A colorized postcard of the Cochise Stronghold. The front caption stylized in red reads: “Cochise Stronghold”. The back caption on the top left reads: “10 miles west of U.S. Highway 666. Approximately 200 miles southeast of Phoenix. The mountain hideout of the Apache Chief Cochise. Good picnic site. (Elev. 6,500 feet)” The postcard is unused and was published by Bob Petley Studios, Phoenix, Arizona.

The Cochise Stronghold is an area in the Dragoon Mountains named after the Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise who held out against the US troops with his warrior band for fifteen years. The area is covered with rounded granite boulders and shrubbery and with an adequate supply of water, it proved the perfect place to hide. Cochise died and was buried in secret in a place that remains unknown to this day. Geronimo took over leadership from Cochise and the band was forced to surrender when the US Army flooded the area with 5,000 troops. They were the last group of Indians to surrender in 1886 and it marked the end of the Apache War.

1979.55.24