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Campstone is a reflection of its colorful past. A brief historical account will clarify our interest in creating a show place community at Campstone. The name Campstone is quite significant historically and liberally used in and around Huachuca City.
The origin or original meaning of Campstone is not well known, but can be surmised to reference the Indian villages perched along several mesas overlooking the Babocomari River. These first developers of Campstone appear to have occupied the site from 4,500 BC to 1,150 AD. They hunted, farmed, made pottery and raised their families in this plush river valley. Near the end of their stay Salado people built rather substantial dwellings clustered into groups of 5-6 homes surrounded by stone courtyards.
Campstone Picket was the original military encampment established in 1854 directly across the Babocomari River. Immediately thereafter, Campstone Picket was abandoned because the Babocomari River, oak trees, abundant beaver dams, and deep grass provided an excellent place for mosquitoes to breed and feed. The feed part appears to be the discouraging word.
Forts Calabasas, Moore, Buchanan, and Crittenden were built approximately paralleling the Mexican border to secure the trapping, logging, mining and ranching interests. After Cochise and a few of his warriors overran Fort Crittenden in 1873, Fort Wallen was established just west of the old Campstone Picket. However, it didn't take long to move up hill to the present site of Fort Huachuca at the base of the Huachuca Mountains.
In 1886 the Southern Pacific Railroad built Campstone Station on the original picket site to load wood and water. Oak trees were harvested along the Babocomari River to build the railroad thus eventually eliminating the mosquitoes and beaver dams. Campstone Station, cemetery, and water tank are still visible but disguised as the Hideout Bar.
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