Coronado National ForestCouncil Rocks Historic Site About 90 miles southeast of Tucson and 19 miles northwest of Tombstone, Arizona, is a special place called Council Rocks. Cochise and his band of Chiricahua Apache lived here, in the surrounding Dragoon Mountains, avoiding the U.S. Army for many years. It is said, Cochise and General Oliver Otis Howard met here, among these boulders, on October 12, 1872 and agreed to cease hostilities. In return, the Apache would retain the southeastern corner of Arizona, including Chiricahua and Dragoon Mountains. This agreement was respected until 1876, two years after Cochise's death, when the Chiricahua Apache were forced to give up their homeland and move north to the San Carlos Reservation. It is a long, dusty drive to Council Rocks (first 10 miles on Middlemarch Rd, turn left onto Forest Route 687 for another 9 miles to 687K and a small Council Rocks sign). Then it's a steep climb to the Council Rocks but worth the effort. Climbing the rocks, looking into cracks and little caves, and making your own discoveries - good fun. Click on a thumbnail to load the full image. |
View of a Dragoon Mountain |
Blouder offer blessed shade |
House-size boulder |
Balanced rock |
Shadow loving desert tree |
Grinding Hole |
Pictorgraph Snake? |
Pictorgraph Mountains? Sun? What? |
Pictorgraph Warriors? |
Return to Photo Albums |