This valley owes its name to the two springs located one mile north of this monument. From 400 A.D. to 1450 A.D. Indigenous Indians farmed the region. Their bedrock mortar pits remain on the nearby hill. Later Chiricahua Apaches, Spaniards, Mexicans, Anglo-American immigrants and U.S. soldiers used the Springs as a camping ground. Between 1857 and 1878 several stage lines, including the Butterfield Overland Stage Company, operated a relay station here. In 1872, with Tom Jeffords as agent, the Springs became the first headquarters of the short-lived "Chiricahua Indian Reservation." As a result of selling whiskey to the Indians in 1876, storekeepers Nick Rogers and O.O. Spence were murdered and the Apaches were removed to San Carlos. Cattlemen James Pursley and Robert Wolfe, known as "The Sulphur Springs Boys," ranched here until 1885, when they merged with the famous Chiricahua Cattle Company.
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