Land of Cochise

. . . . .

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COCHISE

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COCHISE'S CAMP
REDISCOVERED

PART SEVEN - "The House of Cochise"

There are numerous clues in the writings of both General Howard and Lt. Sladen as to the exact whereabouts of Cochise's personal domicile.

"We stopped by a large flat stone under the shade of a tree. Cochise said, "Shi-cowah" -- "My home."
November 1872, from General Otis O. Howard's article in the Washington Daily Morning Chronicle

"Riding up to a large flat boulder, we dismounted and the old Chief, pointing to the shade of a tree behind the stone, said "thi-cow-ah", my home.
From Joseph Alton Sladen's journal, 1872, as reproduced in Edwin R. Sweeney's "Making Peace With Cochise" (1997, University of Oklahoma Press)

The flat rock referred to by both writers corresponds perfectly to a 4 foot high, 5 foot wide by 6 foot long flat rock directly "behind" Cochise's Rock. This is toward the rear of the nook, or alcove, formed by two spurs jutting out from the slopes of the mountain (Cochise's Rock is part of the southern-most spur). This rock is remarkably flat and level and sits next to a towering pinnacle of a rock with one perpendicular side.

"A large flat boulder some four or five feet in height and as broad across the top, occupied a prominent position in the camp, and screened a corner where Cochise made his domicile . . ."
Joseph Alton Sladen, 1896, from a letter written to Alice Rollins Crane

It can be said with certainty that the spot was very near the "big rock" (Cochise's Rock, as I choose to call it), and most likely directly behind it, as suggested by this statement:

"Soon after we got back to camp from our visit to the top of the mountain, Cochise's wife called me to their domicile behind the big rock . . .") (Sladen, letter to Crane, 1896)

The lodging itself was rudimentary housing at best, here described in detail by General Howard in an article he wrote mere weeks following the conclusion of the historic journey:

"It consisted of sandstone [actually granite] rock, twenty feet high, having one perpendicular side, and near it a large-sized scrub oak. One or two boughs had been cut and laid up against the tree to thicken the shade - being the only artificial work about his house. A place for sleeping, a little longer than a man, was hollowed out in the ground."

A few yards "behind" this flat rock is a well protected alcove, closed in for the most part, but open to an escape route up and over a field of small boulders. The escape route leads up the slopes of the mountain and from there it would be an easy scramble up and over the top into any one of several basins -- locations, perhaps, of continually manned outposts in the mountain fastness that collectively was called Cochise's Stronghold. Bordering this narrow and protected area is a towering boulder with one perpendicular side - reaching at least 20 feet in height. This is as good a candidate as any for Cochise's actual "house". A more general conclusion, and one that is perhaps closer to the truth, is that the entirety of the protected area behind the "big rock" was in fact the location of the domicile that Cochise used for shelter, and which he shared (at least in daytime) with his primary wife Dos-Teh-Seh.

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