Ranching in Northeastern New Mexico Conchita Sintas
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1-30-2013 Ranching in Northeastern New Mexico Conchita Sintas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Recommended Citation Sintas, Conchita. "Ranching in Northeastern New Mexico." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/69 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Conchita M. Sintas Candidate History Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Durwood Ball, Ph.D, Chairperson Margaret Connell-Szasz, Ph.D. Paul Andrew Hutton, Ph.D. i RANCHING IN NORTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO by CONCHITA SINTAS ASSOCIATE OF ARTS, CHAPMAN COLLEGE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, EXCELSIOR COLLEGE THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico November 2012 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I heartily acknowledge Dr. Durwood Ball, my advisor and committee chair, for continuing to encourage me through the years of classroom teachings and the long number of months writing and rewriting these chapters. His guidance and professional style will remain with me as I continue my career. I also thank my committee members, Dr. Paul Andrew Hutton and Dr. Margaret Connell-Szasz for their valuable recommendations pertaining to this study and assistance in my professional development. I extend my gratitude to Dr. Ferenz Szasz for all the encouragement and advice he gave me. And finally to Mrs. Stella Sintas, your love and memory helped immensely. Without your memory of life in Colfax and Union Counties, I would still be researching this issue. Mrs. Janet Laros provided me with her invaluable assistance and support. iii Ranching in Northeastern New Mexico Conchita Sintas Associate of Arts, Chapman College, June 1983 Bachelor of Science, Excelsior College, October 2002 ABSTRACT Historians have studied ranching extensively in Texas, Wyoming, and Montana. There are many monographs published on ranches, ranchers, and cowboys. Colfax and Union counties have an extensive number of ranches. These ranches are from as small as ten acres to as large as 590,000 acres. These ranches in their own right deserve to be studied, especially since they were a part of at least two legitimate land grants: Maxwell Land Grant and Pablo Montoya Land Grant. In addition, some of these ranches exist because of the railroad, which runs through both counties. This thesis examines a few of the many ranches in this area. It also includes a brief history of the Santa Fe Trail Dry Cimarron Cutoff area. iv Table of Content LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... vii PREFACE ....................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NORTHEASTERN NM 1820-1950 ....................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 NATIVE AMERICANS and THE DRY CIMARRON CUTOFF IN NORTHEASTERN NM ...................................................................................................38 Utes ................................................................................................................................52 Comanches ......................................................................................................................53 Kiowas ...........................................................................................................................56 Apache Nation ...............................................................................................................57 Faraon Apache ...............................................................................................................57 Jicarilla Apache ...............................................................................................................58 Lipan Apache ..................................................................................................................59 Cimarron Cutoff ..............................................................................................................60 Encounters.......................................................................................................................65 CHAPTER 3 HOMESTEADING.....................................................................................77 CHAPTER 4 CATTLE RANCHING ...............................................................................99 Cross L Ranch ..............................................................................................................111 TO Ranch ......................................................................................................................112 Moore Ranch .................................................................................................................114 Chase Ranch..................................................................................................................116 CS Ranch ......................................................................................................................120 v CHAPTER 5 SHEEP RANCHING ................................................................................124 EPILOGUE .................................................................................................................... 142 TO Ranch .........................................................................................................................146 Moore Ranch ....................................................................................................................146 Chase Ranch ....................................................................................................................146 CS Ranch .........................................................................................................................147 Brown Ranch ...................................................................................................................148 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................149 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of Connections of Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, 1888 ............6 Figure 2 NM DOT Road Map .............................................................................................8 Figure 3 Map of Maxwell and Uña de Gato Land Grants ................................................19 Figure 4 Carreta at Casa San Ysidro ................................................................................24 Figure 5 Map of the Santa Fe Trail ...................................................................................39 Figure 6 Conestoga Wagon ................................................................................................43 Figure 7 Studebaker Wagon...............................................................................................44 Figure 8 Army Train Crossing the Plains .........................................................................44 Figure 9 Early Native Americans ......................................................................................49 Figure 10 Dust Storm in Clayton, New Mexico ................................................................97 Figure 11 Sheepherder’s Wagon ......................................................................................138 Figure 12 Antique Sheep Shears ......................................................................................139 vii Preface The idea for this thesis started while working on my family genealogy. During the discussions with various family members, I realized that my great-great grandfather Santiago Sandoval, my great grandfather Fidel Martinez, and my grandfather Lewis Martinez, participated in the settling of Union County, New Mexico. Santiago was a well-known curandero (healer) and Fidel and Lewis were sheepherders. To find out more about their lives, I tried to research the history of Union County. To my surprise, very few historians have written about it. The extant works are published oral histories. In Colfax County, the published works are about the land grants and not about ranching. Thus began the journey to recreate a part of the history of these counties, particularly in regards to ranching. After all, these ranches are the largest and steadiest part of the local economy in Colfax and Union Counties. An effort to research ranching in northeastern New Mexico has resulted in unearthing a lot of little-known history of northeastern New Mexico. In addition to the more well- known ranches in northern New Mexico, there are quite a few large operations whose history in the region dates back to the 1870s. In this thesis, I use the terms Anglo, Native Americans, and Hispanics to identify various ethnic groups living in New Mexico. The reason for this is to lessen the confusion factor and to use terms common to the area. In addition, I use Anasazi because it includes all the centers such as Mesa Verde, Mancos Canyon, Canyon de