Chiricahua National Monument is a unit of the National Park System located in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The monument was established on April 18, 1924, to protect its extensive hoodoos and balancing rocks. The Faraway Ranch, which was owned at one time by Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson, is also preserved within the monument.

Just over 85% of the monument is protected as the Chiricahua National Monument Wilderness.

Geology

Located approximately southeast of Willcox, Arizona, the monument preserves the remains of an immense volcanic eruption that shook the region about 27 million years ago. The thick, white-hot ash spewed forth from the nearby Turkey Creek Caldera, cooled and hardened into rhyolitic tuff, laying down almost of highly siliceous, dark volcanic ash and pumice. The volcanic material eventually eroded into the natural rock formations of the present monument.

History

President Calvin Coolidge established the national monument with the Antiquities Act on April 18, 1924. It was expanded by President Franklin Roosevelt on June 10, 1938.

Missing ranger

On January 13, 1980, Paul Fugate, a National Park Service naturalist and law enforcement ranger, disappeared after leaving the monument headquarters while in uniform, to check trails leading to the recently acquired Faraway Ranch. An acquaintance claimed to have seen him later that afternoon, slumped between two men in a pickup truck. Despite an extensive search of the rugged monument area by authorities and search and rescue teams, no trace of him has been found.

Historic Designed Landscape

See also

  • List of national monuments of the United States
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Cochise County, Arizona

References

  • Chiricahua National Monument – National Park Service
  • The Search for a Ranger Who Was Lost and Never Found April 1, 2021