Fort Naco

Last updated
Camp Naco Historic District
Fort Naco.jpg
A building of Fort Naco in 2008
USA Arizona location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationJunction of Willson Rd. & Newell St., Naco, Arizona
Coordinates 31°20′24″N109°57′10″W / 31.34000°N 109.95278°W / 31.34000; -109.95278
NRHP reference No. 12000853 [1]
Added to NRHPOctober 17, 2012
Fort Naco
Naco, Arizona
Type Army post
Site information
Controlled byFlag of Arizona.svg  Arizona
Conditionabandoned
Site history
Built1917
Built byFlag of the United States (1912-1959).svg  United States
Materials adobe, brick, wood
Battles/wars Mexican Revolution
Garrison information
Occupants Flag of the United States.svg United States Army
Flag of Arizona.svg Arizona National Guard


Fort Naco, Camp Naco, or Fort Newell began as a camp in the Southwest United States, on the outskirts of Naco, Arizona as part of the Mexican Border Project. Over time adobe and wooden buildings were constructed to house the garrison along with other permanent structures.

Contents

History

Fort Naco, others call it Camp Naco or Fort Newell, was one of the last forts built by the United States in continental territory and is the only remaining border fort out of several that were constructed during the Mexican Revolution. Soldiers were first stationed in Naco in November 1910 and remained in the community due to continued fighting across the border, including the Battle of Naco in 1913 and the later Siege of Naco in 1915 in Sonora. Subsequent to Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916, Naco was a staging area for American troops protecting the border. Camp Naco was constructed in 1917 as part of the Mexican Border Project. It was the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Arizona National Guard.

Ruins of Fort Naco. Fort Newell.jpg
Ruins of Fort Naco.

Camp Naco was home to members of the U.S. Army 9th and 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry. Fort Huachuca assigned African-American Buffalo Soldier units to its Naco Cantonment or outpost from 1911 to 1924. Their duties focused on patrolling the border and protecting U.S. citizens who came to Naco to watch Mexican Revolution battles raging across the line.

From 1935 to 1937, the Civilian Conservation Corps was based there.

In 1990, the youth services organization VisionQuest bought the property with a plan to open a juvenile treatment facility there. They were not able to do that, and in 2006, an arson fire and the discovery of hazardous asbestos on the site prompted the group to abandon the project. George Nerhan, then mayor of Huachuca City, agreed to take the site over rather than having it be destroyed.

As of 2010, the barracks of the fort still stands and has partially been restored. [2]

In 2012, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. [1]

In 2018, the site was acquired by the city of Bisbee.

More recently[ when? ], grant funds have been used to clean up and preserve the site. The nonprofit group Friends of Camp Naco continues to look for a nonprofit organization or individual to take over the camp as a permanent project and adapt it for a future use. On May 4, 2022, Camp Naco was added to the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. [3]

In October of 2022, the State of Arizona granted $4.6 million to the City of Bisbee for the purpose of reclaiming and restoring Camp Naco. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cochise County, Arizona</span> County in Arizona, United States

Cochise County is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naco, Arizona</span> CDP in Cochise County, Arizona

Naco is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Naco had a recorded population of 1,046 at the 2010 United States Census. Located directly across the United States–Mexico border from its sister city of Naco, Sonora, Naco is best known for an accidental 1929 air raid and is the first and only municipality in the Continental United States to have been aerially bombed by foreigners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Vista, Arizona</span> City in Arizona, United States

Sierra Vista is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the population of the city is 45,308, and is the 27th most populous city in Arizona. The city is part of the Sierra Vista-Douglas Metropolitan Area, with a 2010 population of 131,346. Fort Huachuca, a U.S. Army post, has been incorporated and is located in the northwest part of the city. Sierra Vista is bordered by the cities of Huachuca City and Whetstone to the north and Sierra Vista Southeast to the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffalo Soldier</span> African-American regiments of the US Army created in 1866; the first black regulars in peacetime

Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier that primarily comprised African Americans. On September 21, 1866, the 10th Cavalry Regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" was purportedly given to the regiment by Native Americans who fought against them in the American Indian Wars, and the term eventually became synonymous with all of the African American U.S. Army regiments established in 1866, including the 9th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Regiment and 38th Infantry Regiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Huachuca</span> US Army base on Cochise County, Arizona

Fort Huachuca is a United States Army installation, established on 3 March 1877 as Camp Huachuca. The garrison is now under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is in Cochise County in southeast Arizona, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of the border with Mexico and at the northern end of the Huachuca Mountains, adjacent to the town of Sierra Vista. From 1913 to 1933, the fort was the base for the "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. During the build-up of World War II, the fort had quarters for more than 25,000 male soldiers and hundreds of WACs. In the 2010 census, Fort Huachuca had a population of about 6,500 active duty soldiers, 7,400 military family members, and 5,000 civilian employees. Fort Huachuca has over 18,000 people on post during weekday work hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Ballpark</span> Baseball stadium in Bisbee, Arizona

Warren Ballpark is a baseball stadium located in Bisbee, Arizona. The ballpark was recently home to the Tucson Saguaros of the Pecos League and the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings of the independent Arizona–Mexico League The Stadium was built in 1909 by the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company as a recreation for the miners and their families, pre-dating the construction of Chicago's Wrigley Field by nearly five years. It is currently the home of Bisbee Killer Termites and Bisbee High School Pumas baseball and football teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America's Most Endangered Places</span> List by the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation

America's 11 Most Endangered Places or America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is a list of places in the United States that the National Trust for Historic Preservation considers the most endangered. It aims to inspire Americans to preserve examples of architectural and cultural heritage that could be "relegated to the dustbins of history" without intervention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Yuma</span> US Army fort (1851–1853) in California near Yuma, Arizona

Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of the Interior. The Fort Yuma Indian School and the Saint Thomas Yuma Indian Mission now occupy the site. It is one of the "associated sites" listed as Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. In addition, it is registered as California Historical Landmark #806.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cananea strike</span> 1906 miners strike in Cananea, Mexico

The Cananea strike, also known as the Cananea riot, or the Cananea massacre, took place in the Mexican mining town of Cananea, Sonora, in June 1906. Although the workers were forced to return to their positions with no demand being met, the action was a key event in the general unrest that emerged during the final years of the regime of President Porfirio Díaz and that prefigured the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In the incident, twenty-three people died, on both sides, twenty-two were injured, and more than fifty were arrested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naco, Sonora</span> Town in Sonora, Mexico

Naco is a Mexican town in Naco Municipality located in the northeast part of Sonora state on the border with the United States. It is directly across from the unincorporated town of Naco, Arizona. The name Naco comes from the Opata language and means prickly pear cactus. The town saw fighting during the Mexican Revolution and during a rebellion led by General José Gonzalo Escobar in 1929. During the second conflict, an American pilot by the name of Patrick Murphy volunteered to bomb federal forces for the rebels, but mistakenly bombed Naco, Arizona, instead. Today, the town has been strongly affected by the smuggling of drugs, people and weapons across the international border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huachuca Mountains</span> Landform in Cochise County, Arizona

The Huachuca Mountains are part of the Sierra Vista Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona, approximately 70 miles (110 km) south-southeast of Tucson and southwest of the city of Sierra Vista. Included in this area is the highest peak in the Huachucas, Miller Peak, and the region of the Huachucas known as Canelo Hills in eastern Santa Cruz County. The mountains range in elevation from 3,934 feet (1,199 m) at the base to 9,466 feet (2,885 m) at the top of Miller Peak. The second highest peak in this range is Carr Peak, elevation 9,200 feet (2,804 m). The Huachuca Mountain area is managed principally by the United States Forest Service (41%) and the U.S. Army (20%), with much of the rest being private land (32%). Sierra Vista is the main population center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ambos Nogales</span> 1918 battle of the Mexican Border War

The Battle of Ambos Nogales, or as it is known in Mexico La batalla del 27 de agosto, was an engagement fought on 27 August 1918 between Mexican military and civilian militia forces and elements of U.S. Army troops of the 35th Infantry Regiment, who were reinforced by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and commanded by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Herman. The American soldiers and militia forces were stationed in Nogales, Arizona, and the Mexican soldiers and armed Mexican militia were in Nogales, Sonora. This battle was notable for being a significant confrontation between U.S. and Mexican forces during the Border War, which took place in the context of the Mexican Revolution and the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Naco</span>

The Battle of Naco, or the First Battle of Naco due to a later siege was a battle of the Mexican Revolution between Constitutionalist forces and Mexican government forces. Rebel forces under General Alvaro Obregon defeated the Mexican Army garrison and captured Naco, Sonora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Border War (1910–1919)</span> Mexican-American military engagements

The Mexican Border War, or the Border Campaign, refers to the military engagements which took place in the Mexican–American border region of North America during the Mexican Revolution. The period of the war encompassed World War I, and the German Empire attempted to have Mexico attack the United States, as well as engaging in hostilities against American forces there itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisbee Riot</span> Civil disturbance in Bisbee, Arizona in 1919

The Bisbee Riot, or the Battle of Brewery Gulch, occurred on July 3, 1919, between the black Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry and members of local police forces in Bisbee, Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bombing of Naco</span> 1929 international incident during Escobar Rebellion

The Bombing of Naco was an international incident which occurred in the border town of Naco, Arizona, during the 1929 Escobar Rebellion. While rebel forces were battling Mexican 'Federales' for control of the neighboring town of Naco, Sonora, the Irish-American mercenary and pilot Patrick Murphy was hired to bombard the government forces with improvised explosives dropped from his biplane. During the ensuing fighting, Murphy mistakenly dropped bombs on the American side of the international border on three occasions, causing significant damage to both private and government-owned property, as well as slight injuries to several American spectators watching the battle from across the border. The bombing, although unintentional, is noted for being the first aerial bombardment of the continental United States by a foreign power in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Harry J. Jones</span> US Army post in Arizona (1910–1933)

Camp Harry J. Jones was an encampment of the United States Army. Located near Douglas, Arizona, it was active during the Pancho Villa Expedition and World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic properties in Fort Huachuca National Historic District</span>

This is a list with images of some of the historic structures and places in the Fort Huachuca National Historic District in Arizona. The district, also known as Old Fort Huachuca, is located within Fort Huachuca an active United States Army installation under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. The fort sits at the base of the Huachuca Mountains four miles west of the town of Sierra Vista, on AZ 90 in Cochise County, Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain View Officers' Club</span> Historic military officers club for African American soldiers in Arizona, United States

Mountain View Officers' Club, built in 1942, is a historic structure that originally served as an officers' club for African American soldiers stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. It was long vacant, but was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 and there have been plans for its renovation.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Camp Naco preservation Archived January 15, 2008, at the Library of Congress Web Archives
  3. Kelty, Bennito L. (May 4, 2022). "Southern Az's Camp Naco named one of America's most endangered historic places of 2022". Tucson Sentinel . Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  4. shar.porier@myheraldreview.com, Shar Porier (2 November 2022). "Historic Camp Naco receives $4.6 million for renovation". Herald/Review Media. Retrieved 2022-11-02.