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Title: Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and History
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and History" ***
(_Forest Service, U.S.D.A., by John Whiteside_)
COVER: Redondo Peak, from Jemez Canyon
_Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past Series:_
No. 1—Santa Fe, New Mexico
No. 2—Taos—Red River—Eagle Nest, New Mexico, Circle Drive
No. 3—Roswell—Capitan—Ruidoso and Bottomless Lakes State Park, New
Mexico
No. 4—Southern Zuni Mountains, New Mexico
No. 5—Silver City—Santa Rita—Hurley, New Mexico
No. 6—Trail Guide to Geology of the Upper Pecos, New Mexico
No. 7—High Plains Northeastern New Mexico, Raton—Capulin
Mountain—Clayton
No. 8—Mosaic of New Mexico’s Scenery, Rocks, and History
No. 9—Albuquerque—Its Mountains, Valleys, Water, and Volcanoes
No. 10—Southwestern New Mexico
No. 11—Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad
No. 12—The Story of Mining in New Mexico
No. 13—Española—Chama—Taos
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A., by Robert W. Talbott_)
Whitewater Canyon near Glenwood]
SCENIC TRIPS TO THE GEOLOGIC PAST
NO. 8
_Mosaic of New Mexico’s
Scenery, Rocks, and History_
_edited by_
PAIGE W. CHRISTIANSEN
_and_
FRANK E. KOTTLOWSKI
NEW MEXICO BUREAU OF MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES
1972
NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING & TECHNOLOGY
Kenneth W. Ford, _President_
NEW MEXICO BUREAU OF MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES
Frank E. Kottlowski, _Director_
George S. Austin, _Deputy Director_
BOARD OF REGENTS
Ex Officio
Bruce King, _Governor of New Mexico_
Leonard DeLayo, _Superintendent of Public Instruction_
Appointed
Steve Torres, President, 1967-1985, _Socorro_
Dave Rice, Secretary-Treasurer, 1972-1983, _Carlsbad_
William G. Abbott, 1961-1985, _Hobbs_
Judy Floyd, 1977-1987, _Las Cruces_
Owen Lopez, 1977-1983, _Santa Fe_
BUREAU STAFF
Full Time
Marla D. Adkins, _Assistant Editor_
Orin J. Anderson, _Geologist_
Ruben Archuleta, _Technician I_
Robert A. Bieberman, _Senior Petrol. Geologist_
Steve Blodgett, _Assistant Editor_
Lynn A. Brandvold, _Chemist_
James Brannan, _Drafter_
Corale Brierley, _Chemical Microbiologist_
Ron Broadhead, _Petroleum Geologist_
Brenda R. Broadwell, _Assoc. Lab Geoscientist_
Jane A. Calvert, _Assistant Editor_
Frank Campbell, _Coal Geologist_
Richard Chamberlin, _Economic Geologist_
Charles E. Chapin, _Senior Geologist_
Jeanette Chavez, _Admin. Secretary I_
Richard R. Chavez, _Assistant Head, Petroleum_
Ruben A. Crespin, _Laboratory Technician II_
Lois M. Devlin, _Director, Bus.-Pub. Office_
Amelia Dondero, _Metallurgist_
Kathy C. Eden, _Editorial Technician_
Robert W. Eveleth, _Mining Engineer_
K. Babette Faris, _X-ray Lab. Manager_
Rousseau H. Flower, _Sr. Emeritus Paleontologist_
John W. Hawley, _Senior Env. Geologist_
Cindy Howell, _Staff Secretary_
Robert W. Kelley, _Editor & Geologist_
Arleen Lindsey, _Staff Secretary_
Mark Logsdon, _Industrial Minerals Geologist_
David W. Love, _Environmental Geologist_
Wess Mauldin, _Driller_
Virginia McLemore, _Geologist_
Lynne McNeil, _Staff Secretary_
Norma J. Meeks, _Department Secretary_
David Menzie, _Geologist_
Teresa Mueller, _Drafter_
Robert M. North, _Mineralogist_
Keith O’Brien, _Hydrologist_
JoAnne C. Osburn, _Coal Geologist_
Glenn R. Osburn, _Volcanologist_
Barbara R. Popp, _Lab. Biotechnologist_
Marshall A. Reiter, _Senior Geophysicist_
Jacques R. Renault, _Senior Geologist_
James M. Robertson, _Mining Geologist_
Gretchen H. Roybal, _Coal Geologist_
Amy Shacklett, _Asst. Lab Biotechnologist_
Jackie H. Smith, _Laboratory Technician IV_
William J. Stone, _Hydrogeologist_
Samuel Thompson III, _Senior Petrol. Geologist_
Judy M. Vaiza, _Executive Secretary_
Debra Vetterman, _Drafter_
Robert H. Weber, _Senior Geologist_
Betsy Wilson, _Receptionist/Clerk Typist_
Donald Wolberg, _Vertebrate Paleontologist_
Michael W. Wooldridge, _Scientific Illustrator_
Part Time
Christina L. Balk, _Geologist_
Howard B. Nickelson, _Coal Geologist_
Beverly Ohline, _Acting Director, Info. Services_
Thomas E. Zimmerman, _Chief Security Officer_
Graduate Students
Danny Bobrow
James T. Boyle
Gerry W. Clarkson
Mike Davidson
David R. Guilinger
Terry Jensen
Douglas L. Heath
Adrian Hunt
Ingrid Klich
Ione Lindley
Curtis Verpleough
John M. Wakefield
Mary Lynne Yates
John Young
Plus about 50 undergraduate assistants
_Third edition, 4th printing_
Published by Authority of State of New Mexico, NMSA 1953 Sec. 63-1-4
Printed by University of New Mexico Printing Plant, Albuquerque, April
1982
Available from New Mexico Bureau of Mines & Mineral Resources, Socorro,
NM 87801 $4.00
Contents
3 Of Indians, Spaniards, and Americans, _Paige W. Christiansen_
16 The exotic plants of New Mexico, _Ross Calvin_
26 Dwellers in the hills and plains, _Levon Lee_
33 Rocks that shape the enchanting landscapes, _Frank E.
Kottlowski_
54 Before Coronado, _Robert H. Weber_
64 Frontier forts of New Mexico, _Robert A. Bieberman_
75 Our National Heritage
75 New Mexico’s big share of the National Park System, _H. V.
Reeves, Jr._
93 Forest lands above the desert, _Ruth Bush Jones_
104 The State Also Preserves
104 New Mexico State Monuments, _Museum of New Mexico Staff_
107 New Mexico State Parks, _The Editors_
113 Angling in the desert’s waters, _Fred A. Thompson_
119 The Indians of New Mexico, _Paige W. Christiansen_
133 Reminders of the past, _Paige W. Christiansen_
145 Derricks and mines, _George B. Griswold_
154 Enchanting landscapes, _Frank E. Kottlowski_
165 Index
[Illustration: New Mexico]
Preface
Previous _Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past_ have emphasized scenic
tours of local areas in New Mexico. This book lays out a mosaic of facts
and fancies concerning the state’s landscapes, the rocks that underlie
and make up the landscapes, and the history of the people now living or
who have lived amid New Mexico’s exciting and varied scenery. We hope
these short articles will help you enjoy our state, whether you are a
tourist driving through at seventy miles an hour, a visitor with a
little time to explore, or an old-timer who remembers the cattle drives.
The idea for this publication grew out of a booklet, _New Mexico Mosaic
of Science and History_, that was written for the 1963 National Science
Fair-International held in Albuquerque. The National Science Fair
booklet was directed specifically to the Fair participants and
emphasized their tours to famous scientific installations in New Mexico,
areas of scenic geologic wonders, and points of historic and archeologic
importance. The booklet had only limited distribution; subsequent
interest in this kind of publication about New Mexico led to the
preparation of this book.
Scenic Trips No. 8 is in two major parts. First, there are articles of
general statewide interest to acquaint visitor and resident alike with
the Land of Enchantment—its history, flora and fauna, geology, and
scenic beauty. Second, there are articles describing specific scenic,
geologic, historic, and recreational places to give a depth of
understanding and a more intimate view of New Mexico. The entire mosaic
of New Mexico thus presented is a permanent record to recall vistas of
New Mexico’s enchanting land and fascinating history.
Acknowledgments
Many people have contributed their time and talents to this co-operative
undertaking. We thank each of the authors of the articles; where their
affiliation is not given, they are staff members of the New Mexico
Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources division of the New Mexico
Institute of Mining and Technology. Professor Christiansen is a member
of the Humanities Department of the Institute’s College division. This
book would have been incomplete without the co-operation of the New
Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the Museum of New Mexico, the New
Mexico Department of Development, the State Park Commission, the U.S.
Park Service, and the Forest Service, Southwestern Region, U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Our special appreciation goes to Dr. Ross
Calvin for his interpretative description of New Mexico’s unique flora.
Black and white photographs were contributed by Robert Bieberman, Roy
Foster, and Teri Ray of the Bureau of Mines staff and by the authors or
their agencies. Some of the drawings were made by David H. Moneypenny.
Acknowledgment is also made to Mr. Elliott S. Barker and the Forest
Service for their willing loan of color transparencies.
Among the numerous personnel of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology who aided in preparation of this book, appreciation is due
Helen Waxler, Lois Devlin, Lola White, Mary Ann Grandjean, and Sharon
Ballenger for typing of manuscripts and William Arnold, Robert Price,
and Raymond Molina for drafting maps and figures. Teri Ray deserves
special mention for her interest and editorial advice and for nursing
the material from rough manuscripts into printed pages.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The kind reception given our attempt to provide a brief but
comprehensive guide to New Mexico’s scenery, rocks, and history resulted
in distribution of 5000 copies in two years, and led to this second
edition. In this revision, we have incorporated changes that have
occurred during these two years, especially the addition of State Parks,
and Teri Ray has added an index to make the book more usable. Each
author has re-edited his article and made changes where necessary.
William Arnold added much material to the index map; typing of the
revision manuscript was carefully done by Lois Devlin. Alfred Coulloudon
and Wayne Bera supplied additional photographs. Teri Ray initiated
revision of the first edition, worked with authors, and guided the
manuscript from the authors to the final copy.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
The first edition appeared in 1964, the second in 1967, and a reprint in
1968. In the present edition front matter has been re-styled, printed
matter has been altered on the inside and outside of the covers, a
footnote added to page 104, and a less bulky paper used.
Of Indians, Spaniards, and Americans
_by_ Paige W. Christiansen
In the world of the twentieth century with its tumultuous ovation for
each discovery of science, with its language of non-Euclidian space,
with new heroes who leave the earth, not discover it—sometimes it is
refreshing to look back on other days, to see other heroes, and to seek
romance and excitement which was equally spectacular in times past. Yet
there is a close affinity and a spiritual link among the heroes of the
past, the present, and the future, and the reaction of their
contemporaries to their feats of glory is not so different. Heroes are
those who seek the unknown, who risk life and position to expand the
frontiers of man’s universe and mind. But heroes can only lead an age,
never surpass it. History, then, is people and their catalyst, ideas.
The history of New Mexico, like twentieth century science, is
multi-dimensional. Its complex cultural patterns fit with the intricate
variety of its geologic wonders and its flora and fauna. In reality, New
Mexico is a part of a broader concept, the Southwest. This vast region,
which includes western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California,
part of southern Colorado, and southern Utah, has given rise to some of
man’s greatest achievements. Here prehistoric man rose above his animal
heritage to take control of these lands. Here, also, many millennia
later, man achieved one of his greatest scientific wonders, the
successful release of atomic energy. The story of the years between
these events, so far separated in time, is a wondrous tale.
INDIAN BEGINNINGS
Before the coming of the white man, this land belonged to nature’s
children, the Indian. Centuries before European nations came into
existence, peoples from Asia, crossing by the Bering waters, had
discovered, explored, and settled the American continents from Alaska to
Tierra del Fuego. They mastered the plains, the northern forests, the
jungles of Central and South America, and the arid regions. In the
deserts and mountains of the Southwest, they conquered elements and
terrain, first to survive and then slowly to ascend the ladder of
culture.
At first they were foragers, living on what nature provided. At the time
of Christ, several groups could be distinguished: In the Colorado River
drainage, south of the Grand Canyon, were the Yuman Foragers; in
southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico were the Mogollon
people; in the Four Corners area (where the states of Utah, Colorado,
Arizona, and New Mexico meet) and in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico
was a complex of cave sites that evidenced a forager type of culture.
But, as man always aspires to rise above his environment, the Indian
slowly and painfully learned to make tools, developed new techniques,
and finally made the great step upward; he domesticated plants.
Agriculture, based primarily on the growing of corn, came to the Four
Corners before the Christian era. Gradually, out of the primitive
foragers, there developed across the Southwest a complex pattern of
agricultural societies; peaceful farmers intent upon harvesting the
utmost from a harsh land. In Arizona, the Hohokam peoples created a
culture based upon irrigation. In the valleys of the upper Gila and
Mimbres rivers of southwestern New Mexico, several branches of the
Mogollon culture grew and prospered. In the Four Corners area and in the
upper Rio Grande Valley, the Mesa Verde, the Gran Chaco, and later the
Rio Grande branches developed, at first in the cliffs of the high
country, then in open villages along the main tributaries of the Rio
Grande. That there were numerous and varied cultures is attested to by
the ruins one finds scattered throughout the Southwest. Along now dry
arroyos, on buttes overlooking rivers or dry river beds, among cliffs in
the mountain fastnesses and in caves wherever they appear, there are
thousands of sites whose people and history are lost in antiquity.
[Illustration: Prehistoric Indian cliff dwelling]
And these people were builders. They lived in caves at first, then in
crude pit houses. Finally they moved above the ground and evolved
building techniques and styles of architecture that stood the ravages of
time and still serve the people of the Southwest. In the city of Santa
Fe, the Palace of the Governors was built upon the ruins of an Indian
pueblo (village), the name of which has disappeared even from tradition,
and its massive walls of puddled adobe, laid down before the art of
making bricks was introduced by the Spanish, may be seen under glass in
some of the rooms of the Palace at the present time. Perhaps most
spectacular are the great houses of Chaco Canyon, some of which must
have sheltered from one to two thousand people each, and which as
achievements in building, both from the standpoint of durability and
graceful construction, rival the structures of the historic valleys and
plateaus of the ancient eastern world.
In addition to agriculture and building, the Indian of the Southwest
achieved great heights in artistic forms. The ceramics of the American
Southwest become increasingly important when compared with products of
the Old World. The Indians of America and the Southwest are a race of
artists. Their aesthetic culture towers above anything achieved by the
white man, with the general exception of ancient Greece and Renaissance
Italy.
As impressive as his achievements in domesticating plants, in building
massive structures, and in developing symbolism and aesthetic values to
match his material advances, the Indian’s greatest heights were reached
in his philosophy on nature and life. He conceived himself to be, not
master of creation, but a single factor in the scheme of things. He
shared with all things—beasts, birds, rocks, trees, everything in
nature—a life principle which permeated all, a gift conferred by the
mighty powers of earth and sky. He observed orderly procession of
natural phenomena and ordered his own life in harmony therewith. His was
no egocentric point of view which has become so much a part of the
philosophic base of the European mentality. His natural philosophy
entered into every facet of his life—his daily work, his art, his
ceramics, his religion. In short, this singularly fine outlook upon the
world helps to account for his success in conquering the diverse
elements of earth and sky which constantly threatened his very
existence.
But this fine culture did not survive in the fullness of its bloom. What
eventually destroyed the vast and complicated agricultural system was
not the rigors of Mother Nature but a migration of new people into the
flow of Southwest history. Sometime after 1000 A.D., a nonfarming,
nomadic, warlike people entered the Southwest. The peaceful farmers,
weakened by drouth, were unable to cope with this new force. Gradually
they fell back, leaving behind their homes, their fields, their culture.
By 1300, only a small remnant remained, that located in the Rio Grande
Valley of north-central New Mexico. Across the rest of the Southwest the
nomadic tribes, technically called _Athapascan_ from their linguistic
affiliation but better known by their modern name, _Apache_, had
replaced the farming cultures. The picturesque Indian pueblos we see
today in the valleys of northern New Mexico are the direct descendants
of the great cultures that existed at Mesa Verde, Gran Chaco, Frijoles,
and other centers of cultural achievement.
The Indians of the Rio Grande Valley and the Apache who controlled most
of the Southwest managed an uneasy coexistence. The Pueblo Indians
remained basically farmers, holding fast to the cultural advances made
by their ancestors during the millennium preceding 1300. The Apache, for
the most part, remained nomadic predators, living off nature’s bounty,
or better still, raiding the pueblos for food. The Apache groups began
to take on names and traditional areas which they called their own. In
northern New Mexico were the Jicarilla Apache and in the southeast, the
Lipan, the Mescalero, and the Natage Apache. In northeastern Arizona
were the Navajo and in the drainage of the Gila River, the Chiricahua,
the Gila, and other groups of the Western Apache. Each of these groups
made its mark upon the face of the land.
SPANISH CONTRIBUTIONS
This was the situation in the Southwest when the sixteenth century
opened, but a new force was abroad which would grow and strengthen and
leave a deep imprint on New Mexico. Beginning on the wild islands of the
Caribbean and then fanning out into the heart of Mexico and the South
American continent, this new force spread across the face of America.
Europeans, more exactly, Spaniards, came bent upon conquest for its own
reward, for the glory of God, and for gold. These sturdy men from the
Iberian peninsula with weapons vastly superior to the Indians’, with the
horse which made them highly mobile and devastating in battle, and with
tactics and precision in warfare unknown among the Indians, were to
sweep without serious setback across the great cultures of Mexico and
Central and South America. By 1540, they were ready to take their next
leap forward.
On the west coast of Mexico, at a place called Culiacan, a colorful host
gathered. In their ears rang the words of the legend of the Seven Cities
of Cibola, seven golden cities, a legend which had been popular in Spain
for many generations. Mexico City had produced wealth, and the Spanish
were ready to believe that other fabulous cities existed. One Spaniard
had already crossed part of North America and had heard from the Indians
tales of the rich cities. His name was Cabeza de Vaca, and the
exuberance of his tales fired the imagination of the Spaniards.
The soldiers and adventurers gathering in Mexico, commanded by Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado, were the first Europeans to organize an expedition
to the American Southwest. Leaving from Culiacan in 1540, they went up
the west coast of Mexico into modern Arizona, then east into New Mexico.
The seven golden cities turned out to be the pueblos around Zuni, New
Mexico, and not golden at all. The expedition, although discouraged,
marched into the Rio Grande Valley and visited most of the pueblos
there. Still they failed to find the treasure they sought. In a final
desperate attempt, they explored onto the Great Plains, eventually
reaching central Kansas. Broken in spirit and body, they struggled back
to the Rio Grande Valley, and then retraced their route to Mexico. In
all, the expedition covered a two-year span. A failure? Yes, in terms of
wealth and treasure found. Yes, in terms of conquest, for nothing had
been conquered. No, in terms of human resources, for the Indians
Coronado met were to be the incentive that would bring the Spaniard back
to New Mexico. While the Spaniard did seek gold and glory, he also
burned with a missionary zeal and sought souls for his deep-running
religion, Roman Catholicism.
[Illustration: Mesa top pueblo]
For fifty-five years after Coronado, interest in New Mexico and the
Southwest was spotty. Other things occupied the Spanish—primarily silver
discoveries in the central valleys of Mexico. But men did not forget New
Mexico and saw there an opportunity for missionary activity and
exploitation. Also, other nations of Europe were beginning to take an
interest in the North American continent, and New Mexico began to look
attractive to the Spanish as a frontier defensive outpost. The frontier
line pushed ever northward from central Mexico. By 1595, the Spanish
were ready to push a salient into New Mexico.
From among the mining communities of northern Mexico, a force of two
hundred colonists was assembled by Don Juan Oñate who had a contract to
colonize New Mexico. After countless delays due to politics and supply
shortages, the Oñate expedition left Chihuahua in 1598. The route went
north across the desert to the Rio Grande near El Paso del Norte (modern
Juarez), thence up the Rio Grande into New Mexico. On August 18, 1598,
they arrived at San Juan, and there founded the first capital of New
Mexico, San Juan de los Caballeros. These lands of the Southwest so long
colored by the Indian now received a new imprint, one that would alter
the direction and flow of culture and change it from the Indian to the
Spanish Southwest.
From San Juan, and later (1610) from Santa Fe, Oñate, his men, and his
colonists brought New Mexico under the Spanish yoke. In co-operation
with the Franciscan Order, which had been assigned the task of
converting the Indian, Oñate supervised the building of missions and
mission churches at many of the pueblos of New Mexico. At the same time,
Spanish towns developed, the most important being the new capital at
Santa Fe. By 1628, New Mexico was solidly in the hands of her new
masters.
The period from 1628 to 1680 was one of internal conflict and isolation
for New Mexico. It lay far out on the frontier, alone and distant from
its source of supplies. It lacked many of the items necessary for
frontier life, particularly hardware and clothing. Its population was
small, and in constant fear of Indian uprising, and its officials were
too weak to act with vigor. Finally, there was a lack of genuine
interest on the part of the central authorities. All these problems led
to internal conflicts between soldier and colonist; between colonist and
Indian; between colonist and official; and, perhaps most bitter of all,
between church and state. This latter conflict would erupt time after
time, openly, and with bitterness and denunciation from both sides.
Governors were excommunicated as heretics; Franciscans were accused of
all sorts of crimes and improper behavior. This, plus the other
conflicts, gave rise to growing disrespect by the Indians for their
European conquerors. The superiority of Christianity was questioned by
the Indians as they watched the attacks and counterattacks made by
priest and governor. The whole system of Spanish rule seemed a mockery.
In 1680, the Indians decided their way was best after all and rose in
rebellion.
Led by Po-pé from Taos, the various pueblos banded together in a mighty
effort to remove the Spanish from traditional Indian lands. For the
first time the pueblos came together, united by a single purpose. There
were two exceptions; Isleta, just south of Albuquerque, and the Piro
villages farther south (Socorro) remained loyal to the Spanish. Up and
down the Rio Grande Valley, the Spaniards fell before the pent-up anger
of the Indians. Survivors gathered at Santa Fe, but their water supply
was cut, and they were forced to retreat south. At Isleta and later at
the Piro villages, they received aid before continuing south to El Paso
del Norte. With them went their Indian allies from Isleta and Socorro.
It was a total defeat for the Spanish, and the Indian again was master
of New Mexico.
But not for long, for at El Paso there gathered a force dedicated to
revenge for their comrades who had died before the Indian onslaught.
Ably led by Diego de Vargas, this expedition moved into New Mexico in
1692. The Indians, who had achieved such unity for the moment in 1680,
were again badly divided. De Vargas, instead of having to subdue an
alliance, had only to deal with one pueblo at a time. Very quickly New
Mexico was returned to a mission area and frontier military post. The
Pueblo Indians became permanently subjected to European domination.
Their one and only attempt at unity had, in the final analysis, failed.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, New Mexico was the
heart of the Spanish empire in the Southwest. Only in southwestern
Arizona, western Texas, and California did the Spanish hold any land
other than in the upper Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. During these
centuries, this valley complex played out its dual role of mission area
and military outpost. Its only connection with the resources and ideas
of the world was a long hazardous road that stretched from Santa Fe to
Chihuahua City and then south to Mexico City. This was New Mexico’s
Royal Road, and over it moved everything needed by soldier, priest, and
civilian. The trade was dominated by the merchants of Chihuahua, and New
Mexico suffered. The tale of New Mexico during this period was one of
poverty, hardship, and warfare. And several vital forces moved across
the land.
One of these forces had long been in the Southwest, but latent. The
Spanish adopted an Indian word meaning _enemy_ to describe it—Apache!
The Spanish brought with them domesticated animals which quickly adapted
to conditions of the New World and became available to the Indian. Most
important was the horse, at least as far as the Apache was concerned. By
the early eighteenth century, the Apache, and other groups on the
plains, had adapted to the use of the horse. While dangerous as foot
soldiers, the Apache became vastly more dangerous as mounted warriors.
Whereas they had been satisfied with minor raids against the pueblos and
the Spanish holdings prior to 1700, they exploded on a wave of terrorism
during the eighteenth century which very nearly drove the Spanish from
the frontier. Late in the century, the conflict between the Apache and
the Spanish became increasingly bitter. The history of the Southwest
became the history of incessant Indian incursions and Spanish attempts
to control the raiders. The missions declined and in many instances gave
way entirely to the presidio or fort. In New Mexico the military came to
dominate the missionary, and only through the heroic efforts of the
meager force at the Presidio of Santa Fe did the Spanish manage to hold
New Mexico from total collapse. A poor province became poorer,
population declined, both among the Spanish and Indian, and the future
looked dark indeed.
Far from New Mexico, other forces were stirring which would have a
profound effect on the province and the Southwest. Spain and the Spanish
empire were in trouble. Spain had failed to develop the supply
capability to keep her colonies alive and was forced to spend her wealth
in other areas of Europe. After two and a half centuries, the cumbersome
and inefficient colonial administrative machinery was breaking down.
While Spain’s star was descending, other European nations were on the
move. England, France, Holland, and Russia were contesting with Spain
for control of the New World. England and France were digging in on the
east coast of North America; Holland was penetrating the islands of the
Caribbean, and Russia was pushing down the Pacific Coast from Alaska.
The weakness of Spain and the failure of her colonial government, plus
help from Napoleon by way of his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in
1808, brought about the collapse of the Spanish empire. In America,
patriots, inspired by the earlier success of the American Revolution and
afire with the ideas of the French Revolution, struck out at the
remnants of Spanish rule. By 1825, all the Spanish colonies but the
islands of the Caribbean were free and independent nations. New Mexico
and the Southwest became part of the Mexican state.
Almost immediately, Mexico, without leaders, without a political
heritage to lead it to stability, and torn by power struggles large and
small, was plunged into a period of political anarchy and civil war
which would last for half a century. The problems and dangers of a
far-flung frontier were lost in the din of conflict, and New Mexico
became a forgotten province. Its claims as a mission area were so weak
as to be almost nonexistent. It was no longer needed as a military
outpost, for the danger to Mexico was not external, but internal. Its
reasons for being were forgotten, at least for the moment, and New
Mexico had to survive on her own initiative. But for one very important
fact, the Spanish salient into the Southwest might have collapsed under
the weight of poverty and Indian attacks. That fact was the opening of
the Santa Fe Trail in 1821, a trail which linked the Spanish world with
the Anglo-Saxon world then pushing its frontiers out from Missouri. This
trail, so rich in lore and adventure, so much a part of the history of
both the American west and the Spanish north, was the door through which
passed the characters for the final act in the history of the Southwest.
Before the final act, however, it is vital and necessary to set down the
contribution of two hundred fifty years of Spanish occupation and rule.
The coming of the Spaniard to the Southwest began a mixture of white and
red races which resulted in a new mixed race. The first generation of
those who came up from Mexico were Caucasians; their descendants were
usually not. They came seeking wealth and security, but there was
neither wealth nor security in New Mexico, and they remained poor, very
poor. The society that evolved was to be based upon farming and stock
raising, and its organization was to be feudal in nature. There would be
no education; hence, there could be no intellectual advance. The world
began to go ahead of the people of New Mexico. Only in the house of the
rico was there any sign of the wealth and grandeur of Spain; everywhere
else was poverty. Farming was left in the hands of the Indian, while the
Spaniard chose to be a man on horseback, a cattleman, an aristocrat. In
the final analysis, Spanish New Mexico would not develop as democratic
and agricultural, but aristocratic and feudal. The hacienda was a part
of old Spain in exile. The rico tried vainly to hold to his idea of
chivalry and to a decorum suitable to his position. But what chance was
there in the face of the increasing poverty, the constant danger to life
and property, and time that did not move? While individual courage of
the upper class remained, discipline and industry died. When the
American army marched into the Southwest, the sons of the conquistadores
could offer no armed resistance. Perhaps the most amazing thing about
the society of the ricos in New Mexico was that it failed to contribute
any lasting monument. It left no art, no music, no great highways, no
adequate governmental system.
But many elements of Spanish culture were to persist, and these arose
from the collective consciousness of the people of New Mexico. Around
the great haciendas were small villages with their artisans and workers.
It was among these people that the heritage of Spain clung to this land.
Many of these towns yet remain and are not much different from those of
two hundred years ago. To a large degree, their Spanish culture seems
hidden and undiscovered, but the people, their loves and hates,
pleasures and hopes, beliefs and fears, are governed by tradition, a
tradition that finds its roots deep in the soil of Spain.
[Illustration: Old mission church at Isleta Pueblo]
Today, when we look at the cultural scene in New Mexico, we can see
direct evidence of Spanish occupation. The language of half the people
in the state is Spanish, in some areas still the Spanish of the
sixteenth century. Roman Catholicism, of which the Spanish were the most
Catholic, dominates the religious scene. The Spanish heritage in
political attitudes, in building and architecture, and in the legal
tradition of the state is apparent. New Mexico, of all the states in the
United States, is the only one that can claim a truly Spanish heritage.
ANGLO-AMERICAN VIGOR
While Spain lost its empire and New Mexico and the Southwest sank into
poverty and decay, yet another force was on the march, a force that
welled up in an Anglo-American people clinging to the Atlantic Coast of
North America. As these people developed a nation, they also discovered
a sense of destiny which turned their faces to the west and their
footsteps toward the sunset. With them moved their culture. At first, it
was a trickle, a few traders bent on profit, crossing the plains on the
Santa Fe Trail. Then the trickle became a flood. For New Mexico, these
men came as saviors. The Missouri traders broke the Chihuahua monopoly
and goods from all parts of the world began to flow into New Mexico,
resulting in higher standards of living. These Yankee traders, sensing a
good thing, also penetrated the markets of Mexico, using New Mexico’s
Royal Road to gain entrance.
Again there was conflict, not Spanish and Indian, but Latin and
Anglo-American. Mexico owned the lands of the Southwest and intended to
keep them. But this American, with his gaze glued on western skies,
refused to turn aside, and he strode on, grinding the feeble efforts of
Mexican resistance into the desert sands. The Mexican War in 1846,
suddenly transferred ownership of Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada,
Arizona, and California from Mexico to the United States. This was
nearly half the territory of Mexico. New Mexico, with her already
complex cultural pattern, was subjected to still another influence.
The history of the American occupation of the Southwest is as complex
and diverse as its predecessors. Its ingredients include cattle, mining,
railroads, agriculture, science, and the Indian. All these, and others,
combined to give an Anglo-American slant to the Southwest. The Indian
culture did not disappear, nor did the Spanish, but rather a new stratum
was cast that was to complete the mosaic.
When the American arrived in New Mexico, he found a poor, backward area,
hungry for trade and outside contacts. He found the Indians of the
Southwest in open rebellion against the white men. The Navajo and other
Apache groups, the Comanche, and some of the Pueblos were the primary
offenders. This was to be the main problem occupying the time and energy
of the American settler and soldier for forty years after 1846. Until
the Indian situation was stabilized, there would be little economic and
social development.
The method evolved for containing the vicious raids against friendly
Indian, Spanish, and American communities was a series of forts placed
at strategic passes or trails surrounding the traditional lands of the
Apache. The Indian strongholds were located primarily in the mountainous
regions of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The line of
forts stretched along the Rio Grande south of Socorro to the vicinity of
Las Cruces, and west along the southern edge of the mountain escarpment
into Arizona. Then the defense complex ran north across the desert to an
irregular line running east from Flagstaff through Gallup and back to
the Rio Grande. These forts were well garrisoned and provisioned and
began to carry the fight to the Indian. Early success was halted by the
conflict generated by the American Civil War.
The center of the Civil War in the west was in New Mexico. There was
conflict, argument, and some small degree of fighting in other western
states and territories as settlers from the north or south struggled to
carry this territory or that state into the Union or the Confederacy.
These were, however, local matters and as much political as military. In
New Mexico, there was a war and there were battles, battles which
deserve to be a part of the general Civil War story but that are usually
forgotten in the smoke and roar of eastern cannon.
Two major battles were fought in New Mexico, the first a Confederate
victory, the second a Union victory which saved New Mexico, and the
west, for the Union. The aim of the Confederate forces was to capture,
intact if possible, the forts in New Mexico and Arizona with their great
store of military provisions, provisions badly needed by the Confederate
army. Also, there was a feeling among southern leaders that success in
New Mexico might also lead to success in California, badly split on the
question of secession, and in Colorado, rich in silver and gold. An army
recruited in Texas and commanded by General Henry Sibley was sent to
accomplish Confederate aims.
This army entered New Mexico along the traditional route, moving up the
Rio Grande from El Paso. It quickly subdued the forts and Union troops
in southern New Mexico and continued up-river. On February 21, 1862, it
met a Union army commanded by Colonel E. R. S. Canby at Valverde, a
small community about twenty miles south of Socorro, New Mexico. Kit
Carson, New Mexico’s famous trapper and scout, commanded the New Mexico
Volunteers, a part of the Union force. Canby’s troops were beaten and
dispersed at the Battle of Val Verde, leaving the upper Rio Grande
Valley virtually without defense. Within a few weeks, the Texans had
taken Albuquerque and Santa Fe. But one stronghold in New Mexico
remained in the hands of the Union forces. Fort Union, northeast of Las
Vegas, New Mexico, became the focal point of action by both north and
south. Sibley, marching from Santa Fe, knew success depended on the fall
of Fort Union. The Union forces, equally aware of the importance of the
fort, hurriedly reinforced it with a number of volunteers from Colorado.
Within Fort Union, a crisis developed over differing opinions on
strategy. The fort commander wanted to keep the garrison at full
strength and fight the Confederates from within the fort. The Colorado
Volunteers wanted to go out and meet the enemy. The latter won and a
Union force moved into the passes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to
meet the Confederates in a fateful battle that would decide control of
the west. It was fought at Glorieta Pass on March 28, 1862. Despite the
fact that the two armies met on this field, the contest was not decided
there. Early on the morning of March 28, a force of 400 Colorado
Volunteers, commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington, began a flanking
action in hopes of hitting the Confederate rear. This group moved out of
the Pass into the mountains, and by a very difficult route moved back
toward the Pass behind the Confederate force. On a ridge overlooking
Apache Canyon, they saw below them the entire Confederate supply train
and cavalry horse herd. In a lightning hit-and-run attack, the supply
train and horses were destroyed. When word of this reached Sibley at
Glorieta Pass, there was little for him to do but to retire from the
field. The Confederate force never recovered from this disaster and
gradually retreated to Santa Fe, then back down the Rio Grande into
Texas.
With the end of the Civil War, New Mexico and the Southwest returned,
not to peace, but to war, war against the Apache. It took twenty years
for the American with all his modern weapons and tactics to bring the
Apache under control. For the Apache, it ended on September 3, 1886,
when Geronimo and his few ragged followers surrendered to General Miles
in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. Under the weight of steel and increasing
numbers of white men, the Apache was doomed. Though civilization would
swallow the Apache, as it has always succeeded against the barbarian,
the Apache made a spectacular defense of his lands and his way of life
against both Spaniard and American. He made himself master of the
desert, and only the gods of science succeeded in overcoming him and his
desert gods.
INDUSTRIAL BOOM
With the Indian situation settled, New Mexico underwent a boom in two
important areas, mining and cattle raising. These industries, so much a
part of the history of the American West, did and still play an
important role in the well-being of the Southwest. Mining camps sprang
up along the mountain fringes as new discoveries of silver and gold came
to light. Around Socorro and Magdalena, in the Mogollon Mountains, at
Hillsboro and Kingston in the Black Range, and hundreds of other places
in New Mexico and the Southwest, men hungry for quick wealth swarmed
over the hills and mountains and built their roaring camps. While miners
were tapping the subsurface wealth, cattlemen were staking out their
claims to the grasslands, both on the eastern plains and in the high
mountain meadows. Cattle empires grew to staggering proportions,
sometimes erupting into violent conflict over grazing and water rights,
such as the Lincoln County War made famous by the participation of Billy
the Kid.
[Illustration: Feature of the Old West]
The character of the Southwest still bears the stamp of the miner and
the cattleman. Although the cattle and grazing industry has declined, as
has the traditional mining camp, the past importance of these activities
has had a tremendous impact upon the character of Southwest folklore,
law, and music and on the thought of the people.
Other influences affected New Mexico as a result of the American
occupation, things inherent in the American culture. Ribbons of steel
across a continent, buildings of steel and stone, business and commerce,
technology, common law, the English language, the Protestant religion,
and, above all, the American-brought driving desire to dominate, to win.
Certainly the American had to adapt his culture to the desert lands, but
he did it in his own way, not in the way of the Indian or Spaniard. So
Anglo-American culture became superimposed upon a Spanish culture that
was superimposed upon an Indian culture.
_Disinherited_, that is the word that best describes contemporary New
Mexico culture. A stronger race came and took away the inheritance of
the Indian, though there did result a blood mixture. Only in superficial
matters did the Spanish adopt any of the Indian ways. The Spanish, too,
succumbed to a stronger people and have been denied the privilege
commonly accorded to conquered peoples, that of mixing their blood with
that of the conquerors. One finds today in New Mexico three distinct
people—Indian, Spanish, and Anglo-American—as sharply contrasted as the
strands in a Navajo blanket. There is pure red alongside white, and only
rarely do the colors blend into pinks or grays. This is why we must say
that New Mexico is a mosaic, not a synthesis, of many elements, clearly
defined.
Across the span of time, great men, people, and ideas have molded New
Mexico and Southwest history. Indian, Spanish, American—vital forces
that are today working toward a genuinely unique culture in New Mexico.
The modern world may well give to the Southwest the idea or catalyst
that will blend these elements into a single force. Science, techniques,
ideas are things of the present and are for the present to assess and
synthesize. The Indian gods of air, earth, and sky and the white man’s
gods of morality and science do not differ a great deal in their
aspirations for their chosen people, and perhaps they will decree a
splendid and unique synthesis from the cultural mosaic. Through
understanding comes knowledge; from knowledge, creation.
The Exotic Plants of New Mexico
_by_ Ross Calvin
The problem of discussing plant life becomes complicated, for some of
those arriving in New Mexico may be compound microscope botanists, some
collectors, others pathologists, still others geneticists. Some will be
chemists or mathematicians, some others untrained in the ways of growing
things and mainly interested in seeing while they tour. But one thing is
fairly certain—most visitors will come from a distance, so it may be
useful to invite them to observe what they can readily see on the way
hither, which will be a relatively painless method of amassing some
information.
Yet the method of arrival itself suggests choices, options, and
exercises in probability. Do visitors come in covered wagons, or in jet
planes; by bus, car, train, or some other way? The most convenient way,
doubtless, is by plane traveling six hundred miles an hour at a height
of some thirty thousand feet; but the most rewarding way is by saddle or
on foot as the early collectors came.
Since one cannot know his own country well if he knows no other, a
visitor from the east arriving at an altitude of five miles will
probably be more conscious than others of drastic changes in the
landscape when he first looks down on New Mexico. Instead of the
universal green of the east, he will note the earth as an unaccustomed
tawny, reddish brown expanse, and this will be its common color through
most months of the year. He will note the absence of rivers, but the
presence of mountains which generally ring the horizon. He will wonder,
after traversing the border counties at the western edge of the Great
Plains, at the infrequency of plowlands, and will promptly conclude that
New Mexico is one vast, bare desert—an impression that will be corrected
rapidly when he visits the dark National Forests where the slim, crowded
spruces and firs tower skyward.
The visitor from El Paso, as the Chihuahua desert (the name is fairly
deserved) slides backward underneath him, will be amazed at the
serpentine stripe of vivid verdure below, all completely leveled, and
all marked off by geometrical lines and tightly bordered by pale hills
where the vegetation is reduced to tiny dots not tall enough to cast a
shadow. Still proceeding north, he will presently be above a ninety-mile
stretch where the vegetation is so skimpy and the river so closely boxed
in by desolate hills that Spanish explorers bestowed on it the sinister
name _Jornada del Muerto_—Dead Man’s Journey, which is self-explanatory.
But on the other hand, a visitor descending into New Mexico from the
northland in wintertime above this same Rio Grande will traverse a
featureless jumble of peaks on which the black coniferous forest no
longer shows as black at all but, snow-encased, gleams as white as the
naked snowfields themselves. And he will find incredible the immense
range of climate spanned in a flight only an hour long.
The jet traveler approaching from the west beholds the greatest, most
spectacular panorama of all, the true wasteland of the desert, with vast
blocks uplifted from out of earth’s crust, plateaus dissected by giant
empty canyons whose walls are seared to utter nudity by ages of the most
intense sunshine on our continent. Here the architecture of nature is
all designed on a gigantic scale, and the climate exhibits influences of
a mighty ocean, of towering mountain chains, and the range of wandering
planetary winds which created the desert. From the altitude of a
cruising jet, the distances, the speed, the color, and the light are
indescribably exhilarating.
Since the traveler arriving from any direction can see for
identification only a few species, it will suffice to point out only two
of the harbingers of eastern New Mexico, both of which are dominant on
that area of the Great Plains: the blue grama grass, which in fall and
winter bears the graceful sickle-shaped head, and the small _Yucca
glauca_ which cannot be mistaken for anything else.
Along the northern line, the visitor should look for the somber, almost
black, forest of spruce and fir with its white patches of aspen on the
10,000-foot slopes. Descending farther southward, even a casual observer
will note that these species give way first to the yellow pines, then to
the junipers (“cedars”) and dwarf pines or piñons. The visitor arriving
from the south will find most conspicuous of all the olive-green
creosote bush in its summer-winter foliage, next, the omnipresent
mesquite (_Prosopis_), then the various _Opuntia_ cacti (chollas and
prickly pears), and the yuccas.
As he comes in from Arizona, the splendid saguaros will beckon him
toward the gateway of New Mexico, but they will nowhere enter it
themselves. The vase-shaped body of the ocotillo consisting of
unbranching, ten-foot wands should be recognized at a glance, as
likewise should the various yuccas and agaves. And in early springtime,
a low tree with a rounded mass of golden bloom will joyously proclaim
its identity as a paloverde.
The desert plants thus enumerated can be recognized along various
stretches of U.S. 66 as one holds his speed at a conservative ninety or,
even better, at a conservative sixty.
The amateur scientist will need to do some homework before he learns
much systematic botany or plant physiology. It takes considerable study
to comprehend the slow, age-long process which has resulted in the
evolution of all this grotesque vegetation: the interaction of extreme
aridity, high temperature, low humidity, high evaporation, infrequent
precipitation, the hostility of numerous chemical solutions, and the
natural rapacity of the animal population. Each plant must have an
adaptation of its own, from the tiny winter annual, which must race
through its course from a tender rosette to ripened seed before the
searing sunshine arrives, on up through the series to the stoic saguaro,
which seems able to scorn nature’s enmity.
A final warning to the air traveler. He should be sure before deplaning
that he has observed a _bajada_. It is a must. Bajada is one name,
outwash slope is another, alluvial fan is still another. The stewardess
should inquire of each student, and if his answer is “no,” she should
reply, “Then you’ve just flunked the course.” A bajada is the most
characteristic single feature of all in the sloping, stony topography of
the desert—and remember that the surface of the desert is regularly
sloping and stony. The Spanish word itself means only a down slope, but
it has come to have a semitechnical sense—a fan-shaped apron of rocky
debris at the foot of a mountain where it has settled out of the summer
torrents and there keeps accumulating in successive floods. As the mass
builds up, the bigger fragments drop out closest to the parent crag,
then the small ones, finally the coarse gravel, and lowest of all on the
slope the fine sand. Thus the fragments are graduated in size, in
distance traveled, and in the nature of soil resulting. As the fan
increases in size and laps up higher and higher on the mountain’s flank,
the geologists often describe the result by saying that the mountain “is
burying itself under its own debris.” From the air, the lines of
drainage will be seen to have assumed the form of a tree with its trunk
downward, its branches high in air. But the most interesting aspect of a
bajada is the nice proportion which nature works out between the plant
species and their location on the curve.
FROM SAGEBRUSH TO SPRUCE TREES
The traveler who has viewed the Southwestern panorama of nature from its
sagebrush to its spruce trees has indeed seen most of it. The spruce
which grows wild only well up on the higher mountains is familiar to
everybody because it has become a favorite in formal planting
everywhere. But the sages—who knows them? To the tenderfoot, almost any
gray plant is “sage.” To my friends the cowmen, sage means commonly
saltbush. To my friends the foresters, sage means an artemisia. But
there are romantics to whom “purple sage” is Apache plume, which is a
member of the wild rose family.
Some popular education would seem to be desirable. And this applies,
too, to the cacti, for there is more misinformation about them than
anything else that grows, runs, or creeps—except rattlesnakes. The
clever people who design travel folders and pictorial maps almost always
put saguaros in New Mexico. But saguaros do not grow in New Mexico. That
is final! And the yucca is not a cactus. That also is final. Nor yet the
ocotillo—that defiant, splendid denizen of the desert which flaunts the
scarlet torch of flowers. The question that is always on the surface as
one writes of plant life in the Southwest is, “Who wants to know?” The
picnicker wants to know the names—and nothing much besides—of the wild
flowers. My friend the cowman already has the names; that is, the common
ones. If I chance to mention blue grama grass, he gently corrects me,
“black grama.” Then if I mention black grama, he says, “no, white
grama.” But at least he is concerned about something more important than
nonscientific names. He wants to know if the plant is something that a
lean old cow can eat, whether it stays green in winter, and if it will
hold the soil in place. The tourist who pilots car and passengers some
six hundred miles between breakfast and bedtime asks only what he was
looking at. The rest of us who go into the mountains often enough to be
impressed by the layer-cake succession of plants on their slopes can,
with the aid of some reading, amass a store of knowledge where others
amass only mileage. On a tour, it is mileage or knowledge. One has to
choose.
