THE HISTORICAL PARKS

Clouds drift over weathered reminders of the past at Fort Bowie National Historic Site. The building in the background is the site's visitors center. EIRINI PAJAK

Tumacácori National Historical Park

The Pima Uprising | November 20, 1751 The arrival of Spanish missionaries in present-day Southern Arizona disrupted a delicate balance of power between the area's tribes, who already were in competition for the scarce resources available in the desert landscape. Some of the O'odham people cooperated with the Spanish, but other O'odhams resented the missionaries for disregarding traditional lifestyles and farming techniques. On November 20, 1751, that resentment culminated in what's known today as the Pima Uprising: a coordinated O'odham attack on Spanish missions and settlements that killed more than 100 people, including two priests who had recently arrived in the area. The Tumacácori mission, at that time a small adobe structure on the east side of the Santa Cruz River, was not a direct target of the uprising, but the incident led to Tumacácori and other missions being abandoned for a time. When the Spanish returned, they founded Mission San José de Tumacácori on the west side of the Santa Cruz. The church now known by that name, and for which Tumacácori National Historical Park is best known, began to rise around 1800 but was never completed before the mission was abandoned in 1848. Today, the National Park Service works to preserve this decaying piece of history, along with two other mission sites to the south.

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Fort Bowie National Historic Site The End of the Bascom Affair | February 19, 1861

Fort Bowie might never have existed if not for a misunderstanding, which began when a group of Apaches kidnapped Felix Ward, the stepson of a Southern Arizona rancher, during a livestock raid in early 1861. Wrongly assuming that Chiricahua Apaches were responsible, Lieutenant George Bascom led a group of U.S. Army infantry to Apache Pass, where Bascom met with Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise but was unconvinced when Cochise said he knew nothing of the raid. Bascom then cap-

Captured Cochise and several members of his family, but Cochise escaped alone and later took three Americans from another group hostage, offering to exchange them for his relatives. When Bascom refused - demanding instead the kidnapped boy, whom Cochise did not have - Cochise killed the American prisoners, and on February 19, the Americans retaliated by hanging Cochise's brother and nephews. Cochise's resulting campaign of vengeance was the beginning of the Apache Wars, which would last until the mid-1880s; an early engagement in that conflict, the 1862 Battle of Apache Pass, spurred the construction of Fort Bowie that year to protect the pass and nearby Apache Spring. Felix Ward, meanwhile, was raised by other Apaches and later became a scout and bounty hunter known as Mickey Free.

Pipe Spring National Monument The Whitmore Ranch Murders January 9 (approximate), 1866

The first building at Pipe Spring, a perennial water source north of the Grand Canyon, was a rudimentary dugout constructed by Mormon settler James Whitmore around 1863, during Kit Carson's campaign against American Indians who, in 1865, began raiding settlements on what's known today as the Arizona Strip. On January 9, 1866, one such raid drove a herd of sheep off the Whitmore ranch at Pipe Spring, and Whitmore, accompanied by Robert McIntyre, pursued the raiders, leaving Whitmore's son in the dugout. The two weren't seen again until a search party discovered their bodies 11 days later; retaliatory killings of Indians followed, and after three more settlers were killed near present-day Colorado

The interior of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site offers vivid reminders of Navajo trading traditions. Things to Do

City, Mormon leader Brigham Young urged his followers to abandon the area's small settlements in favor of the safety of larger towns. Four years later, Young called for the area to be resettled and for a fort to be built to protect Pipe Spring; the resulting Winsor Castle made of sandstone blocks hewn from a nearby cliff, and named for its first caretaker, Anson Winsor was completed in 1872 and today looks about the same as it did nearly 150 years ago. But because relations between the settlers and the tribes had improved, the fort, which today is surrounded by the Kaibab Paiute Tribe's land, never came under attack.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site The Death of Don Lorenzo November 12, 1930

The first duty of an Indian trader, in my belief, is to look after the material welfare of his neighbors," John Lorenzo Hubbell once said. That philosophy, and a corresponding penchant for fair dealing and honesty, made Hubbell's Navajo Nation trading post a hub of commerce for more than half a century. A native of New Mexico Territory, Hubbell purchased the post from another trader in 1878, two years before the area officially became part of Navajoland; he had the name of the community changed to Ganado, in honor of friend and Navajo leader Ganado Mucho. Hubbell later served two terms as Apache County sheriff and was a member of the first Legislature after Arizona became a state, but the trading post, one of two dozen he and his sons owned at various times, was a constant in his life. Historians cite Hubbell's enduring influence on Navajo rug weaving and silversmithing, and claim that his nickname, "Don Lorenzo," reflected the respect he earned from his business associates. Hubbell died at the Ganado trading post on November 12, 1930two weeks shy of his 77th birthdaybut the Hubbell family continued to operate the post until it was sold to the Park Service in 1967. Today, it's operated by the nonprofit Western National Parks Association, which maintains many of the trading traditions Hubbell and his family pioneered.

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(Note: At press time, this site remained closed due to COVID-19.)

Coronado National Memorial A Dream Becomes a Reality November 5, 1952

Grace Sparkes probably is best known for her 25 years on the Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce during which she became known as a champion of Arizona tour-

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ism. But in 1938, after a falling-out with