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My Granddad
was the epitome of a real rail-road-man. He wore his cream colored long
johns, his Railroad bibbed Blue overalls with his red bandanna, and his
hard leather boots, all as if they were his second skin. And, of course,
he was never without his gold railroad “Santa Fe Special” pocket-watch
with the copper chain and leather tabs. He wore that watch like a badge
of honor.
My granddad
was a big man, nearly six-feet tall. He had a dark leathery complexion
with strong features revealing his early peoples heritage. He was a man
of conviction. He was a man not afraid of hard work. He had worked hard
all of his life. Even before he worked on the railroad, he worked his
own Farm/ranch, raised cattle and was a blacksmith near Clayton, New
Mexico. Folks would bring him blacksmith work from a hundred miles
around. The famous Santa Fe Trail and its cut-off the Cimarron Trail run
right along side his farm/ranch for over a 1/4-mile. Today, as I stand
their, a chilling fall wind whistles through the rusty barb-wired cedar
posts and waving tall grama grass,... just tall grama grass covers the
still remaining deep indentations carved into the hard weathered earth
from bygone years of settlers passing in their great mode of travel, the
Prairie Schooners, and early trade wagons.
These ruts that remain stretch to the east and the west horizons and are
all that remain offering any evidence of my Granddad’s stories of his
old place and of the first major trade route that connected New Mexico
to the eastern United States.
The Cimarron
Cut-off was the main trade route to the southwest and cut off more than
ten days of the trip. But it meant crossing a 60-mile chunk of the
feared Llano Estacada. Some of the hazards they had to contend
with were not only the weather, hunger and the hard going of the trail
but also the roving bands of Kiowa, Apache, Comanche, Pawnee and Ute
Indians who roamed across the vast grassland, hunting buffalo but
leaving no evidence of any permanent settlements. The Athabascans
probably passed through the area during their fourteenth century
migrations from Canada whom later was to become known as the Navajo
people.
From the
turn off the Santa Fe Trail continued on into Colorado where their were
fewer hostel Indians, but more water, and where firewood was more
plentiful and where their were many trading posts to buy, sale and trade
their goods.
The story of
the Santa Fe Trail is a story of business - international, national and
local. In 1821, William Becknell, bankrupt and facing jail for debts,
packed goods to Santa Fe and made a profit. Entrepreneurs and
experienced business people followed - James Webb, Antonio José Chavez,
Charles Beaubien, David Waldo, and others.
The Santa Fe trade developed into a complex web of international
business, socail ties, tariffs, and laws. Merchants in Missouri and New
Mexico extended connections to New York, London and Paris. Traders
exploited legal and social systems to facilitate business. Partnerships
such as Goldstein, Bean, Peacock & Armijo formed and dissolved. David
Waldo "converted" to Catholicism - and also became a Mexican citizen.
Dr. Eugene Leitensdorfer, of Missouri, married Soledad Abreu, daughter
of a former New Mexico governor. Trader Manuel Alvarez claimed
citizenship in Spain, the United States and Mexico.
After the Mexican-American War, Trail trade and military freighting
boomed. Both firms and individuals obtained and subcontracted lucrative
government contracts. Others operated mail and stagecoach services.
Trade created other opportunities. From New York, Manuel Harmony
shipped English goods to Independence for freighting over the Santa Fe
Trail. New Mexican saloon owner Doña Gertrudis "La Tules" Barcelo
invested in trade, and trader Charles Ilfeld ran mercantile stores.
Wyandotte Chief William Walker leased a warehouse in Independence and
his tribe invested in the trade. Hiram Young bought his freedom from
slavery and became a wealthy maker of trade wagons - and one of the
largest employers in Independence. Blacksmiths, hotel owners, muleteers,
lawyers, and many others found their places along the Trail. In 1822,
trade totaled $15,000; by 1860, $3.5 million, or more than $53 million
in today's dollars.
As I looked
around in a whipping wind I could see brown specks of cattle in the
distance in a broader landscape which I envisioned the Cimarron,
Canadian and Pecos rivers, which are the longest of the waterways. They
snake through the sprawling plains of northeastern New Mexico, a land
known as the Llano Estacada, stretching north to southeastern New
Mexico and west Texas. Also known as Wild Indian Territory.
I could see that time; weather
and erosion have not erased the deep wagon ruts stretching across this
vast country. I was sensing the stark isolation of prairie travel and
was able to glimpse the subtle prairie tapestry that was savored by
countless Trail travelers. I was Stepping back in time and enjoying
virtually the same prairie vistas and unspoiled beauty that travelers
encountered more than 120 years ago.
