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HISTORIC SETTLEMENT
in the
sierra muy penascosa
Spanish explorers, including those of the 1540 Coronado expedition, may have passed the Dragoons in their northward trek in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. However, the earliest record of Spaniards entering the Dragoons is not until 1695. In that year, a detachment of troops crossed the mountains, probably at Middlemarch Pass south of the Stronghold. They called them a
sierra muy penascosa, meaning
very rugged mountain.
Not until the 1850's were the mountains called the Dragoons.
Dragoonswere mounted soldiers armed with a carbine. They were sent against Apaches by Mexican and American authorities. A Mexican dragoon is supposedly buried among the granite boulders of the range.
Americans began to homestead the Stronghold in the late 1880's. One of the best known is John A. Rockfellow, a miner, surveyor, and civil engineer. He first entered the canyon on August 8, 1883, and was struck by its beauty.
Rockfellow made his home in the Stronghold for almost 50 years. Rockfellow Dome, the prominent granite dome on the east side of the Dragoons, is named after him.
Farmers and ranchers followed Rockfellow in settling the canyon, and much of it remains in private ownership. The Dragoon Forest Reserve was established in 1907 to protect the watershed. The Reserve was merged with the Chiricahua National Forest in 1910, and in 1917 became part of the Coronado National Forest.