Many visitors to the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area ask questions about the monuments commemorating the “Mormon Battalion” that are seen along the San Pedro River. The history of the battalion in Cochise County is quite interesting and an important part of the cultural history of our area.

In 1846, President Polk requested men from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to enlist in the army to help in the war against Mexico. Five hundred of them answered the call. They made the longest march in U.S. military history, 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they enlisted to San Diego. The march route brought them into what is now Cochise County near Douglas on Dec. 6, 1846. They established camp near Naco, Ariz., on Dec. 8. From there they pretty much followed what is now the abandoned tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad to the San Pedro River. They then followed the river to St. David, where they headed west toward Tucson. It took them nine days to pass through Cochise County (Dec. 6-14, 1846).

Although not military “members”, many Mormon women accompanied the battalion on this march and took care of cooking, laundry, nursing and added woman-power, when needed, to push the wagons or lead the horses.

The logs kept by different members of the Battalion report that the river was lined with large walnut trees. There were also groves of ash trees and many mesquite trees. Salmon trout (probably Colorado Topminnow) were caught by the men in great numbers, some of them were 18 inches long indicating that certain sections of the river were quite deep. A kind of cane grass grew in the region, from four to six feet high, being very profuse and luxuriant in the bottom near the stream, this was sacaton. The early morning temperature on Dec. 10 was below 10 degrees Fahrenheit although the daytime temperatures were pleasant. There were also wild cattle roaming along the entire route. The journals state that the battalion had to cross and re-cross the San Pedro River several times, showing that the river was not very deep, or perhaps was dry, in many spots.

One morning, while on its march, the battalion encountered a large herd of wild bulls, which charged the contingent. Several soldiers were wounded and a couple of mules were gored to death and many bulls were killed during the encounter. This event is thought to have occurred about three-fourths of a mile north of Fairbank and south of the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate. The journals mention that they crossed a creek (the Babocomari) and named it “Bullrun Creek” because shortly after crossing it they engaged in “battle” with a group of wild bulls.

Several participants of the Battalion returned to Arizona many years later and established the town of St. David.

In the 1950s, the Mormons re-established a Mormon Battalion with the goal of erecting monuments along the entire march route to honor the original Battalion. There are many monuments scattered along the entire route but we are only concerned with the ones within Cochise County. In 1960 the Boy Scouts of America in Cochise County (Mormon troops only), decided to erect monuments to the Mormon Battalion along the path that the Battalion took through our County. They had hoped to gain Boy Scout awards for their effort but because of incomplete paperwork, they did not get any recognition for their efforts. The boy scouts placed eight monuments at locations where it is thought the Battalion camped. The Willcox Troop put a monument up at the Slaughter Ranch (San Bernardino); the Pomerene Troop put one up in the Douglas City Park (Veterans Park, 8th Street); the Sierra Vista Boy Scouts placed the one at Paul Spur on Highway 92; the monument in Palominas was put up by the Douglas Boy Scouts (see NOTE); the one on Highway 90 at the San Pedro River was erected by the Douglas Explorers; the one near Charleston commemorating the “Battle of the Bulls”, which actually occurred near Fairbank, was put there by the Bisbee Boy Scouts; the one at St. David was put up by the Elfrida Boy Scouts; and the one in Benson was put up by the Sierra Vista Explorers.

NOTE: The original monument at Palominas was destroyed when Highway 92 was widened. A replacement was erected at the LDS Boy Scout Camp, just south of the original location, by an Eagle Scout from Troop 436 in May 2000.

DUTCH NAGLE is a docent and board member of the Friends of the San Pedro River. He can be reached at fspr@sanpedroriver.org or FSPR, 1763 Paseo San Luis, Sierra Vista, AZ. 85635, phone 459-2555. Water Wonderland is a column by the Friends of the San Pedro River.