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Skeleton Canyon

Michael has a BA in History & American Studies and an MSc in American History from the University of Edinburgh. He comes from a proud military family and has spent most of his career as an educator in the Middle East and Asia. His passion is travel, and he seizes any opportunity to share his experiences in the most immersive way possible, whether at sea or on the land.

On September 4, 1886, Geronimo and less than 40 Apaches, including women and children, surrendered to Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, near the Arizona and New Mexico border. Geronimo’s surrender marked the end of the Apache Wars in the Southwest. Geronimo and all the Chiricahuas, including those who were peacefully settled on reservations, were uprooted and imprisoned in Florida. Ultimately, the Chiricahuas were relocated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where they remained as prisoners of war until 1913. In that year, about 200 of the

300 surviving Chiricahua Apaches elected to resettle in New Mexico on the Mescalero Reservation. Geronimo died in 1909. The actual site is on private land.

The Geronimo Surrender Memorial is on Highway 80 just north of Apache, AZ. The turnoff to the actual surrender site in Skeleton Canyon is just a few hundred yards south of there.

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  • If the actual surrender sight of Geronimo’s surrender is on private land, does this mean one cannot see the actual sight? Please let me know, as I will be traveling here end of October and so want to witness this beautiful area.

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