Fort Bowie National Historic Site: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Fort Bowie National Historic Site, National Park Service
Pinto RL, Herring I, Kirk PA. 2000. Fort Bowie National Historic Site: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Fort Bowie National Historic Site, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. n/a. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office, Santa Fe
Fort Bowie National Historic Site (NHS) is located in Cochise County, southeast Arizona. The district sits within Apache Pass that divides the Dos Cabezas and Chiricahua Mountains. The approximately 1000-acre Fort Bowie NHS cultural landscape boundary is identical to the NHS boundary, containing grasslands, several peaks above 6000 feet, deep narrow canyons, springs, and associated riparian washes. The Apache Pass area was environmentally and culturally vital to the region’s development, serving as a major trade and transportation opening to the west with a reliable water supply. The site is also part of the historic homeland of the Chiricahua Apache and the scene of their last attempts to retain control of that homeland as Anglo-American settlers advanced into the southwest. The period of significance for Fort Bowie NHS begins in 1695, marking the earliest documented habitation of the Apache Pass area. In 1854, Lieutenant John G. Parke of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers surveyed the pass as a potential cross-mountain railroad route. The period continues through the fort’s 1862 construction and ends with its closure, in 1894. Fort Bowie was established in order to secure control of Apache Spring and maintain access to Apache Pass. It was active for more than 30 years, and at its peak (around 1886) supported a military and civilian population of more than 300 people. After the closure of the fort, little or no development occurred within the area. Local ranchers subsequently purchased some of the grasslands; until recently, these private properties and the remaining public domain were utilized primarily for cattle grazing. The National Park Service (NPS) assumed administrative and management responsibilities with the passage of a congressional act in 1964. Fort Bowie is nationally significant for many different reasons. The site has been a focal point of activity for several cultural groups due to its physiography and a year-round presence of water. Preliminary investigation suggests that further study of the site may reveal important prehistoric archeological remains. The site has also hosted important historic military events and activities that relate to the opening of the Southwest to Anglo-American settlement. A number of prominent individuals played a part in this story, and the landscape’s significance is connected to their contributions. The area continues to have spiritual value to descendants of the Apache, the last of whom were forcibly removed from their homeland to the San Carlos Reservation in 1886. In addition to being the location of a military fort, Fort Bowie NHS was also a rural landscape in which both the Chiricahua Apache and Anglo-Americans lived during different periods of time. Both cultures made extensive use of the distinctive landscape and its natural resources. The primary method of the assessment of integrity of Fort Bowie National Historic Site involves a comparison between that landscape in its historic and its contemporary periods, performed with the aid of historic photographs, anecdotal evidence, and research documentation. Little evidence remains of the Chiricahua Apache use of the land; the landscape retains much of the feeling of historic Fort Bowie as it was seen by Anglo-Americans. Those qualities most closely tied to the natural landscape and its resources (location, setting, plant community association, species composition, feeling and association) generally rated medium to high at Fort Bowie. Those qualities relating specifically to built structures added during the period of Anglo-American occupation generally ranked medium to low, primarily due to deterioration and recent alterations by the NPS and county. These qualities include design, workmanship, and materials. In aggregate, the overall integrity of Fort Bowie National Historic Site landscape is rated medium to high. The condition rating is good.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Pinto, Robin; Herring, Irene; Kirk, P.
- Date of Issue
- 2000-12
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- FOBO , HIST , IMR
- Keywords
- American Southwest, Apache Pass, Archaic Adaptation in Arid Lands, Archeology, Arizona, Bascom Affair, Battle of Apache Pass, Battles in the West, British and United States Explorations of the West, Chiricahua Apache, Chiricahua Indian Agency, Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise, Cochise County, Commerce, Communication, Community Planning and Development, Cultural Resources, Dos Cabezas Mountains, Engineering, Ethnohistory of Indigenous American Populations, Expansion and Imperialism, Exploration/Settlement, Fort, Gadsden Purchase, General George Crook, General Nelson A. Miles, General Oliver O. Howard, Geronimo, Grasslands, History, Immigration and Emigration, Landscape architecture, Lozen, Mail Service, Military, Native American, Oral Documentation, Overland Mail Route and Stage Station, Political and Military Affairs 1783-1860, Political and Military Affairs 1865-1939, Prehistoric, Railroad, Rural Cemeteries, San Carlos Reservation, San Felipe Pass, Scientific and Topographic Surveys, Spanish Exploration and Settlement, Tah-das-te, Telegraph and Telephone, The Civil War, The Early Peopling of North America, The Mining Frontier, Transportation, Vernacular architecture, Western Trails and Travelers