Founded in 1872 by Col. Henry C. Hooker to supply beef to Army posts, mining camps, and Indian agencies, this was the first permanent American cattle ranch in Arizona, as well as the first to introduce graded stock into the territory. On the site of a former Spanish hacienda which had been destroyed by the Apache in the early 1800s, Hooker erected an adobe fortress to fend off attacks by first the Apache and later the cutthroats and rustlers of Sulphur Springs Valley.

Information provided by the National Registry of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service