Actually, our New Mexico desert is not dominated by sage. That honor is
held by the creosote bush, called by some of the old-timers
_greasewood_, _Covillea glutinosa_, by some of the scientists—along with
five other synonyms. Like the mesquite with which it shares the same
general habitat but _does not intermix_, it occupies an immense spread
of territory, roughly from Texas to California. Since no livestock will
eat it and the ground it occupies is equally useless for agriculture
because of aridity and stoniness, creosote is a veritable coyote for
survival. The traveler descending from Taos to Santa Fe need not look
for it. The sage of that locality, which gives the landscape its
singularly mournful aspect, is a true sage. With good reason the cowboys
call it _black sage_.
In 1846, Lieutenant Emory, as he rode southward with the Army of the
West, first encountered the creosote as he approached Socorro. The
northward extension of the plant is at the same point today, and the
range of mesquite extends only a few miles farther north. These two
remarkable plants are the main markers of the Lower Sonoran Zone. In the
same arid, stony, broken country, the traveler will find an abundance of
cacti, and these plants are usually supposed to be the most tenacious of
all tenacious growing things. Actually, in southwestern Arizona and
neighboring parts of California there are whole areas where the aridity
is too severe for cacti, but for our state—let it stand. Everybody, of
course, has noted the grotesque shape of the plants, but not everybody
has noted that the shape was chosen with a canny intelligence. A globe
exposes less surface (that is, the vulnerable area for evaporation) than
any other solid of equal volume. And a cylinder is second best. Another
thing—cacti being succulents are filled with a watery sap or juice which
quickly coagulates after a wound and stops the waste of moisture.
Furthermore, the plant’s aggressive root system is arranged so as to
capture the grounds scanty moisture most quickly and completely after
rains.
Cacti of more than sixty species occur within our state, but more than
nine tenths of the plants seen along the highway—unless they are brought
together for a garden collection—can be grouped into one genus, the
_Opuntia_. The family likeness is shown not by the shape or general
appearance but by the fact that all are jointed. Both the cane cactus
(also called cholla and elkhorn) and the pancaked prickly pear, unlike
the big barrel cactus and the numerous small species which resemble it
in shape, have joints and may therefore be rightly called opuntias. The
“pancakes,” it may be remarked, are not leaves but divisions of the
stem. A cactus gets along without leaves. So a good rough-and-ready test
is this: if it has leaves, it is not a cactus—which eliminates ocotillo,
yucca, agave, sotol, and so on.
The barrel cactus is sure to be seen growing beside service stations in
the southern part of the state. Its name as well as its size identifies
it. The flowers and the large lemon-shaped fruits are worth a glance. If
they do not occur on the south side of the plant, it has been
transplanted and turned. The evidence is as trustworthy as the presence
of moss on the north side of a tree in the forest.
The barrel cacti, the opuntias, acacias, the ocotillos, along with the
creosote and mesquite already mentioned, have a way of growing along
together in what is called a plant society. These all belong in the
bottom layer of the cake called the Lower Sonoran Zone, which is best
seen on the Rio Grande mesas near El Paso.
The layer next above it comprises the foothill country of the Upper
Sonoran Zone, which includes most of the state of New Mexico. Some of
its common markers are juniper, piñon, oak of various species including
live oak, mountain mahogany, mescal, yucca, beargrass, and the famous
blue grama grass. It is exhibited all along the Continental Divide in
the southwest part of the state but nowhere so well as in the Fort
Bayard Reservation. There a tract, protected for three generations from
woodcutting, fires, and intensive grazing, offers a large-scale picture
of the lovely land that once was New Mexico. There the character and
amount of vegetation astounds the visitor who is familiar with only the
close-picked, parched aspect of the landscape that generally borders the
main highways. When seen from the air, the very color of the
grass-mantled earth is many shades lighter than that of the bare
overgrazed ranges a few miles to the south. And the difference can be
seen by anybody.
The foothills are dotted, not covered, with juniper and piñon. The
dwarfed, rounded little junipers (properly enough called cedars) leave
the traveler unprepared to believe that they will anywhere become
respectable forest trees. Yet in the Burro Mountains, the alligator-bark
species, finest of them all, reaches a diameter of five feet and an age
of about 1000 years. The wood has an extraordinary fragrance, and its
smoke tells the neighbors for blocks around that you are warming
yourself at the fireplace. Another notable thing about the wood is its
resistance to decay in the earth. I have removed pieces of it from
subterranean ruins of the Mimbres culture which, according to the best
archaeological opinion, are some eight hundred years old.
The yuccas deserve a story by themselves. One small, unimpressive
species greets you on the meadows at the foot of Raton Pass; others have
to be searched out along high limestone ridges where the foothills are
deciding to become mountains. The one chosen for our state flower is the
tall yucca (_Yucca elata_), a superb species best seen along the
Continental Divide near Silver City. The genus reaches its greatest size
in the grotesque Joshua tree, which never fails to attract the eye on
the Mohave desert in California.
The century plant has a name that always gets attention. But let us be
sure we mean the same thing. Rightly, it means the mescal, the favorite
food of the Mescalero Apaches. Besides these two names, it is called
also maguey and, no doubt, Spanish dagger along with various other
spine-tipped plants. All of which clinches the argument for a name which
for all users is a certain designation for one object and only one. It
is not just because botanists like to appear learned that they call this
plant _Agave parryi_. That title is as descriptive as middle C for one
key on the piano, and in the same way international.
[Illustration: Yucca plants]
Everyone inquires about the century plant’s life expectancy. An
insurance man might make an inference from the name. The plant is a big
compact cluster or rosette of rigid, upward-pointing, spadelike leaves,
each four or five inches in width and each tipped with a vicious, stout
thorn. Year after year the plant just sits there by a boulder,
unnoticed. I question whether anything alive on the desert has a better
life expectancy. As far as my observations go, it has no diseases. It is
invincible to drouth. Freezing does not harm it, and fire cannot burn
it—although a yucca even when green will flame up like a torch. No
hungry old cow can crop it, and no rodent gnaws it, at least not enough
to do harm. And since the Indians have gone on reservations, no human
uses it. So it stays there.
In fact, nothing less than a caterpillar can leave a dent on it—not, of
course, the caterpillar that eats young tomato plants, but the
Caterpillar that pulls heavy road machinery. The plant just does not die
before maturity, it would seem. A remarkable organism, indeed! But after
many, many years, depending on the amount of moisture it receives, it
makes up its mind to flower. In one tremendous effort, it shoots up a
twelve-foot flower stalk at the rate of several inches a day. The
blossoming is a final, dramatic, beautiful gesture, for by the time the
flowers have withered, the great tenacious plant has turned to a ghastly
purple and is dead.
On the high slopes where the last yuccas end and only a few junipers
remain in the race for survival, the yellow pines come in to mark off
what is called the Transition Zone. The pines need no description, no
printed promotion. The traveler, any traveler, can appreciate them
although he might not be stirred to the slightest interest by the lovely
yuccas. Since the beginning of time, the pines, fragrant, cheerful,
companionable, have been man’s best friend. Among the ponderosa pines
takes place most of the hunting, most of the camping, much of the
picnicking. There is no danger that the tourist will overlook the pine
belt and the pines for they are probably the most numerous tree in New
Mexico.
[Illustration: Piñon needles]
Above them, the classifications are less clearly defined and ecologists
are less inclined to agree on zonation. The Canadian Zone, if we settle
on that name, occurs only in small areas on the map, and most of them
north of Santa Fe. These are high ridges and island peaks that tower
high enough to tempt the Engelmann spruces. Yet some of these islands
occur as far south as the Mogollon Mountains and thus bring Canadian
Zone scenes almost to the Mexican border. For hardy ecologists who want
to explore high ridges and horns of bare stone which rise as clean as a
hound’s tooth clear up into the Arctic-alpine Zone, it is necessary to
enter Colorado.
Engelmann spruce forests may be associated with the 10,000-foot level.
The blue spruce is very similar, perhaps only a subspecies, but it comes
in a little lower. The Engelmann makes a dense forest hardly allowing
invaders, but the blue is more tolerant, less austere. It loves the
water and is the natural companion of chill, cascading trout streams.
Though fond of shadow, it seems to grow equally well where the narrow
canyons widen and admit the sunshine upon the tiny meadows of lush
grass, cranesbill, velvety red cinquefoils, lupines, and yellow
columbines. And when one of these miniature openings is fringed with
spruces whose pointed tips rise sharp against a curtain of azure with
its white cumulus clouds, there you have the loveliest vista in the
mountains.
OUR VISIBLE IMPACT ON THE PLANT LIFE
Though nature lovers usually find the life zones more fascinating than
any other aspect of plants in the mountains, there is one other much
more important. It is the misuse, injury, and destruction of native
plant life. Because scientists are generally alert to the conservation
of what is useful and beautiful in natural resources, I venture to bring
up the matter here.
A useful case history is provided by Silver City, New Mexico. It was
founded in the early seventies as a silver camp, which would fairly
guarantee a certain amount of reckless haste and rowdy carelessness.
Point two was its location on a foothill watershed only twenty-seven
square miles in area. Point three was an extreme concentration of
livestock near the town. Point four was the fact that the annual
rainfall was crowded mainly into July, August, and a part of September.
Mines are naturally users of timber. Obviously, shafts and tunnels have
to be timbered. More than that, little smelters nestled back among the
hills were also hungry for wood. And since coal was expensive and hard
to get, most of the adobe cottages were heated many years by juniper,
oak, and piñon firewood. All these matters were naturally, if not
actually, inevitable under the circumstances.
The massive ore wagons and freight wagons had to be drawn by four- to
ten-horse teams—and the horses kept on eating. Then because it was also
a ranching country, each cowboy had to keep a _remuda_ of saddle
horses—and they ate too. Also, the few cows that provided milk for the
children grazed hungrily over the stony slopes. Most of all, the range
cattle, which had no provender at all except that which the competitive,
half-starved steers could provide for themselves, overgrazed every
square foot of pasturage down to the bare soil. The government’s
open-range policy made overgrazing inevitable because no ranchman could
protect his pasturage since it was all unfenced. The cow that got there
first got the grass. That passed as land management, which proves that
some statesmen then were about as wise as some of the Wizards of
Washington now. But the advent of fences caused the cutting of millions
of fence posts where none should have been cut.
[Illustration: Elk]
When the grass went, its roots went, and when its roots went, there was
nothing to hold the soil, and then it, too, started to go. And go it
did. A deep hole formed in Main Street, as it is still called on the
Silver City town plat. The best explanation I can find of that hole is
that earth was taken out of it to form adobe bricks for the walls of
houses and corrals (that clay did make good adobe!). Meanwhile, the
woodhaulers’ wagons had greedily carted away the trees from each little
canyon, while the narrow steel tires cut deep ruts which formed two deep
gullies at the first heavy rain. Then the parallel gullies proceeded to
wash out deeper and create a middle ridge or high center on which axles
got stuck. Since there was nobody responsible for making a new road,
there was no choice except to move over and form another track and use
it until in turn it became unusable. (By this simple kind of
destruction, the old Santa Fe Trail, it is said, reached a width of a
hundred feet.)
But the water descending the slope kept increasing its destructive
velocity as the denuded ground approached the bareness of a tin roof.
Villagers observed that the hole in their Main Street was becoming a
waterfall after each rain, and that the ruin was passing into a big-time
operation. The town built a dam to restrain the floods. It washed out in
the first one. Soon Main Street followed it down the drain, which by
this time was already a hideous gash in the earth many miles long and
twenty feet deep. Then the water began on a really different scale of
destruction. One furious flood washed away the cabin in which Billy the
Kid’s mother lived. More than that, it washed away the wall of Judge
Newcomb’s house and abducted his Steinway from the second floor. A few
yards from the spot, an old photograph taken in 1891 shows a
woodhauler’s ox team lying in the street there. It gives no hint at that
time of the famous Big Ditch—the only name that Main Street, Silver City
has had now for the last forty years.
By 1927, after many other attempts had been made to tame the floods a
steel bridge about one hundred feet long and thirty feet above the floor
of the “canyon” was swung into place. In 1935-1936, the Soil
Conservation Service went to work in earnest, made the watershed a
demonstration area, and spent a third of a million dollars there in a
short time.
In the _New Mexico Magazine_ for August 1934, the really incredible
story of the Big Ditch is exactly documented with old photographs and
newspaper clippings. After a friendship of many years with old-time
miners and ranchers at Silver City, I would not point an accusing finger
at one of them. I appeal, however, for a greater vigilance over plant
life and soils nowadays from everybody. In such protected areas as the
Fort Bayard Reservation, the U.S. National Forest enclosures, and the
frontier cemeteries, the imagination can visualize a New Mexico that is
far different from what is here today—a close-picked, hard-used land
where unwise woodcutting has continued through much of the last three
centuries and where the thin ranges have been required to support in the
last century alone perhaps more than one hundred million cows, sheep,
and horses. The magnitude of the cause accounts for the magnitude of the
effect.
A good many years ago, I wrote as the concluding paragraph to _Sky
Determines_ what seemed to some exaggerated praise for my adopted
homeland. There is now less and less cavil from any readers. I believed
the words true in 1934, and I stand my ground now.
Perhaps nowhere in the world is the natural setting nobler than in New
Mexico—more beautiful with spacious desert, sky, mountain; more varied
in rich, energizing climate, more dramatic in its human procession,
more mellow with age-old charm. Endowed with sunshine that stimulates,
and winter chill that toughens; with silence and majestic desert color
that offer a spiritual companionship, it has enough. Here, if anywhere
is air, earth, sky fit to constitute a gracious homeland, not alone
for those who study and create, but as well for those who play, for
those who sit still to brood and dream.
[Illustration: Tyuonyi Pueblo ruin
This large ruin in Bandelier National Monument lies along the banks
of El Rito de los Frijoles. Narrow-leaf cottonwoods line the stream,
and shrubs of the Upper Sonoran Zone cover the hillside slopes.]
Dwellers in the Hills and Plains
_by_ Levon Lee[1]
The vast sweep of New Mexico’s 77 million acres, which ranges all the
way from the Alpine tundra of the tallest mountains down to the heat of
the lower Sonoran desert, offers a home and sanctuary for many kinds of
wild life.
Some of these animals are considered game animals; others may be pests,
since they prey upon or destroy what mankind regards as its own. The
coyote which takes a sheep from the small herder is wicked indeed in the
eyes of the sheepman. Predatoriness on all living things by other things
has gone on since time began and will continue—mankind being not the
least predator.
A good definition is that composed by the late Judge C. M. Botts who
defined a predator as “a critter that takes another critter that I
want.”
New Mexico’s immense topographic and geologic differences make for a
very wide range of habitats preferred by the various species. The elk
and deer, being highly adaptable, may be found from the Alpine tundra of
the higher mountains clear out into the creosote desert. Deer occur in
four separate subspecies: the Rocky Mountain and the desert mule deer,
the western whitetail, and the Sonoran fantail deer, which is also a
whitetail. These animals may be found all the way from the dense
coniferous forests of the north with perpetual gloom and cold to the
sun-scorched granite mountains such as the Florida and the Organ
mountains of southern New Mexico; from great towering granite spires to
the folded blocks of limestone such as comprise the Big Hatchets, the
Guadalupe, and the San Andres mountains.
The javelina, or little wild pig, lives along the watercourses in the
south west part of the state. Its thin spiky hair gives it little or no
protection against cold, and only in the balmier parts of New Mexico
does it feel at home.
The desert bighorn sheep, as distinguished from his cousin the Rocky
Mountain bighorn, goes around on a sun-scorched, ocotillo-covered
limestone-rubble slope in the full glare of the sun and lies down to
take his afternoon siesta. The Rocky Mountain bighorn, on the other
hand, with his preference for cooler climates does not shun even the
dense spruce timber at the very top of the Sandia Mountains as the
hideout for his afternoon rest.
This adaptability by New Mexico’s species to the tremendous differences
in altitude, rainfall, and temperature makes them all the more valuable
as a resource for the pleasure and enjoyment of everyone.
[Illustration: (_Photo courtesy of Forest Service_, U.S.D.A.)
Pack train on a wilderness trail]
The most popular big game animals in New Mexico are the mule deer in
either of the two subspecies. Every fall, beginning in late October and
extending ordinarily through December, more than 100,000 hunters take to
the woods for their 50-50 chance of bringing home the sought-after mule
deer. A hunter may shoot his mule deer at the Alpine tundra timber line,
out in the blazing heat of the creosote desert, or among the rock crags
of some of the southern desert mountains. He will find his quarry a
worthy opponent. Shy, wild, and with terrific eyesight and hearing,
these animals provide a true challenge.
Elk and antelope, as well as bighorn sheep, are hunted by special
licenses only, since their numbers do not warrant a general open season.
These special licenses are much sought after and are ordinarily made
available by application and a public drawing in the fall. The javelina,
confined to our southwestern counties, is also hunted by special
license. It is noteworthy that although New Mexico had protected them
for many years, the javelina did not increase its numbers. As a matter
of fact, the natural losses applied against any game species are going
to be in effect no matter whether hunting is permitted or not, the
hunting being merely subtracted from what would be lost to nature
anyhow.
Our state mammal, the black bear, is found throughout the wooded areas
of the state and occasionally wanders out into the plains or down into
the desert mountains of the south. Bears are hunted avidly in the fall
by sportsmen with dog packs before the regular big game seasons begin,
when the use of dogs is prohibited. They are again hunted during the big
game seasons by anyone bearing the proper license, but no packs of dogs
are allowed. This is to prohibit the possibility of dogs being used to
pursue elk, deer, or wild turkey, an illegal act in New Mexico.
New Mexico is fortunate in having a tremendous diversity of both upland
game and waterfowl, and big game and small game for her people.
Importantly, the game resources are spread out through every county in
the state.
The state’s richness of bird life is varied and extensive. New Mexico
ranks among the first five in the total number of birds found within its
boundaries. More than 400 species of birds live within the state. These
range all the way from the tiny mites of the bird kingdom, the
hummingbirds, weighing less than an ounce, to the great white whistling
swan, weighing up to 25 pounds, or the Merriam turkey, which may weigh
close to 30. Of the six species of quail found in the United States, New
Mexico has four and may possess the fifth, since the mountain quail of
the western coast have been introduced into this state and still occur
on the west slopes of the Sacramento Mountains near Tularosa. Five
species of doves found throughout the state from the highest coniferous
forest down into the scorching heat of the creosote desert are the Inca
dove, ground dove, mourning dove, white-winged dove, and the bandtail
pigeon, all of them close relatives. Of these, only two, the mourning
dove and the white-winged dove, are commonly hunted as game species.
An unexplained and precipitous decline struck the bandtail pigeon about
ten or twelve years ago, from which it apparently has never recovered.
Although hunting was undoubtedly part of the pressure exercised against
these birds, it in no way accounted for their sudden and dramatic
decline in numbers. This decline may gradually be reversed, since more
and more of these birds are being seen. It is well known that animals
with a high reproductive capacity can endure much heavier losses to
their population than can those with low or very limited reproduction,
such as the bandtail, which normally lays only a single egg. The
mourning dove, on the other hand, lays two eggs at a time and may raise
as many as five or more broods in one year. Take this one step further
with the scaled or Gambel quail, which may lay up to 12 or 15 eggs, and
it can readily be seen that the population of bandtail pigeons can never
endure the losses that the much more prolific mourning dove and quail
can. The same might be said by comparison of elk and deer. Elk do not
bear their first young until their third year, and then the cow may not
bear young but alternate years until her seventh or eighth year; by that
time she has begun to decline in vigor; in her total life she may not
produce more than four or five calves. The mule deer, on the other hand,
start bearing at the age of two, with their first birth normally single;
from then on, twins are usual for the rest of the doe’s life. Thus, deer
have a considerably greater reproductive potential than do elk or
bighorn sheep, which have one young at a time.
The fleet-footed antelope of the open rolling plains is another example
of fairly high reproductive capacity, since they breed earlier than do
deer and normally bear twins. Antelope are confined to the more open
country where their prodigious running ability and marvelous eyesight
stand in good stead in protecting them against their natural enemies.
The wild turkey, classified by law in New Mexico as big game, is found
throughout the mountainous areas of the state, not excepting some of the
desert ranges. New Mexico is one of two states fortunate enough to
possess three of the five forms of the wild turkey known to the United
States: the Merriam turkey, found in the higher elevations of the
mountainous areas, usually the ponderosa forest; the Rio Grande turkey,
confined to the watercourses of the eastern plains; and the fairly rare
Mexican turkey, found in the Animas and Peloncillo mountains of extreme
southwestern New Mexico. In Hildalgo County these mountains are actually
largely Mexican in both flora and fauna. Some of the rarest, most
beautiful birds of North America are also found in this area and nowhere
else in the United States with the exception of southeastern Arizona.
Our most abundant game bird, the mourning dove, is found in every county
of the state and nests from the coniferous forests of the north and the
higher mountains of the south clear out into the plains where there is
not a tree in sight for miles. Doves are extremely adaptable and very
prolific. They provide the finest kind of sport shooting and are avidly
sought, particularly by shotgun enthusiasts of the eastern and southern
parts of the state.
Scaled quail are found throughout New Mexico, being absent only in
elevations above 7000 feet. Even there, they periodically occur but are
ordinarily driven back by winter snow. Gambel quail are found throughout
the river courses of the Rio Grande Valley, the San Juan Valley, and the
southwestern watercourses. The Mearns’ quail is found in the southern
half of the state in the higher mountain elevations, whereas the
bob-white quail occupies the grassy rolling sandhills of the eastern
counties where it is commonly found together with scaled quail.
Quail hunting is one of the most popular sports in New Mexico and many
thousands of hunters can hardly wait from one season to the next. New
Mexico is in the heart of the scaled quail country and provides some of
the finest shooting to be had anywhere.
Migratory waterfowl, while not considered abundant, are not uncommon in
this state, known more for its aridity than for its rivers and lakes.
The two main fly ways are the Rio Grande Valley and the Pecos Valley,
with the Pecos Valley being somewhat ahead in total numbers.
Ducks commonly found in New Mexico in abundance are teal, both
green-winged and blue-winged as well as the lesser-known cinnamon teal,
mallards, widgeon, pintails, gadwall, scaups, canvasbacks, redheads, and
other species.
In addition, New Mexico plays winter home to many thousands of the
lesser sandhill crane which is confined to the river valleys and open
plains of the eastern part of the state, particularly the southeastern
counties. A smaller population of the greater sandhill crane is found in
the Rio Grande Valley and near Columbus. Flocks of the small
Richardson’s goose are found in the northeastern counties, in
particular, and along river courses throughout the state. The small snow
goose is likewise confined mostly to major river courses. The larger
Canada geese are found particularly in the middle Rio Grande Valley
where extensive development has been made by both state and federal
agencies to encourage the use and the presence of bands of geese.
New Mexico is unique in that it was the first state in many years to be
able to open a hunting season on the lesser sandhill crane. This bird is
comparatively abundant, the total population probably being in excess of
200,000, with the vast majority of these birds wintering in west Texas,
New Mexico, and Mexico. They occasionally cause heavy depredation to
grain crops in the southeastern part of the state, and hunting has been
partly justified on the basis that the large wintering flocks might be
broken up and depredation spread over a larger area for less individual
effect. These birds are tall, wild, and shy. They are hard to hunt, even
more so than geese, and although strenuous efforts have been made, not
too many of them are bagged.
One should not overlook the tremendous opportunity for sport hunting of
unprotected species, such as the various rabbits, the mountain lions and
bobcats, and coyotes.
The wolf is now very rare in New Mexico. Only occasionally do wolves
come out of Mexico into the southwestern counties, usually in Hidalgo,
Luna, and Doña Ana. Wolves are large, effective predators and are
incompatible with the cattle-raising industry. Since they have a
fondness for beef, the hand of the cattleman is raised against them.
The mountain lion prefers his natural prey of deer, mule deer being the
principal victims. The bobcat preys on deer and on many of the small
wild animals, rabbits in particular. These predators, when run and
hunted with a pack of dogs, provide a fascinating sport which is growing
in popularity.
The use of calls to attract animals to a “victim” has become widespread.
The calls imitate the distressed cry of rabbits and other creatures
which to the predator means a meal close at hand. Everything from
mountain lions to red-tailed hawks have been hunted by this procedure,
and it can be very successful in bagging quarry. This type of hunting
has value in that it can be enjoyed at any time of the year throughout
the state and with a minimum of time and effort.
Hunting is a conservation practice that, wisely administered, results in
wholesome out-of-door recreation and brings many tons of high protein
food of highest quality to the table. Nature nowhere in her economy
locks up a resource and throws away the key—we should be no less wise.
Long gone are the buffalo which once roamed the High Plains of eastern
New Mexico. Exotic animals, imported and stocked along the rugged canyon
of the Canadian River above Conchas Reservoir, are the Barbary sheep
with their magnificent coiled horns. Beavers dam some of the mountain
streams, badgers and skunks can be seen from the highways, and amid the
forests are squirrels and porcupines, while high on rock slopes, the
Rocky Mountain woodchuck and the gray rock cony dash from ledge to
ledge. The white-tailed ptarmigan also haunts these high crags, and
lower down the mountain, bluebirds nest. Hawks, eagles, magpies, jays,
ravens, orioles, wrens, sparrows, warblers, finches, and many other
birds of endless variety soar over canyon, forest, and sand-dune desert.
Most notable of all is the crested roadrunner, the chapparal cock or
paisano of Mexico and the state bird. In between racing with horsemen or
automobiles, the slender roadrunner cocks his head, strikes swiftly and
victoriously, then swallows his victim, which can be a small
rattlesnake, whole.
Snakes there are aplenty. Mostly, they are nonpoisonous, such as the
garter snake, glass snake, puff adder, ring-necked snake, the coachwhip,
the Mexican blacksnake, and the large western bullsnake. The small but
very venomous coral snake is rare, but common among rocks and near
streams are the large western diamondback rattlesnake, the prairie
rattlers, and the less common green or blacktailed rattlesnake. Every
sun-warmed rock has its scampering lizard, and nearby are horned toads,
dry-land terrapins, tortoises, tarantulas, centipedes, vinegarroons,
scorpions, and spiders. Of these latter desert animals, only the black
widow spider is poisonous.
Contrast in the influence of environments is shown by the animals that
inhabit the “malpais,” the recent flows of black, rough-surfaced lava,
compared with similar animals found among the white gypsum dunes of
White Sands. Black or darkly colored subspecies of mice, plains wood
rats, kangaroo rats, and rock squirrels live on the black lava, whereas
white or pale counterparts of these animals live among the white gypsum
dunes.
[Illustration: Sketch of roadrunner, New Mexico state bird]
The dwellers in the hills and plains of New Mexico are as varied as the
hills and plains; they add their color and movement to the scenes of the
Land of Enchantment.
Rocks That Shape the Enchanting Landscape
_by_ Frank E. Kottlowski
“As old as the hills.” How much more ancient can anything be? Yet New
Mexico’s hills, its enchanting landscapes, were built in but the most
recent “minute” of geologic time. Merely one geologic era ago, marine
waters covered the state, and storm-tossed waves ruled where now the hot
sun beats down on dry sands and cacti a mile above sea level.
What determined the Land of Enchantment’s landscapes? Shaping these land
forms are the rocks of the earth’s crust, the structure of those rocks,
and the endless battle between the rocks and the atmosphere. A story
spelled out in stone, the geologic history. The rocks determine.
Eons ago, it began; one billion, two billion, or perhaps even more
billions of years ago. A history whose beginnings have been lost owing
to destruction of its earliest records. A history, written in the rocks,
that is divided into four general parts (fig. 1). The oldest rocks, more
than 600 m.y. (million years) old, almost devoid of traces of life, are
the Precambrian rocks. The Paleozoic rocks, 230 to 600 m.y. old, are
marked by ancient (_paleo_-) life. This was the Period of Invertebrates,
animals without backbones. Mesozoic rocks, 70 to 230 m.y. old, formed in
the Era of Dinosaurs and contain types of life that are intermediate
(_meso_-) between the ancient and modern animals. And rocks of the
Cenozoic Era, 70 m.y. ago to the present, make up the latest (_ceno_-,
recent) chapter of the earth’s history.
Events of the Cenozoic Era have had the greatest influence on New
Mexico’s landscapes. So let us begin the story at the dawn of the
Cenozoic, and return to the earlier geologic chapters later.
CENOZOIC ERA
The mountains, the plains, the rivers, and the lakes all are transitory
features of the landscape, created during the recent part of the
Cenozoic Era, and all doomed to destruction in the near future,
geologically speaking. Even so, some of the plains and mountains may
predate man’s evolution onto the earth scene.
Gone were the late Mesozoic seas; never again during our lifetime nor
the lifetime of many future generations will marine waters roll over New
Mexico, and sea-spawned creatures rule. For the first two thirds of the
Cenozoic, the Paleogene Period (25 to 70 m.y. ago), New Mexico suffered
from the dying effects of the great Laramide upheaval of the earth’s
crust. Large areas were exposed to the harsh erosion of stream and wind.
The landscape looked as parts of southwestern New Mexico do today—tall
rugged mountain ranges scattered in isolated patches amid wide gravelly
plains. But the climate was more humid, and while no large through
rivers are known, local great swamps and lakes lay on the plains in
debris-trapping lowlands.
[Illustration: Figure 1. Table of geologic time]
_Scale of geologic time
in millions of years_
_Era_ _Rocks_ _Dominant life_
_Geologic age_
70 CENOZOIC
Neogene
Pleistocene Bandelier volcanic ash, Man
basalts, sand dunes, river
gravels, glacial & lake beds.
1 my
Pliocene Volcanic rocks of Mt. Mammals
Taylor, early Valle Grande &
Gila region; Santa Fe, Gila,
and Ogallala Fms.
11 my
Miocene
25 my
Paleogene
Oligocene Datil, Espinaso, and other
volcanic rocks.
40 my
Eocene Baca, Animas, Nacimiento,
San Jose, Raton, Poison
Canyon, Galisteo El Rito,
Blanco Basin, & Cub Mountain
Fms.
60 my
Paleocene
160 MESOZOIC
Cretaceous Upper sandstone, shale, & Dinosaurs
coal. Mesaverde, Pierre, &
Niobrara, Dakota Ss. and
Mancos Sh.
Volcanic rocks, limestone,
sandstone, and conglomerate.
135 my
Jurassic Morrison Fm., Summerville
Fm., Zuni Ss., Todilto Ls. &
gypsum, Entrada Ss.
180 my
Triassic Wingate Ss., Dockum Fm.,
Chinle Fm., Santa Rosa Ss.,
Moenkopi Fm.
370 PALEOZOIC
Permian Rustler Dolomite; redbeds Amphibians
Castile gypsum, Salado Salt.
Artesia Grp.—Capitan reef
San Andres Ls.—Goat Seep reef
Glorieta Sandstone
Yeso Fm.—Bone Spring Fm.
Abo Redbeds—Hueco Ls.
280 my
Pennsylvanian Mostly limestone; beds of
shale & sandstone; lenses of
gypsum, salt, and coal.
310 my
Mississippian Helms & Paradise Fms. Fish
Rancheria Ls.
Lake Valley & Escabrosa Lss.
Arroyo Penasco & Tererro Fms.
345 my
Devonian Percha Shale, Ouray Ls.
northern dol., ss, and sh.
erosion
400 my
Silurian Fusselman Dolomite
erosion
425 my
Ordovician Montoya Dolomite Invertebrates
El Paso Limestone
Bliss
500 my
Cambrian Sandstone
erosion
1500+
PRECAMBRIAN quartzite, gneiss, rhyolite, Simple
andesite, granite, primitive forms
pegmatite, schist,
greenstone.
[Illustration: Figure 2. New Mexico during Paleogene time]
Scenery in north-central New Mexico (fig. 2) may have been similar to
today’s, with mountains in the same general areas as the present-day
Sangre de Cristo, Nacimiento, San Juan, and Brazos ranges.
Coarse-grained gravels were stacked up at the edges of the mountains,
but out in the adjoining lowlands, floodplain sands and varicolored
lake-bed clays settled. Three low areas were “basins” of deposition
where thick masses of sediments accumulated—the Raton and Poison Canyon
formations in the Raton Basin near Raton, the Animas, Nacimiento, and
San Jose formations in the San Juan Basin north and northwest of Cuba,
seen along N.M. Highway 44, with thinner deposits of the El Rito and
Blanco Basin formations to the northeast of Cuba, and the Galisteo
Formation in the Galisteo Basin south and southwest of Santa Fe.
Volcanic rocks, the Espinaso beds, overlie the Galisteo but are not much
younger in age. Reddish rocks of the Galisteo Formation crop out along
U.S. Highway 85 at La Bajada Hill about twenty miles southwest of Santa
Fe. The Sandia Mountains’ area appears to have been a lowland.
Silicified wood, chiefly of pines but with some oak and poplar, is
abundant in the Galisteo Formation. Large logs, up to 6 feet in diameter
and 135 feet long, have been found. In the great swamps of the Raton
Basin, where the climate was much like that of Georgia today, tall
reeds, water lilies, fig trees, palm trees, magnolias, and sycamores
grew in profusion, and contributed to the thick coal beds now mined
there. The early ages of the Cenozoic saw the spectacular rise of the
mammals to dominance over reptiles on land; numerous remains of the
early mammals are found in the Nacimiento and San Jose formations,
including the famous Puerco and Torrejon faunas—as well as many clams,
snails, fish, turtles, crocodiles, snakes, and birds.
Southeastern New Mexico appears to have been relatively level with only
local hills and vast regions of featureless, stagnant but high plains
where erosion slowly ate downward, deposition was slight, and most of
the detritus was carried eastward far beyond the state’s borders. The
redbeds of the Baca Formation were laid down on the north flank of low
mountains that extended intermittently from somewhere near Quemado
toward Socorro. Some ancient hills near present-day Sierra Blanca shed
rock fragments that accumulated near Capitan as the varicolored Cub
Mountain Formation. Deeply eroded uplands northwest of Elephant Butte
Reservoir supplied gravels and sands that mingled with andesitic
volcanic debris as the upper part of the McRae Formation in central
Sierra County. Many of the weathered greenish and purplish volcanic
rocks in southwestern New Mexico were extruded at this time, and beneath
the surface these molten magmas (hot liquefied rocks) cut into older
rocks. Vapors and hot solutions from the magmas are believed to have
emplaced some of New Mexico’s vast ore deposits during this time.
The last phase of the Paleogene Period, about 25 to 40 m.y. ago, was an
earth-shaking time in New Mexico—and the first explosion of an atomic
bomb in 1945 on the Jornada del Muerto between Socorro and Carrizozo was
a relatively low-energy-yield event compared with the late Paleogene
earth movements. Almost the entire southwestern quarter of the state
literally exploded, with volcanic eruptions on a grand scale. These lava
flows, rock breccias, ashes, pumice, and associated intrusives (molten
rocks that did not make it to the surface) form the Datil-Mogollon
plateau—at least 100 miles in diameter—as part of the Datil Formation,
which locally is miles thick, and made up the main mass of many other
ranges near the Mexican border. Sierra Blanca (12,003 feet altitude)
northeast of Alamogordo is a huge, isolated volcanic mass of late
Paleogene age.
[Illustration: Figure 3. East-west cross section of Rio Grande
graben near Santa Fe]
This widespread volcanic activity continued into the Neogene Period
which began about 25 m.y. ago. Rhyolites, pumice, and perlite in the
southwest, as well as in other parts of the state, covered wide areas.
Mount Taylor, towering up to 11,389 feet near Grants and visible on the
western skyline from Albuquerque, is a Neogene volcanic pile, as are
parts of the Sangre de Cristo range northeast of Taos. Shiprock and
Cabezon Peak, landmarks in northwestern New Mexico, are volcanic
necks—the eroded cores of ancient volcanoes.
Valle Grande caldera makes up the center of the Jemez Mountains west of
Los Alamos and is a late Neogene volcanic mass with the central crater
sixteen miles in diameter—one of the world’s largest calderas. Bandelier
National Monument headquarters is within a canyon carved from Valle
Grande’s ashes. Volcanic ash scattered over the western parts of Texas,
Oklahoma, and Kansas was blown from this volcano. Capulin Mountain, east
of Raton, is a huge recent cinder cone and is surrounded by numerous
basaltic lava flows that cap the High Plains from Raton eastward to
Clayton. The very fresh black basalt flows near Carrizozo and in the
valley of Rio San Jose near Grants are probably less than 1000 years
old. Numerous mesas along the Rio Grande Valley from the Colorado line
to El Paso are capped by black basalt flows of late Neogene age.
Many of the present-day mountains were uplifted in early Neogene time,
following the climax of the great volcanic eruptions. This uplifting, in
many instances, took place along one side of huge mountain masses,
forming tilted fault blocks like the Sandia, Manzano, San Andres, and
Sacramento mountains. Rock beds in the Sandia Mountains, for example,
dip to the east, but were uplifted along a west-bounding fault zone—a
huge break in the earth’s crust—as much as four miles! This was an
earth-shaking event! However, the uplifting took place slowly, and
indeed is continuing today as the Albuquerque area, along with the Rio
Grande Valley southward to Socorro, is one of the most active earthquake
areas in the state.
Concurrent with uplift, other blocks of the earth’s crust sank, forming
graben basins which were flooded with rock debris from the adjoining
uplifts. A tremendous irregular graben, now followed by the Rio Grande,
cut north-south across the state. Geologists label it the _Rio Grande
structural depression_ (fig. 3). Mountains on the east are the Sangre de
Cristo, Sandia, Manzano, Los Pinos, Fra Cristobal, and Caballo ranges;
those to the west include the Brazos, Jemez, Ladron, Socorro, Magdalena,
and San Mateo mountains. Within this complex graben, and around the
bordering ranges, the colorful sandstones and siltstones of the Santa Fe
Group were deposited—these red, yellow, orange, and cream rocks are
eroded in many places, such as near Santa Fe, to “badlands”
characteristic of the landscapes along the Rio Grande Valley from
Espanola southward to El Paso. Much brightly tinted silicified wood is
found in these beds, and literally freight-car loads of mammalian
remains have been shipped to museums from outcrops near Espanola.
In the basins amid the mountains of southwestern New Mexico, similar
sands and gravels of the Gila Conglomerate filled low areas. East of the
mountains of central New Mexico that form a north-south chain of ranges
from Raton to Carlsbad, thin gravels of the Ogallala Formation were
dumped onto the western edges of the High Plains. They now cap the
plains as well as make picturesque bluffs east of the Pecos River and
southeast of Tucumcari—the “caprock” of that area. In northwestern New
Mexico, isolated mesas are topped by the Chuska and Bidahochi
formations; similar sands, silts, and clays washed from adjoining
highlands.
The final episodes of landscape formation occurred during the
Pleistocene Epoch, the recent glacial period. Mountain valley glaciers
occupied some of the higher parts of the state, as far southward as
Sierra Blanca; large lakes filled many of the closed basins, such as
those near Estancia and south of Lordsburg; the Carrizozo and Grants
basalt flows were extruded; the final tremendous explosions of Valle
Grande spread volcanic ash over large regions; sands, gravels, and clays
were eroded and deposited by streams and in lakes; and sand dunes were
heaped up in many areas. The glistening white gypsum dunes (fig. 4) of
White Sands National Monument, built up into 50-foot-high mounds
windward of gypsiferous Lake Lucero, are spectacular products of the
wind.
The Rio Grande, in its present valley, probably is only as old as
mid-Pleistocene, born during late uplift of its headwater mountains, the
San Juan and Sangre de Cristo ranges in southern Colorado and northern
New Mexico—initiated by floods of meltwaters from waning mountain
glaciers. Some of the lower terraces (benches) along the Rio Grande are
very young, being dated by radiocarbon methods at 2600 b.p. (before
present). Until shackled by Elephant Butte Dam in 1916, and smaller dams
up and down the valley, the Rio Grande switched its course with every
large springtime flood. Even with these man-made controls, the Rio
carves new channels during floods and covers flooded fields with silt as
the high waters recede.
PRECAMBRIAN ERA
The highest points in New Mexico are in the north-central region. Here,
along the backbone of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, tower Wheeler Peak
(13,160 feet above sea level), northeast of Taos, and South Truchas Peak
(13,102 feet), northeast of Santa Fe. Snow lingers on these lofty spires
all year around except during an especially hot August. Highest
peaks—they must be capped by the youngest rocks. But no, the quartzites
and gneisses, hard rocks made up of quartz and feldspar, that hold up
these pinnacles against the attack of water and ice are among the oldest
rocks known in the Southwest—perhaps as much as two billion years old.
These Precambrian rocks lay deep beneath the earth’s surface from early
Paleozoic time (500 m.y. ago?) until early Neogene time, then were
uplifted along great breaks in the earth’s crust, uplifted slowly and
intermittently during the span of time from about 20 m.y. ago to perhaps
1 m.y. ago.
[Illustration: Figure 4. Gypsum dunes of White Sands]
How did these ancient rocks form? What did New Mexico look like during
the dawn of geologic history? The record in stone is fragmentary. But
about two billion or so years back, thick masses of quartz sandstone
were laid down in north-central New Mexico, as well as vast lenses of
mud, and some beds of feldspar-rich sandstone. Volcanic activity was
intense; huge flows of rhyolite and andesite were poured out over most
of the state, and these in turn, along with the muddy and sandy
sediments, were intruded by enormous masses of hot granite. Mile-high
mountains were formed, and during the stretch of this early geologic
time, called the Precambrian Era, the high peaks were eroded by rain,
wind, and sun until some were worn down to featureless plains sloping
toward the ancient ancestral oceans.
[Illustration: Figure 5. Staurolite twin crystals in mica schist]
These Precambrian rocks now make up the cores of such mountain ranges as
the Sandias east of Albuquerque, the Sangre de Cristo range near Santa
Fe, the Pedernal Hills south of Clines Corners, the Burro Mountains
southwest of Silver City, the Brazos Range east of Tierra Amarilla, the
Zuni Mountains southwest of Grants, and the San Andres Mountains west of
White Sands. As seen in Tijeras Canyon east of Albuquerque, the bulk of
the ancient rocks are gray to pinkish granite and granite gneiss,
speckled by crystals of biotite, microcline, orthoclase, and quartz.
Quartzites (hardened sandstones), greenstone, and foliated mica schists
(fig. 5) are the older rocks that were intruded by granitic magmas about
1350 million years ago—as indicated by dating of radioactive isotopes,
K-Ar and Rb-Sr. Locally, pegmatite dikes, a late-cooling, large-crystal
stage of the granites, crisscross the granite and contain excellent
crystals of quartz, feldspar, and mica, as well as less common minerals.
The famous Harding pegmatite near Dixon, about forty miles north of
Santa Fe, contains beryl, columbite-tantalite, lepidolite mica,
spodumene, and other rare minerals. Some of these crystals are ten feet
in length!
PALEOZOIC ERA
There are some primitive types of plant and animal life known from
Precambrian rocks outside of New Mexico but the earliest beds that
contain abundant fossils are those of Cambrian age, 500 to 600 m.y. old.
Cambrian rocks in New Mexico are in the Bliss Sandstone, a reddish brown
iron-rich bed, 50 to 200 feet thick, that occurs only in the southern
part of the state. There it can be seen, for example, along the bold
east-facing escarpment of the San Andres Mountains or the west-facing
cliffs of the Caballo Mountains, as a dark band resting on the pinkish
Precambrian granitic rocks. It is a shallow-sea sand, deposited on the
northeastern edge of the Cambrian seas. Scattered amid the brown-stained
quartz, red hematite, and green glauconite are broken shells of
trilobites and primitive brachiopods. Northern New Mexico was a low,
broad island during Cambrian time, a source of some of the sands in the
Bliss Sandstone.
During the Ordovician Period, 425 to 500 m.y. ago, upper sands of the
Bliss as well as overlying limestones and dolomites were deposited in
the shallow warm seas of southern New Mexico; these latter rocks are the
El Paso Limestone and Montoya Dolomite. The Ordovician seas teemed with
invertebrate life. Fifteen-foot-long cephalopods, as much as a foot in
diameter, ruled the shallow salt-water bottoms, munching on the abundant
trilobites and the moss animals, the bryozoans. Numerous brachiopods,
corals, snails, and clams also thrived, with many of the Ordovician
carbonate-rock beds literally being made up of these fossil remains.
Near El Paso, these limy fossiliferous beds are nearly 2000 feet thick,
but they thin northward to a knife edge in thickness near Mockingbird
Gap at the north end of the San Andres Mountains. Parts of northwestern
New Mexico may have been low islands exposed to the sun and erosion
during Ordovician time, but most of the state was probably within an
extensive shallow ocean. Later, erosion removed the Ordovician rocks
from central and northern New Mexico.
Silurian strata, the brown Fusselman Dolomite, deposited during the
middle of that period (400 to 425 m.y. ago), remain only in the southern
and southeastern parts of the state, thinning out northward from the
1000-foot-thick bed near El Paso. The extent of these middle Silurian
seas is not known, but most of central and northern New Mexico was
undergoing erosion during late Silurian time. The northward thinning of
the Fusselman Dolomite is due chiefly to this erosion, evidenced by the
knobby, ridged and channeled top surface of the Fusselman. Brachiopods
and corals are the most abundant fossils in the Fusselman Dolomite;
elsewhere, Silurian rocks are known for the sea scorpions or
eurypterids, which attained a length of nine feet, and for the complete
remains of primitive fishes.
During early and middle Devonian time (345 to 400 m.y. ago), most of New
Mexico was a lowland rotting beneath the sun. Fossiliferous Devonian
rocks are unknown in the north-central part of the state but occur
beneath the surface in the Four Corners region of northwestern New
Mexico and the adjoining states. These rocks are of late Devonian age
and consist of lower dolomite and sandstone, middle shale and dolomite,
and the upper Ouray Limestone.
