Apache Kid Wilderness

Apache Kid Wilderness
IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
A view from the Apache Kid Wilderness. Courtesy of the US Forest Service.
Location	Socorro County, New Mexico, United States
Nearest city	Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Coordinates	33°39′04″N 107°25′30″W / 33.65111°N 107.42500°W / 33.65111; -107.42500Coordinates: 33°39′04″N 107°25′30″W / 33.65111°N 107.42500°W / 33.65111; -107.42500
Area	44,626 acres (18,060 ha)
Established	1980 (1980)
Governing body	U.S. Forest Service

Apache Kid Wilderness is a 44,626-acre (18,060 ha) Wilderness area located within the Magdalena Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest in the state of New Mexico. Straddling a southern portion of the San Mateo Mountains of southwestern Socorro County, the area is characterized by rugged, narrow, and steep canyons bisecting high mountain peaks exceeding 10,000 feet (3,000 m). The Apache Kid Wilderness lies just south of the Withington Wilderness, which also straddles the San Mateo Mountains. The Apache Kid is also surrounded by 84,527 total acres of Inventoried Roadless Area (IRA) with the San Jose IRA (16,957 acres) to the south and the Apache Kid Contiguous IRA (67,570 acres) to the north, east, and west. Some 68 miles (109 km) of trails provide access to the Apache Kid Wilderness. The Wilderness was designated by Congress in 1980 and provides outstanding hiking, backpacking, star-gazing, hunting, and horseback-riding opportunities.

The Apache Kid Wilderness has a long, rich history, full of lore from the Wild West. Basham noted in his report documenting the archeological history of the Cibola’s Magdalena Ranger District that “[t]he heritage resources on the district are diverse and representative of nearly every prominent human evolutionary event known to anthropology. Evidence for human use of district lands date back 14,000 years to the Paleoindian period providing glimpses into the peopling of the New World and megafaunal extinction.“ Much of the now Magdalena Ranger District were a province of the Apache. Bands of Apache effectively controlled the Magdalena-Datil region from the seventeenth century until they were defeated in the Apache Wars in the late nineteenth century. In fact, the Apache Kid Wilderness is named for a Native American called the Apache Kid. Angered by his relentless raids, in 1906, local ranchers hunted him down into Blue Mountain, killed him and blazed a tree to mark the spot. However, some accounts say that it was actually the famous warrior Massai who died that day. The hacked remains of the tree can still be seen today.