Groundbreaking News!
On January 30, 2025, the Naco Heritage Alliance (NHA) reached a critical milestone. Working with our partner Durazo Construction Corporation we took the plunge and broke ground, formally beginning Phase One of the rehabilitation of Camp Naco. Find out more about the event HERE
Jeremy Fricke Named Camp Naco's First
Executive Director
The Naco Heritage Alliance is excited to welcome
Jeremy Fricke as the organization's first Executive
Director! He will oversee the Camp Naco project in partnership with the City of Bisbee.
The mission of the Naco Heritage Alliance is to reveal the hidden stories of human experience in the Borderlands by engaging communities, preserving the past, and educating the world as stewards of Camp Naco.
Discover the History
With the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, commanders at Fort Huachuca established tent camp at the point where the El Paso and Southwestern railroad line crossed the border into Mexico, at Naco, Arizona. It was initially manned by the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and later the 25th Infantry, collectively known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Its mission was to protect the railroad, prevent smuggling, and maintain the peace.
In 1919 a permanent camp, named Camp Naco, was constructed by the US War Department’s Mexican Border Defense Construction Project, a response to unsettled conditions along the US/Mexico border. Part of a 1,200-mile chain of thirty-five permanent military camps, Camp Naco was one of only two constructed of adobe. When the camps were decommissioned in 1923, most were deconstructed so that their materials could be used elsewhere, but Camp Naco, built of adobe, remained in place. As a result, it remains the only camp to retain its historic integrity today.
Naco Heritage Alliance
Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of archaeologists, military historians, Buffalo Soldiers and local citizens, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, the Naco Heritage Alliance, was created to preserve Camp Naco. Because of their work, Camp Naco was purchased by the City of Bisbee in 2018, and four years later was named one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Places, bringing national attention to the need to save the site. That same year an award-winning Story Map created by a team led by The University of Arizona students highlighted the rich history of the Camp, illuminating the important role of the Buffalo Soldiers as effective peacekeepers within the segregated military of the period. Combined, these milestones paved the way for substantial grant funding in 2022 from both the Mellon Foundation and the State of Arizona to rehabilitate Camp Naco.
In 2023, the City of Bisbee initiated hiring a team of specialists to begin rehabilitation efforts and to pave the way for a lasting Naco Heritage Alliance to guide the process. Through a series of stakeholder meetings and events, we are reaching out to the local community, as well as those groups who will benefit from the rehabilitation, to explore a wide range of future uses for Camp Naco, both historical and contemporary.
The Naco Heritage Alliance respectfully acknowledges that Camp Naco resides on the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples, including the Sobaipuri and Chiricahua Apache. We, as an organization, are committed to building sustainable relationships with the affiliated descendant tribes of the Camp Naco site through educational and community outreach programming to ensure their history is honored and not forgotten.
Join us for a showing of this film, stay for a discussion, and light refreshments.
Sunday, June 14th, 2pm Tombstone Brewing West End, 332 N Garden Ave, Sierra Vista Free to attend with registration: https://givebutter.com/BorderHistory Our small section of the US-Mexico border has been the focus of major military and civil conflicts in the early 20th century. Learn how the stories of these people and events intertwined in this small region of Cochise County and how work continues in the present to preserve this history. Discover the people, places, and untold stories that shaped the Borderlands—register now to join the conversation at Tombstone Brewing Company.
Sunday, June 7th, 2pm Tombstone Brewing West End, 332 N Garden Ave, Sierra Vista Free to attend with registration: https://givebutter.com/BorderHistory Cochise County has always been a borderlands. Its mountains and valleys of the sky islands have always been corridors for exploration and conquest. Spanish explorers traveled them in the 16th century. Mexico’s battles for independence and then revolution focused on the northern frontier. The westward push for gold and Manifest Destiny established the current line. Learn how those stories still resonate and shape today’s borderline. Discover the people, places, and untold stories that shaped the Borderlands—register now to join the conversation at Tombstone Brewing Company.
Sunday, May 31, 2pm Tombstone Brewing West End, 332 N Garden Ave, Sierra Vista Free to attend with registration: https://givebutter.com/BorderHistory For more than 10,000 years people have called this region home. Learn about the prehistoric residents of our region from the earliest residents who hunted now extinct mammoths through the first indigenous peoples who encountered explorers from Spain and the United States. Discover the people, places, and untold stories that shaped the Borderlands—register now to join the conversation at Tombstone Brewing Company.
Friday, May 29 | 11:30 am – 12:30 pm — Join us as we step into Arizona’s past through the story of Wing Fang, exploring the resilience, struggles, and everyday lives of Chinese Arizonans in a powerful journey through overlooked history.
Friday, May 22 | 11:30 am – 12:30 pm — Join us for a powerful look at the young people who helped shape Arizona’s history through stories often left untold, presented by a first-generation Colombian American historian focused on community storytelling and hidden histories.
