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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and
-History, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and History
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: Paige W. Christiansen
- Frank E. Kottlowski
-
-Release Date: October 24, 2017 [EBook #55800]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOSAIC OF NEW MEXICO'S SCENERY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, MFR and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
- (_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--Espaņola--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 Oņate who had a contract to
-colonize New Mexico. After countless delays due to politics and supply
-shortages, the Oņate 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, Oņate, 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, Oņate 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 piņons. 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, piņon, 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 piņon. 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: Piņon 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 piņon 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 Doņa 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 Piņon. 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 Doņa 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 Doņa 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 x 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
-Oņate, 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 Oņate
-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 Oņate, 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 Peņablanca. 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, Oņate, 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 Oņate, 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 Caņada 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 Peņa.
-
-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
-Oņate, 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. Oņate, 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. Oņate, 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 Oņate 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.
-
-Oņate 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 maņana." 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 piņon 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 Espaņola, 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 piņon 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 (K_2O).[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 K_2O 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 U_3O_8. 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 piņon
-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]K_2O 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, Caņada 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
- Doņa 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
- Oņate (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
- Peņa, Fray Juan de la, 123
- Peņablanca, 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
- piņon, 17, 20, illus. 22, 23, 135, 141, 155
- Piņon, 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 the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks,
-and History, by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOSAIC OF NEW MEXICO'S SCENERY ***
-
-***** This file should be named 55800-8.txt or 55800-8.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
- http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/8/0/55800/
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