Stockton Hill is a large trapezoidal-shaped hill about six miles east of Tombstone, located in a swath of hills bounded to the north by Gleeson Road and to the south by Davis Road. These hills are loosely grouped in with the Tombstone Hills. They lie halfway between the Dragoon Mountains and the Mule Mountains, but don't "obviously" belong to one or the other ranges.
The name ostensibly comes from "Old Man Stockton". He is mentioned in Will Barnes' Arizona Place Names as a "well known cattleman and character of early days when Tombstone was booming, who settled this region in late seventies... He was killed in a fight in Skeleton Canyon about 1881." He further mentions that he is the father of Ike, Bill and Phinn Clanton. This must refer to Newman Haynes Clanton, who was killed near Skeleton Canyon in 1881 and is the father of Ike, Bill and Phinn (Bill was one of the casualties of the 1881 OK Corral shoot-em-up). There appears to be no further evidence of a different individual named Stockton. Thus, in a roundabout way, this hill is named for Clanton. A nearby hill about three miles away is named Outlaw Hill. One can make a reasonable inference where that name came from.
These days, the hill rises amid grassy hills and draws, almost all of it State Trust land, leased to the area ranchers. There are some private enclaves and strips of land, and as I would learn, the peak itself is mostly on private land, whereas almost all of the approach is over State Trust land. Getting into these hills is the main challenge. I know of only one publicly-accessible way from Davis Road. As for the Gleeson side, I had no information.
Two days ago, I climbed Spire Peak about thirty miles west in the Mustang Mountains. I was finished by late morning and in no hurry to get home. I decided to do a little sight-seeing. I drove into Tombstone and then followed Gleeson Road east. I was last on Gleeson Road two years ago when I climbed OK Notch Peak. Stockton Hill is plainly obvious, easily the highest hill in the immediate area. At just before milepost 5, I noticed a gate with the State Lands sign on it, dummy locked but open to the public with a permit. Another road about a half-mile east also had this sign and was dummy locked.
Suddenly, I had a viable way into these hills and was immediately interested to hike this peak, although not this very day. When I got home, I studied the two roads using satellite images to get a sense where they went. The second of the two roads looked like it went in farther toward the peak.
So here I was, two days later. I was on the road about 8 a.m. and in Tombstone about a half hour later. I followed Gleeson Road eastbound to the second gate and let myself in. I followed the road in a little under a mile, to an arroyo with some bad erosion that looked like trouble for my car. This was fine with me. I was less than two miles on a straight line from the peak. It was a shade before 9 a.m. when I started walking.
I walked the road up a rise then down to a water tank for the cattle. I could see the tip of the peak rising above a foreground ridge. I could also see cattle milling about on the road ahead of me, to the east. Since the road meandered that way and there were stupid thousand-pound skittish masses of meat standing there, I decided to leave the road and aim south, going cross-country. I would save distance and probably cattle-angst.
The overland was easy for the most part, being grassy with spread-out low brush. I gained a rise then dropped again toward some deep-cut arroyos. Here, I had to drop into and out of two such arroyos, which were brushy. I also had to squeeze between the strands of a barbwire fence. I came to another rise ... then the road. But I walked right over it, dropping elevation again, aiming for another road I could see ahead, this one going south toward the peak.
I got to this road and followed it. Signs were placed every few dozen feet marking of lots, this being the "Earp Estates". The map shows this within a strip of private land. There were no fences or posting notices so I felt comfortable being here. Evidently, someone was trying to sell off vacant land here under the guise of "estates". I found one listing from ten years ago on realtor.com, but no other mentions anywhere else.
Once this road ended, I continued south down into more heavy brush, then slowly up the north slopes of the peak. The brush here was pointy, consisting of ocotillo and acacia. It wasn't bad bushwhacking, but it was slow-going as I had to move carefully to avoid being scratched to death. I gained about a hundred feet and left the pointier brush behind.
The remaining climb was just a steady grind up the north slope. the gradient at "slightly steep" at worst. The rocks wanted to roll and the brush could be heavy too, but I was able to find lanes about 90% of the time. I made decent time going up this slope, a gain of about 500 feet. I aimed for a point above me, but I knew this was not the summit.
After about twenty minutes, I had surmounted the point, with the summit hill visible ahead about 500 feet to the south, and another sicty feet higher in elevation. But it was level here, even a couple of drops. I walked carefully through the rocky heaps and brush until I was on top the peak, marked by a massive cairn about four feet high and six feet in diameter. It had taken me about 90 minutes, covering 2.4 miles.
The day was lovely, a calm mild morning, temperatures in the high 50s, with wispy clouds above. I walked the ridge and took images. I also found a USGS benchmark, heavily scratched to where I couldn't read it very well. It was monumented in the 1910s. There is no mention of this marker in the usual USGS benchmark databases.
I had a signal so I checked texts and also took care of an important matter, all while sitting atop a peak in old-timey outlaw country. I was on top for twenty minutes, enjoying the solitude and scenery. I then walked to the cairn and was able to find a register within it. Just a handful of people had been here since the register was placed about ten years ago. The most recent were a group from the Southern Arizona Hiking Club in 2023. I signed in and reset the register. It is found on the cairn's north side. The previous visitors did a fine job of burying it. I covered it up too but to where the next person(s) should be able to find it quickly.
I started moving afterwards, and followed the same slopes down the peak, battling the same brush (or so it seemed), and walking up that track through the estates. Once on the road I followed it, saving myself the hassle of those earlier arroyos. The road adds distance to the hike (about a half-mile for me), but I followed it thinking I could walk faster on it and save time.
This worked well. The cattle had all moved onto one of the intervening ridges and were off the road. The outbound hike, while a little longer in length, took me just a shade over an hour. I was back to my car a little before noon, a hike of just under three hours. It was warmer by now, into the 60s. I changed into more comfortable clothes and exited back to Gleeson Road. The drive home went well, the usual traffic patterns for a mid-Wednesday in these parts.
I was pleased to climb this peak as I had assumed it was practically inaccessible. There are two other ranked peaklets to the south and southwest. However, I think coming in from the south may be a better bet, if and when I come back for them. The area is pretty in its own way, the usual hilly grassy cattle-country type of scenery. I never saw anyone or came close to any homesteads.