The Santa Fe Trail on the
Kiowa National Grassland affords an almost three-mile stretch of
exceptionally well-preserved wagon ruts. This area is reserved for
hiking, backpacking, horseback riding and camping. Several windmills
along the route provide ample water. The trail is well marked with
limestone "Kansas fence posts." One homestead ruin is located at the end
of the hiking path.
The Trail across the Kiowa
lies between McNees Crossing and Turkey Creek, both resting and watering
areas for weary trail caravans. Rabbit Ears Mountain and Round Mound can
be seen looming to the west.
Famous Early Travelers
Some famous Spanish travelers in this area include Don Francisco Vasquez
de Coronado, who passed through in 1541 on his return to the Rio Grande
Valley from his search for Quivira in present-day Kansas. Don Juan de
Onate passed this way in 1601 during his tour of "the kingdom and
provinces of New Mexico," during which he visited most of the pueblos,
the Llano Estacado, Quivira and the Colorado River of the West. Juan de
Ulibarri traveled from Taos Pueblo in 1706, passing east of present-day
Capulin Volcano National Monument down the Dry Cimarron Valley on his
way to El Cuartelejo. Don Carlos Fernandez and 600 Spanish troops met
and killed a great number of Comanche Indians on Don Carlos Creek in
western Union County in 1774. Sergeant Juan de Dios Pena led an
expedition from Taos to the plains, passing through Union County. He was
possibly the first to use the name Orejas de Conejo (Rabbit Ears) as the
landmark is called today.
Major Steven Long and his 1820
expedition traveling south entered Union County a little north of Emery
Peak and continued south to Ute Creek, following the creek out of the
county. And finally, an old map shows a trail marked "Buffalo Road"
coming from the Taos area to the Clayton area, indicating that the early
Spanish settlers in the Rio Grande Valley came out to the prairies of
eastern New Mexico to hunt buffalo every year.
There are no known permanent
non-prehistoric sites or settlements discovered in this area yet, but we
know that many tribes passed through and hunted in the area, including
Comanche’s, Apaches, Kiowa, Cheyenne and others. Many arrowheads,
pottery shards and other artifacts have been collected and continue to
be found in the area, and in the caves north of here along the Dry
Cimarron prehistoric mummies and pottery have been found.
They Could Have Used That
Lake
Clayton Lake, 12 miles north of Clayton on Hwy 370, was created by the
New Mexico Game and Fish Department in 1955 as a fishing lake and winter
waterfowl resting area. A dam was constructed across Seneca Creek.
Travelers on the Santa Fe Trail couldn't take advantage of the lake, but
modern visitors can! Along its spillway are more than 500 tracks left by
at least eight different kinds of dinosaurs 100 million years ago.
Trail Sites Northwest of
Clayton
Other well-known Santa Fe Trail campgrounds in the area are Turkey Creek
Camp (now known as Seneca Creek), just east of Clayton Lake State Park,
and Rabbit Ears Creek Camp, located five miles north of Mt. Dora, on
A-65. Both are on privately-owned cattle ranches and are not generally
open to the public. At a point on Hwy 64-87 between Mt. Dora and
Grenville, a one-picnic-table roadside park contains a small monument
established by the Colorado and Southern Railroad at the site where the
railroad crossed the Santa Fe Trail. The ruts here have been
obliterated. Mt. Dora and Round Mound are both Trail landmarks in this
area.
Drive a winding, two-mile road
to the top of Capulin Volcano National Monument, climbing 1,000 feet
from the valley floor. From 8,182 feet, on a clear day, visitors can see
the five states of New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. On
the west side winds a portion of the Goodnight-Loving Cattle Trail
(1867-76). On the southeast side of the crater looms the vast portion of
land through which the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail passed.
Union County was crossed by
the old roads, specifically the Tascosa to Springer Road in the southern
part of the county and the Ft. Union to Granada Military Road which
crossed the mesas north of Capulin Volcano in Toll-Gate Canyon, Hwy 551.
The Aubrey Cutoff was a
short-lived portion of the Santa Fe Trail. It began at Fort Dodge, ran
to the southwest corner of Kansas, into the Oklahoma Panhandle, up the
Dry Cimarron River in New Mexico to the Folsom Falls. From there it went
east of Capulin Mountain, south to Wagon Mound, ending at Santa Fe. Some
of the early settlers of Madison and later of Folsom, had come up this
trail and left the wagon train to make this their home. In places, the
ruts of this trail can still be seen.
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