Massacre Peak is a 5,667-foot summit in the Cookes Range of southwestern New Mexico overlooking a corridor long defined by travel through Cooke's Canyon. North of the peak ran the Southern Emigrant Trail and later major mail and stagecoach routes, including the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and the Butterfield Overland Mail. Its name recalls the violence that engulfed this passage in the mid-19th century. After the Bascom Affair, during the Apache Wars, Apache attacks destroyed stations and coaches along the line and killed workers, drivers, and passengers. Fighting there included the Battle of Cookes Canyon, and near the end of the American Civil War Fort Cummings was established nearby, showing the route's strategic importance.