Bear Spring House, Guardhouse, and Spring | |
 Bear Spring house, ca. 1915 | |
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| Location | Bowie, Arizona |
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| Coordinates | 32°08′22″N109°25′34″W / 32.13944°N 109.42611°W Coordinates: 32°08′22″N109°25′34″W / 32.13944°N 109.42611°W |
| NRHP reference No. | 83002985 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | March 18, 1983 |
The Bear Spring House, Guardhouse, and Spring is a late 19th century ranch situated in the Chiricahua Mountains in Cochise County, Arizona
Apache Pass is a pass in the Chiricahua Mountains. During the mid and late 1800s, it became a point of contention between European settlers and the Chiricahua Apache, as it was at a crossroad in the region, as well as being the site of a freshwater spring. In 1857, the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line established a station in the pass. In 1862, the Battle of Apache Pass took place, after which Fort Bowie was established on July 28, 1862. The spring in the pass supplied all the water for the fort initially, but by 1874, more water was needed, and nearby Bear Spring was selected. A stone reservoir was created to store water, which was pumped into water wagons and trucked to the fort. In 1874 an adobe guardhouse was constructed. [2]
In 1884–85, a 5,000 foot pipeline was laid between the reservoir and the fort, using two-inch pump and a hydraulic ram. The two-inch line was replaced with a four-inch line in 1889. In 1894 Fort Bowie was abandoned. That year, James Dickson began construction on the farm house, on land which included the guardhouse, the reservoir, and another small defensive bunker. The house was two-story, with four dormer windows. The windows were salvaged from the home of the fort's commander, Colonel E. B. Beaumont, and many of the other building materials were also scrounged from the fort. In 1918 L. A. Knape purchased the property from Dickson, he added large tracts of the surrounding land, turning it into a cattle ranch, which was sold in 1934. Since then it has seen several different owners. [2]
The ranch is located in the remote high-desert among the northern foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. The site consists of the ranch house, a guardhouse, a stone-lined reservoir and spring. The guardhouse, spring, reservoir, and the adobe bunker which was incorporated into the ranch house, all date from the period when Fort Bowie was in operation, while the remainder of the farmhouse was built after the fort was abandoned. Portions of the hydraulic ram system also remain. [3]
The original house was built in 1894, and is a plastered, two-story adobe building. As described in the National Park Service's (NPS) nomination form, "The upper story consisting of a clipped gambrel roof sheathed with wood shingles. Three gable dormers project from the front roof slope, and there is a single dormer centered on the west slope. The roof is framed with sawn 2x4 rafters and longitudinally sawn stringers with the bark remaining. Square nails are found throughout. Tin flashing on all ridges and valleys is also intact. The dormers were taken intact from the Commanding Officer's residence at Fort Bowie." The structure is 33'x42' with adobe walls. [4]
The NPS document continues: "The main block intersects with the bunker at the SW corner. The bunker is a small (14'x14') adobe structure built partially below grade. This was one of a series of identical outposts constructed around the fort for defensive purposes. Stone retaining walls serve as a foundation for the upper adobe walls. The walls are surmounted by a timber-framed plank roof overlain by a six-inch dirt layer. Small vertical window openings resembling rifle ports are cut into the north and south walls. Later construction of the main residence incorporated this bunker as an ell. The doorway of the bunker presently opens onto the south veranda of the house. The bunker's parapet walls were removed to accommodate a frame hip roof which became integral with the veranda roof. The interior displays a simple floor plan with the main entry being through paired French doors beneath the west veranda. At the east end of the main living space is a fireplace bordered by colored Mexican ceramic tiles installed in 1928. Two-inch, tongue-and-groove oak boards imported from a Louisiana lumber mill were used for flooring on the first floor. Six-inch pine boards on exposed joists serve as the ceiling and attic floor." [4]
The guardhouse sits on a stone foundation, with adobe and stone walls. It has a gable roof with wood shingles. Most of the building is below grade, with only the eastern wall above grade, as it faces the spring. [5] Bear Spring is still an active spring, from an underground aquifer source. The stone-lined reservoir measures 20 feet by 20 feet, and is the original structure constructed in 1874 by the army stationed at the nearby fort. However, of the original 5000 foot pipeline still in existence is a 40-foot length of pipe running from the reservoir to just beyond the guardhouse. [6] [7]
The Chiricahua Mountains massif is a large mountain range in southeastern Arizona which is part of the Basin and Range province of the west and southwestern United States and northwest Mexico; the range is part of the Coronado National Forest. The highest point, Chiricahua Peak, rises 9,759 feet (2,975 m) above sea level, approximately 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above the surrounding valleys. The range takes its name from the Chiricahua Apaches native to the region.
The Battle of Apache Pass was fought in 1862 at Apache Pass, Arizona, in the United States, between Apache warriors and the Union volunteers of the California Column as it marched from California to capture Confederate Arizona and to reinforce New Mexico's Union army. It was one of the largest battles between the Americans and the Chiricahua during the Apache Wars.
Apache Pass, also known by its earlier Spanish name Puerto del Dado, is a historic mountain pass in the U.S. state of Arizona between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains at an elevation of 5,110 feet (1,560 m). It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-southeast of Willcox, Arizona, in Cochise County.
