What does Chiricahua mean?
According to Jesuit Juan Nentvig writing from northwest Mexico between 1750 and 1767, the name is an Opata word meaning wild turkey. This mountain range was originally known for all the wild turkeys found here. By the mid-1900s most of the turkeys were gone. Gould’s wild turkeys were released in 2003 back into the Chiricahua Mountains by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the National Wild Turkey Federation.
