John Philip Wilson

John Wilson is now retired from a long career as an archeologist and historical researcher, primarily working in the southwestern United States. Along the way, he developed interests in the Lincoln County War and the American Civil War. He worked independently, contracting with state and federal agencies, Indian nations, and sometimes transcribing previously unknown documents which he then edited into books. His contracted projects that led to publications include histories of the Lincoln County War and the uplands of southeastern Arizona, and an account of the Pima and Maricopa Indians of the middle Gila River valley in Arizona. Two recent projects are short accounts of episodes and places that figured in the early histories of Arizona and New Mexico. Most recently he translated a French journal of an exploring party led by Baron LaHontan that followed the lower Missouri and Platte rivers as far upstream as what is now North Platte, Nebraska, in 1688-1689. This remains unpublished. He mostly rests at home as his 89th birthday approaches, with an occasional visit to Tucson, Arizona.