Tombstone & Bisbee

Cochise County in Arizona's southeastern corner: the silver town of Tombstone, the copper town of Bisbee, the sky-island mountains around Sierra Vista and Chiricahua National Park near Willcox.

Cochise County fills the southeastern corner of Arizona, and its history comes in layers. The Chiricahua Apache held these mountains and valleys into the 1880s. Spanish soldiers built the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate beside the San Pedro River, and the U.S. Army followed with Fort Bowie at Apache Pass in 1862 and Camp Huachuca in 1877. Then came the mines. Ed Schieffelin filed his first silver claim, which he named Tombstone, in 1877, and the town that grew up on the mesa became the seat of the new Cochise County in 1881. Copper made Bisbee, in the Mule Mountains to the south, the bigger town, and by 1931 the county offices had moved there. The other reason to come is the land. Ranges such as the Huachucas and the Chiricahuas rise abruptly out of desert grassland, and The Nature Conservancy calls them "sky islands": this is where the Sierra Madre of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains and the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts meet. The birds show it. The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area east of Sierra Vista gives habitat to about 250 species of migrant and wintering birds, and Ramsey Canyon is known for hummingbirds. Chiricahua, protected as a national monument since 1924, became Chiricahua National Park in October 2026. Four towns work as bases. Tombstone and Bisbee are the history stops, about 23 miles apart on State Route 80. Sierra Vista, the largest city, grew up beside Fort Huachuca at the foot of the Huachuca Mountains, close to Ramsey Canyon, the San Pedro and Coronado National Memorial. Willcox, on Interstate 10, is the gateway to Chiricahua and Fort Bowie. By road, Tombstone is about 66 miles from Tucson International Airport and Willcox about 77. Visitor numbers at Chiricahua and Fort Bowie peak from February to April, with March the busiest month, and fall to their lowest in August. The summer monsoon, from mid-June to mid-September, brings thunderstorms that can cause flash floods. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time.