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PREHISPANIC
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| 1BC - 1,400 |
Hohokam Indians dwell across southcentral Arizona. Papago tribes (Pima and Tohono O'odham) are likely their descendents.
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| 100 - 1,200 |
Hohokam Indians inhabit marshes (Las Lagunas) near Nogales.
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| 500 - 1,450 |
Hohokam Indians inhabit a site, today known as the Romero Ruin, in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson. Hohokam culture shares many traditions with southern Mexican Indians.
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| 200 - 1,450 |
Trincheras Indians inhabit the Altar Valley of northern Sonora, Mexico, which is part of the lands the Spanish called Pimeria Alta. The Trincheras farm terraces. They likely integrated into the Hohokam, and into the modern Papago tribes.
Mogollon culture thrives east of the Hohokam, inhabiting lands from southeast Arizona, through southcentral New Mexico and northern Mexico, including the Mimbres River Valley and Gila Mountains.
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NEW SPAIN
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| 1539 |
Estevan, a Moor who survived a treacherous crossing of Texas and Mexico with Cabeza de Vaca, and Fray Marcos de Niza search for seven legendary golden cities, the Seven Cities of Cibola. They probably crossed the modern Arizona boundary along the Rio San Pedro (near Lochiel east of Nogales?). Estevan is killed at Zuni.
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| 1540 |
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, with a large force of Spaniards and Indian mercenaries, invades along the Rio San Pedro in conquest of the Seven Cities of Cibola.
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PIMERIA ALTA
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| 1687 |
Spanish begin settlement in Pimeria Alta, including Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino (born in Segno, Italy) makes his base at Nuestra Senora de los Dolores.
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| 1691 |
Father Kino establishes missions along the Rio Santa Cruz at Tumacacori and Guevavi, as well as San Xavier del Bac near Tucson.
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| 1711 |
Father Eusebio Francisco Kino dies at Magdalena, Sonora.
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| 1751 |
During the Pima Revolt, Indians kill two priests and more than 100 settlers. Presidio of San Ignacio is established at Tubac to protect against uprisings.
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| 1767 |
By order of King Carlos III of Spain, Jesuits are expelled from New Spain. Franciscans administer the missions.
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| 1775 |
Captain Juan Bautista de Anza leaves Tubac to explore a route across the desert to the Pacific Ocean where he establishes a presidio at San Francisco.
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| 1776 |
Presidio at Tubac relocated to Tucson. Presidio de Santa Cruz de Terrenate is established on the Rio San Pedro.
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| 1801 |
Apache Indians attack San Jose de Tumacacori, nearly eliminating the mission's livestock.
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MEXICO
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| 1821 |
Mexico gains independence from Spain.
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| 1821 - 1833 |
Large Mexican ranches are established in southern Arizona.
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| 1828 |
Spanish-born residents are ordered to leave Mexico, leaving Pimeria Alta with few Mexican-born administrators.
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| 1846 |
The War with Mexico begins.
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UNITED STATES TERRITORIAL PERIOD
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| 1846 |
While building a wagon road from Santa Fe to San Diego, the Mormon Battalion is stampeded near Charleston (about nine miles southwest of modern-day Tombstone) by Longhorn cattle left abandoned by Mexican ranchers.
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| 1848 |
The War with Mexico ends, making land north of the Gila River part of the U.S. New Mexico territory. Parts of the boundary remain in dispute until the Gadsden Purchase.
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| 1849 |
Herds of Texas Longhorn cattle are driven across Arizona for sale to '49ers in California Gold Rush boomtowns.
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| 1853 |
The Gadsden Purchase, signed on December 30 by James Gadsden, U.S. minister to Mexico, and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. president of Mexico, makes land south of the Gila River part of the United States. With the U.S. interest in building a railroad to the Pacific, the boundary remains in dispute until 1855.
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| 1856 |
Mexican troops leave Tucson.
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| 1858 |
Mail and passengers travel over Apache Pass on a route surveyed by the Butterfield Overland Mail in 1857.
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| 1859 |
Arizona's first newspaper, The Weekly Arizonian, is published in Tubac.
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APACHE CONFLICT (AND EVENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR)
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| 1861 |
U.S. Troops called on to defend New Mexico against Texas Confederates. Apache hostility increases across southern Arizona.
Lieutenant George N. Bascom wrongly accuses Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache chief, of abducting a boy named Felix Ward near Fort Buchanan. The attempted arrest of Cochise near Apache Springs sets off an 11-year war. Cochise previously desired peace with Mexicans and Americans.
