Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains, east of El Paso, Texas. The mountain range includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet (2,667 m), and El Capitan used as a landmark by travelers on the route later followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line. The ruins of a stagecoach station stand near the Pine Springs visitor center. The restored Frijole Ranch contains a small museum of local history and is the trailhead for Smith Spring. The park covers 86,367 acres in the same mountain range as Carlsbad Caverns National Park, about 25 miles (40 km) to the north in New Mexico. The Guadalupe Peak Trail winds through pinyon pine and Douglas-fir forests as it ascends over 3,000 feet (910 m) to the summit of Guadalupe Peak, with views of El Capitan and the Chihuahuan Desert.
The Guadalupe Mountains are a mountain range located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The range includes the highest summit in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, 8,751 ft (2,667 m), and the "signature peak" of West Texas, El Capitan, both of which are located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The Guadalupe Mountains are bordered by the Pecos River valley and Llano Estacado to the east and north, Delaware Mountains to the south, and Sacramento Mountains to the west. One of the clearest exposures of a prehistoric reef is preserved in the mountain range's bedrock geology. Bedrock contains fossils of reef-dwelling organisms from the Permian period, and the geology is widely studied, mostly by stratigraphers, paleontologists, and Paleoecologists.
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.
Texas Canyon is a valley in Cochise County, Arizona, about 20 miles east of Benson on Interstate 10. Lying between the Little Dragoon Mountains to the north and the Dragoon Mountains to the south and known for its giant granite boulders, the canyon attracts rockhounds and photographers.
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.
Steins is a ghost town in Stein's Pass of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. It was originally called Stein's Pass after the nearby pass through the Peloncillo Mountains. The pass was named after United States Army Major Enoch Steen, who camped nearby in 1856, as he explored the recently acquired Gadsden Purchase.
The San Simon Valley is a broad valley east of the Chiricahua Mountains, in the northeast corner of Cochise County, Arizona and southeastern Graham County, with a small portion near Antelope Pass in Hidalgo County of southwestern New Mexico. The valley trends generally north-south but in its northern portion trends northwest-southeast. The San Simon Valley separates the Chiricahua Mountains, Dos Cabezas Mountains and Pinaleno Mountains on the west from the Peloncillo Mountains and the smaller Whitlock Mountains to the east.
San Simon is a census-designated place in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 165. San Simon is located along Interstate 10, 40 miles (64 km) east of Willcox. The community has a ZIP code of 85632.
Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage Trail, was a major land route for immigration into California from the eastern United States that followed the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico during the California Gold Rush. Unlike the more northern routes, pioneer wagons could travel year round, mountain passes not being blocked by snows, however it had the disadvantage of summer heat and lack of water in the desert regions through which it passed in New Mexico Territory and the Colorado Desert of California. Subsequently, it was a route of travel and commerce between the eastern United States and California. Many herds of cattle and sheep were driven along this route and it was followed by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857-1858 and then the Butterfield Overland Mail from 1858 - 1861.
The Butterfield Overland Mail was a transport and mail delivery system that employed stagecoaches that traveled on a specific route between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California and which passed through the New Mexico Territory. It was created by the United States Congress on March 3, 1857, and operated until March 30, 1861. The route that was operated extended from where the ferry across the Colorado River to Fort Yuma Station, California was located, through New Mexico Territory via, Tucson to the Rio Grande and Mesilla, New Mexico then south to Franklin, Texas, midpoint on the route. The New Mexico Territory mail route was divided into two divisions each under a superintendent. Tucson was the headquarters of the 3rd Division of the Butterfield Overland Mail Company. Franklin Station in the town of Franklin,, was headquarters of the 4th Division.
The Skirmish in Doubtful Canyon took place on May 3, 1864 between a company of infantry from the California Column and a band of about 100 Apaches. The fighting occurred near Steins Peak in Doubtful Canyon, Arizona Territory. Doubtful Canyon, along with Apache Pass in Arizona and Cookes Canyon, in New Mexico was a favored location for an ambush by the Apache along the Butterfield Overland Mail route.
Steins Peak is a 5,864-foot-high (1,787 m) mountain in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. It lies south of the upper reach of Doubtful Canyon. It is located 0.3 miles (0.5 km) east of the Arizona, New Mexico State line and 8 miles (13 km) north northwest of Steins, New Mexico.
West Doubtful Canyon was the name of one of two canyons in the Peloncillo Mountains, once considered in the 19th century as one canyon "Doubtful Canyon" that served as the pass through those mountains. Today the canyon bearing the name Doubtful Canyon, is mostly in Cochise County, Arizona, near the New Mexico border. It descends to the east into the Animas Valley past Steins Peak it is in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The western canyon is now called West Doubtful Canyon and it descends into the San Simon Valley, in Cochise County, Arizona.
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.
Stein's Peak Station, was one of the original stage stations of the Butterfield Overland Mail. Its ruins are still to be seen in Doubtful Canyon, at an elevation of 4652 feet, northeast of Stein's Peak in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Stein's Peak Station, was 35 miles (56 km) east of Apache Pass Station and 42 miles (68 km) west of Soldier's Farewell Stage Station. Later stations were located midway between these stations to provide water and changes of horse teams in the hot, arid climate. These were San Simon Station to the west and Mexican Springs Station to the east of Lordsburg, New Mexico.
San Simon River is an ephemeral river, or stream running through the San Simon Valley in Graham and Cochise County, Arizona and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Its mouth is at its confluence with the Gila River at Safford in Graham County. Its source is located at 31°51′21″N109°01′27″W.
Stein's Pass, is a gap or mountain pass through the Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The pass was named after United States Army Major Enoch Steen, who camped nearby in 1856, as he explored the recently acquired Gadsden Purchase. The pass is in the form of a canyon cut through the mountains through which Steins Creek flows to the west just west of the apex of the pass to the canyon mouth at 32°13′19″N109°01′48″W.
Massacre Peak, a summit at an elevation of 5,667 feet (1,727 m) in the Cookes Range in Luna County, New Mexico.
Steins Creek, a Stream or Arroyo tributary to the San Simon River, that arises within an east-west running canyon, in Hidalgo County, New Mexico with its mouth in Cochise County, Arizona. This canyon provides the gap, called Stein's Pass, through which the railroad and Interstate 10 pass through the Peloncillo Mountains. Steins Creek has its source at 32°14′10″N108°59′43″W, and its mouth in the San Simon Valley, where its waters usually sink into the soil, short of any confluence with the San Simon River.
Cienega of San Simon, was a cienega, an area of springs 13 miles up the San Simon River from San Simon Station, in Cochise County, Arizona.
