DESTINATION Fort Verde State Historic Park

A Visit to Old Fort Verde Yields Glimpses of Army and Apache Wars

STOOD IN THE DRIZZLE on the porch of the headquarters of Fort Verde State Historic Park, peering at the bronze plaque honoring the Medal of Honor-winning soldiers and scouts once based here, thinking of a loyal warrior and a selfless sergeant. I half waited for the sound of their boot heels on the worn planks on which I stood, a century from their hardship and heroism. The plaque honors the 17 Indian scouts and soldiers who earned the nation's highest honor while serving at the fort during the fighting between the Apaches and the U.S. Cavalry.

Rowdy, an Apache scout, earned his medal in 1890 for killing a rival chief while leading a cavalry troop. Sgt. Bernard Taylor earned his medal in 1874 for carrying his wounded commander through 300 yards of enemy fire. Their stories span the fort's history, from its establishment in 1873 to its abandonment in 1891.

Perched on a mesa alongside the Verde River outside of the town of Camp Verde, the fort served as the Army's staging ground for the Apache Wars in the 1870s. Snatched from the jaws of deterioration and ruin in 1970 by Arizona State Parks, the meticulously restored buildings now provide a glimpse of the conflict that helped shaped the myth of the West.

The exhibits and loquacious rangers provide an absorbing tour of a rich history. The fort boasts a bookstore, library, stashes of primary documents and exhibits of guns, uniforms, artifacts and explanations of life at the frontier post. Exhibits detail the history of the Tonto Apache scouts recruited by Gen. George Crook to fight rival bands. The scouts became loyal warriors on the payroll of the U.S. Army, so they were provided food and clothing for their families. At the end of the Indian Wars,

however, the scouts had no advantage over any of their people.

Volunteer soldiers first arrived in the Verde Valley in 1865, but deserted after a year without pay. The regular Army detachment dispatched in 1866 moved the camp to the present location in 1870 to escape the malarial mosquitoes breeding in the beaver ponds of the Verde River.

In the early 1870s, General Crook directed arduous winter campaigns against the Tonto Apache and Yavapai tribes. Defeated by starvation as much as by bullets, they finally surrendered in large numbers. The government established the 800-square-mile Rio Verde Reservation in 1873 on the homelands of the tribes, and the Indians made good use of the land, building an irrigation ditch and cultivating 56 acres. In 1875, Congress ordered the population removed to the San Carlos Apache Reservation in eastcentral Arizona and opened the former reservation to miners and settlers.

A procession of vivid characters galloped, slouched, staggered, blustered and blasted their way across that parade ground-but none braver than Rowdy and Sergeant Taylor. Taylor earned his medal in October 1874 in a battle at nearby Sunset Pass. First Lt. Charles King led a 40-man detail in pursuit of a band of Apaches who had killed a cowboy. The hostile Apaches ambushed the patrol, hitting King in the face. Taylor charged forward to rescue King.

Ignoring the officer's orders to leave him and seek safety, Taylor slung the officer across his back and carried him through heavy fire for 300 yards-pausing repeatedly to hold off the Apaches with his pistol. King's wound never fully healed, but he became a noted Western writer of vivid fiction and nonfiction, and a man of strong character.

Rowdy earned his medal through equally daring actions. A fierce, good-natured warrior, he led a detachment of soldiers and scouts after raiders who had killed a Mormon wagon driver. The soldiers overtook the hostiles in a canyon near Cherry Creek. The Apaches dug in behind good cover, so Rowdy crawled up close enough to jump up and shoot the leader of the band twice-prompting the mortally wounded chief to surrender.

The commander wanted to carry the wounded chief back to the fort, but Rowdy observed that the chief would probably not survive the move and suggested they kill him. The prisoner stoically agreed, then began singing his death song. Reluctantly, the officerlet Rowdy dispatch the wounded chief. So I thought of Rowdy - and of Taylor-standing on the porch. I closed my eyes and almost heard boots on boards. But when I opened my eyes, I saw only the empty parade ground and a vulture, still on patrol after all this time. Al