Fort Bowie National Historic Site

Ruins of a frontier U.S. Army fort tied to the Chiricahua Apache conflict over their homeland, reached by a hike.

Bowie, AZ

About Fort Bowie National Historic Site

Fort Bowie served for roughly 25 years as a focal point of the Chiricahua Apache effort to protect their homeland during the U.S. Army's westward push. Visitors reach the site on a scenic loop trail of about three miles that passes through the ground where these two peoples and their histories met. Little of the outpost survives, but the ruins, a mountain howitzer, and the cemetery give a sense of its past. The park was created as a hike-in site to protect its natural, cultural, and historic resources.

#Chiricahua Apache
#U.S. Army frontier forts
#hiking
#ruins
#cemetery

What's around here?

The closest stops to Fort Bowie National Historic Site, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

Sports & Outdoors
Outdoor Adventure
Chiricahua National Monument
No admission fee
Drive and hike through a maze of rhyolite spires and balanced rocks in the Chiricahua Mountains.
11 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Museums
Amerind Foundation
Under $25
A museum, art gallery, and research center in Cochise County focused on Indigenous Americas archaeology, cultures, and Western art.
37 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums
Sightseeing
History Buff
Boothill Graveyard
Under $25
Walk the rows of an 1870s frontier cemetery where the men killed in the O.K. Corral gunfight are buried.
47 mi awayMore like this
Tours
Outdoor Adventure
Apache ATV Tours
$50+
Guided ATV rides through the canyons and ghost-town ranches of southeast Arizona near Tombstone.
47 mi awaySwitch it up: Tours
Sightseeing
Iconic
Tombstone Historic District
No admission fee
Walk the streets of an 1880s silver boomtown, past the O.K. Corral, the Bird Cage Theatre and old saloons.
47 mi awayMore like this
Sightseeing
Bisbee Visitor Center
No admission fee
The Discover Bisbee visitor center in the Queen Mine building on North Dart Road, with lodging and event help and walking-tour brochures.
Transit: reachable by public transit
56 mi awayMore like this