Cochise County Courthouse, Tombstone, Arizona

It's a mighty fine building, but as the courtyard to the right was where the hangings took place, mmmm, not my favorite place in town!  Pretty sharp lookin' for 1882, eh? It's a State Historic Park and Museum now since the County Seat was moved in 1929 to Bisbee.  (Who ever heard of Bisbee, Arizona??)

Settlers from the United States began showing up in Tombstone about 1848, and they were lookin' for gold - or silver, or any other mineral they could "spend."  The Indians weren't too worried about a bunch of men who spent all of their time burrowing into the ground and from a nation which had just finished fighting a war with their enemies the Mexicans.  (Mexican American War of 1846-1848)

In 1863, Arizona was carved out of the New Mexico Territory and became a Territory unto itself.

Soon enough, names like Cochise and Geronimo and Cochise's son, Natchez, and  Mangas Coloradas became familiar to Americans and the Battle of Apache Pass in 1862 made headlines across the continent.

By 1864, a census showed 4,575 non-Indians were permanent residents of Arizona - not hardly enough to worry the Indians about, except that they were petitioning the U.S. military all the time for protection.

By 1872, relative peace had been accomplished and the Chiricahua Apache Reservation had been established which encompassed the Dragoon and Chiricahua Mountains and the Sulpher Springs and San Simon Valleys.  But twas not to last....

In 1876 that Reservation was closed and the Apaches were moved by the Army to the San Carlos Reservation (commonly referred to as "Hell's Forty Acres") which had also been created in 1872.

Two years later, Ed Schieffelin discovered a silver lode and the boom was on.  Tombstone was founded in 1879 and became the county seat when Cochise County was created in 1881.

(All those dates.  How boring.  However, I'm always curious as to how long it took for this or that:  10 years here, 2 years there, 40 years overall.  It just kinda puts things into context for me.  If I don't give you the dates, and you're curious like me, how will you know??)