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Battle of Big Dry Wash

Coconino County · Either at the turnoff at Clint's Well to the battlefield, or at the junction of the Mogollon Rim Road and Arizona 65. · location approximate

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Near here, July 17, 1882 THE BATTLE OF BIG DRY WASH was fought In this last big battle of the Apache Wars, fourteen troops of cavalry under the command of Captain A. R. Chaffee, encircled a group of renegade Coyotero Apaches led by Na-ti-o-tish. This followed a week of raiding and slaughter by the natives who had escaped from the White Mountain Reservation. Most of the hostiles were killed. Lt. Thomas Cruse won the Medal of Honor in this battle.

Named in the Arizona Department of Transportation's 1997 list of markers standing in its right of way. That 1997 list covers only state highway right of way, so it does not reach markers on city streets, on tribal land, or in state and national parks.

1958 text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The book proposed 100 markers for Arizona's highways and records 14 as cast when it went to press.

Arizona still marks its history under the same law: the State Historical Advisory Commission approves a marker, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records certifies that its text is authentic and historically correct, and the Arizona Department of Transportation erects and maintains the markers on state highway right-of-way. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records ↗

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Marker data: Historical Markers in Arizona, Vols. I-II (Arizona Development Board, 1958), text by Bert Fireman

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