Sedona Westerners’ view while hiking on the Soldiers Pass Trail. Hiking on these red rock benches, Brins Mesa and Wilson Mountain can be seen in the background. The Soldiers Pass Trail eventually intersects the Brins Mesa Trail. Photo courtesy of Jeff Farg

First came the Sinaguans.  Over a thousand years ago they were drawn to the perennial stream that cascaded down Soldiers Pass and the good hunting that the water attracted.  When the Sinaguans eventually moved on, it was the Navajo and then the Yavapai who hunted, farmed, and continued to explore the area until 1871, when General George Crook and the U.S. Cavalry came to Soldiers Pass for a different kind of hunt.  He established "Camp Garden" as his base of operations for "rounding up" the Yavapai, and from there he pursued them so relentlessly that two years later (1873) over 5,000 exhausted Yavapai reluctantly surrendered to him at Camp Verde.

After that, the human history of Soldiers Pass calmed down a ...

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