Fort Bowie, Arizona
Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894
by Douglas C. McChristian

University of Oklahoma Press, $19.95
Paperback | 368 pages | 0806137819 | March 2006

Fort Bowie, in present-day Arizona, was established in 1862 at the site of the famous Battle of Apache Pass, where U.S. troops clashed with Apache chief Cochise and his warriors. The fort’s dual purpose was to guard the invaluable water supply at Apache Spring and to control Indians in the developing southwestern region. Douglas C. McChristian’s Fort Bowie, Arizona, spans nearly four decades to provide a fascinating account of the many complex events surrounding the small combat post.

In a sweeping narrative, McChristian presents Fort Bowie in fresh contexts of national expansion and regional development, weaving in threads of early exploration, transcontinental railroad surveys, the overland mail, mining, ranching, and the conflict with the Apaches.

Douglas C. McChristian is a retired research historian for the National Park Service in the Santa Fe regional office and a former National Park Service field historian at Fort Davis and Fort Laramie national historic sites and at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He resides in Tucson, Arizona.