“Dragoon Springs Stage Station-Cochise/Howard” Historic Archaeological Site Tour

Photo of Apache wickiup rings identified at the Cochise-Howard Treaty site, courtesy of Deni J. Seymour

On Saturday, December 1, 2018, Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Dragoon Springs Stage Station and Cochise-Howard Treaty Site” tours (Coronado National Forest) guided by archaeologist Dr. Deni J. Seymour and historian Norman Wisner. This tour will depart from south side of Interstate-10 at Sybil Road (Milepost 312), about 9 miles east of Benson, AZ. Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (start & end times at I-10/Sybil Rd.; add your time to travel to there & back home). A $45 donation per participant ($36 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center & Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members) helps cover Old Pueblo’s tour expenses and supports its education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures.

This tour to the historic Dragoon Springs Stage Station and Cochise-Howard Treaty Site archaeological sites in the foothills of southern Arizona’s Dragoon Mountains will be led by archaeologist Dr. Deni Seymour, whose lifelong research has focused largely on the Protohistoric and Historic period Native American and Spanish cultures of the United States’ “southern Southwest,” and Norman Wisner, a historian who is especially knowledgeable about the Dragoon Springs site. Dragoon Springs, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, served the “Jackass Mail” and Butterfield Overland mail companies during the 1850s and 1860s, and was the site of altercations in which construction workers and soldiers of both the Confederate and Union armies were killed, allegedly by Apaches. Debate surrounding the burials will be incorporated into the discussion. A second site, the Cochise-Howard Treaty location, is where Brigadier General Oliver Otis Howard met with the Apache leader Cochise in October 1872 to negotiate the surrender and relocation of Cochise’s Chokonen Apache band. The place of that meeting, which culminated in a peace treaty between Cochise’s band and the U.S. government, has been published by Dr. Seymour based on photographs of unique boulder formations, written historical descriptions of the landscape, and archaeological evidence that she will discuss during our visit. Detailed historical accounts and archaeological investigations enrich our understanding of the location.
Reservations and donation prepayment required by by 5 p.m. Wednesday November 28. 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.
**** IF YOU WOULD LIKE US TO EMAIL YOU A FLYER with color photos about the above-listed activity send an email to info@oldpueblo.org with “Send Dragoon Springs tour flyer” in your email subject line.