FORT BOWIE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

"ONE OF THE MOST unique things about this park is that you can’t just drive up,” says Larry Ludwig, a park historian. “You have that mile-and-a-half walk in. It’s kind of a walk through history.” That walk includes an old Butterfield stage station, the ruins of two forts and Apache Pass, where young, inexperienced Lieutenant George Bascom ignited the Apache Wars in 1861. In 1862, Apaches ambushed members of California-based infantry and cavalry regiments in the pass. Within weeks, the troops had erected a makeshift fortress they called Fort Bowie; later, they built a more substantial fort. Nature has reclaimed much of the structures, whose adobe walls appear to melt into the surrounding grasslands. Only the graveyard has been partly restored. Grave markers include a Medal of Honor recipient and one of Geronimo’s sons. “It’s neat how all of this is spread along the trail,” Ludwig says. “You couldn’t have designed it better.”