The Presidio de Calabasas, also known as Fort Calabasas or Camp Calabasas, was a stone fortress built by Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 in 1837 near Tumacacori, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

. It was built on the land of the Grant of Manuel Maria Gandara

Crabb Massacre

The Crabb Massacre was the culmination of the eight day Battle of Caborca. It was fought between Mexico and their O'odham allies against American forces in April of 1857. Due to the outbreak of the Reform War in Mexico, the rebel Ygnacio Pesquiera invited the American politician Henry A...

, by Gandara to protect his lands near the Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas

Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas

Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas, also known as Calabasas, was founded by Jesuit missionary Father Francisco Xavier Pauer in 1756 when he relocated at least seventy-eight Pima Indians to the site from their village of Toacuquita in what is now Arizona, near Tumacácori...

 from the Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

.

Following the Gadsden Purchase

Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time, on December 30, 1853. It was then ratified, with changes, by the U.S...

, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Army stationed Major Enoch Steens and four companies of the 1st Dragoons at Camp Calabasas on November 27, 1856. It was renamed Camp Moore sometime before March of 1857 when it was abandoned for the new Fort Buchanan

Fort Buchanan

Fort Buchanan is the name of two United States Army forts:* Fort Buchanan, Arizona, is a former United States Army base in Arizona to control land purchased in the Gadsden Purchase* Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico is the only active U.S...

. In 1862 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Fort Calabasas was again occupied by the Confederates

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 before being captured by the California Column

California Column

The California Column, a force of Union volunteers, marched from April to August 1862 over 900 miles from California, across the southern New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and then into western Texas during the American Civil War. At the time, this was the longest trek through desert terrain...

. The Californians abandoned it also, due to an outbreak of malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

 in 1864. This site should not be confused with Camp Mason a small post built on the high ground south of the confluence of the Potrero Creek and the Santa Cruz River. Camp Cameron was establshed nearby from March 1, 1866 to March 7, 1867.