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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Apache County, Arizona.
Official Website
A history of the area, written in 1896, records the following about the county:
Apache County was created in 1879 and lies in the northeastern corner of the Territory. Until March, 1895, it also embraced what is now Navajo County, but at that date the latter was set apart and established as a separate county. Apache County is justly noted for its great natural resources and advantages. It is destined some day in the early future to have a large agricultural population. Now, immense herds of cattle and flocks of sheep roam over its broad mesas and its fertile valleys. The Navajo Indians occupy the northern part of the county-in fact, occupy much of the remainder of the county, as they refuse to remain on their reservation, preferring to drive their sheep and cattle on lands outside their reservation, where the grazing is better. The southern part is a fine grazing country, while the northern part is cut up into picturesque gorges and canons by the floods of past centuries.
In the late 1880s, the county sheriff was Commodore Perry Owens, an Old West gunfighter legend. At that time, the county covered more than 21,177 square miles in territory. In September 1887, near Holbrook in what is now Navajo County, Owens was involved in one of the Old West's most famous gunfights, when he killed three men and wounded a fourth while serving a warrant on outlaw Andy Blevins/Andy Cooper, an active participant in a raging range war, later dubbed the Pleasant Valley War.
In 2015, Apache County had the highest rate of death due to motor vehicles in the United States, with 82.5 deaths per 100,000 people.
Cities & Towns
- Eagar
- St. John's (County Seat)
- Springer
For a complete list of other communities, please see Wikipedia.
Adjacent Counties
- Navajo County
- Graham County
- Greenlee County
- Montezuma County, Colorado
- San Juan County, Utah
- San Juan County, NM
- McKinley County, NM
- Cibola County, NM
- Catron County, NM
Apache County has the most land designated as Indian reservation of any county in the United States. The county has 7,666.96 square miles of reservation territory, or 68.34 percent of its total area. The reservations are, in descending order of area within the county, the Navajo Nation, the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, and the Zuni Indian Reservation, all of which are partly located within the county.
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests
Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Petrified Forest (part)
Arizona Genealogy-Apache County
