This thorough history covers all of the salient events of the Indian Wars. From LT John G. Parke and his railroad survey that pointed out Puerto del Dado / Apache Pass (later used by the Butterfield Stage / Overland Mail routes), to the Apache tribe's relationship to that station, to the California Column and the tragic Bascom Affair that would usher in the era of warfare called the Indian Wars.

Includes maps of: Arizona - Physiographic Zones; Arizona - Principal Prehistoric Indians; Prehistoric Irrigation Canals in the Salt River Valley; Routes of the Early Spanish Explorers; Missions of Kino's Pimeria Alta; Spanish Exploration Routes in Arizona; Confirmed Spanish and Mexican Land Grants; Confirmed Baca Floats and Two Fraudulent Claims; Buenavista Grant; San Rafael de la Zanja Grant; Baca Float No. 3 and Other Grants in the Santa Cruz Valley; Apache Plunder Trails; Boundary Controversy - Gadsden Purchase; Early American Routes; Butterfield Route - Territory of New Mexico; Counties Created by Territorial Legislature of New Mexico in 1852; Southern Arizona in 1860; Territories of New Mexico and Arizona during the Civil War. Includes information for the Battle of Picacho Peak.

PART ONE: GEOGRAPHY AND PREHISTORY -- Geographical background -- Prehistoric animals and early man -- Prehistoric Indian cultures -- PART TWO: THE SPANISH IN ARIZONA -- Spanish explorers in the 1500s -- Missionaries in the 1600s -- Missionaires and soldiers in the 1700s: relations with the Pimas, Yumas, Apaches, and Hopis -- PART THREE: MEXICAN-ANGLO TRANSITION -- Spanish and Mexican land grants -- The mountain men -- The Mexican War -- PART FOUR: THE 1850s AND THE CIVIL WAR -- Boundary problems and the Gadsen Purchase -- Explorations and transporation in the New Domain -- Government and politics -- Towns and forts -- The Civil War era.