Chiricahua National Monument

Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona preserves one of the region’s most distinctive volcanic landscapes, where erosion carved hoodoos, pinnacles, columns, and balancing rocks from thick rhyolitic tuff left by a massive eruption about 27 million years ago. Established in 1924 and later expanded in 1938, it also preserves human history, including Faraway Ranch, once owned by Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson. Most of the area is protected wilderness, and much of it is also recognized as a historic designed landscape. Chiricahua is further associated with the unresolved 1980 disappearance of ranger Paul Fugate near Faraway Ranch, adding a somber chapter to its layered history.

Arizona · United States