In southern New Mexico, a uniform blanket of dark limy muds, called the
Percha Shale, was deposited during late Devonian time. This shale marks
a great change from the limestones of earlier ages. In part, it is of
black muds deposited in widespread or in local stagnant basins and in
part calcareous fossiliferous muds in which abundant invertebrate life
was buried. The clay and quartz silt that make up the rocks were a
weathered residuum that had accumulated, during the long period of late
Silurian and early and middle Devonian times, on the lowland of central
and northern New Mexico.
Except in the stagnant basins, invertebrate life was prolific,
brachiopods, bryozoans, and corals being especially numerous. Fossil
fish remnants, chiefly teeth, are abundant in some of the sandy units,
and outside of New Mexico the earliest amphibians occur in upper
Devonian rocks. The oldest definitely known assemblage of land plants
occurs in the Devonian, and forests containing forty-foot-high trees
spread over the uplands. Such tree ferns, horsetail rushes, and lycopods
(spiked-leafed trees) may have grown in profusion on the swampy lowlands
near Albuquerque’s and Santa Fe’s present sites, far north of the muddy
Devonian seas of southern New Mexico.
Figure 6. Fossil specimens
[Illustration: Brachiopod
_Marginifera._]
[Illustration: Crinoid
stem fragment.]
[Illustration: Crinoid
restoration of a crinoid.]
Mississippian rocks (310 to 345 m.y. old) probably were deposited over
most of New Mexico. Subsequent erosion removed much of the Mississippian
beds in northern New Mexico. The remnants, less than 100 feet thick in
most places, are of lower sandy and shaly beds overlain by massive
crinoidal limestones, the Arroyo Penasco Formation of the Nacimiento and
Sandia mountains and the Tererro Formation of the Sangre de Cristo range
east of Santa Fe.
In southern New Mexico, the Mississippian beds are thick and widespread,
being more than 1000 feet in thickness in the southwestern panhandle.
There the rock units are the Escabrosa Limestone of the southwest or the
Lake Valley Limestone of the south-central part of the state. These are
massive fossiliferous limestones precipitated in shallow extensive seas
abounding with invertebrate life. Huge gardens of the sea lilies,
crinoids, spread over the area, their remains mingled with those of lacy
moss animals, the bryozoans, and with brachiopods and corals. Locally,
as in the region of the Sacramento and San Andres mountains and Black
Range, moundlike fossil reefs, called bioherms, were built. Some of
these bioherms in the Sacramento Mountains are mounds of fossiliferous
limestones 350 feet high and several thousand feet in diameter. Beds on
their flanks dip as much as 35 degrees and are made up of broken “fossil
hash” calcite sands. One can stand at the base of these huge limestone
hills and almost hear the ancient waves breaking against the reef and
see the dying struggle of the brachiopod (fig. 6) that left his shell in
the reef-flank sands.
To the south, beginning near the present site of White Sands, dark
cherty limestones were laid down in stagnant waters, to become the
Rancheria Limestone. This black to reddish brown siliceous limestone is
more than 300 feet thick near El Paso. There its thin beds break down
into slabs that resemble a jumbled woodpile.
Northern New Mexico was above sea level during late Mississippian time;
in some areas caves developed in the porous limestones, and in other
places the limestones were eroded to a residuum of chert and red clay.
The land must have looked like the karst areas of Indiana, Kentucky, and
Illinois today—with lost rivers flowing into sink holes, numerous caves,
and many underground rivers. Only the southernmost part of the state was
awash in the late Mississippian seas, and in these salt waters, rocks of
the Helms and Paradise formations settled. They are typical nearshore
beds of yellowish limy sandstone, green limy shales, and brown sandy
oolitic limestones. Plant fossils occur intermingled with marine animal
remains; the plant fragments were washed into the shallow seas from the
land areas of the central and northern parts of the state.
The Pennsylvanian Period (280 to 310 m.y. ago) was a time of change.
Previously, northern New Mexico had been an emergent lowland or barely
awash in shallow waters, while to the south shallow but extensive seas
held sway, the spawning ground of the vertebrates and invertebrates that
evolved between 310 and 600 m.y. B.C. But mountains were built during
the Pennsylvanian, and the whole pattern of land and sea was altered.
The sun rose on north-south aligned ranges interspersed with
north-south-trending seas (fig. 7). Somewhere north of Albuquerque a
mighty range of mountains, the Uncompahgre Range, arose to shed rock
debris into adjoining ocean basins. To the southeast, a lower but
prominent range, the Pedernal Mountains, stretched from the present-day
Pedernal Hills southward to somewhere near Ruidoso and Piñon. Rocks
eroded from this landmass were dumped westward into the Orogrande basin
which occupied the region near the present-day White Sands; there as
much as 3000 feet of beds accumulated—impure sandstones, dark shales,
fragmental limestones, and even some gypsum during the end phase of
Pennsylvanian sedimentation.
Rocks filled the Delaware basin in southeastern New Mexico—limestones,
sandstones, and black shales that now produce oil and gas. In
northwestern New Mexico west of Grants and mostly west of the Zuni
Mountains, a low land area, the Zuni Islands, was the source of eroded
residuum released into an ocean channelway that ran north-northwest
through central New Mexico from El Paso to Farmington. And in the
northeast, granite hills of the Sierra Grande Arch stood above the
shallow Pennsylvanian seas.
In the Four Corners region, broken rock from the Uncompahgre Range was
rushed westward into the Pennsylvanian-age Paradox Basin. Amid the
clastic limestones, black shale, gypsum, and salt of this basin are
oil-bearing lenses. Today, oil wells pump this black “gold” from the
ancient rocks—wells almost in the shadow of Shiprock’s famous spire.
The Pennsylvanian Period was a time of coal making on the greatest scale
in the earth’s history. Extensive swamps and marshes, the habitat of
peat and ultimately coal, were almost lacking in New Mexico. Thus, only
thin scattered lenses of coal occur in the Pennsylvanian beds of the
state. The lands of this period were covered by tree ferns, scale trees,
horsetail rushes, and primitive conifers. In the shallow seas, the
dominant invertebrates were fusulinids (fig. 8), small-shelled
protozoans shaped like grains of wheat. Abundant cockroaches, large
dragonflies, and spiders swarmed over the land.
[Illustration: Figure 7. New Mexico during Pennsylvanian time]
Permian Rocks
The Permian Period (230 to 280 m.y. ago) dawned with renewed rising of
the highlands in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Floods of
red sand and clay, washed from the rotting hills, wiped out the seas of
northern and central New Mexico, and intertongued southward with marine
limestones. These early Permian rocks are the Hueco Limestone near El
Paso, there 2200 feet thick, the Abo Redbeds near Albuquerque, and the
upper Sangre de Cristo Redbeds southeast of Santa Fe. Wherever the
redbeds crop out, their dark reddish brown hue, speckled and striped
with spots and streaks of green, enlivens the drab gray-and-brown
landscape. Some of the reddish coloring is from angular grains of red to
orange feldspar, but most is in thin brilliantly tinted skins of
hematite that coat the sand grains and saturate the clays. In northern
and central New Mexico, amphibians and other primitive vertebrate
animals lived amid the red soils and sands; their bones and imprints
have been preserved on thin flat slabs of sandstone that now decorate
sidewalks and patios.
Figure 8. Fossil specimens
[Illustration: Bryozoan
_Fenestrellina._]
[Illustration: Fusulinid
_Fusulina._]
[Illustration: Coral
_Lophophyllidium._]
The early Permian seashore, where limy muds beyond the surf intermingled
with red sandy muds swept from the north, vacillated somewhere north of
Alamogordo with each sea-level change. Amid the breakers, and as
submarine banks in the shallow waters, reefs grew—moundlike masses of
shell debris and calcite mud trapped among frondlike calcareous algae.
Near Tularosa, these algal “bioherms” are sixty feet high and extend
within broad belts half a mile wide. In southeastern New Mexico, these
buried “Abo” reefs have yielded much oil.
By the middle of Permian time, the southern Colorado mountains had been
worn down to low hills that lay north of an extensive sea covering most
of New Mexico. From Santa Fe south to White Sands and southeastward
almost to Carlsbad, very shallow marine waters were alternately stifled
by pale-red sandy muds or evaporated by the sun. The results were
alternating beds of pale-red sandstone, gypsum, and silty dolomitic
limestone, called the Yeso Formation. Locally, as near Carrizozo, thick
deposits of rock salt also were precipitated, and the Yeso there is
about 4000 feet thick. At this time, the Delaware basin of southeastern
New Mexico saw the beginning of its most spectacular events, the
building of the Capitan and Goat Seep reefs. This basin—a huge oval
south of Carlsbad and east of Carlsbad Caverns—had been “deep” sea
during most of Pennsylvanian time, but it was a more distinct geographic
feature during the Permian. While the pale-red sands, gypsum, halite,
and dolomitic limestones of the Yeso Formation were laid down to the
north and northwest, the Delaware basin was rimmed by a low, broad bank
of fossil-hash calcite sand, now called the Victorio Peak Limestone. In
the basin, in deep stagnant waters, black sandy limestone and black
shale of the Bone Spring Formation were deposited.
A sheet of white quartz sand filled the late Yeso seas; the resulting
Glorieta Sandstone, about 200 feet thick, prominently caps Glorieta
Mesa. Its cliffs are a familiar sight to travelers on the Santa Fe
Railway at Glorieta Pass. The Coconino Sandstone in the Grand Canyon
area of Arizona is the western part of the Glorieta. This “clean”
sand—lacking intermixed mud—marks the continued lowering of the southern
Colorado uplands. Broad seas then spread over all but northern New
Mexico and a thick (600 to 1000 feet) persistent marine unit, the San
Andres Limestone, was laid down. Much oil is produced in southeastern
New Mexico from this dark-gray unit of limestones and dolomites. The
rich agricultural region stretching from Roswell to Artesia depends on
underground water gained from the San Andres Limestone, water that falls
as rain and snow on the Sacramento Mountains, seeps underground into the
cracks and caverns within the San Andres, and flows eastward downslope
to the Pecos Valley.
The delicate balance between land and sea swung upward at the end of San
Andres time as these late Permian seas retreated to southern New Mexico.
The deep Delaware basin was the only persistent marine body of water. It
was rimmed by magnificent towering barrier reefs, the Goat Seep and
Capitan reefs that now are host to Carlsbad Caverns. These reefs were
similar to the present-day Great Barrier Reef of Australia, except that
the Capitan and Goat Seep reefs surrounded an inland sea whereas the
Australian reef borders a continent. The Capitan reef is about 400 miles
long, and other than oceanward channels cut through to the south,
completely encircled the 10,000-square-mile Delaware basin. At its
heyday, the Capitan reef was barely awash, and teeming with life, in
contrast to the silent, stagnant deeps of the Delaware basin which were
about 2000 feet below sea level only a few miles away from the barrier
reef. On the steep slope into the basin, huge slump blocks of
fossiliferous reef limestone slid, mingling with fossil-hash sand. These
“flank” beds dip steeply from the massive reef core to interfinger with
the black sandy limestones of the basin.
The Delaware basin was a marine feature throughout Late Paleozoic time;
its northwestern border is now marked by the southeast-trending front of
the Guadalupe Mountains southeast of Carlsbad; its north edge was
east-northeast of Carlsbad, and it extended southward into West Texas.
Shallow “shelf” seas reached irregularly and intermittently northward
and northwestward from the Capitan reef and mingled with low islands
throughout all but southeastern New Mexico. Landward, away from the
Delaware basin, the rocks change from massive, thick, light-gray
limestones of the reefs into thin units of thin-bedded dolomite, then
abruptly into alternating beds of gypsum and redbeds, the Artesia Group
of rocks, and finally, marking the distant shorelines, into thin units
of red mudstone and red sandstone, the Bernal Formation. Evaporation of
sea water was excessive, and average temperatures high; the climate
varied from semiarid in northwestern New Mexico to subtropical in the
Delaware basin area—a contrast and a similarity to today’s climate.
[Illustration: Figure 9. Castile gypsum sample]
Latest Permian time saw the dramatic end of the Paleozoic Era. Most of
New Mexico was uplifted above sea level, with only the Delaware basin
remaining as a land-locked sea, much like the Caspian Sea today, but
with channels open periodically southward to the ocean. The rocks of
this waning part of the Permian are called the _Ochoan Series_; they
show an abrupt and striking change from the underlying Carlsbad reef
limestones and associated black basin-filling limestones up into the
laminated gypsum-anhydrite of the basal Ochoan rocks, the Castile
formation. Normal marine conditions ended almost instantaneously. Excess
of evaporation lowered the water level of the inland sea; the
accumulated brine (concentrated salty sea water) killed the life on and
near the Capitan reef, and thick beds of anhydrite were precipitated.
The lowest beds of the Ochoan Series, the Castile Anhydrite, and the
overlying Salado Salt, mostly filled the deep depression that was the
Delaware basin; the upper beds, the Rustler Dolomite and Dewey Lake
Redbeds, lap over the edges of the basin and in places rest irregularly
upon the Capitan limestone.
These are unusual rocks. The Castile (about 1800 feet thick) is thinly
banded, with thicker bands (laminae, thin layers) of light-gray
gypsum-anhydrite alternating with thin laminae of dark-brown calcite
(fig. 9). This lamination is believed due to annual changes, the brown
calcite being precipitated during the summer and the gray anhydrite
during the winter. On the surface, the calcium sulfate mineral is
gypsum, but at depths of about 600 feet, these laminae are anhydrite.
Addition of water to anhydrite has changed it to gypsum wherever ground
water penetrated the laminae.
The Salado Salt, about 2000 feet thick, is almost entirely of rock salt
(halite), with important interbeds of potassium-rich minerals—red
sylvite, gray langbeinite, brownish bitter-tasting carnallite, and
pale-red polyhalite. As all these salts are highly soluble in water, the
Salado Salt nowhere “crops out” at the surface. East of Carlsbad,
however, the potash-rich beds are mined underground, and supply about
ninety per cent of the United States’ production—used chiefly as
fertilizer.
The arid period of Salado Salt evaporation changed slightly as the
dolomites and anhydrites of the Rustler Dolomite were laid down in the
last drying moments (geologically speaking) of the Permian. Then as the
seas retreated to the south, the fine-grained red sands and silts of the
Dewey Lake Redbeds were spread as a thin blanket over the low lands
basking under the hot Permian sun. This was a time of dying; whole races
of vertebrate and invertebrate animals were wiped out, to be known today
only from their fossil remains. As the dim unmarked episode of latest
Permian time merged into the Triassic, an inkling of coming life was
recorded in the rocks. The amphibians were more modern types, and they
gave rise to the most striking of early land animals, the reptiles. This
was the beginning of the conquest of the land by the reptiles, which
culminated later in the dinosaurs, and was aided by the retreat of
shallow seas from the continents, a change survived chiefly by the
species adapted to living on land.
MESOZOIC ERA
The Mesozoic Era dawned in New Mexico on extensive plains, except for a
northwest-trending range in the extreme north-central part of the state.
During this, the early part of the Triassic Period (180 to 230 m.y.
ago), sands and muds eroded from New Mexico were carried westward to
northeastern Arizona where they now form the Moenkopi Formation, the
brilliant reds and purples of the Painted Desert region. Uplands arose
in late Triassic time in southwestern New Mexico. Along with mountains
in south-central Colorado, these highlands were torn apart by water and
wind, and the detritus was swept into sheets of brightly colored sand
and shale. These beds are thickest (about 2000 feet) along the New
Mexico—Texas line east of Roswell and in west-central New Mexico (near
Grants) extending westward into northeastern Arizona. The eastern
Triassic rocks are the redbeds of the Dockum Group with the lower Santa
Rosa Sandstone and the upper Chinle beds. The northwestern rocks are the
Chinle Formation overlain by the redbeds of the Wingate Sandstone.
The Chinle Formation is of special scenic interest as its beds contain
the silicified trees so well shown at Petrified Forest National
Monument. These varicolored rocks—red, purple, green, and gray—also
decorate the Painted Desert area, the wide valley of Rio San Jose east
of Laguna, and flank Interstate 40 (U.S. Highway 66) from the Texas line
westward almost to Clines Corners. As some beds are weathered “ash”
beds, the highlands were sites of volcanoes that spread their dust over
much of the Southwest. In contrast to the underlying marine Paleozoic
rocks, these Triassic beds were deposited on land by streams and in
shallow lakes. Thus the beasts that roamed New Mexico were
amphibians—such as the thick-skulled stegocephalians—and reptiles of the
crocodilelike clan, the phytosaurs. The silicified trees in the Chinle
are mostly primitive pines; some grew to heights of more than 100 feet
and measure 7 feet in diameter.
New Mexico was featureless rolling prairie, with scattered low hills in
the northwest, during most of Jurassic time (135 to 180 m.y. ago). In
the late part of the period, the Sundance-Curtis sea and its shoreline
lagoons spread down from the north into northwestern New Mexico. Sand
dunes on its southeastern shores consolidated into the cross-bedded
Entrada Sandstone; its reddish brown cliffs rim the Rio San Jose Valley
near Grants and Gallup. In an extensive lagoon, or salt-water lake that
covered most of northwestern and north-central New Mexico, the gypsum
and limestone of the Todilto Formation were precipitated; this gypsum is
the bed mined near Rosario siding (seen between Albuquerque and Santa
Fe) by the Kaiser Gypsum Company, and near San Ysidro on White Mesa by
the American Gypsum Company. The Todilto salty basin was overwhelmed by
reddish sands and silts of the Summerville Formation, washed chiefly
from the south, and by the multicolored sands of the Zuni Sandstone
(exposed at El Morro), and then the stream and wind-blown sands and
clays of the varicolored Morrison Formation were laid down in northern
New Mexico. Petrified wood and bone fragments are abundant in the
Morrison beds—along with uranium—but no fossil finds in New Mexico equal
those in the Morrison Formation of Dinosaur National Park, Utah.
Much of North America, including southern New Mexico, was land during
the Jurassic. In the streams and lakes were many kinds of fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, snails, crustaceans, and water bugs; on dry land
were hordes of reptiles, small primitive mammals, and ants; in the air
were flying reptiles, the earliest known birds, moths, and butterflies.
The earth was ruled by the reptiles, with the dinosaurs dominant—some
being the most ponderous land animals of all earth history. Such were
Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus, the latter 85 feet long and weighing 50
tons.
The Cretaceous Period (70 to 135 m.y. ago) was one of great contrast in
New Mexico. During Early Cretaceous time, most of the central and
northern parts of the state were low lands torn by erosion, while thick
piles of conglomerate, sandstone, and shale accumulated in depressions
in the southwestern corner. Huge volcanoes near Lordsburg added their
hot ashes, bombs, and flows to the sedimentary detritus, and thick
fossiliferous limestones were laid down in muddy and sandy waters of the
sea—the shoreline fluctuated over tens of miles in areas south of
Lordsburg, Deming, and El Paso. These Early Cretaceous beds total 20,000
feet in thickness in some areas. In eastern and northeastern New Mexico,
in contrast, thin sheets of quartz sand were deposited by streams on the
edge of a shallow sea, and black muds in local lagoons.
Rock beds thousands of feet thick were laid down in northern and central
New Mexico during Late Cretaceous time, whereas most of the southern
part of the state was above sea level and was being eroded by tireless
winds and streams. The shorelines made parallel northwest-trending bands
across the state. These are now marked by beach sands, some of which are
speckled by black minerals, high in rare elements titanium, niobium, and
zirconium. Northwestern and central New Mexico was a battleground of the
land and sea, with the beaches advancing and retreating fifty or a
hundred miles during an instant of geologic time. Stream sands and coal
beds lie landward from the beach sands which, in turn, mingle seaward
with black limy shales that were flushed into the seas. The lowest of
these rocks is the Dakota Sandstone—famous as an artesian aquifer in the
High Plains areas of states to the northeast—Colorado, the Dakotas,
Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana. Above is the black Mancos Shale,
which in turn is overlain by the Mesaverde Group.
The transitions from coal swamps and stream sands to beach deposits and
then into marine black shales is characteristic of the Mesaverde in
northwestern and north-central New Mexico. To the northeast, beds of the
same age were laid down in an extensive muddy sea that stretched far to
the east; the Pierre Shale and Niobrara chalky limestone that underlie
the plains northeast of Las Vegas are typical. The cliff-forming
sandstones and coal beds near Gallup are part of the Mesaverde Group and
rim the entire San Juan Basin. Above are similar rocks such as the
Kirtland Shale, Pictured Cliffs Sandstone, and Fruitland Formation that
underlie valleys cut in the shales and cliffs carved from the sandstones
in the northwest corner of New Mexico near Farmington.
Toward the end of the Cretaceous, the Laramide “revolution” began, and
New Mexico along with most of North America emerged from beneath the
seas, to be high and dry to the present. The revolution, an extensive
upheaval of the earth’s crust, saw uplift of the San Juan Mountains area
in southwestern Colorado and large volcanoes spouting fire and ashes
nearby. Fragments of the eroded mountains and debris from these
andesitic volcanoes were flushed southward by streams and steam to
settle as thick piles of mud, sandstone, and conglomerate, the McDermott
and Animas formations in the San Juan Basin. The last moment of
Cretaceous time, if we could be so precise, was ushered out almost
unnoticed—with mountains rising to the north and the andesitic-quartz
detritus being laid down to the south in the upper beds of the Animas
Formation.
Similarly, mountains arose during Late Cretaceous time in north-central
New Mexico and south-central Colorado, about on the site of the
present-day Sangre de Cristo range northeast of Taos, and shed erosional
gravels and muds into the Raton Basin area. Alluvial fan gravels and
sands grade eastward into dark muds and coals laid down in swamps and on
floodplains. These rocks now cap the rugged mesas seen northwest of the
Santa Fe Railway from Raton southward—the cliff-forming Trinidad
Sandstone and the dark siltstones, sandstones, black shales, and coal
beds of the Vermejo and Raton formations. The Kaiser Steel Corporation
mine near Koehler extracts coal from these beds. Again, the exact end of
the Cretaceous is marked only by some obscure boundary between beds, in
that area within the Raton Formation.
During the Cretaceous Period, the deciduous trees—such as the oak,
maple, poplar, and elm that dominate today’s flora—became common. The
covered-seed plants, the angiosperms, are the most notable of the
Cretaceous plants, but the development of the modern floras was an
antecedent to the great expansion of mammals and birds during the
following Cenozoic Era. Reptiles ruled the earth, led by the dinosaurs
(fig. 10) and their distinctive group, the horned large-skulled
ceratopsians such as Triceratops. The small, hairy, warm-blooded mammals
were still insignificant creatures that ran from their huge dinosaur
lords, but they ate reptile eggs, and so excelled the sluggish reptiles
in mental and physical activity that they adapted swiftly to the
changing environments of the Laramide revolution—and became dominant as
the pea-brained reptiles were unable to stand the changes.
The shallow seas of the Cretaceous swarmed with invertebrate life;
foraminifers (unicellular protozoans) in uncountable billions make up
large parts of the chalky limestones. Mollusks, particularly clams like
oysters and the heavy ribbed Inoceramus, and complexly sutured
cephalopods, the ammonites, as well as the internal-shelled belemnoids
(that look like cigars), were most numerous among larger marine animals.
Reef builders in southwestern New Mexico were the peculiarly corallike
clams, the rudistids. Widespread warm humid climates seem to have
prevailed throughout the state during most of the Cretaceous.
LANDSCAPES AND MINERAL RESOURCES
Thus as the Cretaceous seas withdrew from New Mexico, the Cenozoic Era
dawned, and never again have marine waters shaped the landscapes. The
rocks, Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic, and their ancient
movements determine New Mexico’s spectacular landscapes. They tell tales
of the endless war between erosion and hard rock, show the deposition of
sediments, their uplift, and their eventual destruction. The result is
striking scenery—volcanic mountains, as Mount Taylor, Sierra Blanca,
Valle Grande—fresh lava flows near Carrizozo and Grants—volcanic necks
like Shiprock and Cabezon—White Sands, the work of the wind—El Morro,
Enchanted Mesa, Acoma, and badlands near Santa Fe, the result of
weathering and erosion—great fault-line escarpments of the Sandia,
Manzano, San Andres, and Sacramento mountains—the work of underground
waters at Carlsbad Caverns. And man adds his erosive powers—the huge
open-pit copper mine at Santa Rita and countless excavations for rock to
build homes, to straighten highways.
[Illustration: Figure 10. Make way for ’is lordship, the Dinosaur!]
The sun can be harsh and hot, the rain sparse, the winter nights fierce
cold. But within the rocks are natural resources undreamed of by the
early Indians, almost untouched by the Spanish, and with potential
beyond vision for the future. Water, being scarce, is one of the more
important resources. With an average yearly precipitation of only
fifteen inches, and more than half of the state receiving less than that
average, water is a problem! Farming must depend upon irrigation, the
water being drawn from streams or “mined” from underground “pools” where
it had been accumulating for centuries.
Forests, game, and fish are lucrative resources somewhat unexpected in a
semiarid state; sheep and cattle—in this the stronghold of the cowboy,
famous in gunfighter lore—each total more than a million. New Mexico’s
1965 mineral production, valued at $781.9 million, ranked seventh among
the states. Principal commodities won from the rocks, in order of value,
were oil, potash, natural gas, uranium, copper, sand and gravel, zinc,
coal, crushed stone, and perlite. Sizeable quantities of barite, beryl,
carbon dioxide, cement, clays, gem stones, gold, gypsum, helium, iron
ore, lead, limestone, magnesium compounds, manganese, mica, molybdenum,
pumice, salt, silver, sulfur, and vanadium were also mined. The huge
open-pit copper mine at Santa Rita, the many uranium mines near Grants,
the underground potash mines near Carlsbad, and the thousands of oil and
gas wells in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the state are
typical of man-made landscape features attributable to mineral
exploitation in New Mexico. Numerous old mine dumps, rotting mine
shafts, and spooky ghost towns are reminders of past fortunes won and
lost.
The rocks, the work of water, wind, and sun, and the not insignificant
upheavals by man have shaped New Mexico’s landscapes. Blended with its
blue skies, warm sun, and the products of three cultures—Indian,
Spanish, and American—the rocks and their movements have made the
landscapes a land of enchantment.
Earth wears a mantle rich with lore,
of storied fabric finely spun,
That tells of kingdoms come and gone,
of legions lost and battles won.
No seer no monarch can divine,
the cryptic writings; he alone,
Who humbly speaks the tongue of earth,
can find a story in a stone.
Before Coronado
_by_ Robert H. Weber
The cultural heritage of New Mexico is a rich and colorful one, blending
as it does the three separate traditions of Indian, Spanish, and
Anglo-American. Of these, the lifeways of the Indian, ancient and
modern, are of particular interest to both the visitor and resident.
These were the first inhabitants of the New World, whose roots extend
back in time many thousands of years before the first European set foot
here. People who had adapted themselves to the varied and often harsh
environments of desert, plain, valley, canyon, and mountain; who
witnessed the disappearance of the large mammals of the Pleistocene Ice
Age and concomitant changes in climate and vegetation; the first
prospectors and miners seeking flint, obsidian, turquoise, clay, salt,
and mineral pigments; early traders exchanging valued minerals and
handicrafts for shells of the coastal regions; hunters and farmers,
architects and builders, civic and religious leaders, philosophers and
critics, skilled craftsmen and artists, explorers and soldiers—all
ancient counterparts of those who were to follow.
In 1540, when the train of soldiers in the company of Coronado’s Spanish
Expedition entered the unknown lands later called New Mexico, four
groups of native Americans were established residents in the area. Along
the arable valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, and in several
outlying areas were the adobe and stone apartment-house villages of the
Pueblo Indians, whose livelihood was based largely on agriculture. East
of the mountains were scattered bands of Plains Indians, Eastern
Apaches, who were nomadic hunters following the herds of buffalo that
ranged across the vast grasslands of the High Plains. Western Apaches
were dispersed in small bands of hunters and gatherers of wild foods
through the mountainous country to the west of the Rio Grande. A related
group, the Navajo, augmented the necessities of life gained by hunting
and gathering with subordinate agricultural crops in the Plateau region
to the northwest.
Early contacts of the _conquistadores_ were largely with the Pueblo
Indians, although they had limited knowledge of the Apaches and Navajos
in outlying districts. There was little to suggest to the Spanish
invaders, except for the ruins of long-abandoned Pueblo villages, that
the fragmentary record of thousands of years of human prehistory lay
scattered in the dust beneath their feet. Undoubtedly they would have
dismissed as utter nonsense any notion that men armed with stone-tipped
spears had here slain elephants in a marsh 12,000 years old that now lay
buried beneath shifting sands of a desert landscape. Indeed, it was not
until the last quarter of the 1800’s that serious attempts were made to
decipher the prehistoric traces of the Pueblo Indians, whereas concrete
evidence that man had hunted long-extinct Pleistocene big game in
America was not discovered until less than forty years ago.
EARLY HUNTERS
The year 1926 was marked by the first of a series of important
archeological finds in New Mexico that were eventually to demonstrate
that man had occupied this area as much as 11,000 to 12,000 years ago.
During this period, Late Pleistocene ice sheets of continental glaciers
still blanketed parts of the northern tier of states in the vicinity of
the Great Lakes, and elephants (both mammoths and mastodons), horses,
camels, giant bison, tapirs, and ground sloths roamed the Southwest.
Excavations begun in 1926 near the small town of Folsom, in northeastern
New Mexico (fig. 1), disclosed a number of fossil skeletons of a large
form of extinct bison, forerunners of the modern bison or buffalo. Among
these bones were dart or spear points of distinctive form and
workmanship, characterized by broad, shallow flutes or channels on each
face (fig. 2). These artifacts, now known as Folsom points, have since
been recovered from a number of sites in New Mexico and elsewhere in
North America, commonly in association with the remains of extinct
bison. Evidently Folsom “Man” (whose skeletal remains have not been
discovered) was a nomadic hunter particularly dependent upon the bison
for his food supply, much as were the later Plains Indians of historic
time. Ages of from 10,000 to 11,000 years have been obtained from
charcoal and other organic remains at Folsom camp sites by the
radiocarbon method.
Succeeding years have seen an increasing number of valuable
archeological discoveries at camp and game-kill sites of Folsom Man and
other Early Hunters. Unquestionably, the most important of these sites
is the Blackwater Draw locality between Clovis and Portales in extreme
eastern New Mexico, where excavations for gravel disclosed a stratified
sequence of sediments that were deposited in an ancient pond and spring.
Here, too, were the characteristic Folsom points in association with the
bones of fossil bison. Below the Folsom layer, still older deposits
contained the fossil bones of mammoth, horse, camel, and bison
associated with fluted spear points that resembled those from Folsom but
were generally larger and less skillfully chipped and fluted. These
points, now known as Clovis points, are so commonly found beside the
remains of mammoths in a number of sites in the High Plains and the
Southwest that their makers are believed to have been adept at hunting
these extinct elephants. Radiocarbon dates place Clovis points in a time
range of from 11,000 to 12,000 years ago.
In a layer above that containing Folsom points at Blackwater Draw,
several varieties of unfluted lanceolate points were found to be
associated with the bones of fossil bison. These points have been
identified by various specific names such as Plainview, Milnesand, Eden,
and Scottsbluff from excavated sites elsewhere in the High Plains
region, and probably range in age from 8000 to 10,000 years. Although
the giant bison still survived into this level of stratigraphy and time,
the elephant, camel, and horse of the Clovis level had disappeared from
the area.
[Illustration: Figure 1. Index map of New Mexico showing locations
of significant archeological sites, modern Indian pueblos, and
Navajo, Ute, and Apache reservations]
Early Hunter Sites
1. Folsom State Monument
2. Sandia Cave
3. San Jon
4. Blackwater Draw
5. Manzano Cave
6. Lucy
7. Milnesand
8. Burnet Cave
Prehistoric Pueblo and Cliff-Dwelling Ruins
9. Aztec Ruins National Monument
10. Chaco Canyon National Monument
11. Puye Cliff Dwellings
12. Bandelier National Monument (Tyuonyi)
13. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
Historic Pueblo Ruins
14. Jemez State Monument
15. Pecos State Monument
16. Coronado State Monument (Kuaua)
17. Paako State Monument
18. Quarai State Monument
19. Abo State Monument
20. Gran Quivira National Monument
Modern Pueblos
21. Taos
22. San Lorenzo (Picurís)
23. San Juan
24. Santa Clara
25. San Ildefonso
26. Nambé
27. Tesuque
28. Cochiti
29. Santo Domingo
30. San Felipe
31. Sandia
32. Santa Ana
33. Zia
34. Jemez
35. Isleta
36. Laguna
37. Acoma
38. Zuni
39. Ojo Caliente
Navajo, Ute, and Apache Reservations
40. Navajo Indian Reservation
41. Ute Mountain Indian Reservation
42. Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation
43. Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation
Modern pueblos
Historic pueblo ruins
Prehistoric pueblo and cliff-dwelling ruins
Early Hunter sites
Another important discovery was made in Sandia Cave northeast of
Albuquerque. Below cave deposits containing Folsom points was an earlier
type of point among the bones of mammoth, horse, camel, and other large
Pleistocene mammals. Now identified as Sandia points, these projectile
tips are distinguished by an asymmetric stemmed form with a shoulder on
one side. The age of the Sandia points has been a subject of some
controversy, but the latest available data from charcoal in Sandia Cave
indicates an age of nearly 12,000 years, which is within the accepted
range of the Clovis points.
[Illustration: Figure 2. Folsom point recovered from among rib bones
of fossil bison at Folsom, New Mexico (Photograph of plastic
replica. Original point in collection of Denver Museum of Natural
History.)]
Clovis, Sandia, and Folsom points, together with related stone
implements, are at many places enclosed in sediments deposited in or
adjacent to ponds, lakes, streams, and wet meadows. These environments
indicate a former cool and more humid climate in areas that are now
semiarid. The food requirements of many of the large herbivores that
lived at this time also suggest more abundant vegetation and surface
water than prevails here today. It is not unreasonable, then, to presume
that climatic conditions contributing to the advance of continental
glaciers in the Great Lakes region, and to valley glaciers in the Rocky
Mountains, should have been reflected in lower summer temperatures and
higher rainfall in non-glaciated areas. The ultimate extinction of the
large Pleistocene mammals and the similar time of disappearance of the
hunters who preyed upon them may both be related to the climatic changes
that followed the end of the Ice Age in America.
HUNTERS AND GATHERERS
Groups of people dependent upon a different way of life from that of the
Early Hunters are known to have occupied much of the present area of New
Mexico. Although there is some suggestion of overlap in time of these
people with the Early Hunters, they appear to have become prominent
during the several thousand warm, dry years following the end of the
Pleistocene. Adapted, as they were, to a fuller utilization of the
resources of the area through the hunting and trapping of smaller game
and an emphasis on the gathering of a wide variety of wild plant foods,
these people ranged extensively across the varied terrain of the state.
Similar patterns of subsistence and artifacts are known from the Great
Basin region west of the Rocky Mountains, where they have been
categorized under the term _Desert Culture_. Local manifestations of the
Desert Culture in southeastern Arizona, extending eastward into western
and southern New Mexico, are identified as the Cochise Culture. Other
groups showing similarities with Archaic cultures to the east penetrated
the northeastern part of New Mexico at a time when the area was still
populated by Pleistocene bison.
Habitation sites of these gatherers are distributed in open situations
and in shelter caves. Such sites are commonly marked by milling stones
that characterize the preparation of wild foods (fig. 3), hearths,
chopping and scraping implements, and stemmed projectile points markedly
different from those used by the Early Hunters. These points were
affixed to dart shafts that were propelled with a spear thrower or
_atlatl_, a device that preceded the bow and arrow in America but is
still used by Australian Aborigines.
Seasonal changes in the local availability of wild foods must have
necessitated a nomadic or seminomadic way of life. The development of
agricultural techniques in the later years before the beginning of the
Christian Era, however, probably contributed to the development of a
semisedentary existence that was eventually to lead to the village life
of the later periods. The exact time of introduction of the principal
agricultural crops, corn, squash, and beans, is unknown, but evidence
from west-central New Mexico indicates their use by the Cochise people
by 2500 B.C.
PUEBLOAN FARMERS
Having acquired the techniques of deliberately planting and raising food
crops that could be stored against future needs, local populations of
Hunters and Gatherers became less dependent upon the gathering of wild
foods and began to construct clusters of more permanent dwellings near
cultivable land. Among the earliest recognized houses of this period are
the semisubterranean pit houses of the early Mogollon people in the San
Francisco River drainage of west-central New Mexico (fig. 4) and of the
Anasazi Basketmakers in the San Juan River drainage of northwestern New
Mexico. These cultural advances, together with the acquisition of
techniques for the manufacture of fired pottery, foreshadowed the
development of the Mogollon and Pueblo cultures at a time beginning
perhaps as early as 300 B.C. for the Mogollon area and at least by 1
A.D. for the Anasazi area.
[Illustration: Figure 3. Milling stones of the type used by the
Cochise People
Plant foods were ground in a shallow basin metate with the small
one-hand mano (hand stone). Socorro, New Mexico.]
These two cultural groups, the Mogollon in southwestern and southern New
Mexico, whose roots extend back through the ancestral Cochise to before
6000 B.C., and the Anasazi in the Four Corners region of northwestern
New Mexico, probably developed independently during the early years.
From about 500 A.D., however, there is increasing evidence of trade
relationships and eventual fusion of traits. Other groups to the west,
such as the Hohokam of Arizona, were sources of cultural influence on
the indigenous people of New Mexico. In the Mogollon and San Juan
Anasazi heartlands and in the Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico, a
pattern of village life with elaboration of social and religious
organization emerged from the relatively simple cultures of the early
years. Villages began to assume organized form, dwellings were combined
in rows of adobe and stone structures containing a number of contiguous
rooms, and subterranean ceremonial chambers or _kivas_ assumed larger
and more specialized architectural distinctiveness from the ancestral
pit-house dwellings. In the Mogollon area, the characteristic brownware
pottery of the Mogollons was used side by side with decorated
black-on-white pottery of Anasazi origin. The bow and arrow slowly
replaced the less efficient _atlatl_ and dart. The significance of these
early stages in the evolution of the Pueblo Culture in the San Juan and
upper Rio Grande areas is indicated by their designation as the
Developmental Pueblo period (Pueblo I and II).
[Illustration: (_Photograph of museum diorama courtesy of the
Chicago Natural History Museum_)
Figure 4. Mogollon pit-house village of the period 200 B.C.]
The climax of these developments occurred in the interval between 1050
and 1300 A.D. in the Classic or Great Pueblo period (Pueblo III). Among
the most impressive manifestations of this period are large
stone-masonry apartment houses, some rising to five stories in height
and housing hundreds of people. Dwellings of this type are highlights of
several well-known tourist attractions, among which are the cliff
dwellings of Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado and the monumental
ruins of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon (fig. 5), both products of the
ingenuity of the Anasazi Indians.
At the very apex of the cultural efflorescence of the Great Pueblo
period, some unknown circumstance or series of events caused abandonment
of most of the urban centers of the San Juan Anasazi and Mogollon areas.
A prolonged drouth is recorded by tree rings formed during the period
from 1276 to 1299 A.D. Surely a drouth of this magnitude would have had
serious effects on people as dependent upon agriculture as were the
Pueblo Indians. There are some indications that alien and perhaps enemy
people were drifting into these areas at about this time, perhaps
predecessors of the modern Navajos and Apaches. The congested living
conditions of Pueblo villages undoubtedly contributed to unsanitary
conditions and social pressures that also may have contributed to shifts
in population. Many of these migrants moved into the homeland of the Rio
Grande Anasazi in the upper Rio Grande Valley, and to a lesser extent in
the central Rio Grande Valley. Some may have relocated at Zuni and other
areas along the Little Colorado River drainage extending westward into
Arizona.
[Illustration: (_Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service_)
Figure 5. Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon National Monument
A multistory pueblo containing 800 rooms.]
During the Great Pueblo period, another group showing characteristics of
both the Anasazi and of non-Puebloan people occupied an area on both
sides of the Continental Divide along the eastern margin of the San Juan
Basin. This cultural phase, known as the Largo-Gallina because of the
distribution of sites in the Largo and Gallina drainage basins, is
represented by pit houses, surface rooms, and towerlike structures with
some similarities to the dwellings of the Anasazi. The black-on-white
pottery also suggests Puebloan relationships, whereas the culinary
vessels resemble those of the Navajo.
Beginning at about 1300 A.D. or shortly thereafter, a different cultural
group began to move westward from the Texas Panhandle into the plains of
northeastern New Mexico. These people of the Panhandle Aspect built
single-room structures and contiguous room pueblos resembling those in
use by the Anasazi of the Rio Grande and were skilled bison hunters,
farmers, and traders. This combination of traits suggests both Puebloan
and eastern traditions. Panhandle Aspect villages were abandoned
suddenly not long after 1400, perhaps as a result of the drouth recorded
by tree rings for the period from 1439 to 1454.
Following the shift in population of the Pueblo region, cultural changes
occurred that have led to the designation Regressive Pueblo period
(Pueblo IV) for the interval between 1300 and 1700 A.D. Noteworthy
changes during this period include a tendency toward enlargement of
villages and the creation of new styles of pottery, accompanied by some
deterioration of the artistic creativity of the Classic period. Major
ruins of this period that are readily accessible to the public include
Puye Cliff Dwellings, Tyuonyi Pueblo in Bandelier National Monument, and
Pecos Pueblo in Pecos National Monument.
At the time of Coronado’s _entrada_ in 1540, there were from 60 to 70
Pueblo villages in New Mexico, most of which contained fewer than 400
inhabitants. Four or five mutually unintelligible languages were spoken,
each with several dialects, making communication between Spanish and
Indian extremely difficult. Language barriers contributed to an
inadequate documentation of the Pueblo way of life during the early
years of Spanish contact, so that we must continue to depend upon the
archeological record during the first century of Spanish colonization of
the area. The beginning of the Historic Pueblo period (Pueblo V)
accordingly is commonly set at 1700 A.D.
APACHES AND NAVAJOS
Little is known concerning the origin of these two related groups, who
differ markedly from the Pueblo Indians in language and cultural traits.
Their closest ties are with other Athapaskan-speaking tribes in
northwestern Canada, and available evidence indicates that they are
comparative newcomers to the Southwest. A correlation between the
abandonment of sections of the Pueblo region and pressures exerted by
ancestral Apaches and Navajos has been suggested, but definite proof of
this is still lacking. Raids against the eastern pueblos of the Galisteo
Basin are reported to have occurred in 1525. Coronado’s expedition
encountered nomadic hunters in the plains east of Pecos in 1541,
observing that they followed the movements of herds of bison or buffalo
on whom they were highly dependent for food and shelter, lived in
portable tents of tanned buffalo hides supported by a framework of
poles, and used dogs as beasts of burden. Trade contacts with the Rio
Grande pueblos included exchange of hide “cloaks” for corn grown by the
Pueblo Indians.
Related groups in western and northwestern New Mexico are even more
poorly known, as there was still less contact between them and the
Spanish explorers. Evidently some agriculture was practiced as a
supplement to a subsistence based largely on hunting and gathering, a
pattern of livelihood reminiscent of that of the pre-Puebloan Cochise
people.
The succeeding years of Spanish and American colonization of New Mexico
were to be highly influenced by the Apaches and Navajos, and also by
another group of Plains Indians, the Comanches. The events of this
period, however, are discussed in a separate article.
Frontier Forts of New Mexico
_by_ Robert A. Bieberman
Following President Polk’s declaration of war against Mexico in May
1846, a United States Army force was sent from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas
Territory, against the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and California.
This army, known as “The Army of the West,” was led by Gen. Stephen W.
Kearny. Upon his arrival in Santa Fe in August 1846, General Kearny
issued a proclamation which informed the citizens that New Mexico was
now a part of the United States and that he and his army and the forces
to follow would protect them and their property. General Kearny remained
in Santa Fe only one month, but during that month he appointed a
governor, judges, and other officials, started construction of a fort in
Santa Fe, and sent troops against the Navajo Indians in fulfillment of
his promise to protect the people. Kearny and his “Army of the West”
left Santa Fe in September 1846 to conquer California, leaving behind a
detachment of troops under the command of Col. Alexander W. Doniphan.
Thus began the role of the U.S. Army, which was to continue for the next
half century, in securing the frontier in what we now know as the State
of New Mexico.
History has shown that the troops stationed in New Mexico were called
upon to participate in the Mexican War and the Civil War and to protect
the newly established border between Mexico and New Mexico from
violations from both sides. However, the basic role of the military, the
role which continued for fifty years, was to protect the traveler, the
farmer, the miner, and the settler from Indian attack. Its task was made
no less difficult by the changing, unrealistic, discriminatory Indian
policies which came out of Washington during this period. When relative
calm was established, promises were forgotten and violence erupted anew.
The defense policy in New Mexico did not follow a set plan but gradually
evolved. Military posts were established at different places when the
need arose and were abandoned when the need diminished. A few of the
posts were occupied and used by the army throughout most of this period.
Others existed but a few months or years.
FORTS
Fort Union
Located twenty-seven miles northeast of Las Vegas, Fort Union became the
most important and most famous fort in the New Mexico Territory.
Established on the Santa Fe Trail in 1851, it served as supply depot for
the territory and as a base for troops engaged in the protection of
traffic along the Santa Fe Trail and of the settlements in the area from
the depredations of the Apaches, Utes, Comanches, and Kiowas. The site
can be reached by traveling eight miles of paved road which leaves U.S.
Highway 85 one mile north of Watrous.
During its forty-year history, Fort Union occupied three different
sites, all within the same general area. The original fort was of log
construction which rapidly fell into disrepair. In August 1861, amid
rumors of the possible invasion of the territory by Confederate forces,
construction was begun on a new fort. This fort was of earthworks, in
the form of an eight-pointed star. It was here that the troops waited
for the attack which never came. With the passing of the Confederate
threat, work was begun in 1863 on the third fort, the remains of which
are seen today.
