would still rate the hike as fairly easy over the mile and a half there is only about a 200 foot elevation gain and the trail is very well maintained but we should also note that even though fort bowie is a hike in park for those who don't think they can make the mile and a half hike you can actually continue on the dirt road and drive all the way to the visitor center there is ada parking at the visitor center if you can make the hike though that's definitely the way to go because the hike passes through so many historic sites that really tell the story of fort bowie and along with the historic sites along the trail you can also find signs identifying the local plant life if you're interested in that sort of thing the first historical site that you come across on the hike are the ruins of a miner's cabin that was built in the early 20th century long after fort bowie was decommissioned the cabin had belonged to jesse millsap who was looking for gold and quartz in the area according to the sign at the ruins milsap actually died when he was digging a well and accidentally set off a dynamite charge the miners cabin ruins are less than a quarter of a mile into the hike and while they're pretty cool to see they're probably the least interesting historical site that you come across while on the hike to fort bowie also once you get past the miners cabin and get to some higher ground you start to get some amazing views along with the trail being in great condition the distance is also well marked with a marker every quarter of a mile so you pretty much always know how far you've gone and how far you have left to go and there are plenty of shady spots to sit and take a break next the trail goes through where the bascom affair happened which is arguably the most historically significant thing on the trail as it directly led to decades of war between the united states military and the apaches and these are ruins of the butterfield overland stage station which the event kind of centered around now i'll try to give a short version of what happened but i will put a link in the description to a more in-depth article on the bascom affair for anyone who's interested in reading about it on january 27 1861 tonto apaches raided the ranch of john ward and kidnapped his 12 year old stepson because the apaches fled towards the chirokawa mountains it was assumed that the raid involved chirokawa indians which were led by cochise lieutenant george bascombe was charged with locating and returning the boy so lieutenant baskin summoned cochise to the butterfield overland stage station cochise was a little suspicious so he brought his family with him and when he arrived sure enough they tried to arrest him for kidnapping the boy which he claimed that he had nothing to do with which in reality he did have nothing to do with cochise managed to escape but unfortunately his family did not so two days later cochise kidnapped some americans demanded the release of his family in exchange for the americans lieutenant baskin said no we want the 12 year old boy which cochise didn't have and so cochise fled to mexico killing the americans on the way when the soldiers found out about the americans being killed they killed cochise's family which led to over two decades of war between the united states and the apaches and that's pretty much a quick and dirty version of what happened in the bascom affair on a side note the boy was later found and he became the famous army scout mickey free at three quarters of a mile into the hike you come across the post cemetery all of the soldiers who were buried at the cemetery their graves were later relocated to san francisco after the post shut down but there are recreations of the graves there all of the civilians who were buried there are presumably still there including one of geronimo's sons and all of the soldiers who were also civil war veterans were marked with grand army of the republic markers which i thought was a really cool touch probably the most notable soldier who was once buried at the fort bowie cemetery is o.o spence who earned the congressional medal of honor in 1869 [Music] after the cemetery it's about another quarter mile till you reach the location of where the battle of apache pass took place at this spot in 1862 union soldiers from california who were heading off to fight in the civil war were ambushed by apaches the u.s soldiers were greatly outnumbered but they had something that the apaches didn't have artillery the american soldiers were able to use that to their advantage they won the battle captured the nearby apache springs and this directly led to fort bowie being built near this location at apache pass there's also an example of a wiki up just like the apaches would have lived in prior to the mid-1800s [Music] shortly past the patchy pass battle site you come across the reason so much activity happened in this area and that is the apache springs which has been a source of water for people in the area for thousands of years it doesn't look like much now and that's because before this area became part of the national park service the water rights were sold off and so it's just a trickle compared to what it would have been like 150 years ago and as we come up from the springs we get our first look at the ruins of fort bowie off in the distance on the right is where the original fort was built in 1862 and about 500 yards to the east is where the permanent fort was built in 1868 one thing that i thought was really cool is occasionally there would be signs with pictures posted at the exact spot the picture was taken so you could see how the land has changed over the years this was a great touch and i wish more historical sites would incorporate something like this when you finally get to the ruins you really start to get a sense of how big the fort was on the census there was 400 people listed as living at fort bowie and of course getting to the ruins also means getting to the park's visitor center the visitor center is pretty much like your average national park visitor center there's a store museum restroom park rangers to answer your questions and a place to get your national park passport stamped but it's definitely a welcome sight after a mile and a half hike to get there the visitor center is also a great place to get a view of the entire fort grounds the visitor centers museum has a lot of information on things such as what life was like at the fort artifacts that they found there and the area's native american population the visitor center also features some pretty great views of the surrounding area but the main attraction of course are the ruins of fort bowie itself fort bowie was only in operation from 1862 until 1894 with this site being built in 1868 but in its 32-year history fort bowie was the focal point of military operations between the united states military and the apaches culminating in the surrender of geronimo in 1886 and the banishment of the cherukawas to florida and alabama it is just amazing to walk around the fort and think about how 150 years ago it was just teeming with soldiers all of the walls in this section of the fort were made with adobe brick and the reason they look the way they do now is because they've been coated with a lime plaster in order to protect the adobe underneath and here's another photo marker this one showing geronimo standing in this spot after his capture in 1886 then of course after spending some time exploring the ruins it's a mile and a half back to the car if you get a chance to go fort bowie is really worth visiting especially if you're interested in that period of american history and it is definitely a unique experience among america's national park properties thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up consider subscribing and we'll see you next week

Channel: Sidetrack Adventures

Views: 89,302

Keywords: Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Fort Bowie, Arizona National Parks, Cochise, Geronimo, Bascom Affair, Arizona travel, Arizona hikes, Arizona abandoned places, Arizona road trip

Id: epFJb4JKoh0

Length: 9min 57sec (597 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021