WOAC: California Column

In addition to a close-up picture of a pivotal figure in western history, Cochise offers accounts of a vanished world from people who lived in that world.

In February 1861, the twelve-year-old son of an Arizona rancher was kidnapped by Apaches; a band of Chiricahua Apaches led by the infamous warrior Cochise was blamed for the attack. Lt. George Bascom organized a patrol and met with the Apache leader, who, not suspecting anything was amiss, had brought along his wife, his brother, and two sons. Despite Cochise’s assertions of innocence and his offer to help in the search, Bascom immediately took Cochise’s family hostage. An incensed Cochise escaped the meeting tent amidst flying bullets—and vowed revenge. What followed that precipitous encounter would ignite a Southwestern frontier war between the Chiricahuas and the US Army that would last twenty-five years. Thousands of lives would be lost, the economies of Arizona and New Mexico would be devastated, and in the end, the Chiricahua way of life would essentially cease to exist.

Founded in 1880 along the Southern Pacific Railroad line, Bowie became a major shipping point for the military and the mines, with mine workers and their families residing in railroad housing. In turn, this caused Bowie to prosper. Today, the town struggles to survive with few job opportunities, but the sun shines practically every day of the year.

In addition to a close-up picture of a pivotal figure in western history, Cochise offers accounts of a vanished world from people who lived in that world.

Between 1861 and 1865, the violent struggles of the Civil War extended into the Western Territories, where they were complicated by the involvement of the Indians. The Confederate leaders planned to annex a corridor from the Rio Grande in Texas to the California coast, wanting to gain areas rich in minerals, expand slavery, and procure valuable military stores and equipment. However, that land was more difficult to conquer than they had anticipated with Union campaigns against the Confederates and the Indians who took advantage of the confusion of the Civil War. Because of such, the Confederate vision of an empire failed to materialize. However, when the Confederate invasion had been repelled, the Union leaders undertook vigorous campaigns for extermination or settlement of the Indians on reservations, causing present boundaries and patterns of state government for Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.