Fort Union soon became the largest fort in the territory. It was
constructed in two sections, one for the garrison and one for the supply
depot. The garrison area consisted of four infantry and two cavalry
barracks facing a row of nine officers’ quarters across the parade
ground. A sixty-bed hospital was constructed. The depot area included
five warehouses, mechanics corral, transportation corral, and
administration buildings. An arsenal was built about one mile from the
fort proper.
The buildings were constructed of adobe on stone foundations. The roofs
were flat and the walls were capped with brick copings in what has
become the territorial style of architecture.
[Illustration: (_Photo courtesy of National Park Service_)
Ruins of Fort Union]
Fort Union was a community within itself and a lively social center.
Weary travelers on the Santa Fe Trail eagerly anticipated their arrival.
Few complaints were heard when soldiers were transferred to Fort Union,
for this was a popular assignment.
With the coming of the railroad and peace at last descending on the
frontier in the 1880’s, the need for the fort diminished. But it clung
to life for a few more years, mainly because of the fond memories which
lived in the hearts of the military leaders who had been stationed
there. Finally, the end came and Fort Union was abandoned in February
1891.
New life came to the fort in 1955 when it became a National Monument.
The ruins have been excavated and stabilized and a fine visitors’ center
and museum has been established. Fort Union has at last assumed its
rightful place as a shrine of history. Stand on the parade ground and
survey the majesty that was Fort Union, listen for the sounds, the bugle
calls, the barklike commands of close-order drill, the creak of wagons,
and the thunder of horses’ hooves. These are the sounds of Fort Union.
They are still there if one will only pause and listen.
Fort Marcy
Fort Marcy was established in 1846 at Santa Fe and was named for the
then Secretary of War, W. L. Marcy. The fort was located on a hill
overlooking the city some 1000 yards northeast of the plaza. A deep
ditch or moat surrounded the massive adobe walls of the fort and a
blockhouse, within musket range, protected the only entrance. At the
time of Colonel Manfield’s inspection trip in August 1853, the troops
were quartered in public buildings in Santa Fe, there being no quarters
provided at the fort; however, it could be occupied on a moment’s
notice. The original Fort Marcy was abandoned in 1867 and a new one was
constructed a short distance to the west. This new site is now occupied
by business and residential properties. The War Department abandoned
Fort Marcy in October 1894, the troops and equipment being moved to Fort
Sill, Oklahoma. The site was turned over to the city of Santa Fe in
1897.
Fort Marcy played an important role during the military occupation of
New Mexico. It served as a base of operations against marauding Indians,
was captured and occupied for a short time by Confederate forces in
1862, served as headquarters for the Ninth Military Department (changed
to Department of New Mexico in 1853) throughout most of this period, and
was a center for the social life of Santa Fe. Only low mounds of earth
now mark the site of Fort Marcy.
Fort Wingate
Fort Wingate, at the site known today, was established in 1868. It is
located on the site of a pre-existing fort at Ojo del Oso (Bear Springs)
about twelve miles east of Gallup and three miles south of U.S. Highway
66.
Fort Fauntleroy was established in August 1860 and was named for the
then Department Commander, Col. T. T. Fauntleroy. The name was changed
to Fort Lyon in September 1861 after Colonel Fauntleroy resigned his
commission and joined the Confederate forces. The fort was abandoned in
December 1861 as troops were concentrated at other posts to meet the
threat of invasion of the territory by Confederate forces from the
south. With the defeat of Confederate troops early in 1862, the military
returned to the Indian problem and established a post some sixty miles
to the east on the Rio de Gallo near San Rafael. This post was named
Fort Wingate in honor of Capt. Benjamin Wingate who died of wounds
received during the battle with the Confederate forces at Val Verde. The
post proved to be too far from the Navajo country for effective control
and, in 1868, was abandoned and a new Fort Wingate established at Ojo
del Oso on the site occupied earlier by Fort Fauntleroy.
The physical plant of the new Fort Wingate consisted of barracks,
officers’ quarters, hospital, guard house, storehouse, employees’
quarters, corrals, barns, and various repair and storage sheds, all
bordering the traditional rectangular parade ground. Some of these
buildings are in use today.
In 1914, 4000 Mexican refugees lived in a tent city at Fort Wingate
until peace was restored after Pancho Villa’s revolution in Mexico.
Following World War I, it became an ordnance storage depot, and new
administrative and living quarters were built several miles west of the
original fort enclosure. This installation is known today as Fort
Wingate Ordnance Depot, and the long rows of concrete ammunition storage
bunkers can be seen from U.S. Highway 66. In 1925, the original fort
enclosure was transferred to the Department of the Interior for use as
an Indian school. Today, the parade ground is a playground and the
barracks are dormitories for the children who attend this school. The
missile age came to Fort Wingate in 1963 when a portion of the military
reservation became the launching site for test rockets which impact at
the White Sands Missile Range 200 miles to the south.
Fort Wingate has seen many changes during its long and colorful history.
It served well during its first 100 years and continues to serve today.
Fort Craig
Fort Craig was established in the spring of 1854 on the abandonment of
Fort Conrad, nine miles north. It was named in honor of Col. L. S. Craig
who was killed by an army deserter on June 6, 1852. The remains of Fort
Craig are located on the west bank of the Rio Grande about thirty-four
miles south of Socorro and five miles, by dirt road, east of U.S.
Highway 85. The fort was established to afford protection against the
many bands of Apaches that roamed this part of the territory.
Fort Craig was well built and became one of the best-garrisoned military
posts in New Mexico. Built on the usual rectangular plan, the parade
ground was bordered on the northeast by two double officers’ quarters;
on the northwest by the guard house, prison room, and sallyport; on the
southwest by three soldiers’ barracks each in the form of a hollow
square enclosing a patio; and on the southeast by various workshops,
storerooms, stables, and corrals. The commanding officers’ quarters
occupied the west corner of the parade ground and the hospital the east
corner. Behind the commanding officers’ quarters there were three large
bombproof storerooms. The entire installation was enclosed within a high
wall, beyond which a ditch encircled the fort. Gun bastions projected
from the north and south corners.
[Illustration: Remnants of guard house, Fort Craig (built of basalt
blocks)]
Fort Craig was one of the most important military posts in New Mexico.
Its troops participated in many engagements with the Indian. In the fall
of 1861, troops from other posts were concentrated at Fort Craig to meet
the threatened invasion of Confederate forces from the south. In
February 1862, these troops were defeated by the Confederate invaders in
the battle of Val Verde which took place about four miles north of the
fort. Upon the withdrawal of Confederate forces from the territory later
in 1862, the troops at Fort Craig returned to the Indian problem. In
March 1885, the fort was relinquished by the army and the improvements
sold. The last soldier left in August 1885 after government property was
removed and sent to Forts Bliss and Stanton. The buildings were sold at
public auction on April 30, 1894, to the Valverde Land and Irrigation
Company for $1070.50.
Fort Craig is now a ruin, but the outlines of most of the buildings can
still be seen. Portions of the plastered walls of the commanding
officers’ quarters remain, as do portions of the hospital and stone
guard house. The wall and ditch surrounding the fort, gun bastions,
storehouses, and cemetery are still much in evidence. Coal marks the
blacksmith’s shop and broken bottles the sutler’s store. Another
frontier fort has passed into history.
Fort Stanton
Fort Stanton was established in May 1855 on the Rio Bonito at a site
located approximately four miles east of present-day Capitan and three
miles south of U.S. Highway 380. The fort was an attempt to control the
Mescalero and White Mountain Apaches and was named for Capt. H. W.
Stanton who had been killed by Apache Indians earlier that year. Many a
soldier stationed at Fort Stanton gave up his life to an Apache during
the Indian wars.
[Illustration: Map of New Mexico showing location of frontier forts]
The original fort was little more than a stockade, with few buildings
and little equipment. In August 1861, the government stores were burned
and the troops moved to Albuquerque in the face of the Confederate
invasion. Confederate troops occupied the site one month later but
promptly left after a few encounters with the Apache. The site was
reoccupied by Union troops October 1862 and, later, substantial
buildings were erected, most of which still stand.
With the passing of the frontier, Fort Stanton was abandoned as a
military post in August 1896, and in 1899, the installation passed to
the U.S. Public Health Service for use as a merchant marine hospital for
the treatment of tuberculosis. During World War II, a German prisoner of
war camp was established at the fort. In 1953, the hospital was closed
by the federal government because of the high cost of running the
establishment. Fort Stanton is now a state tuberculosis hospital
operated by the New Mexico Department of Public Welfare.
Col. Kit Carson used the fort as a base of operations while rounding up
the Mescalero and White Mountain Apaches in late 1862 and early 1863. In
1881, the famous outlaw, Billy the Kid, was confined in the building now
used as a dental clinic while on his way to the gallows in Lincoln,
which never claimed him. Gen. John J. Pershing, as a young lieutenant,
was stationed for a time at Fort Stanton.
Fort Selden
Fort Selden was established in 1865 and named for Capt. Henry R. Selden
(later colonel) who distinguished himself at the battle of Val Verde,
February 21, 1862. The fort was beside the Rio Grande nine miles north
of the settlement of Doña Ana. The site is located along U.S. Highway 85
about seventeen miles north of present-day Las Cruces.
Fort Selden was one of a chain of forts established to control the
Apaches. It was on the Butterfield Trail and provided protection for the
government rope ferry which crossed the Rio Grande at nearby Leasburg.
The summit of Mt. Robledo, across the river to the west, was used as a
heliograph station, flashing messages between Fort Selden and Fort Bliss
at Franklin (El Paso, Texas).
The buildings of the fort were one-story adobe structures with walls two
feet thick. The installation included barracks for enlisted men, two
double officers’ quarters, a ten-bed hospital, stone guard house,
storehouses, workshop, bake shop, corrals, and a magazine with stone
walls three feet thick. The fort was rectangular in ground plan, the
buildings enclosing a parade ground.
Fort Selden was abandoned in 1879 when the railroads began to draw
travel away from the overland trails. It was reoccupied in 1881 when the
Apache Chiefs Victorio, Nana, and later Geronimo were on the warpath.
With the passing of the Indian problem, Fort Selden was permanently
abandoned in 1892. During World War I, the grounds of the fort were used
for cavalry maneuvers by units stationed at Fort Bliss.
A rather famous American once lived at Fort Selden. Gen. Douglas
MacArthur, as a child of four, moved with his family to the fort in
1884, following the assignment of his father, then an infantry captain,
to that post. The family remained at Fort Selden until late in 1886.
Now only crumbling adobe walls mark the site of Fort Selden, once a
welcome sight to travelers in southern New Mexico. The wind, rain, and
sun have taken their toll, aided in no small way by man himself. In
1963, through the efforts of the Doña Ana Historical Society, Fort
Selden was made a State Monument by the New Mexico legislature. It is to
be hoped that the fort will now be protected from further weathering and
vandalism so that the remnants of this old outpost will stand for many
years to come as a monument to the men who once manned it.
Fort Cummings
Fort Cummings was established in October 1863 in what is now Luna
County, New Mexico. It was located at Cooke’s Spring, an important
watering stop on the Butterfield Trail, at the eastern edge of Cooke’s
Canyon. Prior to the establishment of Fort Cummings, the Apaches made
frequent and fatal attacks upon travelers as they passed through the
four miles of Cooke’s Canyon or stopped at the spring. Cooke’s Canyon
was one of the most dangerous stretches on the Butterfield Trail. The
fort was named for Maj. Joseph Cummings who was killed by Navajo Indians
in August 1863. Its ruins can be reached by turning off State Highway 26
at Florida, sixteen miles northeast of Deming, and traveling seven miles
to the west.
Fort Cummings was the most elaborate and best-walled fort in New Mexico.
It covered an area 365 × 320 feet and was completely surrounded by a
twelve-foot-high adobe wall. The main entrance was topped by a guard
tower. Officers’ quarters occupied the west side of the parade ground,
the hospital the north side, and soldiers’ quarters the east side. The
various workshops, storerooms, offices, stables, and corrals extended
along the south side of the fort.
Abandoned in August 1873, Fort Cummings was reoccupied in 1880, and then
again abandoned in October 1886. Later it was used as a cattle corral by
the Carpenter-Stanley Cattle Company. The spring was walled and covered,
and the water piped to Florida.
Little remains of Fort Cummings today. A few weathered walls here and
there among the mesquite and creosote bushes mark the site. The spring
still flows, supplying water for the stock which now graze upon this
“protector of the trail.”
Fort Bayard
Fort Bayard, established in 1865 to protect the miners and settlers
moving into the area following the Civil War, allowed the orderly
development of what was to become New Mexico’s most important
mineral-producing area. Named for Capt. George D. Bayard who was wounded
repeatedly during Indian forays and who died of wounds received in the
Battle of Fredricksburg (Va.) during the Civil War, the fort was located
about five miles southeast of Pinos Altos and about midway between the
mining towns of Pinos Altos and Santa Rita. The site is about nine miles
east of present-day Silver City, just north of State Highway 90.
The original fort consisted of log and adobe buildings forming a square
around the parade ground. During its thirty-four year history as an army
post, many changes and additions were made to the fort, including the
building of two-storied officers’ quarters. In 1899, the line troops
were removed and the fort was officially designated as a U.S. Army
General Hospital to treat tubercular soldiers. In 1920, the hospital was
turned over to the Public Health Department; in 1922, to the U.S.
Veterans Administration; and again, in 1966, to the State Health
Department as a facility for the care of the aged and of tuberculosis
cases. It can now accommodate more than 300 patients. The modern
buildings are a far cry from the dirt-floored log and adobe buildings of
the original fort.
HISTORY
_Pre-Civil War Period._
The period 1846 to 1861 was characterized by constant Indian warfare.
Treaties were made, then broken. Forts were established, then abandoned,
and new forts built as the military tried in vain to cope with the
problem. Punitive expeditions proved ineffective as the Indians
separated into small and predatory bands which overran the country.
Forts Union, Marcy, Fauntleroy, Craig, and Stanton were established
during this period. Additional forts, whose sites have returned to the
desert, are Fort Conrad (1851), on the Rio Grande about twenty-five
miles south of Socorro; Fort Thorn (1853), on the Rio Grande about five
miles north of Hatch; Fort Fillmore (1851), on the Rio Grande about
seven miles south of Las Cruces; Fort Webster (1852), on the Mimbres
River about one and one-half miles northwest of San Lorenzo; Fort McLane
(1860), at Apache Tejo about four miles south of Hurley; and Fort Floyd
(1857), on the Gila River about two miles south of Cliff.
_Civil War Period._
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 created a new problem on the
frontier in New Mexico. Confederate military leaders moved quickly to
seize control of the Southwest and California to cut off the supply of
gold to the North and divert it to the Confederacy. Confederate troops
under Col. J. B. Baylor occupied abandoned Fort Bliss at Franklin (El
Paso), Texas on July 1, 1861. Baylor began his move northward along the
Rio Grande on July 23 and quickly occupied Mesilla. Nearby Fort Fillmore
was abandoned and the Union forces retreated toward Fort Stanton, but
they were soon captured by Baylor’s troops. Upon the fall of Fort
Fillmore, Fort Stanton was hastily abandoned on August 2 and was taken
over by the Confederates shortly thereafter.
Gen. H. H. Sibley arrived at Fort Bliss in December 1861 to assume
command of the Confederate forces. Sibley’s troops moved northward along
the Rio Grande and were engaged in battle by Union troops from Fort
Craig, under Gen. E. R. S. Canby, as they attempted to bypass the
well-garrisoned post. The Battle of Val Verde took place four miles
north of Fort Craig on February 21, 1862. After a day of bloody
fighting, Sibley emerged the victor. He occupied Albuquerque on March 2,
1862, and Santa Fe on March 23. The Confederate forces then moved toward
Fort Union in an attempt to gain complete control of the territory. On
March 27 and 28, they were met by Union forces sent out from Fort Union
and were defeated in battle near present-day Glorieta. Sibley then
retreated to Fort Bliss.
[Illustration: The Confederate campaign in New Mexico, 1861-1862]
While Sibley was thus engaged, another part of his army moved across
what is now southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona and
occupied Tucson (Arizona). Gen. J. H. Carleton and his California Column
left Los Angeles on April 13 and cleared this area of Confederate
troops, reaching the Rio Grande on August 7. Carleton reoccupied Fort
Bliss, which had been abandoned by the Confederate troops in their
retreat.
_Post-Civil War Period._
While the Union troops were preoccupied with the Confederates, the
Indians stepped up their raids and depredations. With the passing of the
Confederate threat, attention was once more focused on the Indian
problem. A new plan was formulated which called for the capturing of the
Indians and confining them to reservations. A reservation (Bosque
Redondo) was established late in 1862 near present-day Fort Sumner, New
Mexico, to which were eventually confined several thousand Navajos and
Mescalero Apaches. This resettlement was not a success since the Apaches
ran off and the Navajos suffered greatly from sickness and disease. A
treaty was signed with the Navajos in 1868, and they were allowed to
return to their homes, no longer a threat to the frontier. The Mescalero
Apaches were finally settled on a reservation in their own country south
of Fort Stanton, and the Jicarillas on a reservation west of Tierra
Amarilla.
The Mimbreno, Mogollon, and Warm Springs Apaches of southwestern New
Mexico were more of a problem. In 1871, a reservation and Fort Tularosa
were established near present-day Aragon in western New Mexico. After a
futile attempt to keep the Indians there, they were moved in 1874 to a
new reservation and military post at Ojo Caliente, about forty miles
northwest of present-day Truth or Consequences. This, too, proved a
failure and the Apaches were moved to the San Carlos Reservation in what
is now Arizona. During these attempts to locate the Apaches on
reservations, various rebellious bands of Apaches led by Victorio, Nana,
and Geronimo continued on the warpath. Geronimo and his band surrendered
in 1886 and were imprisoned in Florida. After Geronimo’s surrender,
relative peace descended upon the frontier in New Mexico.
Established in the post-Civil War period were Forts Wingate (old and
new), Selden, Cummings, and Bayard, as well as Fort Lowell (1868), near
Tierra Amarilla; Fort Bascom (1863), on the Canadian River about eight
miles north of Tucumcari; Fort Sumner (1862), on the Pecos River about
five miles southeast of present-day Fort Sumner; Fort McRae (1863), on
the Rio Grande about ten miles northeast of Truth or Consequences; and
Fort West (1863), on the Gila River about two miles south of Cliff.
With the arrival of the railroad and cessation of hostilities with the
Indians, a new era was begun. One by one, the old forts were abandoned:
their need had passed. The colorful frontier forts of New Mexico are
just a memory now.
Our National Heritage
National Forests in the so-called “desert” state of New Mexico cover
more than 8.5 million acres, about 11 per cent of the state’s area.
National Monuments and Carlsbad Caverns National Park only extend over
about 430 square miles but cover ten of New Mexico’s most scenic areas
that are of national geologic, archeologic, and historic interest. These
are our national heritage, set aside by the federal government for the
perpetual equal use of all Americans.
The forests cap the higher ranges of the state, except on windblown
peaks that extend above the timberline. They provide protection for the
watersheds that feed New Mexico’s rivers, supply about 125 million board
feet of cut timber each year, and yield forage for more than 150,000
cattle and sheep. Picnic nooks and camp grounds are plentiful, fish
abound in the rushing mountain streams, and big game awaits the hunter
throughout the forest lands. The primitive virgin wilderness is
preserved in its natural state, accessible only by pack trip, in the
Gila Wilderness area of the Diablo and Mogollon mountains north of
Silver City and the Pecos Wilderness area east of Santa Fe in the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains.
Incomparable Carlsbad Caverns is in the state’s only National Park.
National Monuments include the glistening gypsum dunes of White Sands,
the volcanic cone of Capulin Mountain, the prehistoric ruins of Chaco
Canyon, Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, and Gila Cliff Dwellings, the Spanish
ruins at Gran Quivira, Inscription Rock at El Morro, and the crumbling
walls of old Fort Union. In the near future, Valle Grande may be added
to the National Park System and will include Valle Caldera, one of the
world’s largest volcanic calderas, a mountainous jumble with cool
streams, thick coniferous forests, and lush high meadows.
NEW MEXICO’S BIG SHARE OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM
_by_ H. V. Reeves, Jr.[2]
In contemplating the growth of cities and towns, the insatiable suburbs,
congested streets and highways, the acres of dump yards for discarded
automobiles, legions of billboards upstaging mountain ranges and
seashores, and the melancholy predictions of demographers who say that
within thirty years there will be twice as many of us, consider this:
for New Mexico in particular, the outlook is not utterly bleak.
Some ninety years ago, without anything approaching the present-day
horrible example before them, some farsighted, selfless, tireless
individuals began to work to set aside areas of outstanding scenic,
scientific, and historical interest so that they would not be engulfed
by humanity. Often against strong opposition, these benefactors
succeeded in bringing about legislation that bounded many such areas and
defined laws to protect them. The areas became national parks,
monuments, and historic sites. And in 1916, the National Park Service,
an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, was established to
administer the units of the National Park System.
Today, other selfless individuals are contributing their time and effort
to bring additional areas into the National Park System before they are
lost forever. For example, Pecos ruins became a National Monument in
late 1966 (see page 106).
Not every suggested area possesses the qualities that merit
preservation, qualities of national significance. Proposed areas receive
careful study before they are recommended for inclusion within the
system—recommended to the Congress by the Secretary of the Interior. The
Secretary’s recommendations are based on those received from the
Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and
Monuments. This board is composed of eleven private citizens, each of
whom is competent in one or more of the following fields: history,
natural history, archeology, architecture, conservation, and recreation.
Diverse in character, New Mexico’s ten units of the National Park System
are of geologic, scenic, archeological, and historical interest. A visit
to each unit will disclose the qualities that have been judged to be of
national significance.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Incomparable Carlsbad Caverns, in southeastern New Mexico, includes a
single underground chamber so expansive that its floor could accommodate
fourteen football fields and its ceiling could hold a 22-story building;
other chambers that contain countless cave formations of great variety
of shape and color; cool and naturally circulating fresh air; and a
system of lighting that reveals the beauty and spaciousness most
effectively.
Since the temperature within the Caverns remains at about 56°F the year
round, warm clothing is needed. Comfortable shoes, too, for the
four-hour, three-mile complete tour, which starts at the natural
entrance. Shorter trips, the Big Room tours that start at the elevators
in the visitor center, take in only a part of the underground chambers.
All tours are under leadership of competent park guides who answer
questions and explain the earth processes that have resulted in the
caverns and their amazing decorations.
From the natural entrance, the immense main corridor of the Caverns is
followed downward 829 feet for one and three-quarters miles. This brings
visitors to the most scenic rooms (the Green Lake Room, King’s Palace,
Queen’s Chamber, and Papoose Room), where the stalactites, stalagmites,
and helictites reach their peak in numbers, shapes, and delicate
coloring. The trail leads upward 80 feet from the Papoose Room to the
lunchroom. Near the lunchroom is the Big Room, the most majestic of the
Caverns’ chambers. The trail around its perimeter, one and a quarter
miles long, encompasses a floor space of fourteen acres.
[Illustration: Hall of Giants in Carlsbad Caverns National Park]
Completing the circuit of the Big Room and returning to the lunchroom,
visitors may either walk or board an elevator and ride smoothly back to
the surface.
How were the Caverns formed? The story began about 240 million years
ago, during the Permian Period. At that time, the two limestone
formations in which the caverns occur—the Tansill Formation and Capitan
Limestone—were deposited as part of an organic reef complex at the edge
of a warm shallow sea.
During subsequent periods, other seas brought in sedimentary material
that covered the reef. About 60 million years ago, earth movements,
which were responsible for the uplift of the area, fractured the reef
and permitted surrounding ground water to enter along fracture lines and
begin work in fashioning the caverns. The water at first dissolved small
crevices in the limestone. As more water came in, the crevices enlarged
to cavities, called solution pockets. Then the walls, floors, and
ceilings of the pockets dissolved and collapsed, joining the pockets,
while the solution process continued, eventually forming the huge rooms
seen today.
Beginning about 3 million years ago and into recent times, the uplift of
the local Guadalupe Mountains and changing climates lowered the water
table. Water that had been inside the caverns drained away and was
replaced by air. Most solution stopped, but large sections of partly
dissolved walls and ceilings collapsed under their own weight. Stability
was finally achieved, however, and probably no rock has fallen within
the caverns during the last several thousand years.
Even before the collapsing ended, another phase of cavern development
had begun. Rain water and snow melt slowly seeped into the caverns.
Droplets of water, each holding a minute quantity of dissolved
limestone, appeared upon the ceilings. Exposed to the air, the droplets
evaporated and left their mineral content as calcite and
aragonite—crystalline forms of limestone. Over centuries, this process
of evaporation and deposition has built a myriad of crystalline
stalactites of all shapes and sizes. Water that dripped to the floor
evaporated and deposited the calcite and aragonite to build stalagmites.
When joined together, stalactites and stalagmites become columns, or
pillars. In the scenic rooms, conditions existed that brought about the
creation of helictites—twisted formations that seem to defy gravity in
their growth. Color in the cave formations, shades of brown, red, and
yellow, result from the presence of small amounts of iron oxide and
other minerals.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park offers more than the caverns themselves.
Each evening from April to October, bats in incredible numbers spiral
upward out of the Caverns’ entrance and fly southward over the rim of
the escarpment to feed in the valleys of the Black and Pecos rivers.
They return just before dawn, diving swiftly and from high altitudes
into the entrance. Flying directly to the bat cave, they spend each day
hanging head downward in dense clusters from the walls and ceilings. The
bat cave itself is not open to visitors. A park naturalist explains the
bat flight and discusses the bats in detail in a talk given at the
entrance to the Caverns each evening before the flight begins.
The nature trail, a half mile loop that begins and ends near the
entrance to the Caverns, guides the visitor to many of the desert plants
of the region. The park is visited by more than half a million people
each year, and yet the delicate cave formations and the natural beauties
remain unmarred.
White Sands National Monument
White Sands National Monument, fifteen miles southwest of Alamogordo, is
another area of great interest to the geologist and biologist. But its
strangeness, the graceful contours of its snow-white dunes, and the
peculiar adaptations of some of the plants and animals that live among
its dunes are appreciated as fully by the nonscientist. More than
370,000 visitors come to marvel at the White Sands each year.
The Monument, some 230 square miles in extent, preserves the most
impressive part of the world’s largest gypsum desert. This is a
glistening sea of pure gypsum sand that the wind has drifted into huge
dunes that are almost bare of vegetation except along the fringes.
Wavelike, the restive dunes move slowly before the prevailing winds,
covering and uncovering the few plants that lie in their way. And
wavelike, their surfaces trace the vagaries of indecisive breezes in
tiny parallel ripplelike ridges.
Because of the almost constant wind and resulting gradual advance of the
dunes, most of the plants that are able to establish themselves in the
open flats between the dunes eventually become buried. A few species,
however, are able to survive the irresistible march of the sand. Through
rapid growth and elongation of the stems, the struggling crowns remain
on top of the rising crests of the dunes. Plants with stems more than
forty feet long have been found. As the dunes continue forward under the
pressure of the wind, they leave the plants elevated on columns of
compacted gypsum bound by their adventitious roots.
Animals, too, have become adapted to their unusual surroundings. The
small creatures, lizards, mice, and others, are picked off easily by
such predators as foxes, coyotes, and hawks when they are conspicuous.
Thus, through the centuries, only the lighter-colored individuals have
survived among the dunes and, through many generations, have developed
pale and elusive animals that blend inconspicuously with their white
surroundings. Pocket mice are a good example of this. Among the white
dunes, the pocket mice are white; in the nearby red hills, they are a
rusty color; and on the beds of black lava a few miles north of the
sand, the pocket mice are very dark.
A visitor to White Sands National Monument should stop at the visitor
center, where exhibits explain the geology of the duneland and others
describe the plants and animals that are able to live there.
But how and from where did this natural wonder come? The dunes of gypsum
lie in the Tularosa Basin, which stretches for more than 100 miles
between two north-south mountain ranges. All sides of the valley slope
gently inward, forming the basin, with Lake Lucero, its lowest point, at
the southwest end of the Monument. This valley was formed hundreds of
centuries ago, when a great section of the earth’s crust settled to form
the type of basin known geologically as a graben.
High above the basin floor, beds of gypsum are found to the north in the
mountain ranges flanking the valley. Similar gypsum beds lie far beneath
the floor of the basin. Thus, it was once a part of the high plateau, a
great blocklike section that slowly sank to form the basin at its
present level.
Percolating water from seasonal rains and melting snow carries tons of
gypsum, in solution, from the highlands at the north end of the basin
into Lake Lucero. During much of the year, cloudless skies and warm dry
winds evaporate Lake Lucero, and it shrinks to a crystal-encrusted
marsh. Capillarity draws the gypsum-laden underground water to the
surface; it, too, evaporates, depositing its burden of gypsum throughout
the extensive “alkali flats.” The persistent southwest wind picks up the
particles of gypsum and whirls them away, adding them to the gleaming
white dunes, the accumulation of centuries.
The best ways to see the dunes are by car and by foot. Along the drive
that leads into the heart of the duneland are numbered posts that
correspond to numbered paragraphs in the Monument’s informational
folder. These paragraphs explain the features that are of particular
significance. At pull-outs along the drive, park the car and walk among
the dunes.
[Illustration: Capulin Mountain National Monument]
Capulin Mountain National Monument
Capulin Mountain National Monument, in the northeast part of the state,
is an area of geologic interest that presents still another aspect of
the science of the earth. It contains the cone of an extinct volcano,
one of the most symmetrical of the geologically recent cinder cones in
the United States. Its conical form rises more than 1000 feet above its
base. The irregular rim is about one mile in circumference, and the
crater is about 415 feet in depth, as measured from the highest part of
the rim. Some 40,000 people a year visit the Monument.
The mountain consists chiefly of loose cinders, ash, and other rock
debris of volcanic explosions. These materials were spewed out by a
series of successive eruptions, probably of considerable duration. The
coarse materials fell back around the vent, piling up to form the
conical mound. Dust and other fine materials were carried away by the
wind. After the eruptions, vegetation gained a foothold on the steep,
unstable flanks of the cone, so that in time the slopes became
stabilized. Geological studies indicate that the volcano probably was
active about 7000 years ago.
Capulin Mountain is of special interest, partly because it represents
the last stages of a great period of volcanic activity that was
widespread throughout western North America. Evidences of this older and
more intense activity can be seen from the top of Capulin Mountain in
the scores of other nearby volcanic hills and peaks. The largest of
these is the Sierra Grande, an extinct volcano rising 4000 feet above
the surrounding plain; it is ten miles to the southeast. Northwest of
Capulin are a number of mesas that are capped with black lava, the
largest of which are Barella, Raton, and Johnson. Fishers Peak, south of
Trinidad, Colorado, is on a similar mesa. The famous Spanish Peaks,
northwest of Trinidad, are a pair of extinct volcanoes.
In this great volcanic area, the lava erupted in a succession of flows.
The series of eruptions were separated by long periods of inactivity.
During these inactive times, erosion cut valleys and wore down parts of
the old lava sheets. This action formed new channels and lower terrain
over which succeeding lava flows spread. This process was repeated at
least three times. The oldest lavas, which have been exposed by erosion,
are found on the tops of the highest mesas. The last series of eruptions
created Capulin Mountain; they were ejections mostly of cinders and ash,
with less lava flow than in the preceding volcanic activity. These
cinder-and-ash eruptions were so recent, geologically, that some of the
nearby, bare, steep-sided cinder cones appear as if they had just
cooled.
The National Park Service has constructed a road up the mountain to the
rim of the crater. And from the parking area at the rim, two trails lead
to the most interesting points on the mountain. One trail, self-guiding,
makes the complete one-mile circuit of the crater along the rim. A guide
booklet, keyed to numbered stakes that have been set at places along the
trail, explains the features of particular significance—both on the
mountain and in the distance. The other trail, less scenic, provides a
rare opportunity to see a volcanic mountain from the inside out, for it
leads down to the bottom of the crater.
[Illustration: View of Chaco Canyon National Monument]
Chaco Canyon National Monument
Rich in areas of geological interest, New Mexico is equally rich in
areas of archeological interest. Four of these are preserved as units of
the National Park System.
Chaco Canyon National Monument, in the northwestern part of the state,
contains more than a dozen large prehistoric ruins and hundreds of
smaller archeological sites. These ruins are considered to be without
equal north of central Mexico. No other archeological area in the
Southwest exhibits such a high development of prehistoric Pueblo
civilization. Most of the sites lie within a strip of land about eight
miles long and two miles wide, through which Chaco Canyon runs. Although
the Monument is relatively isolated, it is open year around and is
visited by about 22,000 people annually.
The most imposing and best known of the ruins is Pueblo Bonito. Built
between 800 and 900 years ago, this 4- and 5-story village covered more
than three acres and contained about 800 rooms and 32 kivas, or
ceremonial chambers. Archeologist Neil M. Judd, of the National Museum,
who conducted some of the late excavations, has said that Pueblo Bonito
was the largest apartment house built anywhere in the world prior to
1887, estimating that at one time it housed 1200 people.
Earliest of the Chaco sites, small villages of crude pit houses were
occupied during 600 to 800 A.D. Archeologists, studying changes in
masonry style, pottery types, and other remains, have pieced together
the development of the culture of the inhabitants of Chaco Canyon over a
period of six centuries.
After Chaco Canyon’s cultural high point was reached in the 1100’s, a
gradual decline set in. The population decreased, and in the 1200’s, the
region was abandoned. During this same century, other Pueblo centers
within the San Juan Basin were also deserted.
Various theories have been advanced to explain this exodus: soil
erosion, warlike enemies, poor facilities for urban sanitation, drought,
and intervillage warfare. One or a combination of these factors might
have been instrumental in bringing about the abandonment of the region.
Aztec Ruins National Monument
Aztec Ruins National Monument, at Aztec in the northwestern corner of
the state, was set aside to preserve an outstanding example of classical
Pueblo construction, one of the largest pre-Spanish villages in the
Southwest. More than 40,000 visitors come to the Monument each year.
Tree-ring dates indicate that most of the big central pueblo was rapidly
constructed during the period 1106 to 1121. At this time, the people of
Aztec were influenced by the cultural center to the south, Chaco Canyon.
During the last half of the 1100’s, after the decline of Chaco Canyon
had begun, the people of Aztec began to look toward the north, and by
1200, Mesa Verde ideas dominated the region. Aztec was abandoned by
about 1300, as was the rest of the general region.
Of particular interest at Aztec Ruins National Monument is the
reconstructed Great Kiva. The Pueblo Indians built separate rooms, now
known as kivas, for ceremonial purposes. During the period of Chaco
influence, the people at Aztec constructed a very large circular
building, 48 feet in diameter, in their plaza. Its features differ from
those of the small kivas and establish it as a Great Kiva, similar to
those at Chaco. The Great Kivas represent the peak of religious
architecture among the Pueblos. The Great Kiva at Aztec was completely
restored in 1934 by Earl H. Morris, of the American Museum of Natural
History.
Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument, forty-six miles west of Santa Fe, preserves
the ruins of dwellings and other structures that were erected by Indians
who lived in the area until about 1550 A.D. Almost 100,000 people visit
the Monument each year.
When many of the ancient Pueblo Indian centers were abandoned in the
late thirteenth century, the people moved to locations where the water
supply was more constant. A favorable area was the upper Rio Grande
Valley in what is now New Mexico. One of the later flowerings of Pueblo
culture occurred here. The ruins within Bandelier are representative of
this phase of Pueblo development.
In Frijoles Canyon, the Indians chose the location of their homes well.
The creek that runs through the canyon flows all year. On the canyon
floor and mesa top there was land suitable to the cultivation of crops.
And the canyon walls of soft tuff (consolidated volcanic ash) could
easily be hollowed out by the Indians with their harder stone tools in
fashioning storage rooms behind dwellings built against the cliff.
Cliff ruins, or talus villages, extend along the base of the northern
wall of the canyon for about two miles. Other ruins are located on the
floor of the canyon. The houses of stone masonry were irregularly
terraced, from one to three stories in height. Some hollowed recesses at
the base of the cliff also were used for dwelling rooms.
Like the other pueblo dwellers, the Frijoles inhabitants were farmers,
raising the usual corn, beans, and squash. They used cotton cloth, which
has been found in the ruins and which suggests that they had the loom.
Since the growing season in the high Frijoles country is short, they
probably obtained their cotton by trade with Indians who lived farther
south. They made pottery decorated with glaze paint.
For a few centuries, the Indian farmers lived in the canyons, built
villages, honeycombed the cliffs with artificial caves, and tilled the
soil. But with the passing years, drought, soil-eroding floods, soil
depletion, famine, and possibly disease—singly or in combination—forced
the canyon dwellers again to seek new homes. Descendants of these
Indians still live in nearby modern pueblos along the Rio Grande.
[Illustration: Cliff houses in Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier National
Monument]
About ninety per cent of Bandelier National Monument is, and will
remain, a wilderness. The rugged and scenic back country is accessible
by about sixty miles of maintained trails, leading to such features as
Alamo Canyon, the Stone Lions, Painted Cave, the Pueblo ruins of San
Miguel and Yapashi, and White Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande.
Valle Grande
Another area has been considered as an addition to the National Park
System in New Mexico. A 1963 bill introduced in Congress would establish
Valle Grande-Bandelier National Park, about forty-six miles west of
Santa Fe. Valle Grande is part of the Valle Caldera, which is among the
world’s largest and has been the site of extensive studies of calderas
(the collapsed summits of volcanoes). Lessons learned there have been
applied in recognizing and investigating calderas in other places.
Bandelier National Monument, primarily of archeological significance,
lies to the east of the canyon-cut rim of the caldera. As written, the
bill would have incorporated the Monument in the proposed national park.
[Illustration: Part of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument]
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, forty-seven miles north of
Silver City and at the edge of the Gila Wilderness Area, contains a
series of ruins that portray the development of the agricultural Indians
who lived south of the Mogollon Mountains. Specifically, the ruins
represent a branch of the generalized culture known as Mogollon.
Although part of the road to the Monument was paved in 1963, the last
four-mile stretch is still primitive and should not be attempted in an
ordinary passenger car except during the summer and in dry weather. In
spite of the difficult road, more than 23,000 people visited the
Monument during 1965. The last four miles of the road have been recently
paved.
The earliest ruin yet found within the Monument is a Mogollon pit house
of a type that was made about 500 A.D. It is roundish and, on the east
side, has a narrow ramplike entrance some two feet wide and ten feet
long. The people of this period did only a little farming (corn and
beans), a little hunting, and gathered much uncultivated plant food.
They made a fairly good plain-brown pottery and undoubtedly were skilled
in a number of crafts whose products have since disappeared. Such things
as nets and snares, baskets, and wooden tools last but a short time in
open sites.
Other, later, pit house types may be seen in the Monument. Pit houses
were prevalent in the area until about 1000 A.D., when influences from
the Anasazi (Pueblo) Indians of the northern part of the Southwest began
to affect the Mogollon people.
Square houses, built above the ground, became the style; some were of
masonry, some of adobe construction, and some were built of wattle
(wooden rods and twigs). A new type of pottery was also introduced at
about the same time: white with black designs.
The principal ruins in the Monument are the cliff dwellings, which were
built during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They, too, reflect
the northern pueblo influence. About forty rooms, remarkably well
preserved, are fitted into a series of chambers, or caves, in a low
cliff of Gila Conglomerate. By about the beginning of the fifteenth
century, the area was abandoned by the farming Indians.
Gran Quivira National Monument
Significant chapters in the absorbing history of New Mexico were written
at three sites that have been made units of the National Park System.
Gran Quivira National Monument, near the center of the state southeast
of Mountainair, preserves the ruins of a frontier Spanish mission that
had been built, used, and abandoned by 1675. The Monument contains
twenty-one ruined house mounds of Indian pueblos and ruins of two
mission churches. It was the presence of the Indians at this location,
of course, that attracted the Franciscan missionaries.
[Illustration: A look at ruins of Gran Quivira]
The earliest Indian pueblo in the Monument was founded about 1300 A.D.;
by the 1600’s, the village, with several structures, had become the
largest in the region. It was conveniently located on the south side of
a hill near the cultivated fields in the surrounding lowlands. Water was
a problem then as now. The Indians solved this as best they could by
digging shallow wells at the base of the hill, about one mile west of
the pueblo.
The first known specific reference to Gran Quivira was made in 1630 by
Fray Alonso de Benavides, a Franciscan missionary. He called the pueblo
the “Village of the Humanas,” and referred to the church there as having
been built by Father Francisco Letrado in 1629 and dedicated to San
Isidro. Humanas, now misnamed “Gran Quivira,” was later administered
from the mission of San Gregorio de Abo, some forty miles to the north.
In 1659, Father Diego de Santander was assigned to Humanas. Construction
of the mission buildings, which he rededicated to San Buenaventura, was
completed by him.
The Franciscans had a pronounced influence upon the Pueblo Indians. They
stimulated trade with Mexico and the pueblos farther north. They
imported wine grapes and cultivated them, and they introduced
domesticated sheep, goats, cattle, and horses.
Sometime between 1672 and 1675, the pueblo and mission at Humanas were
abandoned because of Apache raids, drought, and crop failures. The
people first moved to the Rio Grande near the present town of Socorro. A
few continued to El Paso del Norte, where, in 1680, they were joined by
those from Socorro, who had fled with the Spaniards from the Pueblo
Revolt of that year.
El Morro National Monument
El Morro National Monument, southwest of Grants near Ramah, was
established to preserve the famous Inscription Rock, register of
Indians, Spaniards, and westward-moving pioneers. About 22,000 people
now visit the Monument each year.
El Morro, or Inscription Rock, is a massive mesa point of sandstone.
Rising some 200 feet above the valley floor, it forms a striking
landmark. From its summit, rain and melted snow drain into a natural
basin at the foot of the cliff, creating a constant and dependable
supply of water in a region where water is scarce. The route from Acoma
to the Zuni pueblos led directly past the mesa. It was a regular camping
place for Spanish _conquistadores_ and, later, for travelers from the
east.
On the top of El Morro lie ruins of Indian pueblos, abandoned long
before the coming of the Spaniards. And carved in the sandstone are
numerous petroglyphs left by these ancient people, ancestors of the
modern Zunis. Perhaps it was the petroglyphs that prompted later
travelers to record their names and thoughts on the rock.
The first known historical mention of El Morro is found in the journal
of Diego Pérez de Luxán, chronicler of the Espejo Expedition of 1583.
Luxán stopped there for water on March 11 of that year.
[Illustration: Part of the pool and cliff at El Morro]
The oldest dated inscription at El Morro was made in 1605 by don Juan de
Oñate, first governor of New Mexico. Returning from an expedition to the
mouth of the Colorado River, he camped at El Morro and carved this
inscription in Spanish: “Passed by here the Adelantado Don Juan de Oñate
from the discovery of the Sea of the South, the 16th of April of 1605.”
The “Sea of the South” was the Gulf of California.
If don Diego de Vargas, the most famous Spanish governor of New Mexico,
seems boastful in the message he left at El Morro, who can blame him?
His words, in English, read, “Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas,
who conquered for our Holy Faith and for the Royal Crown all of New
Mexico at his own expense, year of 1692.” Twelve years earlier, the
great Pueblo Indian Revolt had driven the Spaniards from New Mexico.
More than 400, including 23 priests, had lost their lives, and the
surviving Spaniards, some 1100, had fled to El Paso del Norte. De Vargas
restored order, without further bloodshed, in 1692.
After the occupation of Santa Fe by the army of Gen. Stephen W. Kearny
in August 1846, details of United States troops were dispatched to
explore various parts of New Mexico. Probably the first to visit El
Morro was Lt. J. H. Simpson, accompanied by the artist R. H. Kern, who
copied some of the early inscriptions in September 1849. Then the names
of other soldiers, traders, Indian agents, surveyors, emigrants who were
traveling westward, and settlers were added to the rock.
Since the establishment of the Monument by Presidential proclamation in
1906, inscribing on the face of the cliff has been prohibited. If the
Monument had not been established and the law not passed, this
fascinating part of the history of the Southwest would surely have been
lost.
Fort Union National Monument
Fort Union National Monument, twenty-six miles northeast of Las Vegas
and on the route of the old Santa Fe Trail where the mountains meet the
plains, preserves the ruins of a famous frontier Army post. As a base of
operations for military and civilian ventures in New Mexico from 1851 to
1891, Fort Union helped to direct the course of events in the formative
years of the Southwest. More than 11,000 visitors come to the Monument
each year.
Five years after the conquest of New Mexico by the United States in the
war with Mexico, Col. E. V. Sumner moved some of his troops from Fort
Marcy, in Santa Fe, to the site of Fort Union and there began
construction of log buildings on the west side of Coyote Creek. This was
the first Fort Union.
The first post took an active part in protecting settlers and traders
from Indian raids during the 1850’s. Mounted patrols of dragoons made
many expeditions into the mountains against the warring Apaches and Utes
and out onto the plains to pursue Comanche war parties.
Fort Union was also charged with supply and support of many outlying
military posts, such as Fort Defiance and Fort Craig. The Quartermaster
Depot at Fort Union in later years came to be the hub of all Army supply
services in the Southwest.
During the first three decades of its life, Fort Union saw the great
Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners of the Santa Fe Trail caravans
pass in increasing numbers. By the outbreak of the Civil War,
enterprising traders were hauling more than ten million dollars’ worth
of goods from Missouri each year. The fort provided escorts for caravans
and when requested by apprehensive company or postal officials, escorts
for stage-coaches of the Independence-Santa Fe Mail. Century-old tracks
of the Santa Fe Trail can be still seen near Fort Union.
The start of the Civil War in 1861 brought new activity to the fort.
Immediate invasion of New Mexico by Confederate forces from Texas was
expected. Gen. E. R. S. Canby, commanding Union troops in the territory,
began construction of an earthwork fortification in a defensive position
about a mile from the original fort. The ditches, parapets, and
bomb-proofs of this redoubt were completed late in 1861.
