Fort Verde State Historic Park

Fort Verde District
Commanding officer's house and Dennis Lockhart portraying General Crook
Fort Verde State Historic Park is located in Arizona
Fort Verde State Historic Park
Fort Verde State Historic Park is located in the United States
Fort Verde State Historic Park
LocationBounded by Hance, Coppinger, and Woods Streets, Camp Verde, Arizona
Coordinates34°33′55″N 111°51′09″W / 34.56528°N 111.85250°W / 34.56528; -111.85250
Area12 acres (4.9 ha)
Built1872
Visitation10,320 (2022)[1]
NRHP reference No.71000120
Added to NRHPOctober 7, 1971[2]

Fort Verde State Historic Park in the town of Camp Verde, Arizona is a small park that attempts to preserve parts of the Apache Wars-era fort as it appeared in the 1880s. The park was established in 1970 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places a year later.

Fort Verde was established at its current location in 1871. It is significant as "the best preserved and least altered of any military post associated with General Crook’s 1872-73 campaign against the northern Apaches."[3]

Settlers in the mid-19th century near the Verde River grew corn and other crops with the prospect of getting good prices from nearby Prescott, which was the territorial capital, and from nearby miners. The rapid increase in population for the mining economy disrupted the hunting and gathering environments of the local Native American tribes, the Dilzhe'e Apache and Yavapai. In turn, they raided the farmers' crops for food.

The farmers requested military protection from the United States Army and, in 1865, although Arizona was still only a territory, the infantry arrived. They set up several posts over the next few years:

  • 1865, a small camp five miles (8 km) south of what is today Camp Verde.
  • 1866–1871, Camp Lincoln, a mile north of today's Fort Verde.
  • 1871–1873, Camp Verde, built gradually from 1871 to 1873.
  • 1879, Camp Verde, renamed Fort Verde
  • 1891, Fort Verde abandoned
  • 1899, sold at public auction

After approximately 1,500 local natives were placed on a reservation by 1872, the army's role changed from protecting the settlers to ensuring that the Indians stayed on the reservation. The last major military engagement with uprising natives took place in 1882 at the Battle of Big Dry Wash.

The fort was never enclosed by walls or stockades, and it never saw fighting on site. At its height, it consisted of twenty-two buildings, only four of which survived until 1956, when local citizens created a small museum in the administration building. They later donated the buildings and ten acres (40,000 m2) as a State Park.

Some of the buildings were built with pice, which is large adobe slabs cast within wooden frames, rather than assembled from the more familiar individual adobe bricks.

  1. ^ "Monthly State Parks Visitation Report" (PDF). Arizona Office of Tourism. December 2022.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  3. ^ Wallace Vegors (May 20, 1970). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Fort Verde (1879-1890) District / Camp Verde (1868-1879) / Camp Lincoln (1865-1868). National Archives. Retrieved June 12, 2021. (Downloading may be slow.)