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. outlaw renegades butch cassidy and the wild bunch and notorious apaches like cochise and geronimo have ties to the san mateos. vicks peak was named after victorio, "a mimbreño apache leader whose territory included much of the south and southwest new mexico." famous for defying relocation orders in 1879 and leading his warriors "on a two-year reign of terror before he was killed," victorio is at least as highly regarded as geronimo or cochise among apaches. perhaps most famous outlaw was the apache kid whose supposed grave lies within the apache kid wilderness. stories of depredations by the apache kid, and of his demise, became so common and dramatic that in southwestern folklore they may be exceeded only by tales of lost spanish gold. native americans lingered in the san mateos well into the 1900s. we know this by an essay written by aldo leopold in 1919 where he documents stumbling upon the remains of a recently abandoned indian hunting camp.