The Texas column was not slow in coming. By March 1862, these invaders
under Gen. Henry H. Sibley had defeated a Union force at Val Verde, had
frightened the defenders from Albuquerque and Santa Fe into inaction,
and were marching eastward across the mountains toward the final
stronghold, Fort Union. On March 10, the First Regiment of Colorado
Volunteers, under Col. J. P. Slough, arrived at Fort Union as
reinforcements. And on March 22, Colonel Slough led his 1342 men out of
the fort to meet the advancing Confederates. In a two-day battle fought
in Apache Canyon and Glorieta Pass, the Union forces defeated the
Confederates, thus saving Fort Union for the federal cause.
From 1863 to 1869, the garrisons at Fort Union were chiefly occupied in
a construction program that produced most of the adobe-walled buildings
whose ruins may now be seen. Fort Union then returned to its earlier
mission of a base for Indian fighting.
The usefulness of Fort Union was reduced with the final submission of
the Indians and with the arrival of the railhead at Las Vegas in 1879.
The huge fort was demoted to caretaker status in the 1880’s and was
abandoned in 1891.
At each of these New Mexico units of the National Park System, as at
other units throughout the nation, trained personnel of the National
Park Service—archeologists, historians, naturalists, and park
rangers—are on duty. Their purpose is to make the visitor’s trip
rewarding. This they do through museum exhibits, guided walks and
self-guiding trails, campfire talks, and publications.
Here in New Mexico, then, escape the irritations that seem to go with
progress. Awaiting the traveler are unspoiled places where he can
surround himself with the quiet majesty of nature, walk the paths made
by prehistoric people, camp where the Spanish _conquistadores_ camped,
stroll among the ruins of buildings erected by the men who helped to
fashion the Southwest.
FOREST LANDS ABOVE THE DESERT
by Ruth Bush Jones[3]
Today, as in earlier times, people of New Mexico look to their mountains
with a new and greater appreciation of their forest land heritage.
Today, also, people seek aesthetic values of peace, beauty, and serenity
found in nature’s solitudes, in addition to forest products for economic
use. Basic to the enjoyment of the high country are the forest treasures
of clear, pure water ... of wild game and birds ... of trees for shade
and solitude, fuel, shelter, and forest products ... of grass and browse
for cattle, sheep, horses, and wildlife ... of magnificent grandeur and
panoramic vistas. These basic treasures coupled with understanding of
the purposes and many benefits of the National Forests bring true
recreation to the visitor.
The high country of New Mexico, much of it in the National Forests, is
entrusted by law to the care and administration of the U.S. Forest
Service, an agency of the Department of Agriculture. These vast public
properties located in several sections of the state are administered as
Carson, Santa Fe, Cibola, Lincoln, Gila, Apache, and Coronado National
Forests, the latter two lying primarily in Arizona and being directed
from there rather than from New Mexico. Visitors to New Mexico traveling
along main highways see the high forest country outlining the horizon
and often regard the lofty masses of rugged rock as unapproachable and
lacking in friendliness.
“Not so,” says the Forest Ranger. There are broad highways welcoming the
traveler into the high country where forest trees stretch to the sky.
There are cool invigorating streams sparkling clear and clean from
mountain fastnesses and developed campgrounds and picnic areas ready for
use. Outdoor recreation from simple relaxing and picnicking under a pine
tree to the most strenuous of wilderness backpacking or horseback
riding, winter sports, and skiing awaits the visitor. There is fishing
in mountain streams and in big open lakes or in precious, secluded
mountain lakes. And for those who like their surroundings interpreted
for them, there are nature trails and/or forest naturalists to explain
local rock formations, vegetation, and the natural and human history of
the immediate country.
The Forest Ranger asks only that each visitor do his share in cleaning
up a camp or picnic site and being _sure_ that camp fires, matches, and
cigarettes are thoroughly extinguished: “Keep Your National Forest Green
and Clean!”
Carson National Forest
Located in north-central New Mexico, with headquarters at Taos, the
Carson National Forest nurtures and cradles the Rio Grande as it leaves
its birthplace in Colorado en route to the south. Carrying water from
high country snow melt, the Carson adds precious, clear water from its
high mountain streams and lakes to the Rio Grande in support of the
prosperous communities along its way. The Carson includes some of the
highest water-producing lands in the state and is the source of several
permanent streams and lakes.
[Illustration: Map of National Forests in New Mexico]
Named in honor of Kit Carson, the noted scout, Carson National Forest
offers some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the Southwest,
including the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Red River Canyon, and Wheeler
Peak, which at 13,160 feet is the highest point in New Mexico. Part of
the famed Pecos Wilderness Area and the Wheeler Peak Wild Area are
included in this Forest and are available to those willing and able to
hike, ride a horse, or pack into the rugged mountain country. For the
winter sports enthusiast, the Red River Ski Area, Sipapu Winter Sports
Area, and Taos Ski Valley operate in part within the Carson National
Forest and offer some of the finest alpine skiing in the Southwest.
Good roads lead the visitor to Spanish and Indian villages where life
and culture are almost unchanged since the ancient and comparatively
recent days of settlement. Towns with singing-sounding names like
Picurís, Taos Pueblo, Las Trampas, Truchas, Santa Barbara, and Tres
Ritos nestle along forest streams and add charm and beauty to a scenic
trip in the northern Sangre de Cristo range (name given to the mountains
by early Spanish settlers, meaning _Blood of Christ_. The analogy
relates to the reddish glow that sometimes colors the mountains at
sunset.). Radiating from Taos are roads leading into the eastern half of
the Forest, bringing the traveler into fascinating and colorful country.
Taos Canyon, Arroyo Hondo, Questa, and the Red River country abound in
old mining ghost towns, Indian ruins, and legendary Spanish villages
located in canyons and on mountain tops.
The high range rising between the Rio Grande and the Chama River to the
west is the major part of the western half of the Carson National
Forest. Tres Piedras, El Rito, La Madera, Canjilon, Lagunitas, and San
Antonio are a few of the picturesque communities here. Farther to the
west is the Jicarilla Division of the Carson, the high mountain country
adjacent to the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. Bisected by State Highway
17 between Farmington and Chama, this section is a test of true
pioneering skill for the traveler who is willing to follow dim tracks of
roads and trails to enjoy the Forest. However, modern civilization is
introduced by the 150 oil and gas wells in this area, even though the
country is rugged and broken.
Carson National Forest is a trout fisherman’s delight. For the hunter,
Rocky Mountain mule deer, elk, and antelope are found in all parts of
the Forest. Small game is plentiful, and rabbits provide many hours of
hunting pleasure. Beaver, muskrat, mink, weasel, marten, and skunk are
the principal fur bearers, and turkey, grouse, ducks, geese, quail, and
doves make up the game bird population. Predators include the mountain
lion, bobcat, coyote, and fox.
More than 40 developed camp and picnic grounds, most of which are
accessible year round, welcome the visitor. Among them, Echo
Amphitheater picnic ground on U.S. Highway 84, south of Canjilon, is a
striking natural echo chamber formed by centuries of wind and water
erosion in the rugged sandstone rock. “If you stand near the chamber,
you only have to whisper, and your words come back in a spooky echo.”
About five miles south on U.S. Highway 84 is the Ghost Ranch Museum,
with live native Southwestern animals and conservation exhibits,
including a living and growing display showing on-the-ground Forest
Service Multiple Use Management of the mythical Beaver National Forest,
the “smallest National Forest in the world.”
Ranger stations at Canjilon, El Rito, Gobernador, Penasco, Questa, Taos,
and Tres Piedras provide local information and recreation maps.
[Illustration: Echo Amphitheater surrounds part of the trail to
campground]
Santa Fe National Forest
The Santa Fe National Forest, with headquarters in Santa Fe, lies
directly south of the Carson National Forest on both sides of the Rio
Grande and is the center of a region rich in natural resources as well
as historic and geologic interests. The two divisions of the Forest
contain the high mountains to the east and west in the central section
of the state. The Pecos Division to the east of the Rio Grande is the
location of the major part of the Pecos Wilderness Area, one of the
earliest of such areas to be established.
The Pecos Division is so named because the Pecos River, which later
joins the Rio Grande in Texas, heads among its towering mountains in a
beautiful alpine basin sometimes called the _Pecos Horseshoe_. The Pecos
River is one of the state’s largest streams and supplies some of its
most important irrigation projects. This division of the Forest includes
the southern part of the Sangre de Cristo range and was first known as
the Pecos River Forest Reserve, established in 1892—the oldest National
Forest in the Southwest. The division abounds in clear, cold mountain
lakes and streams. Truchas Lakes, Pecos Baldy, Stewart Lake, Spirit
Lake, and Lost Lake, as well as many mountain streams, lure not only the
fisherman but the hiker and camper to their wilderness beauty.
Twenty-three developed campgrounds and picnic areas located in cool
glades are ready for the visitor along roads leading into the Forest
from Santa Fe, Pecos, Glorieta, Las Vegas, and other communities. Skiing
and winter sports are available at the Santa Fe Ski Basin northeast of
Santa Fe; the chair lift operates year around for those who wish merely
to view the spectacular scenery. The Pecos Division watersheds of the
Santa Fe National Forest, like the eastern section of the Carson,
contribute generously to the water flow of the Rio Grande.
Wild game, game birds, and fishing attract visitors at all times of the
year, while the golden hues of the aspen in the autumn tempt artists and
photographers to record on canvas and film nature’s fall colors. A trip
just before the winter snows to the aspen country of the Santa Fe
National Forest is a must. Ranger stations are located at Santa Fe, Las
Vegas, and Pecos.
[Illustration: An Izaak Walton along the Pecos river]
West of the Rio Grande are the Jemez Mountains, which form the Jemez
Division of the Santa Fe National Forest. The Jemez country is a
favorite area for fishermen and hunters. For the sturdy hiker and
picnicker, there are hundreds of fascinating points to visit and peaks
to climb. Capulin Peak, Dead Man’s Peak, Nacimiento Peak, and Cerro
Pedernal are a few of the exciting ones. The Jemez country contains the
San Pedro Parks Wild Area, northeast of Cuba where San Gregorio Lake is
waiting for the fisherman or hiker willing to walk or ride horseback.
This section abounds in unique geologic formations—Battleship Rock, Tent
Rocks, Teakettle Rock, to name a few.
Eighteen developed camping and picnicking areas welcome the visitor to
the Jemez Division. Youth groups also favor the Jemez for their summer
camping. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, YMCA, and others have
camps adjacent to the Santa Fe National Forest. Timber production,
wildlife habitat management, livestock grazing, and watershed protection
are among the activities of the Jemez Division, while visitors and
travelers enjoy the forest, the streams, and the unique scenery. Ranger
stations are at Jemez Springs, Cuba, Espanola, and Coyote.
Cibola National Forest
A mountain playground for people who live or visit near U.S. Highway 66
is Cibola National Forest, with headquarters in Albuquerque. Embracing
the Sandias, Manzanos, and Gallinas Peak areas east of the Rio Grande in
central New Mexico, this Forest also includes most of the mountain
ranges in the west-central section of the state, the San Mateo
Mountains, with 11,389-foot Mount Taylor, and the Datil, Magdalena, and
Zuni ranges.
Outdoor recreation is the fastest growing use of the Cibola National
Forest and more than a million visits are made each year to this popular
Forest. The name is a Zuni Indian word, pronounced SEE-bo-lah, meaning
_buffalo_. Buffalo may have roamed the Cibola in years past, but today’s
big game animals making the Cibola their home are the Rocky Mountain
bighorn sheep, Rocky Mountain mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk,
antelope, and bear. Game birds include turkey, grouse, quail, and dove;
spring and fall migrations of ducks and geese use the Cibola as a
resting place. There are 18 campgrounds with 249 family units and 14
picnic grounds with 382 family units scattered through the vast domain
of the Cibola National Forest.
Sandia Crest in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque is a goal for
many travelers. Here on this 10,678-foot mountain top, there is a
breathtaking view of the middle Rio Grande Valley and the Estancia
Valley—a jet age view of nearly 10,000 square miles. The visitor stands
on rocks which in eons past were under the sea, as indicated by fossils
found on the peak. Recent recreation developments have been made at the
Sandia Ski Area where a new 7450-foot double chair lift will carry 700
riders an hour on a 1650-foot vertical rise to the restaurant and upper
terminal on Sandia Crest. A tramway ascends the west face of the Sandias
to meet the Ski Area chair lift at the Crest.
The fabled Manzano Mountains rising above the plains to the west of
State Highway 10 and south of U.S. Highway 66 are fast becoming a haven
for the camper, picnicker, or sightseer willing to follow secondary
roads to find the perfect spot to enjoy the forest. Capillo Peak, 9368
feet high, Mosca Peak, Cerro Blanco, and Manzano Peak lure the mountain
climber. Legends surrounding the old Spanish communities of Tajique,
Torreon, and Manzano are exciting campfire stories after a day spent
exploring the high country.
West of the Rio Grande, the San Mateo Mountains north of Grants and the
Zuni Mountains forming the backbone of the Continental Divide southeast
of Gallup can be a new experience in outdoor recreation. McGaffey Lake
recreation area, not too far from the route of the _conquistadore_ Juan
de Oñate, is a cool retreat after crossing the desert and lava flow.
West of Socorro on U.S. Highway 60, with Magdalena as headquarters, the
high Datil, Gallinas, and Magdalena mountains and another San Mateo
range rise above the San Agustin Plains, an ancient lake bed. Mt.
Withington and Mt. Baldy, 10,787 feet high, dominate the landscape. Good
roads and developed campgrounds are available. Hunting for wild game as
well as for unusual gem stones and geologic finds are favored activities
in this western section of the Cibola. District ranger stations are at
Grants, Gallup, Magdalena, Mountainair, and Tijeras.
Lincoln National Forest
Named for the great president, the Lincoln National Forest, with
headquarters at Alamogordo, has characteristics distinguishing it from
all other National Forests in the state. The high mountains and canyons
of the Sacramento, Guadalupe, Capitan, and White mountains, rising
between the Tularosa and Pecos basins, were the backdrop and often the
prize of the Indian and cattle wars. Stories and legends of early day
happenings in the Tularosa Basin, mining operations, battles between
rival cattle ranchers, large timber operations providing lumber, poles,
mine props, and railroad ties are warp and woof of the Lincoln country.
This Forest includes the high mountains north and south of the Mescalero
Apache Indian Reservation.
During the last decade, the Lincoln National Forest gained new fame as
the birthplace of the world-renowned Smokey the Bear, symbol of forest
fire prevention. In the Capitan Mountains, travelers like to visit
Smokey’s birthplace near Capitan Pass, and in the community of Capitan
on U.S. Highway 380 is a log museum which features the activities of the
bear cub found near there during a disastrous fire.
For the outdoor enthusiast, the Forest offers superb beauty, graceful
and majestic snow-covered peaks, and the peace and serenity of a forest
sanctuary. Each year, thousands of visitors from the plains seek its
cool refuge from desert heat in summer and its readily accessible sports
area in the winter. Ten campgrounds with many picnicking and camping
sites are provided. Canyons, mountains, and streams in many instances
feature anglicized names—Big Dog Canyon, Mule Peak, Bug Scuffle
Hill—though the influence of the early Spanish settler still remains in
names such as Sacramento, Agua Chiquita, Ruidoso, and Rio Penasco.
Lincoln National Forest abounds in points of interest; Monjeau Lookout
overlooks the headwaters of the Bonito, Eagle, and Ruidoso creeks as
well as the tall slopes of Sierra Blanca to the southwest. Sierra
Blanca, 12,003 feet high, is the most southerly mountain of that
elevation in the continental United States. Just north of the peak is
the Sierra Blanca Recreation Area, with one of the finest and
best-equipped skiing facilities in the country. The restaurant and
gondola lift operate during summer months, and from Lookout Mountain
observation site, near the gondola’s upper terminal, the traveler can
view White Sands, the Malpais (lava flow), and the 28,000-acre White
Mountain Wild Area.
Hunters find deer of three distinct types in this Forest—the Rocky
Mountain mule deer, the desert mule deer, and the Texas white-tailed
deer—and, of course, black bear from which family Smokey the Bear came.
Game birds like wild turkey, quail, and chukkar partridge challenge the
hunter. Fishing the Lincoln’s lakes and streams is a recurring delight
to the angler. Aspens and oaks flaunt their brilliant autumn coloring
against the warm green of pines and spruces, heralding the advent of
winter snows and provoking numerous aspencades for those who wish a
share in this ever new pageant of nature’s beauty.
Like all the National Forests, the Lincoln is managed for the production
and wise use of water, timber, and forage for livestock and wildlife and
outdoor recreation. District ranger stations are at Cloudcroft,
Carlsbad, Mayhill, Ruidoso, Sacramento, and Capitan.
[Illustration: “_Anybody for a run?_” at Sierra Blanca ski area]
Gila National Forest
The Gila National Forest, with headquarters in Silver City, is a big,
wild, wonderful country in the southwestern section of the state. It has
been scarcely affected by the hustle and bustle of modern living. Within
its boundaries are 2.7 million acres of public-owned forest and range
land, with almost a quarter of it devoted to wilderness and primitive
areas. It includes the famous Gila Wilderness, the first such area set
aside in the United States and the largest in the Southwest. Most of the
Gila National Forest is north of Silver City, though part of it lies in
the high country between Silver City and Lordsburg.
The Gila is an exciting and exhilarating place to explore, sightsee,
hunt, fish, and just enjoy. Indian ruins are evident almost everywhere,
but the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, adjacent to the Gila
Primitive Area, is the best preserved. Ancient tree stumps and abandoned
Indian ruins record the history of man; old mine dumps contain ores and
minerals not known nor appreciated in the heyday of local mining;
microscopic plants and forest grasses which may hold the key to man’s
future health abound; and the traveler may experience great delight in
finding a dried root or branch to add to a native rock garden; the
majestic peaks, deer and other wild game, and cool, splashing waters of
a mountain creek delight the camera hobbyist.
One of the most beautiful and spectacular box canyons in the Southwest
is on Whitewater Creek about four miles northeast of Glenwood. A catwalk
built against the rock walls of the canyon enables the traveler to
thrill at the unusual beauty and colors of the canyon and the cool
depths of the trout stream below (_see_ Frontispiece).
Good roads lead into the Gila National Forest at Reserve and Alma from
U.S. Highway 260. An enjoyable loop trip which touches the Gila
Wilderness at Willow Creek can be taken on State Highway 78 from Alma.
Another beautiful trip is through the Black Range from the junction of
State Highway 180 and U.S. Highway 85 to Silver City. Approach to the
Gila from the north can be made through Beaverhead, Apache Creek, and
Reserve, where good roads lead into the Forest.
Fifteen developed recreation areas provide camping and picnicking for
the hiker, horseback rider, and motorist and are complete with
fireplaces, tables, and benches. Elk, deer, antelope, bear, javelina,
and game birds are plentiful, and fishing in the high mountain creeks is
usually rewarded with a satisfying catch.
District ranger stations are at Magdalena, Truth or Consequences,
Reserve, Glenwood, and Mimbres.
Apache and Coronado Forests
Although small parts of these forests lie in New Mexico, they belong to
forests in Arizona. Apache National Forest touches the northern edge of
the Gila and its attractions are much like those of the latter. The
Coronado National Forest, which is in the extreme southwest corner of
New Mexico, lies in an area of aridity and is difficult to reach from
New Mexico. It is surrounded by Sonoran desert, at least in its
environment in this state.
[Illustration: Gila Hunters with Happy Thanksgiving (_wild
turkeys_)]
These far-flung public lands in New Mexico provide many resources
besides varied kinds of outdoor recreation: timber for industry, water
for city and farm, forage for livestock and wildlife. As long as our
National Forests are protected and developed—used but not abused—they
will continue to yield rich harvests, both tangible and intangible,
forever.
[Illustration: Lake Roberts
This 70-acre lake thirty miles northeast of Silver City on State
Highway 25 lies in the Gila National Forest.]
The State Also Preserves[4]
State Monuments have been established to preserve some of New Mexico’s
historic and archeologic sites of importance. These include the mission
ruins of Abo, Quarai, Pecos, and Jemez, the Palace of the Governors in
Santa Fe, pueblo ruins at Coronado State Monument, the old Lincoln
County Courthouse, the archeologic site at Folsom Man State Monument,
the plaza and nearby Mexican Colonial-style buildings in La Mesilla, and
Fort Selden. The history recorded at these sites dates from 10,000 B.C.
of Clovis Man to 1878 of the cattlemen’s Lincoln County War.
State parks cover areas of scenic beauty, geologic wonders, and historic
interest. Reservoir lakes yielding necessary water, good fishing,
swimming, and boating include Conchas, Storrie, Bluewater, El Vado, Ute,
Elephant Butte, Caballo, Alamogordo, Clayton, Morphy, and Bottomless
Lakes. The latter are natural sink holes east of Roswell. Hyde Memorial
Park and Santa Fe River Park, near and in Santa Fe, provide scenic
picnic spots, as do Rock Hound State Park near Deming and Oasis State
Park near Portales and Clovis. Picnicking, fishing, and spectacular
canyons attract the visitor at Rio Grande Gorge Park west of Taos. Weird
erosional figures carved from volcanic layers distinguish City of Rocks
State Park near Deming. Pancho Villa State Park at Columbus and Kit
Carson Memorial at Taos mark historic sites. Valley of Fires State Park
west of Carrizozo preserves the black twisted lava of a relatively
recent volcanic flow.
NEW MEXICO STATE MONUMENTS
_by_ Museum of New Mexico Staff
The State of New Mexico, recognizing the depth and color of its own
history, has established a number of state monuments preserving
important historical or archeological sites. These are administered by
the Museum of New Mexico located in Santa Fe. Any mosaic of New Mexico
would be incomplete without including these important landmarks.
El Palacio, Palace of the Governors
The main facility of the Museum of New Mexico is El Palacio. The Palace
of the Governors, on the plaza in the heart of Santa Fe, is the oldest
public building in the United States. Built in 1610, it was the seat of
Spanish government in New Mexico until 1821, of the Mexican government
until 1846, and the residence of the governors appointed by the
President of the United States until 1910, when it became a unit of the
Museum of New Mexico.
It presently contains exhibits relating to New Mexico’s past, ranging
from the Indians, who arrived after crossing the Bering Sea, to the
Spanish, who came seeking gold and glory on horseback, to the wagon
trains from the east, whose goal was the end of the Santa Fe Trail,
which is directly in front of El Palacio.
El Palacio was the capitol of New Mexico for 300 years and was the seat
of residence for more than one hundred of New Mexico’s governors. During
that time it was captured and held by the Indians from 1680 to 1692. The
Army of the Confederacy captured it for a few days during the Civil War,
and one of its occupants, Territorial Governor Lew. Wallace, wrote his
famous novel, _Ben Hur_, within its walls.
There are other fascinating units connected with the Museum of New
Mexico in Santa Fe. Among these are the Fine Arts Museum, emphasizing
the art and artists of the great Southwest; the International Folk Art
Museum; and the Hall of Ethnology, devoted primarily to the peoples of
the Southwest.
Abo State Monument
Off U.S. Highway 60, nine miles west of Mountainair is Abo State
Monument.
The ruins of the ancient mission church of San Gregorio de Abo and its
pueblo, built of red sandstone, are in a broad, natural amphitheater
rimmed on the north and west by the blue Manzano Mountains, which
contrast strikingly with the reddish hues of the Abo sandstone. This is
one of the Saline Missions, so called because of the nearby salt
deposits in the Estancia Basin.
It was built during the seventeenth century by Indians under the
supervision of the Franciscans, led by the venerable Fray Francisco de
Acevedo. The inhabitants of Abo were very friendly to the Spaniards.
They were forced to abandon their pueblo about 1673 because of drought
and the raids of the Apaches and Comanches. They then moved south to El
Paso del Norte where they joined in founding Isleta del Sur.
The walls of the pueblo have disintegrated with time into low mounds
which lie adjacent to the mission. The ecclesiastical structures have
been excavated and repaired for permanent preservation.
Quarai State Monument
This monument is near Punta de Agua, eight miles north of Mountainair
off State Highway 10.
The ruins of the mission church of the Immaculate Conception at Quarai
are unsurpassed in grandeur of architecture or setting by any that
survive from the labors of the early Franciscans in New Mexico. Built of
red sandstone masonry about 1628, at the Pueblo of Quarai, it was
abandoned along with the pueblo about 1674, chiefly because of Apache
depredations.
One of the most venerated of the Franciscan missionaries, Fray Geronimo
de la Llana, worked and died at Quarai, beloved by his Indian charges.
His remains now rest in a crypt in the wall of St. Francis Cathedral in
Santa Fe. The ruins have been excavated and repaired for permanent
preservation.
Coronado State Monument
This pueblo ruin is on the west bank of the Rio Grande, one mile from
the town of Bernalillo, seventeen miles north of Albuquerque, and one
mile off U.S. Highway 85, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
The Pueblo of Kuaua was one of the several towns of the ancient Tiguex
province. At or near Kuaua, the Coronado expedition maintained
headquarters from about 1540 to 1542 A.D. During excavation of the
ancient pueblo, more than 1200 ground-floor rooms were found and five
kivas, or underground ceremonial chambers, were uncovered.
In one of the kivas was found a highly important group of ancient wall
paintings. This kiva has been reconstructed and the paintings restored.
The old walls of Kuaua have been rebuilt to a few feet in height so that
the structure can be seen. A museum has been erected on the site to
exhibit the material found during the excavation and to portray life in
the Tiguex province. The Coronado State Monument and Museum commemorates
the meeting, more than four hundred years ago, of the elements that
influenced the culture of New Mexico—the Indian and the _conquistadore_.
A curator-custodian is on duty at the Coronado Museum headquarters,
which is open all year.
Pecos State Monument
Off U.S. Highway 84-85, three miles south of Pecos, is this State
Monument. It became a National Monument during late 1966.
This mission, the Church of Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de Porciuncula
at Pecos, dates from the year 1617. It is fitting that this mission,
which was one of the first two, with Jemez, established by the
Franciscans in New Mexico, should bear the name “Our Lady of the Angels
of Porciuncula,” for with his own hands, St. Francis, founder of the
Order, rebuilt the decaying chapel of Our Lady of Angels at Assisi,
which he called his Porciuncula or “Little Inheritance,” and there
established the headquarters of the Franciscan Order.
Pecos was well fortified because of its location on the eastern edge of
the pueblo area and its contact with the Plains Indians. It resisted the
raids for many years, but when a smallpox epidemic in 1838 reduced the
population to seventeen survivors, they moved to Jemez Pueblo,
abandoning Pecos.
A part of the massive adobe walls of the ruined mission has been
excavated and repaired, as have some of the rubble masonry walls.
Jemez State Monument
This Monument is at Jemez Springs, sixty miles north of Albuquerque on
State Highway 4.
One of the finest early mission churches was established at Giusewa
Pueblo. _Giusewa_ means “place of the boiling waters” in the language of
the Jemez Indians, and refers to the famous Jemez Hot Springs nearby.
The mission, with Pecos, was one of the two earliest in New Mexico.
These were founded one hundred and fifty-two years before the first
California missions.
The original settlement of the Giusewa Pueblo goes back hundreds of
years before Columbus’ discovery of America, as does the settlement of
the other pueblos, Quarai, Abo, and Pecos.
Guisewa Pueblo became extinct during the last quarter of the seventeenth
century, a result of the consolidation of several pueblos of the Jemez
province into fewer and larger towns. Only one town, the present Jemez
Pueblo, survives from that time. Excavation and repairs have been made
in the ruins of both the pueblo and the mission church.
La Mesilla State Monument
This colorful State Monument consists of the plaza in the village of
Mesilla, near Las Cruces, and the buildings nearby. The Monument
preserves an aspect of the Mexican Colonial culture and architecture
which flourished here in the early nineteenth century. The Gadsden
Purchase of 1853 was celebrated in the Mesilla Plaza and the famous
desperado, Billy the Kid, once stood trial here for his life. During the
Civil War, Mesilla was briefly the Confederate capitol of the Territory
of Arizona.
Lincoln State Monument
Located in Lincoln, on U.S. Highway 380, and known as the Old Lincoln
County Courthouse, the first floor of this Monument was the mercantile
store of L. G. Murphy & Co. in the 1870’s, during the Lincoln County
War. The second floor was purchased in 1870 by the county for a court
house.
It was from this building that Billy the Kid made his daring escape on
April 28, 1881, after killing his two guards. A caretaker and a museum
attendant are on duty at all times. Mementos of the infamous Lincoln
County cattle war are featured.
Fort Selden State Monument
The crumbling adobe walls of Fort Selden lie about seventeen miles north
of Las Cruces just west of Interstate Highway 25. The history of this
fort, given in the article on _Frontier Forts_, was highlighted by the
brief stay of General Douglas MacArthur, who spent some of his childhood
within the fort’s walls and played in the adjoining green valley of the
Rio Grande.
NEW MEXICO STATE PARKS
_by_ The Editors
New Mexico is blessed with a wealth of natural resources and perhaps
most important is the abundance of sites with outstanding scenic and
recreational facilities. The contrasts apparent in the mosaic of New
Mexico are also seen in the pattern of its state parks. They range from
desert regions with sparse and exotic flora and fauna to the high
mountain canyons choked with Douglas fir and aspen where even in the
summer evenings one huddles close to the fire for warmth. And the mosaic
shifts from waterless areas amid geologic wonders to wide expanses of
open water well stocked with trout. The parks are administered by the
New Mexico State Park and Recreation Commission. Wherever possible,
areas have been set aside for the permanent enjoyment of the people of
New Mexico and their visitors.
Bottomless Lakes State Park
Bottomless Lakes State Park, established in 1936, was one of the first
of the New Mexico state parks. It is surprising to find this treasure of
great natural beauty in an area so dominated by aridity. There are six
small lakes in the park, of which Lea Lake is the largest with about 15
acres of surface area. The water of the lakes is crystal clear and
varies in depth from 45 feet in the shallow lakes to about 100 feet in
the deeper ones. They were created as “sink holes” when water dissolved
large areas of underground gypsum, resulting in cave-ins. The lakes now
offer extensive recreational facilities for the people of New Mexico and
for tourists passing through or visiting the area. Camping, swimming,
and boating are available. Pecos “diamonds,” small quartz crystals, can
be found in the neighboring hills.
Conchas Lake State Park
[Illustration: Sketch of Bottomless Lake]
Conchas Lake is one of the largest sustained bodies of water in New
Mexico. Conchas Dam, which holds the water of the Canadian River, forms
the lake. The main dam is 235 feet above the roadway and is 1250 feet in
length. At capacity it holds 600,000 acre-feet of water. The reservoir
serves many purposes: flood control, local irrigation, camping and
boating facilities, and fishing and water skiing.
The Canadian River has its origin on Raton Mesa and flows southward to
Conchas Dam, then turns abruptly eastward. On its way across the High
Plains, it cuts into some of the oldest rocks that can be seen on the
western edge of the plains, the Dockum Group of Late Triassic age. The
best place to view the earth-building processes of this region is where
State Highway 120 crosses the gorge of the Canadian River between Wagon
Mound and Roy.
Hyde Memorial State Park
Here, at an elevation of 9000 feet, among tall pines and aspens is one
of the most scenic of all New Mexico’s parks. High in the Sangre de
Cristo Mountains, eight miles northeast of Santa Fe, the park offers an
excellent example of the scenic beauty in New Mexico rarely seen by most
travelers passing through the state. Easily accessible from Santa Fe,
Hyde Park gives a few moments, or a few days, respite in the cool
refreshment of a mountain forest. Excellent picnic and camping
facilities are available. For those who want to penetrate the mountain
vastness even farther, there are a number of well-marked trails for
hiking.
Navajo Lake State Park
Navajo Dam on the San Juan River lies twenty-five miles east of Aztec at
an elevation of 6200 feet in a region of spectacular scenic beauty.
Camping, picnicking, boating, fishing, and water skiing facilities are
available, and a lodge is under construction. This is expected to be one
of the most important sports and recreational centers in northwest New
Mexico in coming years.
Pancho Villa State Park
Named for the famous Mexican bandit and revolutionary leader, the park
is located near Columbus, New Mexico, site of Villa’s most infamous
raid. In the dead of the night on March 10, 1916, Villa and his men
entered the town of Columbus and did their bloody work. When they left,
seventeen local people were dead, including eight soldiers and nine
civilians. The Mexican force suffered heavy casualties, perhaps as many
as 125 killed. The town of Columbus was badly damaged and has only
recently begun to recover from the blow. The expedition of General
Pershing, then on duty along the Mexican border, was organized to hunt
down Villa and his men. Pershing and a United States military unit spent
three months inside Mexico, only to return to the United States
empty-handed. The park commemorates one of the most interesting and
tragic episodes in New Mexico history. Within the park, one can see
excellent examples of Sonoran desert flora. Picnic facilities and
camping sites are available.
El Vado Lake State Park
El Vado Dam is a part of the complex Rio Grande Conservancy District
flood and irrigation project. It holds the water of the Chama River,
which flows west, south, and then east into the Rio Grande. The country
surrounding El Vado Lake is beautiful and contains some of the finest
trout fishing streams in the state. At the lake itself there are camping
facilities, including trailer spaces (no hookups for water or
electricity). The lake is at an elevation of 7000 feet and is one of the
important flood-control bodies of water in New Mexico.
Bluewater State Park
Bluewater Lake, at an elevation of 7460 feet, is a spot of spectacular
beauty. Adjacent is a 160-acre wooded park. The area offers boating,
fishing, and swimming. The lake was formed by impounding the waters from
the Zuni Mountains’ watershed, and it fills three great depressions in
high tablelands. The dam, built across two lofty natural walls of solid
rock, the San Andres Limestone, holds a lake a mile wide and seven and a
half miles long. Bluewater Lake State Park was the first of New Mexico’s
parks, so designated in 1929.
Storrie Lake State Park
Storrie Lake State Park surrounds a small lake north of Las Vegas, New
Mexico. It lies on the west edge of the High Plains and is an excellent
recreation area. The lake is at an elevation of 6400 feet and has a
limited number of picnic and camping facilities. It is stocked with
rainbow and brown trout and crappies.
City of Rocks State Park
This is one of the most unusual of the state parks, and one of the
finest for picnicking and for camping. Located in the unusual rock
formation known as the Sugarlump Welded Rhyolite Tuff northwest of
Deming, it is a source of wonder to all visitors. Suddenly, in a
seemingly flat, desert plain, one comes upon these grotesque outcrops.
In the coolness of the shade of these ancient rocks one can survey
vistas under an azure sky that are almost breathless. This is the desert
Southwest at its very best; not the harsh, unfriendly desert of movies
and fiction, but a lovely spot in which to enjoy to the fullest the
wonders of nature.
Kit Carson Memorial Park
This 20-acre plot of grass, flower beds, trees, and picnic tables lies
on the northeast edge of Taos and contains the graves of Kit Carson and
Padre José Martinez. Not far away is the Kit Carson House, a group of
adobe buildings surrounding a patio, that was Carson’s headquarters,
office, and home from 1858 to 1866. This Indian fighter, trapper,
hunter, and trader is most famous for defeating the Navajos in Canyon de
Chelly and marching 7000 of these Indians across New Mexico to a
reservation at Bosque Redondo near Fort Sumner. However, during his
eight years as Indian agent, Carson worked continuously for the welfare
of his charges.
Oasis State Park
One of the state’s newest parks, Oasis is seven miles northeast of
Portales along State Highway 467. This shady place of cottonwood trees
amid sand dunes has long been a favorite picnic spot. The sand dunes
form an irregular ridge separating Portales Valley to the south from
Blackwater Draw to the north. In Blackwater Draw have been found bones
of ancient animals and the weapons used by early man some 12,000 years
ago. Portales Valley is the sand-filled remnant of the early Pleistocene
Brazos River Valley that once drained eastward into Texas. About 800,000
years ago, the Pecos River to the west “captured” the headwaters of this
former Brazos River and left the Portales Valley high and dry.
Valley of Fires State Park
This park, about five miles west of Carrizozo on U.S. Highway 380,
features picnic tables amid the Carrizozo lava flow, or malpais, one of
the youngest in the United States. The lava flowed out of Little Black
Peak about 1000 years ago in a series of individual “rivers” of hot
black basalt. The composite flow is 44 miles long, 0.5 to 6 miles wide,
and is made up of about 1 cubic mile of basalt; it moved southward down
the lowest part of the northern Tularosa Basin.
Climb around on the lava and note the ropy nature of the surface
(_pahoehoe_ of the Hawaiians), the many frozen gas bubbles in the rocks
(vesicles), the squeeze-ups where once-liquid lava protrudes through
cracks in the hardened crust, the pressure ridges where the hardened
crust arched and broke, and collapsed lava tunnels where the outer lava
froze and the molten interior ran out, leaving an open tube or cave.
Ute Lake State Park
Ute Dam, two miles southwest of Logan, provides a 4200-acre reservoir
along the Canadian River and Ute Creek stocked with rainbow trout, bass,
crappie, and catfish. Camping, picnicking, and boating facilities are
available along the valley walls, which are cut in the brown Santa Rosa
Sandstone and overlying maroon to green Chinle shales.
Santa Fe River State Park
Bordering the Santa Fe River in downtown Santa Fe, this city park merges
with the State Capitol grounds. It provides picnic tables and benches in
the shade of tall trees amid the picturesque ancient city.
Elephant Butte Lake State Park
The giant Elephant Butte Reservoir, impounded behind the dam five miles
east of Truth or Consequences, provides year-around fishing, boating,
water skiing, and camping. Built in brown to gray Cretaceous sandstone
and shale, the dam is overlooked by the brownish-black volcanic neck
that is Elephant Butte. Eastern shores are carved from the purplish and
maroon McRae layers. This is the main storage reservoir for the water
that irrigates the lush Rio Grande Valley to the south near Las Cruces
and El Paso.
Caballo Lake State Park
Caballo Reservoir, downstream from Elephant Butte, offers excellent
facilities for water sports, its bass and crappie fishing being notable.
The State Park is fourteen miles south of Truth or Consequences and six
miles north of the dam. The spectacular rugged front of the Caballo
Mountains looms to the east, with sharp canyons and ribbed cliffs along
the valley walls cut in the tan layers of the Santa Fe Formation.
Rio Grande Gorge State Park
From Velarde (twelve miles north of Espanola) for seventy miles
northward to the Colorado state line, the Rio Grande Gorge is carved 500
to 800 feet into black basalt flows and tan Santa Fe Formation layers.
Fishing is exciting in the fast waters, although the northern part of
the gorge is difficult to reach. Foot and horseback trails lead to the
bottom at the mouth of Red River west of Questa where picnic units have
been built.
Alamogordo Lake State Park
The dam of Alamogordo Reservoir blocks the Pecos River and Alamogordo
Creek northwest of Fort Sumner. Picnic, camp, and water sports
facilities lie along U.S. Highway 84 about sixteen miles northwest of
Fort Sumner. Juniper trees dot the low valley walls where the maroon to
green shale and sandstone of the Chinle Formation crop out.
Rock Hound State Park
Lying on the west flank of the Little Florida Mountains, Rock Hound
State Park, twelve miles southeast of Deming, offers camping and
picnicking facilities and many varieties of agate in the volcanic rocks.
A few miles to the south tower cliffs of the Florida Mountains, a
landmark of southwestern New Mexico and also happy hunting grounds for
rock hounds.
Clayton Lake State Park
Serving the northeast corner of New Mexico, Clayton Lake State Park lies
twelve miles north of Clayton on State Highway 370, impounded by a dam
across Cieneguilla Creek. The stream bed cuts brown Dakota Sandstone,
and rolling grassy hills to the south overlie weathered basalt flows.
Morphy Lake State Park
Morphy Lake, backed up from a dam across Rito Morphy, lies three miles
west of Ledoux in southwestern Mora County and thirty-one miles north of
Las Vegas off State Highway 94. The 15-acre lake provides fine trout
fishing and picnicking amid stately ponderosa pines, with the canyon
walls formed by tier upon tier of Pennsylvanian limestones.
Angling in the Desert’s Waters
_by_ Fred A. Thompson[5]
Water in the great Southwest, of which the State of New Mexico is a
part, has made for a colorful and historical background. Water, perhaps
more than anything else, has molded the lives of all inhabitants of the
area from the pueblo and lodge of the early Indian to the civilization
we know today. The fish and wildlife resources as related to water have
played an important part in everyday living and economy.
From data gathered by archeologists there are indications that the early
Indian used fish as part of his diet. Fish bones are found in excavated
ruins, and fish pictures are occasionally found as petroglyphs and on
pottery (fig. 1). Although the use of fish was limited, it was
widespread throughout the Southwest, not being confined to one Indian
tribe or nation.
[Illustration: Figure 1. Bowl depicting fish, found in ruins of
Mimbres Indians]
The use of fish by the white settler was likewise restricted, but it
increased as time progressed and knowledge and equipment improved. There
is only limited reference to fish for either food or sport fishing until
after the middle of the nineteenth century. Early explorers made records
of fish in various waters of New Mexico and in most instances described
the new species.
Originally, the waters of the desert also could be described as fish
deserts. Only three recognized kinds of food fish, as we know them
today, inhabited the waters of this region. The trout was limited to the
cutthroat species or subspecies. These were found as one subspecies in
the Rio Grande drainage and the other subspecies in the Arkansas River
drainage. The latter is reduced in numbers but a few remnants remain in
the headwaters. The former is being artificially propagated and is being
maintained successfully. The trout found in the Gila River drainage,
originally thought to be a cutthroat, then a rainbow, has been recently
described as a separate species. These trout, like the Arkansas River
fish, remain as remnants in the headwaters. For the most part, the
native trout have had a difficult time surviving in recent years because
of the change in water and land use; the habitat has become exceedingly
restricted.
Channel catfish were originally found in the Rio Grande drainage and
continue to maintain themselves satisfactorily. Water and land
manipulation, however, present a serious threat, even to this hardy
fish.
There are records that the gulf eel once came up the Rio Grande during
part of its life cycle. This fish of the ocean has long since
disappeared—the fate of many migrating fish when confronted with
man-made obstructions in the watercourses.
Waterfowl were in great abundance once, in both the upper Rio Grande and
the Pecos River drainages. These birds utilized the vast marsh areas of
the valleys during spring and fall migrations. It is presumed that there
was very little nesting of waterfowl in the early years.
The mammals that live in or near the water, principally fur bearers,
were in abundance as long as water habitat was abundant and prior to
unrestricted trapping. With the exception of the beaver (since restocked
and protected), many of the fur bearers once numerous are now extremely
limited in numbers or approaching extinction. There is only an
occasional sighting of the otter which was once relatively plentiful.
Habitat for the various water mammals, birds, and fish is found in the
drainage systems. The major system is the Rio Grande that flows through
the center of the state; the Pecos River is its tributary. In this
system are six of the seven life zones and conditions of habitat
suitable to almost any form of water-dwelling life.
There is a noticeable habitat change due to several causes, such as
ranching, irrigation, urban development, and a general minor change in
climatic conditions. Many variations are in direct relation, such as
improper grazing, unscreened irrigation diversions, dams, and sewage
disposal, to mention a few. There is an indication of a long-term
warming of the general Southwest, and though this change is fractional,
it does have a basic effect on habitat.
The effect of habitat change can be noted in the life of the cutthroat
trout. Early records reveal that this trout, liking cool clear water,
was once caught in the Rio Grande in the lower part of the box canyon
north of Peñablanca. It was also caught near the town of Pecos. The fish
can no longer survive in the changed water conditions and is found now
only in the headwaters. Even the catfish has difficulty surviving in
some sections of the rivers for lack of water. In the lower Pecos, the
catfish finds difficulty in reproducing because of the high salt content
of the river water.
As has already been noted, the fish that are recognized as game fish
today were in short supply a hundred years ago. It was not until the
railroads entered New Mexico that fish were imported to supplement the
native supply. In an unpublished report by the author, it was pointed
out that almost every kind of fish propagated in the United States has
been imported and stocked in waters of New Mexico. Of these, some have
survived beyond expectations and others have disappeared entirely.
When the railroads entered New Mexico, there were already requests for
fish in the hands of the United States Fish Commission. Fish were
delivered in especially designed fish-distribution cars and the
consignee met the cars at designated rail sidings. From the distribution
cars, the fish were further transported by wagons in water containers of
various descriptions, usually wooden barrels or watertight wooden boxes,
to streams or lakes as assigned. Because of the mode of travel at the
time, the quantities of fish so stocked were limited, but they did
provide seed stock from which their population could grow. Fish were
packed on back and on horses into relatively inaccessible areas. The
procedures and techniques of fish transportation have evolved to the
present highly specialized equipment and methods of operation.
It is interesting to note that the quantities of fish imported and
planted increased in relation to the improved transportation. The early
records indicate the numbers in the hundreds and in just a few
locations; later plantings increased both in numbers stocked and in
waters stocked. The first fish imported to supplement the native fish
was the German carp. In fact, this was the only fish imported for eight
consecutive years, 1883-1890. These early plantings were followed by
catfish, German brown trout, brook trout, yellow perch, largemouth black
bass, crappie, rock bass, tench, rainbow trout, strawberry bass, black
spotted trout, bream, smallmouth bass, salmon, white bass, and walleyed
pike.
All the fish imported are classed as game fish except carp and tench
(the latter did not survive). The various species met their habitat
requirements, and although there were no survivals in some locations,
they did acclimate in others and have developed into a substantial
fishery. Some species are predominant while others, like the rock bass,
are remnant and taken only occasionally. The fish most sought now and
predominant in the fishery are rainbow (fig. 2) and brown trout,
catfish, largemouth bass, crappie, and walleyed pike.
[Illustration: Figure 2. Joy of the fisherman, rainbow trout]
Management of the fishery has progressed with technical development.
