Dragoons

My favorite Rest Area on Interstate 10 in Southern Arizona is at Dragoon. It is located at the north end of the Dragoon mountains and has a spectacular rock formations that appear as if the boulders had boiled up from the bowels of the earth.

In this area soldiers (Dragoons) chased Apaches. Eventually they caught them and Geronimo surrendered.

An interesting sidelight from Wikipedia is the story of how Geronimo got his name. On March 6, 1858, a company of 400 Mexican soldiers from Sonora attacked Geronimo's camp outside Janos while the men were in town trading. Among those killed were Geronimo's wife, his children, and his mother. His chief, Mangas Coloradas, sent him to Cochise's band for help in revenge against the Mexicans who named him Geronimo. This appellation stemmed from a battle in which, ignoring a deadly hail of bullets, he repeatedly attacked Mexican soldiers with a knife, causing them to utter appeals to Saint Jerome ("Jeronimo!"). The name stuck.

In this rocky area Geronimo and a small band evaded thousands of Mexican and American troops for over a year, making him the most famous Native American of the time and earning him the title of the "worst Indian who ever lived" among white settlers.