Fort Lowell Fort Lowell was a United States Army post active from 1873 to 1891 on the outskirts of Tucson , Arizona . Fort Lowell was the successor to Camp Lowell , an earlier Army installation . The Army chose a location just south of the confluence of the Tanque Verde and Pantano creeks , at the point where they form the Rillito River , due to the year - round supply of water during that period . The Hohokam natives had chosen the site centuries earlier , presumably for the same reason . To this day , shard s of Hohokam pottery can still be found in the area . The Army claimed a military reservation that encompassed approximately eighty square miles and extended east toward the Rincon Mountains . History . Old West Era . The fort played a pivotal role during the Apache Wars , providing additional protection for the Tucson area . Far too large and well - manned to be attacked directly , Fort Lowell provided supplies and manpower for outlying military installations . During its eighteen years of operation , the fort averaged thirteen officers and 239 enlisted men . Among the units present during this period were the 2nd , 4th , 5th and 6th Cavalry Regiment s , as well as the 1st , 8th , and 12th Infantry Regiment s . The orientation of the post was set according to magnetic north . It featured a large parade grounds , officers ' quarters , quartermaster and commissary storehouses , corrals , quarters for enlisted men as well as for married non - commissioned officer s . The most prominent building on post was the hospital , the adobe remnants of which still stand under a protective structure . A lane lined with cottonwood trees , aptly named Cottonwood Lane , graced the area in front of the officers ' houses . Among the more well known officers to have served at Fort Lowell were the young Walter Reed , the Army physician famous for his yellow fever research , and Charles Bendire , the amateur ornithologist after whom Bendire ' s Thrasher is named . After the Army decommissioned the post in 1891 , Mexican families from Sonora soon moved north to take advantage of the free housing . This occupation has become known as the " El Fuerte " Period . Fort Lowell today . The fort lay in ruins for many years ; its adobe structures slowly melting back into the desert . Pima County eventually converted the bulk of the former post into Old Fort Lowell Park , which features ball fields , tennis and racquetball courts , a large public swimming pool , and the Fort Lowell Museum dedicated to Fort Lowell ' s days as an active military installation . Fort Lowell also includes a large pond . The city of Tucson now owns the park . Tucson recently purchased the former Adkins property immediately west of Craycroft Road on which the last of the original officers ' quarters stand . Plans indicated that they would be open to the public as a museum . However , high levels of lead paint were found and the buildings were not opened . On the north end of the former Adkins parcel stands a pile of large stones that , according to local lore , formed a wall of the guardhouse in which Geronimo was kept prior to his removal from Arizona . Fort Lowell is the historical setting of the 1957 - 1958 syndicated Western television series , " Boots and Saddles " , starring John Pickard , Patrick McVey , and Gardner McKay . A reconstructed Fort Lowell was featured in the 1972 film " Ulzana ' s Raid " , starring Burt Lancaster . However , the reconstructed fort was actually built in an area just southwest of the Santa Rita Mountains , near Nogales , Arizona . The Fort Lowell Museum is a branch museum of the Arizona Historical Society , and is located in the reconstructed Commanding Officer ' s quarters . Exhibits focus on military life on the Arizona frontier . The Fort Lowell Historic District is the neighborhood located on or near Fort Lowell . It is set aside as a historic district .