[5] In 1686 the Spanish governor ordered Captain Juan Fernández de la Fuente to send troops to Janos to establish a presidio (fortress).

[6][7] Janos was one of 18 presidios mostly located near the 21st century border of Mexico and the United States that the Spanish created to defend the Mexican settlements from the attacks and raids of Apaches and later Comanches.

[8] Janos was arguably the most important of the presidios with an eventual complement of 144 soldiers, plus auxiliaries drawn from Native Americans and civilians living nearby.

[9] Little information survives about the Janos presidio before 1750, although in 1737 a Spanish writer mentioned the devastation wrought by Apache raids.

In Nueva Vizcaya (21st century Chihuahua and Durango states) between 1771 and 1776, 1,674 deaths of Spanish subjects were recorded, 154 were captured, 100 ranches were abandoned, and 68,000 head of livestock were stolen.

Several large Spanish expeditions led by Hugo Oconór from Janos and other presidios were launched and inflicted substantial deaths among Apaches.

[11] Despite the problems with the Apaches, the town of Janos was founded about 1778 and the civilian population began to grow slowly.

In exchanges for their pledges of peace each Apache man received weekly two almudes (roughly 15 liters) of corn or wheat, a packet of cigarettes, a cake of brown sugar, salt, and (when available) 1/32nd of a butchered steer.

[13] In 1858, the mother, wife, and three children of Apache leader Geronimo were among those killed near Janos in a massacre by a Mexican military force from Sonora.