Fort Bowie was a 19th-century outpost of the United States Army located in southeastern Arizona near the present day town of Willcox, Arizona. The remaining buildings and site are now protected as Fort Bowie National Historic Site.
Rancho Petaluma Adobe is a historic ranch house in Sonoma County, California. It was built from adobe bricks in 1836 by order of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. It was the largest privately owned adobe structure built in California and is the largest example of the Monterey Colonial style of architecture in the United States. A section of the former ranch has been preserved by the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park and it is both a California Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. The Rancho Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park is located on Adobe Road on the east side of the present-day town of Petaluma, California.
The Bascom Massacre was a confrontation between Apache Indians and the United States Army under Lt. George Nicholas Bascom in the Arizona Territory in early 1861. It has been considered to have directly precipitated the decades-long Apache Wars between the United States and several tribes in the southwestern United States. War was coming with the Chiricahua Apache. The affair led to an open break and open hostilities, but Cochise had not previously been peaceful, he had been prudent and avoided raiding Americans. He had, however, stolen livestock from the Overland Mail, from Fort Buchanan and had twice been forced to return stolen stock by Capt. Richard S. Ewell, who swore that if he had to deal with Cochise again, he would strike a blow.
The Sierra Bonita Ranch, founded in 1872 by Henry C. Hooker, is one of the oldest cattle ranches in the United States and the ranch buildings have been designated a National Historic Landmark. It was the first permanent American cattle ranch in Arizona. Hooker bought neighboring ranches until his operation became the largest ranch in Arizona, totaling 800 square miles (2,100 km2), or about 30 by 27 miles. It is located in Sulphur Springs Valley about 27 miles (43 km) north of present-day Willcox, Arizona. The modern ranch is much smaller but is still operational and owned by Jesse Hooker Davis, the sixth generation to live and work on the ranch.
Bonelli House is at the corner of Fifth and Spring Streets in Kingman, Arizona. The house was built in 1915. It was evaluated for National Register listing as part of a 1985 study of 63 historic resources in Kingman that led to this and many others being listed.
The Faraway Ranch Historic District is part of the Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona, and preserves an area associated with the final conflicts with the local Apache, one of the last frontier settlements, and in particular, its association with the people who promoted the establishment of the Chiricahua National Monument. Faraway Ranch is located in Bonita Canyon, which lies at an approximate altitude of 5160 feet and opens in a southwesterly direction into the Sulphur Springs Valley.
Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón was a presidio located within Tucson, Arizona, United States. The original fortress was built by Spanish soldiers during the 18th century and was the founding structure of what became the city of Tucson. After the American arrival in 1846, the original walls were dismantled, with the last section torn down in 1918. A reconstruction of the northeast corner of the fort was completed in 2007 following an archaeological excavation that located the fort's northeast tower.
Chato was a Chiricahua Apache subchief who carried out several raids on settlers in Arizona in the 1870s. His Apache name was Bidayajislnl or Pedes-klinje. He was a protege of Cochise, and he surrendered with Cochise in 1872 going to live on the San Carlos Reservation in southern Arizona, where he became an Apache Scout. Following his service as a scout he was taken prisoner after being coerced to travel to Washington, D.C. Chato was imprisoned in St. Augustine, Florida along with almost 500 other Apache at Fort Marion.
Dragoon Springs is an historic site in what is now Cochise County, Arizona, at an elevation of 4,925 feet (1,501 m). The name comes from a nearby natural spring, Dragoon Spring, to the south in the Dragoon Mountains at 5,148 feet (1,569 m). The name originates from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Dragoons who battled the Chiricahua, including Cochise, during the Apache Wars. The Dragoons established posts around 1856 after the Gadsden Purchase made the area a U.S. territory.
Ja Hu Stafford (1834–1913) was a pioneer of Cochise County, Arizona.
Neil Erickson was a Swedish-born American pioneer in Cochise County, Arizona. He and the members of his family were the founders and operators of Faraway Ranch now in the Faraway Ranch Historic District of the Chiricahua National Monument in the Chiricahua Mountains in southern Arizona.
Bonita Canyon is a box canyon on the western slope of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona, which lies at 5,360 feet (1,630 m) in elevation and opens in a southwesterly direction into the Sulphur Springs Valley.
Orizoba O. Spence, alternatively spelled Orisoba, was a sergeant in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during the Indian Wars.
The Geronimo Surrender Site is situated above Skeleton Canyon in southeastern Arizona, on a small bluff. Overlooking the canyon, the San Bernadino Valley and San Simon Valley can be seen to the east and west. The actual site is marked by a cairn of rocks, which was erected by Lieutenant Henry W. Lawton, on the spot where Geronimo surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles in 1886.
The John H. Norton and Company Store is an historic structure in Willcox, Arizona. Built circa 1880, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain :Kenneth M. and Anne F. Cooper (January 1983). Arizona State Historic Preservation Office staff (ed.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Bear Spring House, Guardhouse, and Spring". pp. 1–2. Retrieved October 10, 2022.