Camp Verde

Camp Verde calls itself the oldest settlement in the Verde Valley, dating its founding to the arrival of farmers in February 1865 and the military that August. What the claim leaves unsaid is why the land lay open to them. This valley was Yavapai and Dilzhe'e Apache homeland, and the settlers' foothold became permanent only after the Army removed those peoples to San Carlos in 1875. When the survivors were finally allowed to return around 1900, they came back to a valley reorganized around towns like this one, and rebuilt the Yavapai-Apache Nation on fragments of their own ground.

What the plaque says

The oldest settlement in the Verde Valley and site of historic Fort Verde. The first settlers came into the valley in February 1865, followed by the military in August 1865. Original military and historic buildings still stand.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Montezuma Castle — 5.2 mi
  A five-story Sinagua cliff dwelling, misnamed for an emperor who was never here
• Tuzigoot — 17 mi
  A hilltop Sinagua pueblo over the Verde, dug out of the ground in the Depression
• Jerome — 18 mi
  The billion-dollar copper camp clinging to Cleopatra Hill — now the largest ghost town in America
• Sedona — 23 mi
  Red-rock skyline, Little Hollywood, and the town Sedona Schnebly gave her name to

More markers nearby

• The Apache Scouts and the Medal of Honor — 2.7 mi
• Fort Verde — 2.7 mi
• Kinship Ties — 4.9 mi
• People of the Verde — 16 mi