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| 1862 |
At the Battle of Apache Pass, Cochise and Magnas Coloradas, with a band of Chiricahua Apache, overwhelm U.S. troops, the California Column, en route to New Mexico.
Brigadier General James H. Carlton orders that a military post, Fort Bowie, be established at Apache Pass to control access to the pass and water at nearby Apache Springs.
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| 1863 |
President Abraham Lincoln establishes Arizona as a separate territory from New Mexico.
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| 1864 |
The census reports 4,575 non-Indians in Arizona.
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| 1865 |
The end of the Civil Wars brings new settlers and military posts to the West. Conflicts between Apaches and Americans increase through 1872.
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| 1872 |
The Chiricahua Apache (Chokonen) reservation is established when U.S. general Oliver O. Howard reaches a peace agreement with Cochise. The reservation includes the Dragoon Mountains (which includes the Cochise Stronghold), the Chiricahua Mountains, the Sulfur Springs Valley and the San Simon Valley. There is peace with few incidents through 1876.
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| 1874 |
Chief Cochise dies. He is buried in the Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains.
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| 1876 |
The Chiricahua reservation is revoked. The U.S. military removes Chiricahua Apaches from their homeland to the San Carlos reservation. Geronimo, Victorio, Gordo, Juh, Nolgee, and others vow to fight.
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SETTLEMENT
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| 1877 |
Camp Huachuca is established on March 3rd in Huachuca Canyon by Captain Samuel Whitside and the 6th Cavalry, combined with Hualapai Indian forces from northern Arizona who have been enlisted to help pursue Apaches.
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| 1878 |
Edward Schieffelin discovers silver close to his base at Camp Huachuca, near present-day Tombstone.
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| 1879 |
Schieffelin's discovery results in the founding of Tombstone.
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| 1880 |
Jacob Isaacson, a Jewish pioneer, established a store at Nogales Pass, and becomes the first postmaster of the town Isaacson. Citizens changed the name to Nogales in 1883.
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| 1881 |
Cochise County is established with Tombstone as the seat. The County Courthouse is built in 1882.
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| 1882 |
With Tombstone's population between 10,000 and 15,000, Camp Huachuca is established as a permanent fort and protects the boomtown through the 1880s.
The town of Tubac is established.
The New Mexico & Arizona Railroad joins the Sonora Railroad Ltd. at Isaacson (Nogales) on October 25.
Chinese labor and business owners are prominent in southern Arizona towns, many coming from Mexico over Nogales Pass to work in the railroad and mining industries. The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for ten years. [It was renewed in 1892; made permanent in 1902; and repealed in 1943.]
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| 1884 |
Excessive production of silver in the United States causes the price to drop. Miners' wages fall from $4 per day to $3. Many Tombstone mines close.
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| 1886 |
Geronimo, who led a band of Apaches off the San Carlos reservation, surrenders to Major General Nelson A. Miles.
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| 1888 |
The Ericksons, Swedish immigrants who served with the U.S. Army, move into Bonita Canyon. Their homestead in the "Wonderland of Rocks" eventually becomes a guesthouse called Faraway Ranch.
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| 1893 |
Drought and overgrazing in southeast Arizona lead to the "Disaster of 1893" and cause severe erosion of topsoil.
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| 1899 |
Santa Cruz county is established, with Nogales as the seat.
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| 1903 |
The railroad reaches Tombstone.
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| 1910 |
The Mexican Revolution begins. The drama of Mexican Revolutionary heroes and U.S. diplomats unfolds along the U.S.-Mexico border, with Venustiano Carranza defeating Francisco "Pancho" Villa's forces at Agua Prieta, opposite Douglas, Arizona in 1916. Carranza's victorious army, under Plutarco Elias Calles, were aided by the U.S., which enrages Villa.
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STATEHOOD
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| 1912 |
Arizona becomes the 48th state.
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| 1916 |
Francisco "Pancho" Villa is blamed for an attack on Columbus, New Mexico, in which 1,500 Villistas raid a U.S. cavalry post, taking 100 horses and mules, and killing 17 people, on March 9. By March 15, President Woodrow Wilson orders John J. Pershing with 12,000 men to hunt Villa in Mexico. Nearly a year later, the mission is a failure.
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| 1917 |
1,200 striking miners are arrested in Bisbee on July 12 and shipped in rail cars to New Mexico.
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| 1924 |
Chiricahua National Monument is established.
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