When fish were planted in early years, very little thought was given
about the habitat except that it was water. There was little known of
the requirements of fish. As a result, fish were placed in waters only
to perish. To maintain a fish population now, all techniques available
are employed and fish are stocked where water and species are
compatible.
Water in the desert is always at a premium for the inhabitants. The
early Indian cultures used water for irrigation, and there are still
vestiges of canals used by Indians to convey water to their crops. The
use of water by the Indians then had little or no effect on fish life,
but as irrigation development increased, a new habitat was formed. The
once free-flowing rivers became dry in places, and new waters were
developed in the drainage ditches in the Rio Grande Valley. The
competition for water is very keen and fish and wildlife uses come after
domestic, commercial, and irrigation purposes.
The water requirements are so great, in fact, that it has been necessary
to control water and its use by laws. The law of 1876 provided that
water could not be refused a traveler. Community ditch commissioners
were established by law in 1895. The basic laws governing water rights
were established in 1907. These laws have been amended or added to as
conditions dictate. Conservancy districts were recognized by law in
1927, and underground waters came under law in 1931. The Interstate
Stream Commission was created in 1935. At present, New Mexico water laws
are considered some of the best in the nation; however, it has been only
recently that water for fish and wildlife has been recognized as one of
the beneficial uses.
Converse to the use of water to the detriment of fish and wildlife,
there are several areas in which water has been developed and impounded
to the benefit of the fishery. Although some impoundments were
single-purpose developments, they supply habitat in conservation pools
or during years of abundant water supply.
[Illustration: Figure 3. Find the elephant!—at Elephant Butte
reservoir]
Waters impounded by man but used as a fishery are Elephant Butte
Reservoir (fig. 3), 40,096 surface acres when full. It contains
largemouth black bass, crappie, walleyed pike, catfish, and sunfish.
This lake has not been full for many years; but like Alamogordo
Reservoir (4650 surface acres), Caballo Reservoir (11,532 surface
acres), McMillan Reservoir (2500 surface acres), Conchas Reservoir
(16,640 surface acres), and Avalon Reservoir (950 surface acres), it has
produced excellent fishing. These are large irrigation lakes and are all
stocked generally with the same species of fish.
The lakes built for irrigation but utilized for trout are usually much
smaller. The principal ones are Navajo Reservoir (15,600 surface acres)
and El Vado (3500 surface acres). There are also Miami Lake (190 surface
acres) and several others of small size.
In addition, several small lakes have been built or acquired for the
primary purpose of providing fishing. A few of these are Hopewell Lake
(14 surface acres), Lake Roberts (73 surface acres), and Charette Lakes
(400 surface acres). There are many more varying in size. The smaller
lakes are primarily for trout fishing, but a few in the southern part of
the state do have species usually found in warmer waters.
In the process of reservoir construction, waterfowl habitat and resting
areas are created. These new lakes, however, are a poor substitute for
the natural marshes and potholes originally frequented by ducks and
geese. Water mammals, likewise, find the artificial impoundments
undesirable in comparison, and the increased water has added very little
to this resource.
Every water development has with it the appeal of recreation other than
fishing. Now a lake must have such facilities as picnic and camping
areas, launching ramps, good accessibility, boat rentals, and a
concessionaire. There is no single-purpose reservoir in respect to
recreation.
Finally, it is concluded that the old adage, “fishing ain’t what it used
to be,” should no longer be true for New Mexico. The fishing water has
been added to greatly and the fish are managed better. The only problem
is one of increased human population. Where there was one fisherman
fifty years ago, there are a thousand now.
Truly, the water of the desert is used to the limit.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
The past living today—San Miguel, early mission church still used
daily in Santa Fe]
The Indians of New Mexico
_by_ Paige W. Christiansen
People entering New Mexico today find Indian cultures and Indian
villages with traditions and ways of life that have changed little in
many centuries. In this respect, man in the twentieth century shares an
experience in common with Coronado, Oñate, and all the other
_conquistadores_ who visited New Mexico so many generations ago. They,
too, found the ancient Indian cultures strangely magnetic and exciting.
If we could but remove the asphalt highways, the billboards, the
telephone poles, and fences that seem always to surround us, the Indian
villages in many parts of the state would look very much as they looked
to the early Spanish explorers who were the first Europeans to see them.
To meet the Indians of New Mexico and to visit their homes, if possible,
is one of the greatest experiences available to residents and visitors
alike. Although words are inadequate to give the true flavor and
excitement of the Indian and his way of life, they are all we have to
introduce the various people who make up the Indian population of New
Mexico.
There are two main groups that should be known. First, the Pueblo
Indians, those who developed sedentary village life and who are the
descendants of the first Americans in New Mexico. Second, the
“newcomers” to the state, those who, for some reason or other, moved
into the state to replace earlier cultures. Let us, then, visit some of
these people’s homes.
Acoma Pueblo
Acoma Indian Pueblo, the Sky City, is famous in both history and legend.
Built on the top of a lofty, almost inaccessible, redrock mesa some 357
feet high, it is one of the most picturesque of all New Mexico Indian
pueblos. No other pueblo gives one such a clear sense of living in
ancestral times. The movements of the people up and down the steep
trails, the untiring vistas, and the ancient homesites are reminiscent
of the life and times of the cliff dwellers. Here the archeologists can
search out the secrets of ancient life by direct observation. Here, too,
is brought forth in the fullness of its bloom an Indian culture of
outstanding achievement.
The Indians of Acoma participated in the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
They killed their priest, Fray Lucas Maldonado, in the first frenzy of
the rebellion. Because of their isolation and the inaccessibility of the
village, they were spared the vengeance of the Spaniards under de Vargas
during the reconquest in 1692. There was an attempt by the Spanish in
1696 to take Acoma, but they succeeded only in destroying the crops and
in capturing five Acoma warriors. The Indians held out until July 6,
1699, when they submitted to the Spanish governor of New Mexico,
Governor Cubero. Thereafter, Acoma became an integral part of the
mission complex established in New Mexico by the Spanish.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A., by Starr Jenkins_)
Aspen Basin in Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe]
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A., by John Whiteside_)
Tent Rocks in Jemez Mountains]
Acoma is noted for its excellent pottery. The ware is fashioned from
clay of fine quality, is very well fired, and is carefully decorated in
typical Acoma designs. Here is an excellent example of Indian artistic
ability. Some weaving, such as belts and headbands, is engaged in and a
few baskets are produced, but Acoma is most famous for its pottery.
One of the landmarks at Acoma is the great church which brave Fray Juan
Ramirez toiled to create in the early seventeenth century. Surely there
are few memorials of the Spanish epoch in the Southwest that present
such a picture of dauntless faith in spiritual ideals as does this
fortress church silhouetted high against the sky above the bare-rock
mesa. It measures 150 feet in length and has walls that are 60 feet high
and 10 feet thick. Timbers 40 feet long and 14 inches through support
the roof and make a handsome ceiling. There are, of course, no seats and
little decoration. And what a location for so magnificent a spiritual
center it is! From there one may lift his eyes in rapt admiration of the
splendid panorama of the great plain and the encircling mountains, and
thereby appreciate more fully the work of the Deity.
The Acoma are agriculturists, cultivating their lands by irrigation;
they raise corn, wheat, melons, squashes, and hay. Now, however, most of
the people of Acoma do not live on their mesa which protected them for
so many centuries. The dangers of attack are no longer present, and the
farmers find it more advantageous to live closer to their irrigated
plots. The result is that the people of Acoma are now scattered
throughout several villages. Their great culture, their traditions,
their fierce pride, and their deep reverence for their spectacular
history is visible in their faces and manners. Acoma, the Sky City,
remains the eternal city of New Mexico.
Cochiti Pueblo
The Indians of Cochiti Pueblo claim the famed cave dwellings and ruins
of the Rito de Frijoles (Bandelier National Monument) as their ancestral
home. Failure of timber and water resources plus the constant attack of
the various Apache Indian tribes over several centuries caused the
residents of the Rito de Frijoles to seek a better home. This probably
occurred about 1200 A.D. In 1598, when Juan de Oñate, colonizer of New
Mexico, arrived, the Indians of Cochiti were living in their present
village. For a short time following the reconquest of New Mexico by de
Vargas after the Pueblo Revolt, the people of Cochiti lived in Cañada de
Cochiti, which was in a better position for defense against Spanish
reconquest. In 1694, de Vargas took the canyon village by storm, burned
it, and forced the people to return to the older village of Cochiti
where they remain to this day.
The population of the village is slightly more than 300, and there has
been little growth in the past thirty years. Like the other New Mexico
pueblos, the main occupation is agriculture. Their ancient traditions
are well preserved, among them the well-known Rain Dance held during the
annual festival of San Buenaventura in July.
Located at the pueblo is the ancient and beautiful Spanish mission, San
Buenaventura de Cochiti, built in the early seventeenth century. To step
into this church is to return to the Spanish days of yore. There are no
seats, women kneel on one side, the men on the other, and the services
are a mixture of old world orthodoxy and new world Indian traditions.
Cochiti represents one of the finest examples of modern Pueblo Indian
life.
Isleta Pueblo
Isleta Pueblo is the southernmost of the pueblos lying along the green
and lush Rio Grande Valley today. It stands on the same site it occupied
when Coronado came in 1540 and was a stopping place for every Spanish
explorer and traveler who passed through New Mexico. It did not take
part in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, but rather joined the Spanish in the
retreat to El Paso del Norte (modern Juarez, Mexico). There they founded
a new village just to the south of modern El Paso which they called
Isleta del Sur. The main village of Isleta, in New Mexico, remained
deserted until 1709 when it was re-established by Fray Juan de la Peña.
Two different missions were built at Isleta Pueblo. The first, San
Antonio de Isleta, was constructed about 1629. The church was burned in
1680, and in 1681 was being used as a sheep corral. Between 1680 and the
completion of the reconquest, it was completely destroyed. The second
mission, still remaining at Isleta, called San Agustin de Isleta, was
built in 1709 on the old site.
Agriculture is the primary pursuit of the Indians of Isleta, although
they do considerable stock grazing. The population of Isleta is nearly
2000 persons. The annual fiesta takes place in late August.
Jemez Pueblo
The Jemez Indians were first seen by Europeans in 1541 when they were
visited by Captain Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo, of Coronado’s expedition.
He counted seven villages, naming them Aguas Calientes because of the
many hot springs in the canyon of the Jemez River. The ancient pueblos
are now all in ruins, with one preserved as the Jemez State Monument.
The present pueblo, built on the mesa where the Jemez River leaves the
mountains, was constructed after the Pueblo Revolt. The Jemez people
fled their older villages during the reconquest and for a time lived
with the Navajo, whom they disliked but preferred to the Spanish.
There have been four notable missions among the Jemez Indians. The
first, San Diego de Jemez Mission, was built in the early seventeenth
century. It was one of the most successful of the New Mexico missions;
reportedly, more than 6000 converts were made among the Jemez Indians
before 1622. Because of the constant attacks of the Navajo, the
traditional enemies of the Jemez people, the ancient pueblos gradually
declined and were finally completely abandoned after Jemez participation
in the Pueblo Revolt. The ruins of this church, now the Jemez State
Monument, are among the most picturesque in all New Mexico. Its walls
are three feet thick and were put together with intricate care. In its
time, it must have been a beautiful building.
The second, San Juan de Los Jemez Mission, was built in 1617 at a
village located near the junction of the Guadalupe and Jemez rivers, six
miles north of the present pueblo. The ruins are faint but still
visible. The mission was abandoned in 1680.
The third mission had a very brief history. It was called San Jose de
los Jemez Mission and was located near San Juan de Los Jemez, of which
it was a _visita_. Like San Juan, San Jose was abandoned in 1680.
The present mission was founded early in the eighteenth century and is
one of the interesting things to visit at Jemez Pueblo. This old church
is the center of the annual festival held at Jemez on November 12.
Jemez is noted for its splendid presentation of the Buffalo Dance in the
winter and for its Corn Dances during the November festival.
Laguna Pueblo
Laguna Pueblo is the youngest and second largest of the pueblos in New
Mexico. Built in 1697, shortly after the reconquest by de Vargas, the
name was derived from a large lake which existed at one time just west
of the village. In addition to the main village, a number of small
settlements have developed where the terrain is suitable for
agriculture, the main occupation of the Lagunas. The most important of
these villages are Paguate, Encinal, Paraje, Mesita, Seama, and Casa
Blanca. The Laguna Indians are of mixed origin, composed of four
linguistic stocks: Tano, Keres, Shoshone, and Zuni.
[Illustration: Rock-walled Santa Maria mission, Laguna Reservation]
Although the occupation of the pueblo was traditionally agriculture, in
recent years a moderate revolution has been visible. The people of
Laguna are in the middle of one of the richest uranium mining areas in
the world, and many of them have been employed in mining activities.
Also, the pueblo lies on the main line of the Santa Fe Railway, allowing
some employment with the railroad. Laguna Pueblo is one of the most
progressive of all the Indian groups in New Mexico. It has a population
well in excess of 3000.
Located at Laguna is the San Jose de Laguna mission, built in 1699. The
plaster on the building is native earth. Indian symbols are painted on
the ceiling of the chancel, and a large picture of St. Joseph done on
elk skin hangs on the reredos. The halos on the saints are triangular
rather than circular. The altar is covered with animal skins painted
with Christian symbols.
Nambé Pueblo
Nambé is one of the smallest of the pueblos but is located in an area
noted for its scenic beauty and climate. Its population is less than
200. It was not always so small; during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, the population was greatly reduced by intertribal war and
witchcraft executions. The Nambé people played an active role in the
pueblo rebellion of 1680, murdering their priest and destroying their
church.
The original church at Nambé was one of the first missions founded after
the establishment of the first European settlement of San Gabriel at San
Juan in 1598. Destroyed in 1680, it was rebuilt in 1696. In 1729, the
converts had increased to such numbers that a new church was required.
This church remained in use until 1909 when, because of carelessness in
keeping it in repair, the roof collapsed during a storm. The annual
Nambé fiesta is held in early October.
Picurís Pueblo
Picurís is seldom visited by the tourist, for it lies in the mountains
forty miles north of Santa Fe and can only be reached over a gravel
road. The people of Picurís were among the most warlike of the normally
peaceful pueblo peoples. They participated actively in the pueblo
rebellion in 1680, killing their priest and all the Spaniards in the
vicinity. They also participated in the battle for Santa Fe which broke
Spanish power in New Mexico until 1692. After the revolt, fear of the
Spanish caused them to abandon their village until they were induced to
return in 1706. The population of Picurís is very small, being slightly
more than 100.
One of the few old missions left in New Mexico, the San Lorenzo de
Picurís church shows the strange mixture of Spanish and Indian
traditions. Near the door is a human skull covered with an old cloth,
but unfortunately, its story is lost to antiquity.
An interesting feature at Picurís is the unusual construction seen in
some of the buildings. Made of puddled adobe, they are the oldest still
standing of any pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley. The buildings were made
by pouring adobe mud into wall forms. This is the same kind of
construction that is found at Casa Grande, Arizona, one of the
significant prehistoric ruins in the United States.
Pojoaque Pueblo
Pojoaque, though still listed among the Indian villages of New Mexico,
is no longer populated by Indians. Two missions were established at
Pojoaque in the early Spanish days, the first shortly after 1600. This
was destroyed in the rebellion in 1680. Later, in 1706, a new church was
constructed which is still in use. The Indian population of Pojoaque was
gradually reduced until, in 1900, the few remaining families abandoned
the village. Since that time, Spanish-American families have occupied
the buildings. It is a picturesque village seldom seen, for it is hidden
from the passing tourist by a hill. Yet some of the buildings in this
ancient village date back to pre-Coronado times and are a significant
part of the romance of New Mexico.
Sandia Pueblo
Sandia Pueblo is a remnant of the Tiguex villages visited by Coronado in
1540. A mission was created at Sandia shortly after the colonization by
Oñate, and it was an important mission center until the Pueblo Revolt.
After the revolt, Sandia peoples scattered rather than again submit to
Spanish control. Many of them went to live with the Hopi and there
founded the village of Payupki on the middle mesa, the walls of which
can still be found. After 62 years, in 1742, a few families returned to
the Rio Grande Valley to found the modern pueblo. The old mission
remains visible, although reduced to a rubble of adobe. Sandia Pueblo
remains a small village, containing less than 150 people.
San Felipe Pueblo
San Felipe is one of the most conservative of the pueblos and has
retained much of its Indian heritage despite the impact of Spanish and
American influences. It has a close affinity with its neighbors,
particularly Santo Domingo only five miles distant. San Felipe was a
well-established village when the Spanish first arrived. Its people
joined in heartily when the pueblo uprising began in 1680 but abandoned
their village during a Spanish counteroffensive in 1681 (which failed).
When reconquest was completed in 1692, the people returned to their
village. Thereafter, they remained friendly to the Spanish and suffered
many attacks from the Navajo, who hated them for this loyalty.
One of the finest remaining structures showing early Franciscan mission
architecture can be seen at the San Felipe church. The present church is
not the original mission, for three different churches were located at
San Felipe over the centuries. The first was built in 1605 and destroyed
during the Pueblo Revolt. The second was built in a new part of the
village in 1694, but shortly after 1700, the village was moved and a new
church constructed. The latter church is the one now in use at San
Felipe. On May 1, the nearly 1000 people of the pueblo celebrate their
annual fiesta.
San Ildefonso Pueblo
San Ildefonso has gained fame throughout the world because of the
excellence of its pottery. The high quality and general acceptance of
this commodity has made the village prosperous. It boasts some of the
most famous Indian artists and artisans in the United States, among them
Julian and Maria Martinez, perhaps the best-known potters in the world.
San Ildefonso participated in the Pueblo Revolt but did not contest the
reconquest, at least not at first. In 1694, when de Vargas began to wage
war on the northern pueblos, San Ildefonso did take part. The people
fortified themselves on Black Mesa, a high, steep mesa of volcanic
origin near the pueblo. There they successfully withstood Spanish
efforts to dislodge them. Notwithstanding their initial success, they
were ultimately conquered and brought into the Spanish system. Today
there are several hundred people living in the village, and they are
among the friendliest of the pueblo peoples. San Ildefonso is easily
accessible from Santa Fe.
The mission church dates back to the 1890’s, although earlier churches
at the pueblo played an important role in bringing Christianity to the
Pueblo Indian world. The older churches are long since gone.
San Juan Pueblo
San Juan Pueblo is best noted for its close association with the first
Spanish settlement in New Mexico in 1598. Oñate, colonizer of New
Mexico, selected a site for his first headquarters which was a part of
the ancient Pueblo of San Juan. The natives living in that part of the
village willingly gave up their homes to the Spaniards and were taken in
by the remainder of the people of San Juan. Oñate, in appreciation for
this hospitality, bestowed upon the pueblo the name _San Juan de los
Caballeros_, a name which the pueblo is still proud to bear.
Yet this same friendly people also contributed Po-pé, the great leader
of the Pueblo Revolt, to the history of New Mexico. While Po-pé shared
with many other pueblo leaders a hatred of the Spanish conqueror, he was
the spiritual force and the organizer of the rebellion that broke the
control of the Spaniard for twelve years and returned New Mexico to the
Indian. This great rebellion stands as one of the significant efforts in
the history of the world of a people to cast off the bonds of foreign
control.
San Juan cannot claim a church dating back to the _conquistadores_, but
it does have one of the great landmark churches in the Southwest. In
1890, the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes was dedicated at San Juan. It
was constructed of red volcanic rock found west of the Rio Grande. This
beautiful structure is an architectural jewel set in desert
surroundings.
The nearly 700 people of San Juan welcome visitors to their homes; their
undecorated burnished black pottery is particularly distinctive and
popular. The pueblo’s annual festival is held in June.
Santa Ana Pueblo
Santa Ana Pueblo lies along the banks of the Rio Jemez, which enters the
Rio Grande from the west. The pueblo was visited by Oñate and a mission
was built there about 1600, shortly after his visit. The people of Santa
Ana joined in the Pueblo Revolt, and since there was no priest serving
their church in 1680, they joined with the Indians of Santo Domingo and
San Felipe to massacre the padres at San Felipe. In 1687, during one of
the Spanish efforts to reconquer New Mexico, Santa Ana was destroyed and
her people fled. Later, at the urging of de Vargas, the modern pueblo
was established, along with the church now standing there. The
population of Santa Ana is nearly 400. Its annual festival takes place
in August. It is often difficult to find many of the people at the main
pueblo for they spend most of the growing season at El Ranchito, to the
east in the Rio Grande Valley.
Santa Clara Pueblo
Santa Clara Pueblo is near the mouth of Santa Clara Creek, a year-round
stream flowing out of the Jemez Mountains into the Rio Grande. To the
west of the pueblo, on lands owned by Santa Clara, are the famous Puye
Cliff Dwellings ruins. The people of Santa Clara claim these natural
cliff homes as their ancestral dwelling places, a fact which has been
substantiated by archeologists. The Santa Clara Indians represent, then,
an important living Indian group in which one can observe institutions
and traditions that can be linked to traditions of the cultures that
lived in the caves and abandoned cities of Southwest antiquity.
Like most of the pueblo people, Santa Clara joined the Pueblo Revolt,
but this action did not seriously harm the pueblo. The real damage was
done to Santa Clara in the late eighteenth century when intertribal
warfare over witchcraft, plus the ravages of disease, took nearly 500
lives in the village. The current population is about 500.
The church at Santa Clara is quite modern, having been constructed in
the twentieth century. The old church, built in 1760, was caught up in
the modernization craze that swept through the pueblo world in the early
1900’s. Perhaps one of the most substantial and beautiful of all pueblo
churches, the old church collapsed during a storm in 1909 (the same
storm that destroyed the church at Nambé); it had been structurally
weakened by the removal of the roof for remodeling.
The village has excellent agricultural lands and supplements its income
by manufacturing an excellent and distinctive pure black pottery. Its
annual festival is in mid-August.
Santo Domingo Pueblo
Santo Domingo is one of the largest of the pueblos, having a population
of nearly 1500. It is also the most conservative in retention of its
native culture. This makes its dances and dress of particular interest
to the visitor to New Mexico. The present pueblo was established after
the reconquest in 1692. The Indians of Santo Domingo took a particularly
active part in the Pueblo Revolt, killing three padres resident at the
pueblo. When de Vargas moved to retake Santo Domingo, he found the
people had abandoned the village. They had constructed a village in the
Jemez Mountains to the west, and it was there that de Vargas defeated
them. Even then, the people of Santo Domingo did not give up the fight,
and only after a long series of defeats and serious loss of life did
they surrender and again return to the vicinity of their original
village.
The church at Santo Domingo is not so old as many other pueblo edifices,
but its qualities remain among the most typical aspects of early New
Mexico mission architecture. In early August, during the great annual
festival, the Indians completely clean and whitewash the church. Two
large horses are painted on the front of the building by native artists.
The dances during the Santo Domingo festival are among the most colorful
and authentic in New Mexico.
Taos Pueblo
Taos represents the northernmost of the pueblos in New Mexico. It is
also one of the most scenic, lying at the foot of the Taos Mountains, a
spur of the mighty Sangre de Cristo range. It is a prosperous village of
about 900 persons. There is no finer example of pueblo apartment
architecture in New Mexico. The main pueblo building rises five stories
above the mesa. One must be careful not to confuse the Spanish town, don
Fernando de Taos, and the old Indian farming center, Ranchos de Taos,
with the pueblo, San Geronimo de Taos. It is the latter that is Indian
and is, therefore, by far the oldest of the three.
The ruins of the old San Geronimo mission at Taos represent one of the
most historic and fateful in all the Southwest. It was there that two
priests were murdered in 1680 during the first days of the Pueblo
Revolt. It was there that Po-pé sowed the first seeds of that rebellion.
Again in 1696, the Taos Indians sought to free themselves from Spanish
control by killing their priests and other Spaniards in the vicinity.
Again they were subdued. In 1847, when the Americans annexed New Mexico,
the Taos Indians tried once more to gain their independence. Inflamed by
Mexican citizens who refused to accept American authority, they attacked
the Americans at Fernando de Taos, killing nine of them. Governor
Charles Bent, builder of the famous Bent’s Fort on the Santa Fe Trail,
was among those killed. On February 3, 1847, the American army in New
Mexico laid siege to the village and the Indians fortified themselves in
the mission. It became the Alamo of the Taos people. American artillery
was brought to bear, and the walls of the ancient church were battered
down; the Indians fled, first to the village and then into the
mountains, leaving behind 150 dead and many wounded. They were finally
forced to surrender, and their leaders were hung. Those so hung remain
martyrs to this day. The ruins of the Taos mission, built three and a
quarter centuries ago, still can be seen. They are a stark landmark to
the stubborn independence of the people of Taos.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
Souvenir of the American army’s work in 1847: Taos Pueblo mission]
The traditions and ceremonials of Taos are well preserved. Their arts
and crafts, however, have declined and are not of the high quality found
in some of the other pueblos. Their ceremonials are excellent and are
noted for their beauty and precision. The feast day of San Geronimo,
September 30, is the most important event of the year.
Tesuque Pueblo
Tesuque is a small village, perhaps numbering no more than 150 persons.
Even though it has always been small, it holds a major place in the
history of New Mexico. It was at Tesuque that the first blood was shed
in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. On August 9, Cristobal de Herrera was
murdered, and two Tesuque Indians rushed to Santa Fe to warn the Spanish
governor of the impending rebellion. The Indian leaders, now aware that
their plot was known, moved the date of the revolt from August 13 to
August 10. On August 10, Father Pio, in charge of the Tesuque mission,
went out from Santa Fe to say Mass and also was murdered.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
Most-painted church in America?... Ranchos de Taos]
Although its handicrafts are of poor quality, the Tesuque Indian
ceremonials are colorful and authentic. The people have retained much of
their early culture while living in proximity to the white man (Santa Fe
is only nine miles distant). The pueblo’s most important festival falls
on November 12.
Zia Pueblo
The story of Zia is one of tragedy and difficult problems of existence.
Located on a basalt flow on the north bank of the Jemez River some
fifteen miles above its junction with the Rio Grande, Zia has poor land
and a limited supply of irrigation water. Agriculture is the main
economic pursuit, but the pueblo’s unfortunate location makes trading
for part of its food supply necessary.
Oñate reported Zia to be a large pueblo. However, it suffered greatly
because of its participation in the Pueblo Revolt. Some historians
estimate that during the reconquest, nearly 600 of the people of Zia
were killed defending themselves from the Spanish. Continued wars and
pestilence reduced the pueblo to a very few families. Over the past
century, the group has again showed signs of growth and now has a
population of more than 300.
The church at Zia dates from 1692, and thus represents one of the fine
examples of ancient Franciscan architecture in New Mexico. The annual
festival, dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, is celebrated with
an excellent Corn Dance on August 15.
Zuni Pueblo
Zuni has the distinction of being the first of the pueblos seen or
visited by Europeans. Seen from a distance by Fray Marcos de Niza in
1539, it was reported as a rich and extensive city. Nearby were six
other pueblos, and the Spanish immediately associated the Zuni complex
with an old Spanish legend about seven golden cities, the Seven Cities
of Cibola. The expedition of Coronado was formed to explore and conquer
the rich pueblos of New Mexico. His first contact was at Zuni, then
called _Hawikuh_. It was neither golden nor rich.
Although Zuni was an important stopping place on the early trails to
Mexico, it managed to remain least influenced by European ideas. The
Spanish concentrated their efforts in the Rio Grande Valley and Zuni
went its own way most of the time. While there were missionary efforts
from time to time, by the nineteenth century, the stout resistance to
such activity caused it to cease. In recent years, sporadic missionary
activity has been evident, but it has not been notably successful.
The most famous of all New Mexico Indian ceremonial dances is held at
Zuni each year. The Shalako, which occurs in early December, is
authentic and spectacular. The dancers, carrying huge ceremonial figures
on their shoulders, must train and practice constantly during the entire
year.
Zuni is the largest of the pueblos in New Mexico, with a population
numbering more than 5000 persons. The main occupation is agriculture.
The Zunis supplement their income by manufacturing silver inlay jewelry
that shows great creative skill and is beautiful to behold.
Other New Mexico Indians
In addition to the well-known Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, there are
four other areas of Indian lands. Three of these belong to peoples of
Athapascan origin, sometimes better known as Apache Indians. By name,
they are the Jicarilla Apache, the Mescalero Apache, and Navajo. The
fourth group is the Ute Indian.
The Apache tribes were relative newcomers to the Southwest. Their origin
was the plains area between the northern Rocky Mountains and Hudson Bay
in Canada. About 1000 A.D., a part of these northern Plains Indians
began a migration that ultimately brought them to New Mexico. Down the
High Plains across the western Dakotas, western Nebraska, Kansas, and
finally to western Texas and eastern New Mexico, these people came. At
about the latitude of Albuquerque, the migration split. Part of the
group continued south, across the Staked Plains, into southeastern New
Mexico, west Texas, and northern Coahuila and Chihuahua, Mexico. Here
they divided into the Lipan, the Mescalero, and the Natage Apache.
Today, in south-central New Mexico are the descendants of the Mescalero.
The Mescalero Apache reservation is crossed by U.S. Highway 70, a scenic
drive through pine forests. The tribe operates the Sierra Blanca ski
area, one of the southernmost ski areas in the United States. Its annual
Crown Dance and coming-of-age ceremonials are held July 1 to 4, followed
by an Apache rodeo. The Lipan and the Natage have virtually disappeared.
The second group of the migration discovered for the first time in their
long trek down the eastern fringes of the Rockies that the country
opened up to the west. They poured through the passes and entered the
areas traditionally controlled by pueblo farmers. Gradually, they took
over these lands for themselves, driving out the farmers. By the time
the Spanish came on the scene, most of the peaceful farmers had given
way before the onslaught of the warlike Athapascan savages. Only one
group remained, the pueblos of the central Rio Grande Valley. The
migration that moved into the desert and mountain lands divided into a
number of groups which are known by modern names: the Chiricahua, White
Mountain, Western, and Jicarilla Apache and the Navajo. The Jicarilla
Apache reside mainly in north-central New Mexico on reservation lands,
and the Navajo reservation lies partly in extreme northwestern New
Mexico. Most of the Navajo land and all the lands of the others are in
Arizona.
The Ute Indians, driven from the plains by stronger tribes, settled in
the central Rocky Mountain area. There they raided the wealthy (at least
in their eyes) pueblos to the south. They fought sporadically against
white penetration but were finally subdued and placed on reservation
lands in the Four Corners area, part of which lies in New Mexico.
While the history of these peoples is fascinating and full of romance,
there is little besides scenery to be seen when visiting their
reservations. The populations are often scattered over many hundreds of
square miles, and the people have only rudimentary handicrafts. The
exception is the Navajo, and a trip to the Navajo reservation is
worthwhile. These Indians have developed techniques of weaving and
silversmithing that contribute significant art forms to Southwest
handicrafts.
The outstanding Indian event of the year in New Mexico is the
Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial at Gallup, held during mid-August. Some
thirty tribes from the Southwest and Midwest meet to compete in arts,
crafts, and ceremonial dancing.
Reminders of the Past
_by_ Paige W. Christiansen
When driving across New Mexico or when visiting some part of the state,
one should be aware of the wealth of history that is always close at
hand. Many people, when faced with what seems like endless miles of
empty country, fail to realize that the very emptiness is one of the
charms of the state. They also do not recognize that in the vast
expanses of mountain and desert, people of the ancient past or a recent
past have lived and worked and died. Sometimes the fruits of their labor
are clear and evident and live on in cities and towns. In many
instances, however, the mountains and desert have reclaimed their own
and the works of man have succumbed. A mental picture must be cast over
the landscape on which great historical events took place but which is
almost empty of signs of man’s efforts. If travelers are fortunate,
there may still be some sign—a ghost town, a ruined ranch, some old
artifacts—to tell the story; if not, imagination must be given rein. The
search is the adventure, and to give aid in that search, the following
might suffice as a faint guiding light.
To simplify the descriptions of these reminders of the past, New Mexico
is divided into seven geographical regions which a traveler might well
visit:
1. _North from Santa Fe_, including U.S. Highways 64, 285, and 84, and
connecting state highways.
2. _The northeast_, including U.S. 85 from Santa Fe to Raton, U.S. 66
east from Albuquerque to the Texas line, U.S. 56 from Springer to the
state line, and connecting state highways.
3. _The northwest_, including U.S. 66 west from Albuquerque to the
Arizona line, U.S. 666 north from Gallup to Colorado, and State
Highway 44 from Bernalillo to Farmington.
4. _East-central_, including U.S. 60 east from Bernardo, U.S. 380 east
from San Antonio, U.S. 70 from the Mescalero Indian Reservation to the
Texas line, U.S. 285 from Clines Corners to Roswell, U.S. 54 from
Three Rivers to Santa Rosa, and connecting state highways.
5. _West-central_, including U.S. 60 west of Socorro, U.S. 180-260 and
State Highway 12 in Catron County, U.S. 85 from Los Lunas to Elephant
Butte, and connecting state highways.
6. _Southeast_, including U.S. 70 from Las Cruces to the Mescalero
Indian Reservation, U.S. 54 from El Paso to Three Rivers, U.S. 62 from
Hobbs to the Texas line, U.S. 285 from Roswell to the Texas line, and
numerous state roads.
7. _Southwest_, including U.S. 85 from Truth or Consequences to El
Paso, U.S. 180 north from Deming to the Catron county line, U.S. 70-80
west from Las Cruces to Arizona, and state roads.
North From Santa Fe
The country north of Santa Fe is the heart of Indian and Spanish New
Mexico. Here, if he looks beyond the narrow boundaries of the highway
right-of-way, the traveler can see Indian and Spanish villages which
have not changed significantly in two and a half centuries. Along the
lush green of the Rio Grande Valley or of its tributaries dashing out of
the Sangre de Cristo range to the east, these sleepy concentrations of
people reveal cultural and language patterns which smack of the
_conquistadores_ of the sixteenth century or of the ancient cliff
dwellers. It is a slow and easy world, perhaps most representative of
the “land of mañana.” In a region already worked for centuries for what
it can produce, there is no hurry. It will be there tomorrow and
forever. The people of this region are typically New Mexican. The hills
are dotted with piñon and juniper trees which give a greenish to black
cast to the land. This, too, is typically New Mexican.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
Cool drive on a summer day, Red River Canyon]
There is one short trip that would be fruitful for him who wants to know
New Mexico, to feel the romance of Spanish culture, and to seek
adventure off the beaten track. Just north of Española, State Highway 76
strikes east from U.S. 64. Nowhere in the state can be found so much of
old world charm or spectacular scenic beauty. Heading east, the traveler
passes through Chimayó, a village famed throughout the world for its
weaving, though seldom visited, then on through Truchas and Las Trampas
to Penasco, heart of the Penitente country. The Penitentes were a
religious sect growing out of long isolation from the main threads of
Roman Catholicism. They gradually reverted to relatively primitive
Christian practices without guidance from main church centers but within
the past few years have returned to the Church. The many white crosses
that can be seen in the area attest to their former activity. From
Penasco, the traveler can return to U.S. 64 via State Highway 75.
The area northwest of Santa Fe, stretching some thirty or forty miles on
the southeast flanks of the Jemez Mountains, is the noted Pajarito
Plateau, the home of great numbers of Indian cultures, living and dead.
Many of the modern Indian pueblos will be found in this region. Also,
some of the most significant ancient Indian ruins are found here, such
as the Frijoles Canyon (Bandelier National Monument) and Puye Cliff
Dwellings.
The entire area north of Santa Fe, then, is alive with history. In every
village, in every canyon, there is something that will add to the
romance of Spanish-Indian New Mexico. In our Southwest, the heritage
handed down by these two great cultures is held dear by the people. To
the traveler will come a greater appreciation and a greater
understanding of New Mexico and the Southwest if these are but
understood.
Northeast New Mexico
The section designated as northeast New Mexico is an area of mountains
and plains, and its historical mosaic shows elements of both: the rugged
Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque and the southernmost parts of the
extensive Sangre de Cristo range, which thrusts north from U.S. Highway
85 far into Colorado, and part of the famed buffalo plains. The area is
drained by two main river systems; the Canadian River flows east to join
the Arkansas and the Mississippi and the Pecos River flows south to join
the Rio Grande.
Through this vast area ran one of Americas greatest highways, the Santa
Fe Trail. Beginning in Missouri communities, the Trail hurled itself
into the intricate patterns of the Great Plains with all of their
dangers—Indians, boredom, violent storms, treacherous rivers, and
prairie grass fires. Then on into the foothills of the mighty Rocky
Mountains and the steep and backbreaking approaches to Raton Pass in New
Mexico. The new highway across this pass (U.S. 85) and the nature of our
vehicles have made this an easy passage. But the traveler should pause
at some high point, or perhaps leave the main highway for a moment, and
try to imagine crossing this rugged land in Conestoga wagons. From
Raton, the Santa Fe Trail continued south to Las Vegas and thence into
Santa Fe via Glorieta Pass (current route of U.S. 85). Over this trail
passed the goods of the world. In part, these were intended for the
people of New Mexico, but over other trails they also found markets in
Mexico and in California. For the curious and adventurous, sections of
the Santa Fe Trail can still be seen. Local inquiry will elicit
directions to remaining parts of the wide rutted Trail, scene of so much
of the American westward movement.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
How To see the Rio Grande Valley—from Sandia Crest]
While passing through the mountains between Santa Fe and Las Vegas, the
traveler should be aware that a critical Civil War battle was waged in
the fastness of these passes. In 1862, Confederate forces, which came up
the Rio Grande from Texas and won a series of victories over Union
troops, met a combined force of Colorado Volunteers and New Mexico Union
troops in a decisive contest over the control of the American Southwest.
The Union troops were successful, preserving New Mexico and the West for
the Union.
These, then, are some of the things to look for in this region of plains
and mountains. Picture buffalo by the tens of thousands pushing up the
Canadian River, or long lines of wagons winding their way along the
Santa Fe Trail carrying goods and people into new lands, or the Blue and
the Gray locked in deadly combat far from the thunder of the main Civil
War battles. The mosaic here is sharp and vividly different.
Northwest New Mexico
Northwest New Mexico is typified as ancient Indian country. While
seemingly a harsh land, it is only this to the uninitiated, to those who
lock their minds to beauties of history and lands unlike their own. The
Indian found this country good and productive. Some of the finest ruins
of Indian antiquity are in this region—Chaco Canyon and Aztec, both
National Monuments, and hundreds more that remain unnamed. The Indians
of the Four Corners area (named thus because New Mexico, Colorado, Utah,
and Arizona meet here, the only place in the United States where the
lines of four states intersect) created levels of culture unsurpassed in
what is the continental United States; only the Indians of Mexico and
Peru claim a higher culture. This is a land whose ancient people reached
their great peak at the same time as the later Romans, as Charlemagne in
ancient Frankish Europe, and as Mohammed and his successors in the
Middle East.
But ancient Indians hold no monopoly on this vast region. Today many of
the Indians of New Mexico still find homes here. The Navajo Reservation
lies between Gallup and the Colorado line. Part of the Ute Reservation
lies along the northern edge of New Mexico, and the Jicarilla
Reservation is in the eastern part of this region. Many of the pueblo
people are found between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. At Gallup each year,
the famed Indian Ceremonials bring together peoples from many of the
tribes in the United States.
This region is also renowned as an oil and natural gas producer and is
one of the booming areas in New Mexico. But this is only one aspect of
the mineral riches of the northwest; the mines near Grants, between
Albuquerque and Gallup, produce tremendous quantities of uranium ores.
The atomic energy capability of the United States begins at Grants. And
near Gallup and Fruitland are huge open-pit coal mines.
The northwest is drained by the San Juan River, a tributary of the
Colorado River, and is therefore a part of the Pacific watershed. The
Navajo Dam project, just east of Farmington, is a part of this drainage
pattern.
Thus the region is characterized by Indians old and new, ancient things
buried deep beneath the earth, and great beauty in pastel colors and
subtle contrasts—the mosaic of the land.
East-Central New Mexico
East-central New Mexico, like the northeast, is an area of plains and
mountains. Here the buffalo roamed, and in their place, cattle now
utilize the hardy and nutritious grasses of the High Plains. Mountains
are the Manzano, southeast of Albuquerque, and Sierra Blanca, near
Carrizozo, as well as numerous minor ranges. Also in this region is some
harsh and desolate country, seared by the southwestern sun and lacking
in rainfall, but supporting the exotic plants and wildlife typical of
the Sonoran desert regions.
While the desert regions may not be attractive to the eye, they should
be appreciated for their part in the historical mosaic. In the area east
of the Rio Grande is the northern half of the well-known White Sands
Missile Range, one of the significant test centers in the rocket and
space age. It was also in this arid region that the first atomic bomb
was exploded (southeast of Socorro).
The early use of this desert, however, emphasized its harshness. For
centuries, the Spanish suffered across this waterless waste on their way
from Chihuahua in Old Mexico to Santa Fe, for this was the Jornada del
Muerto, journey of death, the hardest and most dangerous part of the
trip over the Camino Real. The Camino Real was the lifeline of New
Mexico from 1598 until the Santa Fe Trail was opened in 1821, and all
visitors during that period were obliged to cross this arid section. A
modern rocket crosses in mere seconds what took the Spaniards many days.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
Who says this is desert country?... Sierra Blanca from U.S. 70]
In the Manzano Mountains, there are numerous Indian ruins which
represent the eastern fringes of the pueblo-building Indians of New
Mexico. These ruined villages have been given the name by historians of
“cities that died of fear,” fear of the vicious Apache and Comanche
tribes. For centuries, these brave village people tilled their crops and
lived peacefully on the land. Then, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth centuries, the great migrations of Plains Indians that pushed
into the Southwest gradually did their deadly work. One by one the
villages succumbed, until by 1700 few people remained, and these were
ultimately killed or driven into the sanctuary of the Rio Grande
pueblos. It is awesome to stand mid the rubble of one of those ancient
cities and imagine the circumstances of its demise.
In the eastern part of this section was the heart of the High Plains
cattle empires. Here is a land that once belonged to the great cattle
barons, a land of free range, the home of the cowboy. Although it is
fenced today, it is still a land of cattle and is still very close to
the early days of the cattleman.
Again, there is an intricate and varied mosaic. No simple land this, but
a complexity of plains, mountains, and desert, all of which color its
history. The Indians no longer inhabit their villages, the Spanish no
longer struggle along the Jornada del Muerto, and the free range of the
cattle baron is gone, but if the traveler sees it through its historical
past, it will again come alive.
West-Central New Mexico
This section is a complex and colorful mass of landforms scattered
helter-skelter across the western part of the state. It stretches from
the green Rio Grande Valley, with its irrigated lands, quaint farms, and
picturesque agricultural villages, up the Valley’s steep western slopes
to the rolling grassland and mesas and alluvial fans, ending in
precipitous and treacherous canyons in the rugged mountains. Socorro
Mountain, the Magdalenas, the San Mateos, the Ladrones, and countless
others seem always to ring the horizon. Some of them are timbered and
abound in cool, refreshing shade and springs; some are harsh and dry. In
the west, the famed San Agustin Plains stretch to the sunset, a wide
carpet fringed by black, timbered hills, site of fabulous cattle drives
of a bygone day. The complexity of the region’s geology, scenery, and
terrain is matched by an equally complex history.
The history is a mosaic of many hues, some harsh and stark like its dry
desert mountains, some inviting like the shade and coolness of its
timbered canyons and mountain springs. First were the many diverse and
sometimes hostile Indian cultures. There were peaceful pueblo peoples
tilling their lands, using the Rio Grande’s flowing water to produce
abundance. Also, prehistoric village dwellers struggled to create
agricultural societies along the banks of now-dry rivers in the western
part of the region. And there were the fearsome Apache Indians who
founded their homes in the broken mountain fastnesses and added their
excitement and tragedy to the mosaic. So, too, did the Spaniard make his
mark and the Mexican who followed close behind. The place names of the
eastern part of the region are primarily Spanish, although the Spanish
found the area a difficult one in which to maintain themselves. And then
the American came to dominate this land, adding realism and technology.
Finally, two major economic factors left a profound imprint: stock
raising and mining. The first began with the Spanish, was continued by
the Mexicans, and commercialized by the Americans. Everywhere are signs
of this heritage. Mining also played a dominant role, although of a
shorter duration. One can hardly lift his eyes to the hills without
seeing signs of the prospectors shovel or the miner’s work. One can
hardly converse with local citizens without discussing mines of the past
or mines of the future. Livestock and minerals, then, are woven through
the historical pattern and are never far from any part of the story.
Let the traveler be aware of several important facts when he passes
through this region. First, this is empty country, an area that has
fewer people now than it had eighty years ago. Its mines are mostly
closed and the towns that grew with the mines are ghosts. One of the
most famous of these is the town of Kelly, a short distance from the
community of Magdalena. Another is Mogollon, off U.S. Highway 180 in the
southwestern part of this region. Either of these will give to the
viewer a vivid picture of the mining camps of the nineteenth century.
To the average tourist crossing the San Agustin Plains, they seem
desolate and uninteresting. To the traveler with imagination and
knowledge of the history of this once great inland lake, the trip can be
exciting. He pictures this great basin full of water, forty-five miles
long and fifteen miles wide, and sees mountains covered with blue spruce
surrounding the great lake. His mental motion picture rolls on thousands
of years, watching the water evaporate and the forest of spruce die, to
be replaced eventually by the piñon and juniper now dotting the hills.
Grass grew in the old lake bed, except in the last areas to evaporate,
for these had an alkali content too high for most grasses. The traveler
then watches the Indian enter the scene—not the pueblo builder, except
as a transient, for no water is available. The nomadic warrior uses the
pathway later. In 1774 and in 1776, he sees several important battles
between the Spanish and the Apaches fought on these Plains. Later, the
American cattleman dominates them, as he does today....
And so the mosaic grows—Indians, Spanish, Americans, cattle, and
mines—and the spectacular vistas and the vast emptiness add color and
excitement for the traveler who sees the past with the present.
