Camp Verde Historical Park, Camp Verde, AZ

The Camp Verde Historial Park is unlike any other military fort we have visited in Arizona.  At this one, you can actually go inside the remaining houses and see how they were furnished and decorated at the time.  Only 3 of them are still standing from the original 20 or so...the others were torn down for firewood!  The historical museum is an interesting tour.  Then, you can see the commanding officer's house, the officers' quarters and the doctor's house.  It is fascinating to view the primitive medical tools used at the time (...shudder...).  I was reading about the fort and it said the doctors who were stationed there ranged from medical school graduates to...er...those less qualified!  I also noticed that doctors didn't stay there very long.  Most stayed for a year or less.  General Crook stayed in the commander's house while he was there hunting Geronimo. The buildings were nice and clean and well kept and the remaining houses all had new roofs!  At one point, you can see the adobe walls and the museum office was a well kept and cool building.  Adobe really works to help keep the buildings cool!  If you are in the area, DO stop and take the self-guided tour and explore the museum building.  It was interesting to read how the soldiers were given post-Civil War uniforms, in an effort to economize, but the soldiers soon learned to shed them and wear white cotton ones instead, due to Arizona's heat.  I guess wool uniforms don't wear well in the summer!  It was also interesting to learn that there was never a fence or wall around the fort.  It was never attacked.  Instead the Indians raided nearby settler homesteads.  The fort was abandoned in the late 1800's and was actually sold off in 1899.  Fortunately, these remaining buildings survived and you can now see how the soldiers of the 1870's and 1880's lived.