Editing Cochise County, Arizona (section)

==History==
{{main|Cochise County in the Old West}}
In 1528, Spanish explorers [[Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca]], [[Estevanico]], and [[Marcos de Niza|Fray Marcos de Niza]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=A pictorial history of Sierra Vista, Arizona : more than a city, a way of life|date=2006|publisher=Pediment Pub|others=Tritz, Judith|isbn=1597250589|location=[Place of publication not identified]|oclc=74175599}}</ref> survived a shipwreck off the Texas coast. Captured by Native Americans, they spent eight years finding their way back to Mexico City, via the [[San Pedro Valley (Arizona)|San Pedro Valley]]. Their journals, maps, and stories led to the Cibola, [[Seven Cities of Gold|seven cities of gold]] myth. The Expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1539 using it{{clarify|date=April 2020}} as his route north through what they called the Guachuca Mountains of Pima<ref>{{Cite book|title=FORT HUACHUCA: The story of a frontier post|last=Smith|first=Cornelius C|publisher=Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402|year=1981|location=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref> ([[Tohono O'odham]]) lands and later part of the mission routes north, but was actually occupied by the [[Sobaipuri]] descendants of the [[Hohokam]]. They found a large Pueblo (described as a small city) between modern [[Benson, Arizona|Benson]] and [[Whetstone, Arizona|Whetstone]], and several smaller satellite villages and smaller pueblos including ones on Fort Huachuca, Huachuca City and North Eastern Fry. About 1657 [[Father Kino]] visited the Sobaipuris<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Sierra Vista : young city with a past|last=Jackson.|first=Price, Ethel|date=2003|publisher=Arcadia|isbn=0738524344|location=Charleston, SC|oclc=53882709}}</ref> just before the Apache forced most from the valley, as they were struggling to survive due to increasing [[Chiricahua|Chiricahua Apache]] attacks as they moved into the area of [[Texas Canyon]] of the [[Dragoon Mountains]]. In 1775, [[Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.saguaro-juniper.com/i_and_i/history/early_history/fr_kino_visits.html|title=Fr. Kino's Visits to the San Pedro|website=www.saguaro-juniper.com|access-date=March 14, 2018}}</ref> was founded on the west bank of the San Pedro River to protect the natives as well as the Spanish settlers who supplied the mission stations. The presidio was chronically short on provisions due to raids, however, and lacked personnel to adequately patrol the eastern route due to wars with France and England, so the main route north shifted west to the [[Santa Cruz River (Arizona)|Santa Cruz valley]], farther from the range of the Chiricahua Apache who almost exclusively controlled the area by 1821.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|date=Spring–Summer 2015|title=Journey to Cochise County: Explore the lives and Stories of those who have make Cochise County their home|journal=The Cochise County Historical Journal|publisher=Cochise County Historical Society along with the Smithsonian Museum to accompany the Main Street traveling exhibit "Journey Stories" February 22 – April 5, 2014|volume= 45| issue = 1}}</ref>

[[File:Cochise_County_1881.jpg|thumb|left|Cochise County in 1881]]
Cochise County was created on February 1, 1881, out of the eastern portion of [[Pima County, Arizona|Pima County]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cip.azlibrary.gov/Collection.aspx?CollID=1167|title=Arizona Cultural Inventory Project|access-date=December 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027005451/http://cip.azlibrary.gov/Collection.aspx?CollID=1167|archive-date=October 27, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> It took its name from the [[Chiricahua]] [[Apache]] war chief [[Cochise]].<ref name="CC">{{cite web|title=Cochise County Arizona|work=County Website|publisher=Cochise County|year=2009|url=http://www.cochise.az.gov/Default.aspx?id=4104|access-date=September 25, 2009|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212053005/http://www.cochise.az.gov/Default.aspx?id=4104|archive-date=December 12, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Reminiscence of Early Days|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/40782068|newspaper=Tombstone (AZ) Weekly Epitaph|date=October 27, 1912|page=4|format=jpg|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=July 28, 2015|quote=I feel a paternal pride in Cochise county, for one Sunday 31 years ago, in the little law office of [[William Jefferson Hunsaker|Will Hunsaker]] and myself in Tombstone, the committee selected the name, and I was one of the godfathers at the christening. Harry Wood, editor of the Tombstone Nugget, suggested the name in honor of the territorial Apache chief as a fitting companion to the dismal name of its county seat.}} {{Open access}}</ref>  The county seat was [[Tombstone, Arizona|Tombstone]] until 1929 when it moved to [[Bisbee, Arizona|Bisbee]]. Notable men who once held the position of County [[Sheriff]] were [[Johnny Behan]], who served as the first sheriff of the new county, and who was one of the main characters during the events leading to and following the [[gunfight at the O.K. Corral]]. Later, in 1886, [[John Horton Slaughter|Texas John Slaughter]] became sheriff. Lawman [[Jeff Milton]] and lawman/[[outlaw]] [[Burt Alvord]] both served as deputies under Slaughter.

A [[Television syndication|syndicated]] [[television series]] which aired from 1956 to 1958, ''[[The Sheriff of Cochise]]'' starring [[John Bromfield]], was filmed on location in Cochise County. The [[Jimmy Stewart]] movie ''[[Broken Arrow (1950 film)|Broken Arrow]]'' and subsequent television show of the same name starring [[John Lupton]], which also aired from 1956 to 1958, were set in Cochise County but filmed at other locations.

[[J.A. Jance]]'s [[Joanna Brady]] mystery series takes place in Cochise County, where Brady is sheriff.

Beginning in the late 1950s, the small community of [[Miracle Valley, Arizona|Miracle Valley]] was the site of a series of bible colleges and similar religious organizations, founded by television evangelist [[A. A. Allen]]. In 1982, Miracle Valley and neighboring [[Palominas, Arizona|Palominas]] were the site of a series of escalating conflicts between a newly arrived black religious community and the county sheriff and deputies that culminated in the [[Miracle Valley shootout]].