Camp Goodwin, and Fort Goodwin, a historical locale, at an elevation of 2648 feet, located in

Graham County, Arizona Graham County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,533, making it the third-least populous county in Arizona. The county seat is Safford. Graham County composes the ...

History

Camp Goodwin, then Fort Goodwin, was constructed in June 1864 by the

California Volunteers California Volunteers may refer to: * Volunteer units from California in the American Civil War * CaliforniaVolunteers CaliforniaVolunteers is the state agency charged with increasing the number and impact of Californians engaged in service an ...

, of the Union Army in

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...

for a base for prosecuting the 1861-1872 Apache War and protecting settlers in the Upper

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...

region. It was named for

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

's first territorial governor, John N. Goodwin. The adobe buildings it was constructed with began to crumble in a few years due to poor construction. Additionally the camp was plagued by

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

from

mosquitoes Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a family of small flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by '' mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, ...

in the cienega fed by the nearby spring from which the fort obtained its water. Called Camp Goodwin again from 1866, the camp was abandoned by the Army in March, 1871 due to the illness caused by malaria. The camp was subsequently used as a subagency of the

San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation (Western Apache: Tsékʼáádn), in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1872 as a reservation for the Chiricahua Apache tribe as well as surrounding Yavapai and Apache bands removed fro ...

until about 1884.Granger, Byrd H. Arizona Place Names. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1982, p. 127. Today the site is located on farmland not far from the ghost town of

Geronimo Gerónimo (, ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands the Tchihen ...

. Nothing remains of the post, the only physical marker is a

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

survey marker which indicates the original site of its flagpole.

External links

Fort Goodwin
from fortwiki.com accessed December 25, 2015.

References

{{Graham County, Arizona Populated places established in 1864 Former populated places in Graham County, Arizona History of Graham County, Arizona Forts in Arizona 1864 establishments in Arizona Territory Locale (geographic)