Businessmen soon had the idea to have Geronimo serve as a tourist attraction, and hundreds of visitors were let into the fort daily to lay eyes on the "bloodthirsty" Indian in his cell. Geronimo got ten cents for an autograph, fifty cents to two dollars for a photograph, and ten dollars for a hand crafted bow and arrow.

In President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 Inaugural Parade, Geronimo rode horseback down Pennsylvania Avenue with five Indian chiefs, who wore full headgear and painted faces. The intent, one newspaper stated, was to show Americans "that they have buried the hatchet forever." Later that same week Geronimo met with the President and made a request for the Chiricahuas being held as prisoners of war at Fort Sill to be allowed to return to their homeland in Arizona. Roosevelt refused, telling Geronimo through an interpreter that the Indian had a "bad heart". "You killed many of my people," he said. "You burned villages ... and were not good Indians."

In February 1909, Geronimo was thrown from his horse while riding home, and had to lie in the cold all night until a friend found him extremely ill. On his deathbed, he confessed to his nephew that he regretted his decision to surrender, saying, "I should have fought until I was the last man alive." He died of pneumonia on February 17, 1909, and was buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in the Beef Creek Apache Cemetery.

Legend has it that nine years after Geronimo's death, members of Yale's Skull and Bones society who were stationed at the army base dug up his grave, removing his skull and femur and placing them in a glass case in the lobby of the group's headquarters, a bare, symmetrical, sandstone building known as the Tomb. Six members of the society did serve as Army volunteers at Fort Sill during World War I, including Prescott Bush, the father of U.S. President George H. W. Bush and grandfather of U.S. President George W. Bush. However, the group's attorney denies that they have possession of the skull, and exhuming Geronimo's remains would be difficult as the Army covered his grave with concrete and a stone monument in 1928.

When Geronimo surrendered, he had in his possession a Winchester Model 1876 lever-action rifle with a silver-washed barrel and receiver, bearing Serial Number 109450. It is on display at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. Additionally, he had a Colt Single Action Army revolver with a nickel finish and ivory stocks bearing the serial number 89524, and a Sheffield Bowie knife with a dagger type blade and a stag handle made by George Wostenholm in an elaborate silver-studded holster and cartridge belt. The revolver, rig, and knife are on display at the Fort Sill museum in Oklahoma.