Cooney's Tomb is a historic location near

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'', an upcoming film by Sally Potter * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' ( ...

, Catron County,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. Marked by a large boulder on the side of a roadway, it is the site where former Army Sergeant James C. Cooney was interred in 1880 after being killed by a group of Apaches.

History

As a sergeant in the

8th Cavalry Regiment The 8th Cavalry Regiment is a regiment of the United States Army formed in 1866 during the American Indian Wars. The 8th Cavalry continued to serve under a number of designations, fighting in every other major U.S. conflict since, except Wor ...

at Fort Bayard, James C. Cooney came to New Mexico in 1870. While on duty as a scout, he discovered silver-bearing rock in the nearby

Mogollon Mountains The Mogollon Mountains or Mogollon Range ( or ) are a mountain range in Grant County and Catron County of southwestern New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. They are primarily protected within the Gila National Forest. Geography The M ...

, but did not disclose his findings. After his discharge in 1875, he came to the area in 1876 with two companions to work the claim.

Alma Massacre

On April 29, 1880, Sergeant Cooney, Jack Chick, and a man whose last name was Buhlman were on horseback riding to Alma to warn the settlers of an Indian attack at the Cooney mine and the town of Cooney.

Victorio Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas ...

had led a group of

Chiricahua Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua historically shared a common area, language, customs, and intertwined family relations with their fellow Apaches. ...

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

tribal members in the massacre. Shortly thereafter, Sergeant Cooney's brother Michael and miners from nearby Pinos Altos drilled, blasted and chipped a

sepulcher A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immurement'', althou ...

for his remains in a large boulder. The Sergeant has remained interred there since.

Cemetery

The area around the tomb soon became a cemetery with a collection of graves. Four graves in front of Cooney's Tomb were enclosed in a low wrought iron fence. A flood washed away those graves, along with two large marble stone markers. The road by the tomb was rebuilt.Brown, N.E. and Boggs, A. (2007
"Tomb of Sergeant James Cooney, Gila National Forest"
. The Conservation Fund. Retrieved 11/17/10. Cooney's brother, Captain Michael Cooney, took over his mine after his death. A town called Cooney was founded shortly thereafter. Michael Cooney died while searching for a lost gold mine in the Mogollon mountains, and the canyon where his body was found was named Cooney Canyon."Cooney's Tomb"
. Retrieved 11/17/10. Today, Cooney's Tomb is located about 5 miles east of Alma in Cooney Canyon on Mineral Creek. In 2009,

The Conservation Fund The Conservation Fund is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a dual charter to pursue environmental preservation and economic development. From 2008–2018, it has placed more than 500,000 acres under conservation management through a program wh ...

helped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acquire 40 acres, including the tomb, from a private owner. The tomb is now located within the

Gila National Forest The Gila National Forest is a United States national forest in New Mexico. Established in 1905, it now covers approximately , making it the sixth largest national forest in the continental United States. The Forest administration also manage ...

References

{{coord, 33.41303, -108.83758, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NM, display=title Buildings and structures in Catron County, New Mexico Cemeteries in New Mexico Buildings and structures completed in 1880 Gila National Forest

History

Alma Massacre

Cemetery

See also

References