Ed Sweeney's challenge to me was, of course, a light hearted gesture and yet he later told me that he somehow had faith that if anyone could find the site, I would be the one to do it.  Our friendship at that time was just beginning and I confess that it became something of an obsession to be the one to rediscover Cochise's camp.  It would go a long way to convince Ed that I was seriously interested in the subject that has long been so dear to his heart.
 
 

       I first contacted Ed Sweeney in the year 2000 more or less on a whim.  I've been intensely interested in Cochise since early childhood, ever since having been taken to the movie "Broken Arrow" by my parents back in 1951. The interest lay dormant throughout my childhood and blossomed again when in high school.  It was then that I discovered the dearth of good information about this most interesting historical figure.

        When Edwin R. Sweeney's Cochise biography came into my life, what had been a casual interest became a near obsession.  I read and re-read the book, which is the only way one can really absorb the vast amount of crucial information contained therein.  Ed Sweeney's reputation as an important historical researcher was assured with this work and within a year or so it had become solidly established.  He is today considered the pre-eminent authority on the subject of not only Cochise, but also of the history of the Chiricahua Apaches.  To sit and talk to this man is almost like being propelled back in time.  Facts and figures spring from his keen mind with an ease that is truly astonishing.  He is so involved in the subject that only one other subject manages to light him up to a like degree:  the Boston Red Sox!

        My first letter to Edwin R. Sweeney was prompted out of desperation and frustration.  For years I had been watching TV schedules and video lists for a chance to see the sequel (really a "prequel") to "Broken Arrow" . . . a rather obscure movie entitled "Battle at Apache Pass".  In it, Jeff Chandler reprises his role as Cochise (he did so a third time in the movie, "Taza, Son of Cochise", though his screen time was but a few short minutes.).  "Battle at Apache Pass" has never been released in video, and after many years of watching for it on TV, I had still never seen it.  I wrote to Ed in care of his publisher hoping he could tell me where I met find an "unofficial" copy of the movie, never really expecting a reply.  I was delighted when he not only replied, but informed me that he had taped the movie years before and would send me a dubbed copy if he could find it.  Weeks later, out of the blue, I received an excited email that he had indeed located it. 

       At this time I was living in Salt Lake City, Utah -- but was planning to move somewhere south in the very near future.  I had promised myself long before that I would someday semi-retire and escape the cold, snowy winters of Utah, and that time had come.  It was Ed's enthusiastic reply, and subsequent correspondence which included many reprints of articles and pamphlets, that encouraged me to focus on one specific area of the country to which to move:  Cochise County, Arizona, in order to see and experience for myself the Land of Cochise.