Southeast New Mexico
Much of southeast New Mexico is an extension of the Great Plains, but it
has some rugged mountains and a severe desert in the middle of which lie
White Sands National Monument and the White Sands Missile Range.
Mountain ranges include the Sacramento east of Alamogordo and the
Guadalupe Mountains, in which are located Carlsbad Caverns.
The plains part of this region are devoted to cattle, potash, and oil.
Like the other plains regions of New Mexico, the heritage passed on from
the great cattle empires of bygone days is very strong and detectable in
the people. Since the early 1930’s, oil has come to play an increasingly
important part in the history of this section. This is especially true
near Hobbs.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
Anyone for a hike?... in the Guadalupe Mountains]
The desert region in the western part of this section has clearly
defined aspects of the old and the new. The southern part of the dread
Jornado del Muerto swept across this arid land and only returned to the
river near modern Hatch, or sometimes farther south, near modern Las
Cruces, according to the whim of the river. Here also lies the White
Sands National Monument, a desert spot of unusual beauty and interest.
Near the Monument, the White Sands Missile Range stands as an advanced
scientific test center for the most modern of vehicles, the rocket. Near
Alamogordo, another advanced space development and testing facility is
located at Holloman Air Force Base. So the desert is useful, and it is
beautiful, and it is full of tragic history.
This is also Indian land. East of Tularosa is the Mescalero Apache
Indian Reservation. In a way, this region has always belonged to the
Apache, at least since he migrated into New Mexico. The area contained
no sedentary groups and the Apache appropriated it as his own. His
strongholds were in the Guadalupe and Sacramento mountains. The forts
along the Rio Grande, like Forts Fillmore and Selden, were located to
control the Mescalero and other Apache groups. All that remains today
are the Mescaleros.
There was little Spanish influence in this area except near El Paso and
in the Rio Grande Valley. The Spanish were more attracted to the upper
Rio Grande Valley because of the sedentary nature of the Indians of that
region. The southeast underwent its greatest development in the American
period.
Again, sense the mosaic: These are not blends of land and history; they
are sharp and distinct, each with its own character. Search for the
history and the beauty, for they do not come automatically.
Southwest New Mexico
Finally, the southwest, another region of harsh desert and cool
refreshing mountains, part of New Mexico’s unusual contrast. The country
south of U.S. 70 is Sonoran desert, thinly populated and poorly watered.
To the north of the highway lies one of the most spectacular beauty
spots in the Southwest, the mountains and forests forming the headwaters
of the Gila River. The Gila River flows west across Arizona until it
joins the Colorado River which empties into the Gulf of California.
The Indians in this part of the state fall into two distinct categories:
The builders, known as the Mimbres culture, constructed homes in caves
and along the watercourses of the Gila and Mimbres rivers. They reached
extremely high levels of culture, and then they disappeared. The Apache
Indians, who entered this country at the same time as they did the rest
of New Mexico, were responsible for the end of the farmers and builders,
at least in part. The Apaches were predators and the farmers were
peaceful, unversed in the arts of war. Finally the Apache ruled supreme,
and this region became the most important single stronghold of the
Indian. It was here that Geronimo found sanctuary. But the Apaches, too,
were forced to surrender their claims and were placed on reservations
outside this area.
Mining is and has been the main source of wealth. The great open-pit
operation of Kennecott Copper Company is at Santa Rita, east of Silver
City. This is one of the largest open-pit copper mines in North America.
To look into that huge man-made pit is a thrilling experience. This mine
was first opened in 1803 by the Spanish who needed copper badly as a
circulating currency in New Spain (Mexico). For a number of years, the
coins used for money in Mexico were from copper mined in southwestern
New Mexico.
Copper represents only a part of the mining activity in this region.
Famous mining districts in earlier days were at Kingston and Hillsboro,
just east of the Black Range on State Highway 90. These areas produced
considerable quantities of silver. There is some activity yet, but the
boom has long since passed them by, although they are interesting towns
to visit. The trip from U.S. 85 to Silver City via State Highway 90 is
one of the most scenic routes in the state.
In the region north of Silver City lies high mountain country, much of
it preserved as the Gila Wilderness Area. Here a person who wishes the
solitude of forest and mountain, the thrill of trout fishing in a clear
cold stream, and a wealth of wildlife can find his heart’s desire. In
the heart of this wilderness, the traveler might well find some of the
ancient homes of the Mimbres people. History and recreation blend into
one.
These complete the mosaic. Everywhere one travels in New Mexico is
enchanting history, in the land and/or in the people. This has not been
an effort to acquaint anyone with the intricate detail of all the
history of every nook and cranny of this land, but these broad strokes
made on the canvas may help the traveler, transient or native, to enjoy
himself. Let him accept the challenge, stop to investigate, search out
evidence of the history that is there in the colorful and changing land
itself, the Indian heritage, the Spanish past, the cattleman’s range,
the miner’s endless search—and become enchanted.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A., by John Whiteside_)
Wheeler Peak near Taos—highest point in New Mexico, 13,160 feet
above sea level]
[Illustration: (_Courtesy Elliott S. Barker_)
Ghost Ranch Mountain north of Abiquiu]
Derricks and Mines
_by_ George B. Griswold
New Mexico is a mineral-rich state. The gross production value of oil,
gas, and minerals was $671 million during 1963, making the state the
sixth ranking mineral producer in the nation. New Mexico ranks among
other states as follows: first in the production of potash, uranium,
perlite, and carbon dioxide; third in helium; fourth in copper; fifth in
natural gas and liquids; and seventh in petroleum. Important amounts of
zinc, lead, gold, silver, magnesium compounds, coal, gypsum, pumice, and
salt are also produced from deposits within New Mexico. The oil and gas
industry holds a dominant position in the state, accounting for almost
two thirds of the value of minerals produced.
OIL AND GAS
Most of New Mexico’s oil and gas are produced in the southeastern part,
south and east of Roswell. The bustling towns of Hobbs, Artesia, and
Lovington, as well as Roswell, are headquarters for the many oil
companies and the associated service and supply organizations operating
in the area. Oil and gas are produced from numerous reservoirs, called
_fields_ or _pools_, in Paleozoic sediments ranging from Ordovician to
Permian in age. From the standpoint of production, the Eunice-Monument
field (lying between these two towns) is the largest, having produced
more than 250 million barrels of oil. Other important fields are Hobbs,
Vacuum, Langlie Mattix, Denton, and Jalmat. All these fields produce a
considerable amount of gas associated directly with the oil.
When driving an automobile through southeast New Mexico, a layman finds
it difficult to comprehend the immensity of the petroleum industry of
that region. This is due to the scattering of wells over a large area.
Seldom are wells spaced closer than one to every ten acres, even in the
most productive fields. There are, in fact, some 16,000 wells in this
part of New Mexico, ranging in depth from less than 1000 feet to 17,555
feet.
The other oil- and gas-producing area of the state is in the northwest,
in the San Juan Basin. Farmington serves as the base of operations for
most of this activity. In 1962, there were 7378 wells in the area, 1770
of which were producing oil and gas and 5608 producing gas only. Most of
the San Juan Basin production is from Cretaceous sandstones, in contrast
to the southeast where the oil and gas are derived from Paleozoic
sediments. The development of the San Juan Basin production is
relatively new; most of the wells have been drilled since World War II.
The petroleum industry can be proud of the great help it has given to
the development of this once-almost-forgotten part of the state.
[Illustration: (_Courtesy El Paso Natural Gas Co._)
There’s the way to refine oil! Look at those mesas, near Gallup]
The methods of finding and producing oil and gas have come a long way
from the “boom town” days when wells were drilled for the most part on
pure hunches and hopes. The exploration and exploitation of petroleum
are now highly specialized technologies. All branches of the geologic
and geophysical sciences are brought into play to piece together a
comprehensive picture of all the factors which may have made a certain
area favorable for the accumulation of oil or gas. These factors include
such things as the age, thickness, and permeability of the sedimentary
rocks, the structure, old shorelines, and buried reefs. Once a target is
selected, a drilling rig is moved onto the location to prove or disprove
the theory. This is the costly step of finding oil. A single 10,000-foot
hole may cost $350,000, and some individual wells in New Mexico have
cost more than $1 million to drill. If the well is in a completely
untested area, it is called a “wildcat.” Once a discovery is made, then
the land around the wildcat is explored by “offset” wells until the
complete extent of the new field is proved.
During 1962, 1666 wells were drilled to an average depth of 5153 feet.
The average drilling cost was $71,000 a well, representing a total
investment of almost $120 million in a single year! Most of these wells
were of the development (offset) type, but even then, 27 per cent were
dry. During 1962, 295 true wildcats were drilled; of these, only 46
found oil or gas—about two out of every thirteen.
The story of oil just begins with the discovery of a well. Various
special “completion” operations are applied to the oil-producing horizon
so as to increase the flow into the well. The most common techniques are
either by “acidizing,” pumping acid into the formation to increase flow
by enlarging the pores in the rock, or by “hydrafracing,” whereby actual
cracks are induced in the formation by pumping oil from the surface back
into the well under very high pressure. After the well is “completed,”
it may be a natural-flowing well if sufficient gas is associated with
the oil. If sufficient gas is not present, then the well is pumped.
In recent years, considerable success has been achieved in revitalizing
old fields where production had dropped below the point of economic
operation. These fields are reactivated by forcing either water or gas
down selected wells within the field, thereby forcing stagnated oil
within the producing zone toward the other wells. This technique is
called _secondary recovery_. Many fields will produce more oil under the
secondary recovery program than they did during their primary life.
[Illustration: Here’s a wildcat for you!]
Once the oil is on the surface, it passes through separators to remove
any admixed gas from the oil. The gas is sent into pipelines while the
oil is sent to storage tanks called _tank batteries_. Periodically, the
oil is drawn from the tank batteries where it is transported by pipeline
or rail to refineries. The great bulk of the crude oil leaves New Mexico
for refining via a major pipeline network extending through Texas to
both the Gulf and East coasts. Some oil is refined in New Mexico,
however. Oil refineries in Artesia, Bloomfield, Ciniza, Farmington, and
Monument have a combined capacity to treat some 30,000 barrels (42
gallons a barrel) of crude oil a day. On the other hand, practically all
the natural gas is treated in New Mexico so as to recover its liquid
petroleum constituents before sending it out of the state by pipeline.
MINING
The mining industry of New Mexico dates back to the days of Spanish
rule. Copper was mined from the Santa Rita mine as early as 1800 for
shipment to Mexico for use in coinage. Significant mining in New Mexico
did not commence, however, until the late 1800’s. There are three major
centers today: Carlsbad, potash; Silver City area, copper, zinc, and
lead; and Grants, uranium.
[Illustration: Question: where are the other oil pumps and tanks in
the San Juan Basin?]
The potash mining east of Carlsbad, a $75 million-a-year industry
employing more than 3600 persons, is the largest operation of its kind
in the world. Six mining companies are active in the area, and a seventh
is developing yet another mine. _Potash_ is a word used to denote
various potassium compounds. The principal ore mineral at Carlsbad is
sylvanite, a mixture of potassium chloride and sodium chloride (common
salt). The ore contains the equivalent of 21 to 25 per cent potassium
oxide (K₂O).[6] Another ore mineral, known as _langbeinite_, a double
salt of potassium and magnesium sulfate, is also mined.
The potash ores occur as horizontal beds sandwiched between thick salt
and anhydrite layers. These beds are the result of evaporation of large
quantities of salt waters during the latter part of the Permian period
some 240 million years ago. The potash-bearing horizons now are buried
from 900 to 1800 feet below the surface. The discovery of potash in
southeast New Mexico was almost by accident. In 1925, the Snowden and
McSweeny Company drilled a wildcat oil test a few miles east of
Carlsbad. The hole was dry, but potash minerals were detected in the
drill cuttings. The discovery generated considerable interest because
the United States was forced to import most of its potash prior to this
time. Further drilling proved the existence of tremendous deposits of
potassium salts in that area.
The potash mines are among the most highly mechanized of the mineral
industry. Access to the buried deposits is gained by vertical shafts.
Actual mining is now done to a large extent by continuous miners,
machines which bore or rip the potash ore from the face and load it into
shuttle cars in one continuous operation. The shuttle cars then
transport the ore to conveyor belts which move it to the shafts for
hoisting. Working conditions and safety are excellent and have led to
high productivity from these mines.
The potash ore is refined or processed by fractional crystallation or
flotation. These plants remove most of the unwanted sodium chloride and
other gangue minerals to produce high-quality potassium chloride or
sulfate. After processing, the potash salts are stored in giant bins to
await shipment by rail to the major agriculture areas of the United
States. The Carlsbad mines produce some 15 million tons of ore a year
which, when refined, produces 4 million tons of marketable potassium
salts having a K₂O equivalent of 2.5 million tons.
[Illustration: (_Courtesy International Minerals & Chemical Corp._)
Crunch!... continuous mining machine at work]
Uranium mining is the newest major industry in New Mexico. The boom
started in 1950 with the discovery of uranium ore west of Grants by a
Navajo sheep rancher named Paddy Martinez. This discovery started one of
the most extensive exploration and development campaigns in all mining
history. By 1957, the area had proved uranium reserves accounting for
more than half of the entire reserve of the nation. These discoveries
will make this country self-sufficient in this vital atomic energy metal
for years to come. Five mills were built that are capable of producing
“yellow cake” (almost pure uranium oxide) from uranium ores containing
as little as 0.20 per cent U₃O₈. Four mills are located in the Grants
area, ranging in capacity from 1500 to 4000 tons a day. The fifth mill,
rated at 500 tons a day, is at Shiprock.
There are numerous mines, ranging from tiny two-man operations up to
great mines producing more than 1000 tons a day. The most prolific
producing area is the Ambrosia Lake District north of Grants; most of
these mines are underground. Probably the largest single uranium mine,
however, is the open-pit Jackpile-Paguate mine of the Anaconda Company
on the Laguna Indian Reservation some thirty miles east of Grants. The
mine uses electric shovels capable of loading eight cubic yards of ore
at a time into large diesel trucks.
Copper is produced from the Chino mine located at Santa Rita, about
fifteen miles east of Silver City. This mine, operated by Kennecott
Copper Corporation, is the showpiece of the New Mexico minerals
industry. The copper ore is low grade, containing only sixteen pounds a
ton of the red metal, but the deposit is immense, allowing the mining of
22,500 tons a day. The Chino is by far the largest single mining
operation in the state. A large concentrator and smelter are located at
Hurley, about ten miles southwest of the pit.
The Chino pit is a spectacular sight for its scenic setting and its
sheer size. The deposit is located below the Kneeling Nun, a famous
natural statue formed by the erosion of a rhyolite flow which caps a
high mesa. The pit covers almost one square mile and is 800 feet deep.
The mining is highly mechanized. Large rotary drills make blast holes
twelve inches in diameter into which explosives are loaded. A single
blast may break 100,000 tons of rock. The ore is loaded with
8-cubic-yard shovels into large trucks carrying from 25 to 65 tons each.
The trucks transport the ore to an inclined skipway on the west end of
the pit. The skip then carries the ore up to the train level where it is
transferred into railroad cars for shipment to the mill. Waste rock, too
low-grade to justify sending to the mill, is transported to the very top
of the skip way, where it is trucked to the dumps. At Chino, much of the
waste rock contains some copper. The amount is small, but a part of it
can be recovered by leaching-percolating water down through the rock to
dissolve the copper. At the bottom of the dumps, the copper-rich water
is collected and sent through precipitating tanks containing scrap iron.
The copper plates out on the iron, forming metallic copper. The
dump-leaching program alone at Chino is a substantial enterprise.
The concentrator and smelter at Hurley is the facility which reduces the
low-grade ore into pure metal. The concentrator first crushes and grinds
the ore, then recovers the copper-bearing minerals (principally
chalcocite and chalcopyrite) by flotation. The concentrate of these
copper sulfides is taken to the smelter to make metallic copper.
North and west of the Chino mine are important deposits of zinc and
lead. Two underground mines are now active: the Hanover of the New
Jersey Zinc Company and the Kearney—Pewabic of American—Peru Mining
Company. Although dwarfed by the Chino mine, these are important
producers.
[Illustration: (_Courtesy The Anaconda Co._)
Man, dig this hole!... Jackpile open-pit uranium mine near Laguna]
[Illustration: (_Courtesy Kennecott Copper Corp._)
“Just scoop up copper ore, take it to the skipway....” up the side
of the Chino Mine at Santa Rita]
Copper, potash, and uranium are not the only mining operations of New
Mexico. Perlite is recovered from deposits near No Agua in Taos County
and just north of Grants. Two new gypsum plants are now operating
northeast of Albuquerque, and a cement plant is located east of that
city. High-grade copper veins are worked south of Lordsburg. Coal mining
is being reactivated, with producing mines near Gallup, Fruitland, and
Raton. A new molybdenum mine is under development east of Questa. New
Mexico’s mineral industry is on a broad and firm base.
Mines and derricks are ever-present aspects of New Mexico’s landscapes;
they are seen by every citizen of the state and every tourist as he
travels across the plains, valleys, and mountains. The derricks and the
mine openings are merely surface features through which the vast wealth
of the underground is exploited, but they are a monetarily important
part of New Mexico’s scenery, rocks, and history.
Enchanting Landscapes
_by_ Frank E. Kottlowski
The visitor and the native may be well acquainted with the more famous
scenic places in New Mexico. Most of these are National or State Parks
or Monuments—glistening dunes of White Sands, sandstone cliffs of El
Morro, canyons eroded in volcanic rocks of Bandelier, the recent volcano
of Capulin Mountain, multicolored sinkholes at Bottomless Lakes,
grotesque carvings of volcanic rocks at City of Rocks, and the black
tongues of cooled lava in the Valley of Fires State Park near Carrizozo.
Many of the lesser-known spectacular scenic areas are off the beaten
path, far from the seventy-mile-an-hour Interstate highways. Even a
brief description of all would fill a thick book. But near the most
traveled routes are numerous enchanting landscapes. The traveler from
the midwest or east, driving U.S. Highway 66 (Interstate 40) breaks over
the edge of the “caprock” a few miles east of the New Mexico—Texas line.
Atop the caprock is Llano Estacado, the Staked Plains, a level surface
stretching along the southeast edge of New Mexico eastward into Texas.
As seen south of Tucumcari near Ragland, east of Fort Sumner near
Taiban, or east of Roswell near Kenna and Caprock, the bluffs of the
Llano Estacado are topped by caprock, a cliff of white caliche-limestone
as much as forty feet thick in places. Below, on gentle to steep slopes
reaching northward toward Tucumcari or westward toward Fort Sumner and
Roswell, are the varicolored red, purple, green, and gray shales and
sandstones of Triassic age. Red Lake near Taiban on U.S. Highway 60-84
lies in the red muds of these Triassic rocks.
South of Tucumcari, rising boldly from the red-earth lowlands draining
to the Canadian River, are Tucumcari Mountain and Mesa Redonda, and to
the northwest the long buff cliffs of Mesa Rica. The latter mesa lies
north of Interstate 40 as far west as Newkirk. Patches of the white
caprock caliche-limestone cap these eastern New Mexico sentinels,
whereas in other localities, the brown Dakota Sandstone tops the buttes
and is underlain by pink Jurassic sandstones, with the mesa bases made
up of the Triassic redbeds.
Near Santa Rosa, Interstate 40 dips down into the narrow green valley of
Rio Pecos. Roadcuts lining the steep hills into the city show the red
and brown sandstones and shales of the Triassic beds.
Driving westward from Santa Rosa, one crosses rolling hills near Clines
Corners, then dips gently down into the northern part of the Estancia
Basin near Moriarty. To the north on the horizon are the snow-capped
peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. From Moriarty, Interstate 40
pulls slowly upward toward Edgewood into the eastern foothills of the
Sandia Mountains, the grassy plains giving way to juniper and piñon
groves.
From the downgrade into Tijeras Canyon, State Highway 10 leads north to
San Antonito and the turnoff to Sandia Crest. The crest road winds up
canyon walls, on sloping limestone mesas, up through thick stands of
ponderosa pine, aspen, and, near the top, Engelmann spruce and corkbark
fir. Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep may be seen off the road on the high
crags. From Sandia Crest, 10,678 feet above sea level, much of
north-central New Mexico is visible; Mount Taylor to the west, the
Nacimiento and Jemez mountains to the northwest, the mighty Sangre de
Cristo Mountains to the northeast, and countless ranges to the south and
southwest. The city of Albuquerque is spread out at the base of the
Sandias, and the twisting north-south channel of the Rio Grande
stretches, glistening, as far left and right as one can see.
From Tijeras, Interstate 40 plunges into Tijeras Canyon, slicing through
vertical roadcuts in Pennsylvanian limestones and shales, then through
the ancient Precambrian granite. At the canyons mouth, the road levels
off on the broad alluvial plain on which much of east Albuquerque is
built, although the “downtown” is really down, in the valley of the Rio
Grande.
Westward, Interstate 40 rolls up out of the valley, crosses windswept
plains spotted with black volcanic cones, in and out of the shallow
brown valley of Rio Puerco, and then to the red-cliff-bordered valley of
Rio San Jose. Cliffs are of brown, buff, and light-gray Jurassic
sandstones, with the valley carved in Triassic redbeds. Near Laguna, on
the north side of the valley, white gypsum of the Todilto Formation
crops out. Then through the pink Jurassic cliffs the canyon winds, and
near New Laguna, the highway is bordered by the varicolored,
uranium-bearing Morrison beds, which are overlain by brown sandstones
and black shales of Cretaceous age.
But as Interstate 40 approaches Grants, the dominant feature is black
frozen lava. The mesas surrounding Mount Taylor are capped by black
basalt, built up in many layers, each individual flows, and loose blocks
tumble down on the hillsides. Young basalt, twisted and wrinkled as if
it were still hot, winds along the valley; just east of Grants, a huge
“field” of this recent basalt stretches southward beyond the horizon.
And above all looms Mount Taylor, remnant of an ancient volcano,
snow-capped in winter, towering 11,389 feet above sea level.
At Casa Blanca, southeast of Mount Taylor, State Road 23 leads south to
Acoma Pueblo. Eleven miles to the southwest, Enchanted Mesa, _Katsim_ as
it is called by the Acomas, towers 450 feet above the surrounding valley
floor. This sheer-cliffed rock is built by layers of (from the base to
the top) pink and white Entrada Sandstone, gray Todilto limestone, pink
and green Summerville beds, a massive cliff of light-tan Zuni Sandstone,
and a cap of yellow-brown Dakota Sandstone.
The top of Enchanted Mesa is inaccessible by normal means. Legend has it
that once the Acomas lived there, and there are Indian ruins up on the
isolated rim. A terrific rain and lightning storm, one summer day, sent
huge waterfalls down the sides of the mesa, tearing away large blocks of
sandstone, and destroyed the trail to the top, a series of narrow zigzag
ledges and toeholds in crevasses. Thus the Acoma Indians moved a few
miles to the southwest to Acoma, onto the top of another sheer cliff, a
rock fortress carved in Zuni Sandstone and capped by Dakota Sandstone.
[Illustration: Talk about wide open spaces ... around the Enchanted
Mesa]
Southwest of Grants, the forested Zuni Mountains rise, bordered on the
north by a valley cut in Triassic redbeds and on the east by the recent
black basalt flows. The hurrying traveler will follow Interstate 40 to
Gallup around the north edge of the Zuni dome, flanked on the north by
the spectacular pink, red, brown, and gray cliffs of Jurassic and
Cretaceous sandstones. If one has time, take the low road, State
Highways 53 and 36, around the southern edge of the Zunis. For almost
twenty miles, passing through San Rafael, the paved highway parallels
the west edge of the Grants black basalt flow; then up over low ridges
and past black cinder cones toward El Morro. In the lava tunnels,
perpetual ice stays hidden from the sun; these can be visited at Ice
Caves.
El Morro, Inscription Rock, with its towering cliffs of Zuni Sandstone,
overlooks peaceful green valleys; farther west, the red and brown
sandstones are carved into many mesas and buttes near Zuni Pueblo. Then
northward to Gallup, swinging around the west edge of the Zuni
Mountains, the roller-coaster highway, State 36, cuts through ponderosa
pine country, bordered by Cretaceous brown sandstones, black shales, and
coal beds.
Northeast of Gallup eight miles is Kit Carson’s Cave, a gaping door on
the face of a massive cliff of Jurassic sandstone. A pool of cool water
lies along its floor. The three-and-a-half-mile drive north of
Interstate 40 is through a vast broken country of sandstone spires,
pyramids, cliffs, and ledges carved in the Jurassic rocks. Near Gallup,
the drab coal-bearing Cretaceous beds form the landscapes, but westward
near the Arizona line, erosion has cut down again to the brilliantly
colored Jurassic rocks, and Interstate 40 is escorted westward into the
Grand Canyon State by cliffs of white and pink sandstone.
Californians crossing New Mexico in the winter are likely to travel U.S.
Highway 70-80 (Interstate 10) eastward. New Mexico is entered just
before Steins Pass, which is channeled through the tan and green
volcanic rocks of the Peloncillo Mountains. Then down across the mud and
salt marshes of Alkali Flats lying in the Animas Valley and up onto the
north edge of the Pyramid Mountains into Lordsburg. Mine dumps dot the
Pyramids, and the ghost mining town of Shakespeare lies amid the purple
volcanic rocks.
Eastward from Lordsburg for 118 miles are the Antelope Plains; plains,
plains, plains. Steers graze on the sparse grass, yucca clumps border
the highway, and here and there sand dunes flee before the restless
winds. Mountain ranges, like islands on the sea of grass, yucca, and
creosote bush, rise in the distance. West of Deming, the low Victorio
Mountains lie south of the highway, made up of dolomite, limestone, and
andesite ridges. Southeast of Deming are the lofty Florida Mountains,
their northern toe crossed by Interstate 10. Volcanic hills dot the
landscape east of Las Cruces, Sierra de las Uvas’ purple slopes to the
north, and the Potrillo Mountains and Mount Riley to the south. The
latter are part of a spectacular volcanic field where black cinder cones
and basalt flows cover hundreds of square miles, and craters such as
Kilbourne Hole are sunk below the plains.
The descent into the Rio Grande Valley is awesome, especially if the
late afternoon sun is dancing on the spires and cliffs of the Organ
Mountains to the east. From across the brown plains, Interstate 10 winds
down into the green Mesilla Valley, a different world of cotton and
alfalfa fields, pecan and cottonwood groves, and red-tile-roofed Spanish
homes. The view of the Organ Mountains alone is worth the trip.
At Las Cruces, a city booming on cotton, rockets, and tourists,
Interstate 10 turns south to parallel the east side of the Rio Grande
Valley down to Texas and El Paso. If one prefers a quiet scenic route,
State Highway 28 winds its way along the west side of the Valley amid
fields and groves, through peaceful villages, to end at the bridge over
the Rio Grande on the edge of El Paso. Here, to the south, is El Cristo
Rey, a cone of massive andesite, flanked by steeply tilted beds of
limestone and shale, Early Cretaceous in age, cut in two by the New
Mexico-Mexico border. Atop the peak is a 29-foot-high, 40-ton, limestone
statue of Christ; a winding path leads upward from the base for those
strong enough of limb to make the climb. Beyond, to the south, Ciudad
Juarez lies, famous for its bordertown flavor, markets, cathedrals, and
bull rings.
The traveler to the east should stay on U.S. 62-180 from El Paso. This
highway cuts through the Hueco Mountains via Powwow Canyon, a gash
carved from Pennsylvanian and Permian limestones, crosses the Diablo
Plateau, rolls past the white patches of Salt Flat lakes, then winds up
to the summit of Guadalupe Pass between the Delaware Mountains on the
south and the towering Guadalupe Mountains on the north. Looking north
from the Pass, Guadalupe Peak, highest point in Texas, and El Capitan
are unforgettable sights, their steep lower slopes ribbed brown and
green, overshadowed by the 1000-foot limestone cliffs of the peaks. The
limestone-hewn Guadalupe Mountains parallel the highway in New Mexico
and are pitted with many caves, with Carlsbad Caverns the largest known
in the range. Eastward beyond the Pecos Valley stretches the Great
Plains and Texas.
A side trip, near Carlsbad, over black-topped and gravel roads leads
from Seven Rivers, up Rocky Arroyo on State Road 137, into the northern
foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains to Sitting Bull Falls. Here, cool
spring waters cascade over limestone ledges to join in green pools lying
amid the cottonwood groves of the canyon floor.
Lake McMillan, a reservoir along the Pecos River north of Carlsbad, and
the many potash mines east of Carlsbad are parts of the enchanting
landscapes of this southeastern corner. Northward, following the green
cotton fields bordering the Pecos River, U.S. Highway 285 leads through
Artesia with its oil refineries to modern booming Roswell, second city
of the state. East of Roswell, bordering the east side of the Pecos
Valley, is Bottomless Lakes, azure blue pools spotted in sink holes.
Eastward from Roswell, on either U.S. Highway 70 or 380, redbeds of
Permian and Triassic age lie half hidden by pinkish sands up to the edge
of the caprock; beyond are the fertile grazing and crop lands of the
Llano Estacado, with its queen cities of Clovis and Portales. Here, deep
wells pump underground waters to irrigate lush fields that produce
peanuts, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, strawberries, cucumbers, and
grapes. On the plains beyond the reach of the wells, wheat, maize, and
broomcorn are grown. Southeastward, oil derricks dot the plains,
surrounding Hobbs and Lovington.
Westward from Roswell, U.S. Highways 70 and 380 run together up the
rolling limestone hills west of the Pecos Valley before plunging down
Picacho Hill into the narrow canyon of Rio Hondo. At Hondo they divide.
U.S. Highway 380 leads northwestward through Lincoln town, Billy the
Kid’s shooting grounds, into Capitan, over Indian Divide, and down into
sleepy Carrizozo—paralleled by the forested peaks of Capitan Mountains
to the north and overshadowed by mighty Sierra Blanca to the southwest.
U.S. Highway 70 runs up the green canyon of Rio Ruidoso, past Ruidoso
Downs, past State Highway 37 which leads to Ruidoso and the Sierra
Blanca Ski Area, up into the ponderosa pines, crossing the divide at
Apache Summit, then westward and downhill past Mescalero, paralleling
Rio Tularosa. Suddenly the canyon widens, and ahead is the dry Tularosa
Basin with the White Sands glistening in the far distance.
[Illustration: (_Forest Service, U.S.D.A._)
Now this is what is meant by forest.... from Monjeau Lookout]
From Tularosa to Alamogordo, U.S. Highway 70 is along the west edge of
the Sacramento Mountains wherein tier upon tier of dolomite and
limestone cliffs rise to the high peaks near Cloudcroft. Southwestward
from Alamogordo, the highway cuts diagonally across the Tularosa Basin,
skirting the southern edge of the White Sands, and passing through White
Sands Missile Range. Ahead lie the fabulous spires of the Organ
Mountains; to the right, the notched cliffs of the San Andres Mountains
stretch northward to rounded Salinas Peak and beyond the horizon.
Steeply, the highway rises to cross San Augustin Pass between the Organ
and San Andres mountains, past the village of Organ with its crumbling
mining dumps, before plunging downward onto the southern end of Jornada
del Muerto, and finally, on the east edge of Las Cruces, leaves the
creosote bush plains to dip into the green Mesilla Valley of the Rio
Grande.
West of Carrizozo, U.S. 380 crosses the black basalt flows of Valley of
Fires State Park, curves over the Carrizozo dome and up the dip slopes
of Chupadera Mesa, crosses in red roadcuts the northern tip of Sierra
Oscura, then westward through sand dunes of the northern Jornada del
Muerto. Coal beds crop out at Cerro Colorado before the highway sweeps
down into the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio.
U.S. Highway 60 enters the state from the east on the Staked Plains near
booming Clovis, crosses Rio Pecos Valley at Fort Sumner—near Billy the
Kid’s grave—goes straight as a beeline over the plains to Vaughn, then
crosses the low southern end of the Pedernal Hills where tan Permian
sandstones lie abruptly on Precambrian granite, quartzite, and schists.
Near Willard, the highway crosses the southern end of the Estancia
Valley, with the salt lakes of Laguna del Perro mere remnants of the
huge Pleistocene lake that once filled the Valley. West from
Mountainair, Abo redbeds border the highway; limestone walls of Gran
Quivira lie to the south and the red sandstone church ruins of Abo and
Quarai are to the north. Through Abo Pass between the Manzano and Los
Pinos mountains the highway runs, then down the long alluvial fan slopes
to the Rio Grande Valley at Bernardo. From Bernardo to Socorro, U.S.
Highway 60 joins Interstate 25; westward from Socorro, the road climbs
out of the Valley onto Snake Ranch Flats, parallels the snow-tipped
Magdalena Mountains to Magdalena, then crosses the north end of the
grassy San Agustin Plains. Westward to Datil and Quemado, the highway is
always in sight of volcanic mountains, up and down winding canyons, and
across intermontane plains.
Still westward into Arizona along U.S. Highway 60 are Springerville,
fabulous Salt River Canyon, the mining cities of Globe, Miami, and
Superior, and booming Phoenix.
Into this west-central New Mexico country of volcanic peaks and grassy
plains comes U.S. Highway 180 from Deming northwestward. Along the
scenic, winding route are City of Rocks, the copper smelter at Hurley,
Santa Rita’s huge open-pit copper mine, famous Silver City, colorful
canyons of the Gila and San Francisco rivers, and, crossed by passes or
bordering all routes, the rugged rhyolite, andesite, and basalt ledges
and cliffs.
From El Paso to Raton Pass, 515 miles, U.S. Highway 85 (Interstate 25)
crosses New Mexico from south to north, from Mexico to Colorado. As far
as La Bajada Hill, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the highway
parallels the Rio Grande. Northward from El Paso, past Las Cruces to
Radium Springs and old Fort Selden, the green Mesilla Valley borders the
route; then through Selden Canyon into the Hatch Valley near San Diego
Mountain, and along the west side of the bold cliffs of the Caballo
Mountains, past Caballo Reservoir to Truth or Consequences (old Hot
Springs). Eastward lies Elephant Butte Dam and reservoir; the road cuts
across alluvial plains to the west of the Rio Grande all the way to
Albuquerque, with the mountains to the west the San Mateo, Magdalena,
Socorro, and Ladron and to the east, the Fra Cristobal, Los Pinos, and
Manzano.
Intersecting Interstate 40 at Albuquerque, the Pan-American Central
Highway, Interstate 25 crosses to the east side of the Rio Grande, the
sheer cliffs of the Sandia Mountains to the east and the distant dark
green Jemez Mountains to the northwest. Crossing Galisteo Creek
northeast of Santo Domingo Pueblo, Interstate 25 turns toward the
northeast, climbs La Bajada Hill, onto the green plains sloping from
Santa Fe. Santa Fe, the ancient capital city, is nestled on the edge of
the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Southeastward and eastward, U.S. Highway
85 (to be Interstate 25 here) rolls, skirting the southern end of the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, wedged in by the north-facing cliffs of
Glorieta Mesa, through Glorieta Pass, where the Confederates lost the
battle for the Southwest, across the upper reaches of Rio Pecos, and
around to Las Vegas. Then in straight lines across the western edges of
the Great Plains where they lap up onto the Sangre de Cristo ranges,
through Wagon Mound and Springer to Raton. The climb up-canyon to Raton
Pass, through roadcuts of brown sandstone, shale, and coal, leads into
Colorado, with a view of much of southern Colorado from the Pass.
Many routes lead northward from ancient Santa Fe. U.S. Highway 285
crosses the high divide near Bishop’s Lodge, follows Rio Tesuque to
Pojoaque, crosses the Rio Grande near Espanola amid varicolored badlands
cut in the Santa Fe rocks, then heads northward on the black basalt
plateau toward Colorado. Black Mesa, a volcanic neck, lies south of
Espanola, overlooking the green Rio Grande Valley; atop this height,
Pueblo Indians once defied Spanish guns until they starved. Northward,
near Tres Piedras, the Ortega and Brazos ranges tower to the west, the
perlite-rich hills of No Agua lie to the northeast, and across the
basalt plains cut by the Rio Grande, the lofty, snow-capped Sangre de
Cristo Mountains loom.
At Pojoaque, State Road 4 leads westward, across Otowi bridge of the Rio
Grande, then winds up into the canyon and mesa country bordering the
Jemez Mountains. Herein lie Bandelier and Los Alamos, one with ancient
abandoned pueblos, the other the atomic city. Farther west, the road
crosses the rim of an ancient volcano into Valle Grande, the crater of
that volcano—some 16 miles across. When this volcano spewed forth hot
ashes about a million years ago, the volcanic dust was wind-blown as far
as Kansas and Nebraska!
At Espanola, U.S. Highway 84 breaks away to the northwest to follow Rio
Chama in its canyon carved from redbeds near Abiquiu, past the
interesting museum at Ghost Ranch—where bones of Triassic dinosaurs are
collected—Echo Amphitheater, El Vado Lake, through Chama, and on up into
the San Juan Mountains country of southern Colorado.
Near Espanola, U.S. Highway 64 splits off to the northeast; this is the
high road of north-central New Mexico. Paralleling the canyon of the Rio
Grande to Pilar, the highway climbs up onto the Taos plateau to Taos,
turns eastward to cut through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains over Palo
Flechado Pass, down into the grassy Moreno Valley to Eagle Nest and
Eagle Nest Lake, then eastward again following the narrow canyon of the
Cimarron River to Cimarron and Raton. A loop trip northward from Eagle
Nest on State 38 goes through ghost town Elizabethtown, over Red River
Pass, and down the varicolored canyon of Red River to Questa, before
turning southward toward Taos.
[Illustration: (_U.S. Park Service_)
Subdivision living, pueblo style—at Aztec National Monument]
And there is the northwest, the Four Corners region, land of Navajos and
gas wells, presided over by magnificent Shiprock. State Highway 44
leaves Interstate 25 at Bernalillo, follows Rio Salado to San Ysidro,
which nestles at the south tip of the Nacimiento Mountains below White
Mesa, thence northwestward past Cabezon Peak and coaly La Ventana to
Cuba in the valley of Rio Puerco. Then, up and down, the winding highway
cuts transversely across the San Juan Basin, through pine groves at the
Continental Divide, past the side road to Chaco Canyon National Monument
at Blanco Trading Post, and among the multicolored Tertiary beds carved
into badlands. At Bloomfield, oil and gas wells lie all about, and the
mesa-and-canyon country gives way to the valley of the San Juan River.
At Aztec, State Road 44 joins U.S. Highway 550 in the narrow valley of
the Animas River—a clear cold stream sent rushing down from the icy
lakes of the San Juan Mountains to the north. Eastward a few miles lies
Navajo Lake along the San Juan River; northward, U. S. 550 winds up the
Animas Valley toward Durango, high Silverton, and Mesa Verde National
Park. Aztec Ruins National Monument is just to the northwest of Aztec.
Westward from Aztec, U.S. Highway 550 follows the Animas River to its
junction with the San Juan River, then past the huge Navajo coal mine, a
long open cut near Fruitland, to junction with U.S. Highway 666 at
Shiprock.
Shiprock! A buttressed needle, towering 1450 vertical feet above
Navajo-land, with walls of black igneous rock radiating from its feet
like spokes on a wheel. This dark-colored spire once filled the throat
of a volcano. Where are piles of rocks, hundreds of feet thick, that
once surrounded it? Down the river they went, down the San Juan to the
Colorado River, and thence to the ocean.
To the west, as a background, are the forested Carrizo, Lukachukai, and
Chuska mountains. Off to the east lies Hogback Mountain, an upturned
ridge of sedimentary rocks producing oil—the petroleum geologist’s
favorite haunt, an anticline.
Southward from Shiprock, U.S. 666 passes other volcanic necks such as
Bennett Peak and Ford Butte. North of Gallup, State Road 68 leads
westward to Window Rock (Arizona), the Indian Headquarters of the Navajo
Reservation. Near Gallup, coal beds of Late Cretaceous age crop out,
Gamerco once being a booming coal-mining town. Now huge dragline shovels
scoop out the coal from open pits to the northwest of Gallup. And at
Gallup, the Indian Capital, a loop drive around the San Juan Basin is
completed; Interstate 40, old U.S. Highway 66, goes eastward to
Albuquerque, St. Louis, and Chicago, and westward to Grand Canyon, Los
Angeles, and the blue Pacific.
Many other scenic places dot the Land of Enchantment; local hosts,
rancher or city dweller, know of these. Mountain meadows, rushing
streams, rocky peaks, desert valleys, badlands, grassy plains, thick
forests, spectacular chasms, needle rocks, and brilliant colors—they are
all here in New Mexico.
Footnotes
[1]New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
[2]National Park Service.
[3]Forest Service, Southwestern Region, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
[4]Information on monuments and parks developed since this publication
was first printed may be obtained from The New Mexico State Park and
Recreation Commission, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.
[5]New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
[6]K₂O is the common unit used in pricing and assaying potassium salts.
However, the potash is sold as purified potassium chloride or
sulfate.
_Composition_: Linotype Fairfield
Text—10/11
Index—8/9 (reduced to 6/7)
Display heads—18 pt. Bulmer italic
_Presswork_: 38″ Miehle Single Color Offset
29″ Harris Single Color Offset
_Binding_: Smyth sewn and glued
_Paper_: Text—70# white matte
Cover—12 pt. Kivar
_Index_
A
Abiquiu, 145, 162
Abo, 104;
church, 161;
Pass, 161;
Pueblo, 107;
Redbeds, 44, 104, 161;
State Monument, 105
Acevedo, Fray Francisco de, 105
Acoma, 51;
Indian, 157;
Pueblo, 89, 120, 122, 156
agave, 17, 20, 21
agriculture, 4, 12, 19, 53, 54, 58, 61, 62, 122, 124, 125, 131,
132, 150
Agua Chiquita, 99
Aguas Calientes, 123
Alamo Canyon, 85
Alamogordo, 36, 45, 78, 99, 141, 143, 159, 160;
Creek, 112;
Lake State Park, 104, 112;
Reservoir, 112
Albuquerque, 8, 13, 37, 40, 42, 43, 44-45, 49, 57, 70, 73, 92, 98,
106, 132, 134, 136, 138, 154, 156, 161, 162, 164
alfalfa, 158
algae, 45
Alkali Flats, 158
alluvial fan, 18, 50, 140, 156, 161
Alma, 101
Alpine [Zone], 22, 26, 28
Ambrosia Lake District, 151
American Gypsum Company, 49
ammonites, 51
amphibians, 41, 45, 48, 49
Anasazi, 60, 61, 62;
Basketmakers, 59;
Indians, 60, 86
andesite, 39, 158, 161
anhydrite, 47, 48, 49
Animas
Formation, 35, 50
Mountains, 29
River, 163, 164
Valley, 158, 164
antelope, 28, 29, 95, 98, 101
Apache, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, 54, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67, 69, 70, 71,
74, 89, 90, 105, 122, 132, 139, 140, 141, 143 (_see also_
under tribal names);
Canyon, 13, 92;
Creek, 101;
National Forest, 101, 103;
plume, 18;
Reservation, map 56;
Summit, 159;
Tejo, 72
Aragon, 74
aragonite, 78
archeological sites, map 56
Arctic-alpine Zone, 22 (_see also_ Alpine)
Arkansas River, 114, 136
Army of the West, 19, 64
Arroyo Hondo, 95
Arroyo Penasco Formation, 42
artemisia, 18
Artesia, 46, 146, 148, 159;
Group, 46
aspen, 17, 97, 100, 107, 109, illus. 121, 156
Athapascan, 5, 62, 132, 133
_atlatl_, 58, 60
Avalon Reservoir, 118
Aztec, 82, 109, 138, 163, 164;
Ruins National Monument, 75, 82, 84, illus. 163, 164
B
Baca Formation, 36
badger, 31
bajada, 18
Bandelier National Monument, illus. 25, 37, 62, 75, 84-85, illus.
85, 122, 136, 155, 162
bandtail pigeon (_see_ doves)
barite, 53
Barella Mesa, 81
basalt, 37, 38, 111, 112, 131, 156, 157, 158, 161, 162
basin, 35, 41, 45, 49, 79, 89, 96, 141 (_see also_ under proper
names: Delaware, Galisteo, Gallina, Great, Largo,
Orogrande, Paradox, San Juan, Tularosa)
bass, 111, 112, 115, 117
bats, 78
Battle of Val Verde, 13, 68, 70, 73, 92
Battleship Rock, 98
Baylor, Col. J. B., 72
beans, 58, 84, 86
bear, 28, 98, 100, 101;
state mammal, 28
beargrass, 20
beaver, 31, 95, 114
Beaverhead, 101
Beaver National Forest, 95
belemnoids, 51
Benavides, Fray Alonso de, 89
_Ben Hur_, 105
Bennett Peak, 164
Bent, Governor Charles, 129;
Bent’s Fort, 129
Bernal Formation, 47
Bernalillo, 106, 134, 163
Bernardo, 134, 161
beryl, 40, 53
Bidahochi Formation, 38
Big Dog Canyon, 99
Big Hatchet Mountains, 26
Billy the Kid, 14, 24, 70, 107, 159, 161
bioherm, 42, 45
biotite, 40
birds, 29-31, 36, 49, 51, 95, 98
Bishop’s Lodge, 162
bison, 55, 58, 62
black “gold,” 43
Black
Mesa, 127, 162
Range, 14, 42, 101, 144
River Valley, 78
Blackwater Draw, 55, 111
Blanco Basin Formation, 36
Blanco Trading Post, 163
Bliss Sandstone, 40, 41
Bloomfield, 148, 163
bluebird, 31
blue spruce, 22, 141
Bluewater Lake, 104, 110;
State Park, 110
bobcat, 30, 31, 95
Bone Spring Formation, 46
Bonito Creek, 99
Bosque Redondo, 74, 110
Bottomless Lakes, 104, illus. 108, 159;
State Park, 108, 155
Botts, Judge C. M., 26
brachiopods, 40, 41, 42, illus. 42
Brachiosaurus, 49
Brazos Mountains, 35, 38, 40, 162
Brazos River Valley, 111
bream, 115
broomcorn, 159
bryozoans, 41, 42, illus. 45
buffalo, 31, 54, 55, 62, 98, 136, 137, 138
Buffalo Dance, 124
Bug Scuffle Hill, 99
Burro Mountains, 20, 40
Butterfield Trail, 70, 71
C
Caballo
Lake State Park, 104, 112
Mountains, 38, 40, 112, 161
Reservoir, 112, 117, 161
Cabeza de Vaca, 6
Cabezon Peak, 37, 51, 163
cacti, 17, 18, 19, 20, 33
calcite, 42, 46, 47, 78
caldera, 37, 75, 85, 86
California Column, 73-74
camels, 55, 57
Cambrian, 40;
rocks, 40
Camino Real (_see_ Royal Road)
Canadian River, 31, 74, 108, 109, 111, 136, 137, 155
Canadian Zone, 22
Canby, Col. E. R. S., 13, 73, 92
Canjilon, 95
Canyon de Chelly, 110
Capillo Peak, 98
Capitan, 36, 69, 99, 100, 159;
limestone, 47, 77;
Mountains, 99, 159;
Pass, 99;
Reef, 45, 46, 47
caprock, 38, 155, 159
Caprock [N. Mex.], 155
Capulín Mountain, 37, 75;
National Monument, illus. 80, 81-82, 155
Capulin Peak, 97
carbon dioxide, 53, 146
Carlsbad, 38, 45, 46, 48, 53, 148, 149, 150, 159;
reef limestones, 47
Carlsbad Caverns, 46, 51, 141, 159;
National Park, 75, 76-78, illus. 77
Carleton, Gen. J. H., 73, 74
carnallite, 48
carp, 115
Carrizo Mountains, 164
Carrizozo, 36, 37, 38, 45, 104, 111, 138, 155, 159, 161;
dome, 161
Carson, Kit, 13, 70, 94, 110 (_see also_ under Kit)
Carson National Forest, 93-95, 96, 97
Casa Blanca, 156
Casa Grande [Ariz.], 126
Castile Anhydrite, 47;
gypsum sample, illus. 47
catfish, 111, 114, 115, 117
Catron County, 134, 135
cattle, 12, 14, 15, 23, 24, 31, 53, 75, 89, 93, 99, 140, 141
cedar, 20, 21
cement, 53, 154
Cenozoic Era, 33-38, 51;
rocks, 51
centipede, 31
century plant, 20
cephalopods, 41, 51
Cerro
Blanco, 98
Colorado, 161
Pedernal, 97
Chaco Canyon, 5, 60, 75, 82, 84, 138;
National Monument, 61, 82, illus. 83, 163
chalcocite, 151
chalcopyrite, 151
Chama, 95, 162;
River, 95, 110
Charette Lakes, 118
chert, 43
Chihuahua [Mexico], 7, 9, 11, 132, 139
Chihuahua desert, 16
Chimayó, 136
Chinle Formation, 48, 49, 111, 112
Chino mine, 151, illus. 153
Chiricahua Apache, 6, 133
Chivington, Col. John M., 13
chollas, 17, 19
Chupadera Mesa, 161
Chuska
Formation, 38
Mountains, 164
Cibola National Forest, 98-99
Cieneguilla Creek, 112
Cimarron, 163;
River, 163
Ciniza, 148
“cities that died of fear,” 139
City of Rocks State Park, 104, 110, 155, 161
Civil War, 12, 13, 64, 71, 72-74, 92, 105, 107, 137
clams, 36, 41, 51
clay, 35, 38, 41, 43, 44, 45, 49, 53, 54
Clayton, 37, 112;
Lake State Park, 104, 112
Cliff, 72, 74
Clines Corners, 40, 49, 134, 155
Cloudcroft, 100, 160
Clovis, 55, 104, 159, 161;
Man, 104;
points, 55, 57
coal, 23, 36, 43, 50, 51, 53, 69, 138, 146, 154, 157, 158, 161,
162, 164
Cochise Culture, 58, 59, 63
Cochiti, Cañada de, 122;
Pueblo, 122-123
Coconino Sandstone, 46
Colorado
River, 3, 90, 138, 143, 164
state line, 112
Volunteers, 13, 92, 137
columbite-tantalite, 40
Columbus [N. Mex.], 30, 104, 109
Comanche, 12, 63, 65, 90, 105, 139
Conchas
Dam, 104, 108, 109
Lake State Park, 108-109
Reservoir, 31, 118
Confederate, 12, 13, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 72, 73, 74, 92, 105, 107,
137, 162;
campaign, map 73
conglomerate, 49, 50
conifers, 44
_conquistadore_, 10, 54, 89, 92, 99, 106, 120, 127, 135
Continental Divide, 20, 61, 99, 163
continuous miner, 150, illus. 150
cony, 31
Cooke’s Canyon; Spring, 71
copper, 51, 53, 143, 144, 146, 148, 151, 153, 154, 161
corals, 41, 42, illus. 45
corn, 4, 58, 62, 84, 86, 122
Corn Dance, 124, 132
Coronado (Francisco Vasquez de), 6, 7, 54, 62, 106, 120, 123, 126,
132
Coronado
National Forest, 101, 103
State Monument, 104, 106
cotton, 84, 158, 159
cottonwood, illus. 25, 158, 159
coyote, 19, 26, 30, 79, 95
Coyote [N. Mex.], 98
Coyote Creek, 90
crane, 30
crappies, 110, 111, 112, 115, 117
creosote bush, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28, 71, 158, 161
Cretaceous, 50, 112, 146, 156, 158, 164;
beds, 49, 158;
Period, 49, 51;
sandstone, 157;
seas, 51;
time, 49, 50
crinoid, 42, illus. 42
crocodiles, 36
Crown Dance, 133
Cuba [N. Mex.], 35, 36, 98, 163
Cub Mountain Formation, 36
cucumbers, 159
Culiacan [Mexico], 6
Culture
Archaic, 58;
Cochise, 58;
Desert, 58;
Pueblo, 59, 60
D
Dakota Sandstone, 50, 112, 155, 156, 157
Datil, 161;
Formation, 36;
Mountains, 98, 99
Datil-Mogollon plateau, 36
Dead Man’s Peak, 97
deer, 26, 28, 29, 31, 100, 101;
desert mule, 26, 100;
mule, 28, 29, 31;
Rocky Mountain mule, 26, 95, 98, 100;
Sonoran fantail, 26;
whitetail, 26, 98, 100
de la Llana, Fray Geronimo, 105
Delaware
basin, 43, 45, 46, 47
Mountains, 159
Deming, 49, 71, 104, 110, 112, 135, 158, 161
de Niza, Fray Marcos, 132
de Vargas, don Diego, 8, 90, 120, 122, 124, 127, 128, 129
Devonian, 42;
rocks, 41;
seas, 42;
time, 41
Dewey Lake Redbeds, 47, 48
Diablo
Mountains, 75
Plateau, 159
dinosaur, 48, 49, 51, illus. 52, 162
Dixon, 40
Dockum Group, 48, 109
dolomite, 41, 46, 48, 158, 159
Doña Ana, 70;
County, 30;
Historical Society, 71
Doniphan, Col. Alexander W., 64
doves, 28, 29, 95, 98
dragonflies, 44
ducks, 30, 95, 98, 118
E
eagle, 31
Eagle Creek, 99
Nest, 162, 163;
Lake, 163
Early Hunters, 55, 58
earthquake, 37
Echo Amphitheater, 95, illus. 96, 162
Edgewood, 155
eel, 114
El Capitan, 159
El Cristo Rey, 158
Elephant Butte, 112, 134;
Dam, 38, 111, 161;
Lake State Park, 104, 111, 112;
Reservoir, 36, 111, 117, illus. 117
elephants, 54, 55
Elizabethtown, 163
elk, illus. 23, 26, 28, 29, 95, 98, 101
elkhorn (cacti), 19
elm, 51
El Morro, 49, 51, 75, 89, 157;
National Monument, 89-90, illus. 91, 155
El Palacio [State Monument], 104-105
(_see also_ Palace of the Governors)
El Paso [Tex.], 13, 16, 20, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 49, 70, 72,
112, 123, 134, 135, 143, 158, 161
El Paso del Norte, 7, 8, 89, 90, 105, 123
El Paso Limestone, 41
El Ranchito, 128
El Rito, 95;
de los Frijoles, illus. 25;
Formation, 36
El Vado Dam, 110
Lake, 104, 110, 118, 162;
State Park, 110
Reservoir, 118
Emory, Lieutenant, 19
Enchanted Mesa, 51, 156, illus. 157
Engelmann spruce, 22, 156
Entrada Sandstone, 49, 156
Escabrosa Limestone, 42
Espanola, 38, 98, 112, 136, 162
Espejo Expedition, 89
Espinaso beds, 36
Estancia, 38;
Basin, 98, 105, 155, 161
Eunice, 146
eurypterids, 41
F
Farmington, 43, 50, 95, 134, 138, 146, 148
feldspar, 39, 40, 45
ferns, 42, 43
fig trees, 36
finch, 31
fir, 16, 17;
corkbark, 156;
Douglas, 108
fish, 36, 41, 49, 53, 75, 101, 104, 113-118, illus. 113
Fishers Peak, 81
flint, 54
Florida Mountains, 26, 112, 158
Folsom, 55, 57;
Man, 55;
State Monument, 104;
points, 55, 57, illus. 57
foraminifers, 51
Ford Butte, 164
fort, 9, 12, 13, 64-74, map 69, 90, 92, 107, 143
Fort (_see also individual listing_)
Bascom, 74
Defiance [Ariz.], 90
Floyd, 72
Lowell, 74
Lyon, 67
McLane, 72
McRae, 74
Thorn, 72
Tularosa, 74
Webster, 72
West, 74
Fort Bayard, 71-72, 74;
Reservation, 20, 24
Fort Bliss [Texas], 68, 70, 72, 73, 74
Fort Conrad, 67, 72
Fort Craig, 67-69, illus. 68, 72, 73, 90
Fort Cummings, 71, 74
Fort Fauntleroy, 66-67, 72
Fort Fillmore, 72, 143
Fort Marcy, 66, 72, 90
Fort Selden, 70-71, 74, 104, 107, 143, 161;
State Monument, 104, 107
Fort Stanton, 68, 69-70, 72, 74
Fort Sumner, 74, 111, 112, 155, 161
Fort Union, 13, 64-66, illus. 65, 72, 73, 75, 92;
National Monument, 66, 90, 92
Fort Wingate, 66-67, 74;
Ordnance Depot, 67
fossil, 41, illus. 42, 43, illus. 45, 48, 49, 55, 98;
fish, 41;
hash, 42, 46;
reefs, 42
Four Corners, 3, 4, 41, 43, 59, 133, 138, 163
fox, 79, 95
Fra Cristobal Mountains, 38, 162
Franciscan, 8, 89, 105, 106, 126;
missionaries, 86, 89, 105;
Order, 7, 106
Franklin (_see_ El Paso, Texas)
Frijoles Canyon, 5, 84, illus. 85, 136
Fruitland, 138, 154, 164;
Formation, 50
Fusselman Dolomite, 41
fusulinids, 44, illus. 45
G
Gadsden Purchase, 107
gas, 43, 53, 95, 138, 146-148, 163
Galisteo Basin, 36, 62
Creek, 162
Formation, 36
Gallina basin, 61
Gallinas Mountains, 99
Peak, 98
Gallup, 12, 49, 50, 66, 99, 133, 134, 138, 147, 154, 157, 158, 164
Gamerco, 164
geese, 30, 95, 98, 118
gem stones, 53
geologic history, 33-53
time table, 34, 39, 50
Geronimo, 14, 70, 74, 143
Ghost Ranch, 162;
Mountain, illus. 145;
Museum, 95
ghost towns, 53, 95, 141, 158, 163
Gila
Apache, 6
Cliff Dwellings (National Monument), 75, 86, illus. 87, 101
Conglomerate, 38, 86
National Forest, 101
River, 4, 6, 72, 74, 114, 143, 161
Wilderness (Area), 75, 86, 101, 144
Giusewa Pueblo, 106, 107
glacier, 38, 55, 57
glauconite, 40
Glenwood, 101
Glorieta, 73, 97;
Mesa, 46, 162;
Pass, 13, 46, 92, 137, 162;
Sandstone, 46
gneiss, 39, 40
goats, 89
Goat Seep Reef, 45, 46
Gobernador, 95
gold, 6, 7, 13, 14, 53, 72, 104, 146
graben, 37, 38, 79
grama grass, 17, 18, 20
Gran Chaco, 4, 5
granite, 39, 40, 43, 156, 161
Gran Quivira, 75, 161;
National Monument, 86, illus. 88, 89
Grants, 37, 38, 40, 43, 48, 49, 53, 89, 99, 138, 148, 150, 151,
153, 156, 157
grapes, 89, 159
gravel, 35, 36, 38, 50, 53
greasewood, 19
Great
Barrier Reef, 46, 141
Basin, 58
Kiva, 84
Lakes, 55, 57
Plains, 6, 16, 17, 136, 159, 162
greenstone, 40
grouse, 95, 98
Guadalupe
Mountains, 26, 46, 77, 99, 141, illus. 142, 143, 159
Pass, 159
Peak, 159
River, 124
Gulf of California, 90, 143
gypsum, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 53, 79, 146, 153, 156;
—anhydrite, 47;
dunes, 31, 32, 38, illus. 39, 75, 78
H
halite, 45, 48
Hall of Giants, illus. 77
Hanover mine, 151
Harding pegmatite, 40
Hatch, 72, 142;
Valley, 161
hawk, 31, 79
hay, 122
helictites, 76, 78
heliograph station, 70
helium, 53, 146
Helms Formation, 43
hematite, 40, 45
Herrera, Cristobal de, 130
Hidalgo County, 29, 30
High Plains, 31, 37, 38, 50, 54, 55, 109, 110, 133, 138, 140
Hillsboro, 14, 144
Hobbs, 134, 142, 146, 159
Hogback Mountain, 164
Hohokam people, 4, 59
Holloman Air Force Base, 143
Hondo, 159
Hopewell Lake, 118
horse, 6, 9, 13, 23, 55, 57, 89, 93, 115, 129
Hopi, 126
Hot Springs [N. Mex.] (_see_ Truth or Consequences)
Hueco
Limestone, 44
Mountains, 158
hummingbirds, 28
Hunters and Gatherers, 58
Hurley, 72, 151, 161
Hyde Memorial State Park, 104, 109
I
Ice Caves, 157
Immaculate Conception (church), 105
Indian, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 21, 53, 54-63, 64,
66, 67, 68, 72, 74, 84, 86, 89, 90, 95, 99, 101, 104, 105,
106, 110, 113, 116, 120-133, 135, 136, 138, 140, 141, 143,
164;
Divide, 159;
pueblo, 4, 5, map 56, 86, 89, 120-133, 136;
reservations, map 56
Inscription Rock (_see_ El Morro)
Interstate Highway
10: 158
25: 107, 161, 162, 163
40: 48, 155, 156, 157, 162, 164
Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, 133, 138
iron, 53, 78
Isleta
del Sur, 105, 123
Pueblo, 8, 11, 123
San Agustin de, 123
San Antonio de, 123
J
Jackpile-Paguate mine, 151, illus. 152
javelina, 26, 28, 101
jay, 31
Jemez, 106;
Division, 97, 98;
Indians, 107;
Mission, 104,
San Diego de, 123,
San Jose de los, 124,
San Juan de Los, 124;
Mountains, 37, 38, 97, 121, 128, 129, 136, 156, 162;
Pueblo, 106, 123-124;
River, 123, 124, 128, 131;
Springs, 98, 106, 107;
State Monument, 106-107, 123, 124
Jicarilla
Apache, 6, 74, 132, 133
Division, 95
Indian Reservation, 95, 138
Johnson Mesa, 81
Jornada del Muerto, 16, 36, 139, 140, 142, 160-161
Joshua tree, 20
Juárez [Mexico], 7, 123, 158
juniper, 20, 21, 23, 135, 141, 155
Jurassic
rocks, 158
sandstones, 155, 156, 157
time, 49
K
Kaiser Gypsum Company, 49
Kaiser Steel Corporation, 51
kangaroo rats, 32
Kearny, Gen. Stephen W., 64, 90
Kelly, 141
Kenna, 155
Kennecott Copper Company, 143, 151
Keres, 124
Kern, R. H., 90
Kilbourne Hole, 158
Kingston, 14, 144
Kiowas, 65
Kirtland Shale, 50
Kit Carson Memorial State Park, 104, 110
(_see also_ under Carson)
Kit Carson’s Cave, 157
kiva, 59, 84, 106
Kneeling Nun, 151
Koehler, 51
Kuaua, 106
L
La Bajada Hill, 36, 161, 162
Ladron Mountains, 38, 140, 162
Laguna, 48, 152, 156;
del Perro, 161;
Indians, 124;
Mission, San Jose de, 125;
Santa Maria, illus. 124;
Pueblo, 124-125;
Reservation, 124, 151
Lagunitas, 95
Lakes and/or Reservoirs (_see_ individual entries: Alamogordo,
Avalon, Bluewater, Bottomless, Caballo, Charette, Clayton,
Conchas, Eagle Nest, Elephant Butte, El Vado, Hopewell,
Lea, Lost, Lucero, McGaffey, McMillan, Miami, Morphy,
Navajo, Red, Roberts, San Gregorio, Stewart, Storrie,
Truchas, Ute)
Lake Lucero, 38, 79
Lake Roberts, illus. 103, 118
Lake Valley Limestone, 42
La Madera, 95
La Mesilla State Monument, 104, 107
lanceolate points, 55
langbeinite, 48, 149
Laramide revolution, 33, 50
Largo basin, 61
Las Cruces, 12, 70, 72, 107, 112, 134, 135, 142, 158, 161
Las Trampas, 95, 136
Las Vegas [N. Mex.], 13, 50, 64, 90, 92, 97, 110, 112, 137, 162
lava, 31, 32, 36, 37, 51, 79, 81, 99, 100, 104, 111, 155, 156
La Ventana, 163
lead, 53, 146, 148, 151
Lea Lake, 108
Leasburg, 70
Ledoux [N. Mex.], 112
lepidolite mica, 40
Letrado, Father Francisco, 89
limestone, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 51, 53, 77, 78, 155, 156,
158, 159, 160, 161
Lincoln, 70, 107, 159;
County Courthouse, 104, 107;
County War, 14, 104, 107;
National Forest, 99-100;
State Monument, 107
Lipan Apache, 6, 132, 133
Little Black Peak, 111
Little Colorado River, 61
Little Florida Mountains, 112
livestock, 19, 23, 98, 100, 103, 141
lizard, 31, 79
Llano Estacado (_see_ Staked Plains)
Logan, 111
Lookout Mountain, 100
Lordsburg, 38, 49, 101, 154, 158
Los Alamos, 37, 162
Los Lunas, 134
Los Pinos Mountains, 38, 162
Lost Lake, 96
Lovington, 146, 159
Lukachukai Mountains, 164
Luna County, 30, 71
Luxán, Diego Pérez de, 89
M
MacArthur, Gen. Douglas, 70-71, 107
McDermott Formation, 50
McGaffey Lake, 99
McMillan Reservoir, 117, 159
McRae Formation, 36, 112
Magdalena, 14, 99, 101, 141, 161-162;
Mountains, 38, 98, 99, 140, 161
magma, 36, 40
magnesium compounds, 53, 146
magnolia trees, 36
magpie, 31
maguey, 21
maize, 159
Maldonado, Fray Lucas, 120
malpais, 31, 100, 111
mammals, 26-32, 36, 49, 51, 57, 58, 95, 98, 114;
prehistoric, 49, 51, 55
mammoth, 55, 57
manganese, 53
Mancos Shale, 50
mano, illus. 59
Manzano, 99;
Mountains, 37, 38, 51, 98, 105, 138, 139, 161, 162;
Peak, 98
maple, 51
marten, 95
Martinez, Julian and Maria, 127
Martinez, Paddy, 150
Martinez, Padre José, 110
mastodon, 55
Mayhill, 100
melons, 122, 159
Mesa
Redonda, 155
Rica, 155
Verde [Colo.], 4, 5, 60, 84;
National Park, 164
Mesaverde Group, 50
mescal, 20, 21
Mescalero, 159;
Apache, 6, 21, 69, 70, 74, 132;
Indian Reservation, 99, 133, 134, 143
Mesilla, 72, 107;
Valley, 158, 161
Mesozoic
Era, 48-51
rocks, 33, 51
seas, 33
mesquite, 17, 19, 20, 71
metate, illus. 59
Mexican, 140, 141;
Colonial, 104, 107;
War, 12, 64
Mexico, 6, 7, 10, 12, 30, 31, 64, 67, 89, 90, 132, 137, 138, 139,
144, 148, 158, 161;
City, 6, 9
Miami Lake, 118
mica, 40, 53;
schist, illus. 40
mice, 31, 79
microcline, 40
Miles, General, 14
Mimbreno Apache, 74
Mimbres, 101, 144;
culture, 20, 143;
River, 4, 72, 143
minerals, 40, 53, 146 ff.
mink, 95
mining, 12, 14, 15, 23, 53, 72, 95, 99, 101, 125, 141, 143, 144,
146, 148-154, 160, 161
mission(s), 8, 9, 86, 89, 126;
churches, 8, illus. 11, 86, 105, 106, 107, illus. 119, 122,
123, 127;
ruins, 104
Mississippian
rocks, 42
seas, 43
time, 43
Mockingbird Gap, 41
Moenkopi Formation, 48
Mogollon, 141;
Apache, 74;
culture, 4, 59, 86;
Mountains, 14, 22, 75, 86;
people, 3, 59, 60, 86
mollusks, 51
molybdenum, 53, 154
Monjeau Lookout, 99, illus. 160
Montoya Dolomite, 41
Monument, 146, 148
Mora County, 112
Moreno Valley, 162
Moriarty, 155
Morphy Lake, 112;
State Park, 104, 112
Morrison Formation, 49
Mosca Peak, 98
Mountainair, 86, 99, 105, 161
mountain lion, 30, 31, 95
mountain mahogany, 20
mountains (_see_ under proper name: Animas, Big Hatchet, Black
Range, Brazos, Burro, Caballo, Capitan, Carrizo, Chuska,
Datil, Delaware, Diablo, Florida, Fra Cristobal, Gallinas,
Guadalupe, Hueco, Jemez, Ladron, Little Florida, Los
Pinos, Lukachukai, Magdalena, Manzano, Mogollon,
Nacimiento, Organ, Ortega, Pedernal Hills, Peloncillo,
Potrillo, Pyramid, Rocky, Sacramento, San Andres, Sandia,
Sangre de Cristo, San Juan, San Mateo, Taos, Victorio,
Zuní)
Mount
Baldy, 99
Riley, 158
Robledo, 70
Taylor, 37, 51, 98, 156
Withington, 99
Mule Peak, 99
museum, 104, 105
muskrat, 95
N
Nacimiento
Formation, 35, 36
Mountains, 35, 42, 156, 163
Peak, 97
Nambé, 128;
mission, 125;
Pueblo, 125
Nana, 70, 74
Natage Apache, 6, 132, 133
National Forests, 16, 24, 75, 93-103, map 94 (_see also_ under
proper names: Apache, Beaver, Carson, Cibola, Coronado,
Gila, Lincoln, Santa Fe)
National Monuments, 75-92, 138, 155 (_see also_ under proper
names: Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, Carlsbad Caverns (Park),
Capulin Mountain, Chaco Canyon, El Morro, Fort Union, Gila
Cliff Dwellings, Gran Quivira, Pecos, Valle Grande, White
Sands)
National Park System, 75, 76, 82, 85, 86, 92;
Service, 76, 81
Navajo, 6, 12, 15, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 71, 74, 110, 123, 126,
132, 133, 163, 164;
Dam, 109, 138;
Indian Reservation, map 56, 133, 138, 164;
Lake, 163;
State Park, 109;
Reservoir, 118
Neogene
Period, 37
time, 39
Newkirk, 155
New Mexico Department of Public Welfare, 70
New Mexico Volunteers, 13
niobium, 50
Niobrara limestone, 50
No Agua, 153, 162
O
oak, 20, 23, 36, 51, 100
Oasis State Park, 104, 111
obsidian, 54
Ochoan
rocks, 47
Series, 47
ocotillo, 17, 18, 20, 26
Ogallala Formation, 38
oil, 43, 45, 46, 53, 95, 138, 141, 146-148, 159, 163, 164;
fields, 146;
pumps, illus. 149;
refinery, illus. 147, 159;
secondary recovery, 148
Ojo Caliente, 74
Ojo del Oso (Bear Springs), 66, 67
Oñate (Don Juan), 7, 8, 90, 99, 120, 122, 126, 127, 128, 131
opuntia, 17, 19, 20
Ordovician, 146;
Period, 40;
rocks, 41;
seas, 41;
time, 41
Organ [N. Mex.], 160
Organ Mountains, 26, 158, 160
oriole, 31
Orogrande basin, 43
Ortega Mountains, 162
orthoclase, 40
Otowi bridge, 162
otter, 114
Ouray Limestone, 41
Our Lady of Lourdes (chapel), 127
oysters, 51
P
Painted Cave, 85
Painted Desert, 48
Pajarito Plateau, 136
Palace of the Governors, 4, 5, 104
(_see also_ El Palacio)
Paleogene
Period, 33, 36
time, map 35
Paleozoic, 146;
Era, 40-48;
rocks, 33, 49, 51;
time, 39, 46
palm trees, 36
Palo Flechado Pass, 162
paloverde, 17
Pan-American Central Highway, 162
Pancho Villa, 67, 109;
State Park, 104, 109
Panhandle Aspect, 62
Paradise Formation, 43
Paradox Basin, 43
partridge, 100
peanuts, 159
pecan, 158
Pecos, 97, 106, 115;
Baldy, 96;
Basin, 99;
“diamonds,” 108;
Division, 96, 97;
Horseshoe, 96;
mission, 104, 107;
National Monument, 62, 76, 106;
Pueblo, 62, 107;
River, 38, 74, 96, illus. 97, 111, 112, 114, 136, 155, 159,
162,
Forest Reserve, 96;
State Monument, 106;
Valley, 30, 46, 78, 159, 161;
Wilderness (Area), 75, 94, 96
Pedernal Hills, 40, 43, 161
pegmatite, 40
Peloncillo Mountains, 29, 158
Peña, Fray Juan de la, 123
Peñablanca, 115
Penasco, 95, 136
Penitente, 136
Pennsylvanian
limestone, 112
Period, 43, 156, 159
time, map 44, 45
perch, 115
Percha Shale, 41
perlite, 37, 53, 146, 153, 162
Permian, 45, 48, 146, 159, 161;
Period, 44, 77, 149;
rocks, 44-48;
seas, 46;
time, 45, 47
Pershing, Gen. John J., 70, 109
Petrified Forest National Monument, 48
petrified wood, 49
petroglyphs, 89, 113
petroleum, 146, 147, 164
Phoenix [Ariz.], 161
phytosaur, 49
Picacho Hill, 159
Pictured Cliffs Sandstone, 50
Picurís, 95;
Pueblo, 125-126;
San Lorenzo de, 125
Pierre Shale, 50
pike, 115, 117
Pilar, 162
pine, 22, 36, 49, 93, 100, 109, 163;
dwarf, 17;
ponderosa, 17, 21, 29, 112, 156, 157, 159;
yellow, 17, 21
piñon, 17, 20, illus. 22, 23, 135, 141, 155
Piñon, 43
Pinos Altos, 72
Piro, 8
pit houses, 4, 59, illus. 60, 61, 82, 86
Plains Indians, 54, 55, 63, 106, 132, 140
Pleistocene, 54, 55, 57, 111, 161;
Epoch, 38;
Ice Age, 54, 58
Poison Canyon Formation, 35
Pojoaque, 162;
Pueblo, 126
polyhalite, 48
Po-pé, 8, 127, 129
poplar, 36, 51
Porciuncula, Church of ... de, 106
porcupine, 31
Portales, 55, 104, 111, 159;
Valley, 111
potash, 48, 53, 141, 146, 148, 149, 150, 153, 159
potatoes, 159
Potrillo Mountains, 158
pottery, 62, 82, 84, 86, 113, illus. 113, 122, 127, 128;
black-on-white, 60, 61;
brown, 86;
brownware, 59;
white with black, 86
Powwow Canyon, 158
Precambrian, 156, 161;
Era, 38-40;
rocks, 33, 39, 40, 51
Presidio of Santa Fe, 9
prickly pears, 17, 19
protozoans, 44, 51
ptarmigan, 31
Pueblo
Bonito, 60, illus. 61, 82
Indians, 5, 8, 12, 54, 61, 62, 84, 86, 89, 120 ff., 162
periods:
Classic (or Great), 60, 61, 62, 82
Developmental, 60
Historic, 62
prehistoric, 82
Regressive, 62
Revolt, 8, 89, 90, 120, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 128, 129,
130, 131
ruins, 104
pumice, 36, 37, 53, 146
Punta de Agua, 105
Puye Cliff Dwellings, 62, 128, 136
Pyramid Mountains, 158
Q
quail, 28, 29, 30, 95, 98, 100
Quarai, 104
church, 161
Pueblo, 107
State Monument, 105
quartz, 39, 40, 41, 46, 50, 108
quartzites, 40, 161
Quemado, 36, 161
Questa, 95, 112, 154, 163
R
rabbit, 30, 31, 95
Radium Springs, 161
Ragland, 155
rattlesnakes, 18, 31
railroads, 12, 66, 70, 74, 92, 99, 115, 125, 151
Rain Dance, 123
Ramah [N. Mex.], 89
Ramirez, Fray Juan, 122
Rancheria Limestone, 42
Raton, 35, 37, 38, 50, 134, 136, 162, 163
Basin, 35, 36, 50
Formation, 35, 51
Mesa, 81, 109
Pass, 20, 136, 161, 162
raven, 31
redbeds, 36, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 155, 156, 157, 159, 161, 162
Red Lake, 155
Redondo Peak, cover
Red River, 95 (town), 112, 163 (river)
Canyon, 94, illus. 135
Pass, 163
Ski Area, 94
reeds, 36
reef, 42, 45, 46, 51, 77, 147
reptiles, 31, 36, 48, 49, 51
Reserve, 101
Reservoirs (_see under_ Lakes for individual listing)
rhyolite, 37, 39, 161
Rio
Bonito, 69
Chama, 162
de Gallo, 67
Grande (_see_ separate entry)
Hondo, 159
Penasco, 99
Puerco, 156, 163
Ruidoso, 159
Salado, 163
San Jose, 37, 48, 156
Valley, 49
Tesuque, 162
Tularosa, 159
Rio Grande, 4, 7, 12, 13, 16, 20, 38, 54, 60, 62, 67, 70, 72, 74,
84, 89, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 106, 107, 110, 114,
115, 127, 128, 131, 136, 137, 139, 143, 156, 158, 161, 162
Gorge, 112,
State Park, 104, 112
graben, illus. 37
pueblos, 62, 140
Valley, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 30, 37, 38, 54, 59, 61, 84, 98,
112, 117, 123, 125, 126, 128, 132, 133, 135, 137, 140,
143, 158, 161, 162
Rito de Frijoles, 122
Rito Morphy, 112
roadrunner (chapparal), 31, illus. 32
state bird, 31
rocks (_see_ under proper name: Cambrian, Cenozoic, Devonian,
Jurassic, Mesozoic, Mississippian, Ochoan, Ordovician,
Paleozoic, Permian, Precambrian, Silurian, Triassic,
volcanic)
Rock Hound State Park, 104, 112
Rocky Mountains, 57, 58, 132, 133, 136
Rocky Arroyo, 159
Roswell, 46, 48, 104, 134, 146, 155, 159
Roy, 109
Royal Road (Camino Real), 9, 12, 139
rudistids, 51
Ruidoso, 43, 99, 100, 159
Creek, 99
Downs, 159
ruins, 4, 60, 62, 65, 68, 75, 82, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, 95, 101,
104, 105, 106, 113, 128, 129, 136, 138, 139, 156, 161
rushes, 42, 43-44
Rustler Dolomite, 47, 48
S
Sacramento Mountains, 28, 37, 42, 46, 51, 99, 141, 143, 159
Sacramento [N. Mex.], 99, 100
sage, 18, 19
saguaros, 17, 18
Saint Francis, 106
Saint Joseph, 125
Salado Salt, 47, 48
Salinas Peak, 160
Saline Missions, 105
salmon, 115
salt, 43, 45, 53, 54, 105, 115, 146, 149
saltbush, 18
Salt Flat lakes, 159
San Agustin Plains, 99, 140, 141, 161
San Andres
Limestone, 46, 110
Mountains, 26, 37, 40, 41, 42, 51, 160
San Antonio, 95, 134, 161
San Antonito, 155
San Augustin Pass, 160
San Buenaventura, 89
de Cochiti, 122
sand, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 79, 111,
159
Sandia
Cave, 55, 57
Crest, 98, illus. 137, 156
Mountains, 26, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 51, 98, 136, 155, 156, 162
points, 57
Pueblo, 126
Ski Area, 98
San Diego Mountain, 161
sandstone, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 89, 95, 105,
146, 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 162
San Felipe, 128
church, 126
Pueblo, 126-127
San Francisco River, 59, 161
San Gabriel, 125
San Geronimo, 130
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 13, 35, 37, 38, 40, 42, 50, 75, 94,
95, 96, 109, 121, 129, 135, 136, 155, 156, 162
Sangre de Cristo Redbeds, 45
San Gregorio
de Abo, 89, 105
Lake, 98
San Ildefonso, pottery, 127
Pueblo, 127
San Isidro, 89
San Jose Formation, 35, 36
San Juan, 7, 60, 125
Basin, 35, 50, 61, 82, 146, 149, 163, 164
de los Caballeros, 7, 127
Mountains, 35, 38, 50, 162, 163
Pueblo, 127-128
River, 59, 109, 138, 163, 164
Valley, 30
San Lorenzo, 72
San Mateo Mountains, 38, 98, 99, 140, 161
San Miguel
mission church, illus. 119
Pueblo ruins, 85
San Pedro Wild Area, 97-98
San Rafael, 67, 157
Santa Ana Pueblo, 128
Santa Barbara [N. Mex.], 95
Santa Clara
Creek, 128
Pueblo, 128
Santa Fe, 4, 7, 8, 9, 13, 19, 22, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 45, 49, 51,
64, 66, 73, 75, 84, 85, 90, 92, 96, 97, 104, 105, 106,
109, 111, 119, 121, 125, 127, 130, 131, 134, 135, 136,
137, 138, 139, 161, 162
Formation, 112
Group, 38
National Forest, 96-98
Railway, 46, 50, 125
River State Park, 104, 111
Ski Basin, 97
Trail, 10, 11, 24, 64, 66, 90, 92, 104, 129, 136, 137, 139
Santa Maria mission, illus. 124
Santander, Father Diego de, 89
Santa Rita, 51, 53, 72, 143, 148, 151, 153, 161
Santa Rosa, 134, 155
Sandstone, 48, 111
Santo Domingo, 128;
Pueblo, 126, 128-129, 162
San Ysidro, 49, 163
schist, 40, 161
science, 12, 15, 67, 139, 143, 147
scorpion, 31
sea, 41
sea lilies, 42
secondary recovery (oil), 148
Selden Canyon, 161
Seven Cities of Cibola, 6, 132
Seven Rivers, 159
Shalako dances, 132
Shakespeare, 158
shale, 41, 43, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 155, 156, 157, 158, 162
sheep, 26, 53, 75, 89, 93
Barbary, 31
bighorn, 28, 29;
desert, 26;
Rocky Mountain, 26, 98, 156
shells, 54
Shiprock, 37, 43, 51, 151, 163, 164
Shoshone, 124
Sibley, General Henry H., 13, 72, 73
Sierra Blanca, 36, 38, 51, 100, 138, illus. 139, 159
Ski Area, illus. 100, 133, 159
Sierra
County, 36
de las Uvas, 158
Grande, 81
Arch, 43
Oscura, 161
silicified wood, 36, 38, 49
silt, 38,41, 48, 49
siltstone, 38, 51
Silurian, 41
rocks, 41
silver, 7, 13, 14, 23, 53, 132, 144, 146
Silver City, 20, 23, 24, 40, 72, 75, 86, 101, 143, 144, 148, 151,
161
Simpson, Lt. J. H., 90
Sipapu Winter Sports Area, 94-95
Sitting Bull Falls, 159
skipway, 151, illus. 153
skunk, 31, 95
Sky City (_see_ Acoma Pueblo)
sloths, 55
Slough, Col. J. P., 92
Smokey the Bear, 99, 100
snails, 36, 41, 49
Snake Ranch Flats, 161
snakes, 18, 31, 36
Socorro, 8, 12, 13, 14, 19, 36, 37, 59, 72, 89, 99, 134, 139, 161
Mountain, 38, 140
sodium chloride, 149, 150
Sonoran
desert, 26, 103, 109, 138, 143
Lower Zone, 19, 20
Upper Zone, 20, illus. 25
sotol, 20
South Truchas Peak, 38
Spain, 6, 9, 10, 11
Spanish, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 53, 54, 62, 63,
86, 89, 92, 95, 99, 104, 120, 122, 123, 125, 126, 128,
129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136, 139, 140, 141, 143,
148, 158, 162
dagger, 21
Peaks, 81
sparrow, 31
spider, 31, 44
Spirit Lake, 96
spodumene, 40
Springer, 134, 162
spruce, 16, 17, 18, 26, 100;
blue, 22, 141;
Engelmann, 22, 156
squash, 58, 84, 122
squirrel, 31, 32
Staked Plains (Llano Estacado), 132, 155, 159, 161
stalactites, 76, 78
stalagmites, 76, 78
state
bird, 31
Capitol, 111
flower, 20
mammal, 28
State Highway
4: 106, 162
10: 98, 105, 156
12: 134
17: 95
23: 156
25: illus. 103
26: 71
28: 158
36: 157
37: 159
38: 163
44: 36, 134, 163
53: 157
68: 164
75: 136
76: 136
78: 101
90: 72, 144
94: 112
120: 109
137: 159
180: 101
370: 112
467: 111
State Monuments, 104-107, 155
(_see also_ under proper names: Abo, Coronado, El Palacio,
Folsom Man, Gran Quivira, Jemez, La Mesilla, Lincoln
(County Courthouse), Pecos, Quarai, Selden)
State Parks, 104, 107-112, 155
(_see also_ under proper names: Alamogordo Lake, Bluewater
Lake, Bottomless Lakes, Caballo Lake, City of Rocks,
Clayton Lake, Conchas Lake, Elephant Butte Lake, El Vado
Lake, Hyde Memorial, Kit Carson Memorial, Morphy Lake,
Navajo Lake, Oasis, Pancho Villa, Rio Grande Gorge, Rock
Hound, Santa Fe River, Storrie Lake, Ute Lake, Valley of
Fires)
staurolite, illus. 40
Stegosaurus, 49
Stein’s Pass, 158
Stewart Lake, 96
Stone Lions, 85
Storrie Lake, 104;
State Park, 110
strawberries, 159
Sugarlump Welded Rhyolite Tuff, 110
sulfur, 53
Summerville
beds, 156
Formation, 49
sunfish, 117
swan, 28
sycamore trees, 36
sylvanite, 149
sylvite, 48
T
Taiban, 155
Tajique, 99
Tano, 124
Tansill Formation, 77
Taos, 8, 19, 37, 38, 50, 93, 95, 104, 110, 145, 162, 163;
Canyon, 95;
County, 153;
don Fernando de, 129;
Indians, 129;
mission, 129, illus. 130;
Mountains, 129;
Pueblo, 95, 129-130;
Ranchos de, 129, illus. 130;
San Geronimo de, 129;
Ski Valley, 95
tapirs, 55
tarantula, 31
Teakettle Rock, 98
tench, 115
Tent Rocks, 98, illus. 121
Tererro Formation, 42
terrapin, 31
Tertiary, 163
Tesuque
Indians, 130
Pueblo, 130-131
River, 162
Three Rivers, 134
Tierra Amarilla, 40, 74
Tiguex, 106, 126
Tijeras, 99, 156;
Canyon, 40, 156
timber, 75, 99, 100, 103, 122
titanium, 50
toad, 31
Todilto Formation, 49, 156
tomatoes, 159
Torreon, 99
tortoise, 31
tramway, 98
Transition Zone, 21
Tres Piedras, 95, 162
Tres Ritos, 95
Triassic, 48, 159, 162;
age, 109, 155;
Period, 48;
redbeds, 49, 155, 156, 157;
rocks, 48, 155;
time, 48
Triceratops, 51
trilobite, 40, 41
Trinidad Sandstone, 50
trout, 95, 101, 108, 110, 111, 112, 118, 144;
black spotted, 115;
brook, 115;
brown, 110, 115;
German brown, 115;
cutthroat, 114, 115;
rainbow, 110, 111, 114, 115, illus. 116
Truchas, 95, 136;
Lakes, 96
Truth or Consequences, 74, 101, 111, 135, 161
Tucumcari, 38, 74, 155;
Mountain, 155
tuff, 82
Tularosa, 28, 45, 143, 159;
Basin, 79, 99, 111, 159, 160
turkey (wild), 28, 29, 95, 98, 100, illus. 102
turquoise, 54
turtles, 36
Tyuonyi Pueblo ruin, illus. 25, 62
U
Uncompahgre Range, 43
Union [forces], 12, 13, 70, 72, 73, 74, 92, 137
U.S. Highway
54: 134
56: 134
60: 99, 105, 134, 155, 161
62: 134, 158
64: 134, 136, 162
66: 17, 48, 66, 67, 98, 134, 155, 164
70: 133, 134, 135, 143, 158, 159
80: 135, 158
84: 95, 106, 112, 134, 155, 162
85: 36, 65, 67, 70, 101, 106, 134, 135, 136, 137, 144, 161,
162
180: 134, 135, 141, 158, 161
260: 101, 134, 161
285: 134, 159, 162
380: 69, 99, 107, 111, 134, 159, 161
550: 163, 164
666: 134, 164
U.S. Public Health Service, 70, 72
uranium, 49, 53, 125, 138, 146, 148, 150, 151, 152, 153, 156
Ute, 65, 90;
Creek, 111;
Dam, 111;
Indian, 132, 133;
Lake State Park, 104, 111;
Reservation, map 56, 133, 138
V
Valle Grande, 38, 51, 75, 85-86, 162;
—Bandelier National Park, 85;
caldera, 37, 75, 85
Valley of Fires State Park, 104, 111, 155, 161
Valverde [N. Mex.], 13, 67
Valverde Land and Irrigation Company, 68
vanadium, 53
Vaughn, 161
Velarde, 112
Vermejo Formation, 51
vertebrate, 43, 45, 48
Victorio, 70, 74;
Mountains, 158;
Peak Limestone, 46
“Village of the Humanas,” 89
vinegarroon, 31
volcanic
activity, 36, 37, 38, 39, 81
neck, 37, 51, 112, 162, 164
rocks, 36, 104, 112
volcano, 37, 49, 50, 81, 104, 156, 162
W
Wagon Mound, 109, 162
Wallace, Gov. Lew., 105
warbler, 31
Warm Springs Apache, 74
water, 53, 84, 89, 93, 100, 103, 104, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113,
114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 122;
laws, 117;
lilies, 36
waterfowl, 114, 118
Watrous, 65
weasel, 95
wheat, 122, 159
Wheeler Peak, 38, 94, illus. 145;
Wild Area, 94
White
Mesa, 49, 163
Mountain Apache, 69, 70, 133
Mountains, 99;
Wild Area, 100
Rock Canyon, 85
White Sands, 31, illus. 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 51, 75, 100, 159, 160;
Missile Range, 67, 139, 141, 143, 160;
National Monument, 38, 78-79, 141, 142-143, 155
Whitewater Canyon, frontispiece; Creek, 101
wildcat, 147, illus. 148, 149
wildlife, 26-32, 93, 97, 98, 100, 103, 113, 117, 138, 144
Wilderness trail (illus.), 27
Willard, 161
Willow Creek, 101
Wingate Sandstone, 48
wolf, 30
woodchuck, 31
wood rats, 31
World War I, 67, 70;
II, 70, 146
wren, 31
Y
Yankee traders, 12
Yapashi Pueblo ruins, 85
“yellow cake,” 151
Yeso Formation, 45, 46
yucca, 17, 18, 20, illus. 21;
state flower, 20
Yuman Foragers, 3
Z
Zia Pueblo, 131-132
zinc, 53, 146, 148, 151
zirconium, 50
Zuni, 61, 98;
Mountains, 40, 43, 98, 99, 110, 157;
Pueblo, 6, 89, 132, 157;
Sandstone, 49, 156, 157
_Traveler’s-Eye View of New Mexico_
A truly representative picture of New Mexico is presented in this guide
for visitor and resident. The traveler gains a background knowledge of
the State’s centuries-old history, desert-to-alpine flora and fauna,
geological past, ancient Indians, and frontier forts. He learns of the
numerous recreational and scenic attractions of its nine National
Monuments, seven Forests, and one Park and nine State Monuments and
twenty-one Parks. Unusual features such as the Antelope Plains, Ghost
Ranch Museum, Sitting Bull Falls, Jackpile open-pit uranium mine,
Jornada del Muerto, and Abo Pass redbeds are described, as are nineteen
Indian pueblos. Routes given include both major highways and good
secondary roads; all are well designated and easy to follow on the
full-color general map.
NEW MEXICO BUREAU OF MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES
Transcriber’s Notes
—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.
—Corrected a few palpable typos.
—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and History" ***
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