An Environmental History of Pecos National Historical Park

Crossroads of Change: An Environmental History of Pecos National Historical Park Volume II Public Lands History Center Colorado State University August 2010 By Cori Knudten and Maren Bzdek Forward by Dr. Mark Fiege Table of Contents Chapter Six Railroads, Timber, and Tourists, 1880-1925 ............................................................................ 98 Chapter Seven Hard Times in the Land of Enchantment, 1925-1941 ............................................................. 127 Chapter Eight Imagining the Past in a Postwar Landscape, 1941-1965 ........................................................ 146 Chapter Nine Restoring and Managing the Landscape, 1965-2000 .............................................................. 176 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 204 ii Figures Figure 8. Section of 1915 map showing temporary settlements located along the AT&SF railroad tracks.............................................................................................................................. 102 Figure 9. A portable sawmill cutting ties in Taos County in 1913. ............................................ 103 Figure 10. Historic roads in Pecos area, including segments of the Santa Fe Trail ................... 104 Figure 11. Pecos area, late 1800s and early 1900s. ................................................................... 105 Figure 12. Section of 1899 Forest Reserve map showing ranches up the Pecos Canyon .......... 109 Figure 13. Second section of 1899 Forest Reserve map showing ranches in Pecos Canyon ..... 109 Figure 14. Cañoncito, NM, 1914 ............................................................................................... 111 Figure 15. Map from Vincent K. Jones‟s 1913 showing the cultivated land around the Kozlowski Trading Post. ............................................................................................................................... 112 Figure 16. Looking from Pecos Pueblo ruins across Glorieta Creek to the northwest, 1915 .... 116 Figure 17. Looking across Glorieta Creek to the west, 1915...................................................... 116 Figure 18. Glorieta Pass, Apache Canyon, circa late 1800s, early 1900s................................... 118 Figure 19. Closer view of Apache Canyon bridge showing erosion .......................................... 118 Figure 20. Sheep grazing on the Rito Padre in the Santa Fe National Forest in 1924 ................ 121 Figure 21. Grazing allotments around Pecos ............................................................................. 122 Figure 22. 1927 brochure for the Fred Harvey Company‟s Indian Detour business. ................. 126 Figure 23. 1929 aerial view looking south from Pecos Pueblo. ................................................ 133 Figure 24. 1929 aerial photo of Dick‟s Ruin, south of Forked Lightning Ranch house ............ 133 Figure 25. Photo from tourist brochure for Tex Austin‟s Forked Lightning Ranch .................. 134 Figure 26. Pigeon‟s Ranch as tourist attraction, circa 1935. ..................................................... 135 Figure 27. Pigeon‟s Ranch, circa 1935. ..................................................................................... 135 Figure 28. Cutting and log ways on the American Metals sale, Indian Creek, Pecos Division . 141 Figure 29. Greer Garson with one of her beloved poodles ........................................................ 147 Figure 30. The eleven pasture areas used on the Forked Lightning Ranch. .............................. 152 Figure 31. Vegetation removal impact on archaeological sites ................................................. 154 Figure 32. Windrow vegetation pattern on formerly cleared pastures. ...................................... 155 Figure 32. Piñon-juniper encroachment on the Forked Lightning Ranch ................................. 156 Figure 33. Santa Gertrudis cattle on Forked Lightning Ranch. ................................................. 158 Figure 34. Ranch foreman Jay Kirkpatrick and Buddy Fogelson .............................................. 158 Figure 35. 1961 advertisement for the Forked Lightning Ranch show herd ............................. 159 Figure 36. Entrance to the Forked Lightning Ranch.................................................................. 161 Figure 37. Chuckwagon picnic by the Pecos River ................................................................... 162 Figure 38. Duck pond at Pecos Ruins, September 25, 1951 ...................................................... 165 Figure 39. DG-2 aircraft spraying insecticide to fight spruce budworm .................................... 170 Figure 40. A summer cattle roundup on Glorieta Mesa in 1957 ............................................... 171 Figure 41. The Valley Ranch Unit base map, 1940 ................................................................... 172 Figure 42. “Don‟t Mess with Pecos”. ......................................................................................... 189 Figure 43. Barren banks of Glorieta Creek, 1915 ....................................................................... 197 Figure 44. 2009 photograph of Glorieta Creek showing vegetation growth .............................. 197 iii Figure 45. Dikes and reservoirs at the Glorieta Creek site prior to restoration. ......................... 199 Figure 46. Remains of the Colonias bridge over the Pecos River. ............................................ 204 iv Crossroads of Change Public Lands History Center Chapter Six Railroads, Timber, and Tourists, 1880-1925 Adolph Bandelier rattled across the Pecos River in the comfort of a railroad car, gazing out the window at the landscape that slid past him. While traveling by rail through New Mexico, Bandelier wrote, the tourist becomes “fascinated . by the beauty as well as by the novelty of the landscape.” The Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe railroad crossed the Pecos River at Bernal, then turned northwest and headed for Glorieta Pass. A few months earlier and Bandelier would have been riding in a wagon or on a horse through the Pecos valley. The railroad had just entered New Mexico—workers crested Raton Pass in 1878 and laid tracks through Pecos and Glorieta Pass in late 1879 and early 1880. Bandelier arrived in the valley in August of 1880, intent on investigating the region‟s Indian cultures and ancient Pueblo ruins.1 Bandelier could see the ruins of Pecos Pueblo from the train as it chugged past the mesilla. “The red walls of the church stand boldly out on the barren mesilla; and to the north of it there are two low brown ridges, the remnants of the Indian houses.” The train then passed through Apache Canyon, “which overlooks the track in awful proximity,” Bandelier remarked. Bandelier paused for some sightseeing in Santa Fe before taking a wagon back to Pecos to study the ruins that had captured his attention. He did not stay at Pigeon‟s Ranch or Kozlowski‟s while at Pecos, as so many travelers had before him. Instead, Bandelier found lodging at Baughl‟s Sidings just east of Glorieta Mesa, a “switch and storing-place for ties” that had sprung up next to the railroad tracks and boasted a small, temporary community. Bandelier lodged at a boarding house owned by Mrs. Root and remarked that he owed to her “kindness and motherly solicitude . a tribute of sincere gratitude.”2 Born in Bern, Switzerland, Bandelier moved with his parents to Illinois in 1848. He received an extensive education and became interested in archaeology and pre-Columbian Mexican cultures. The anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan encouraged Bandelier‟s pursuits. Morgan traveled to the Southwest in 1878 to conduct archaeological studies of Pueblo ruins and helped Bandelier obtain a contract from the Archaeological Institute of America to do field work in the Southwest as well. Under this contract, Bandelier set off for Santa Fe and Pecos in 1880. He stayed at Pecos for ten days, investigated both the ruins on the mesilla and others in the vicinity, and compiled a brief report on his findings. Bandelier arrived at Pecos when the valley was on the cusp of immense change. The railroad that he traveled on brought many of those changes. Bandelier saw the railroad as a convenient means of transportation, but for the residents of Pecos, the railroad represented a transforming force that affected their lifestyles and economy. Baughl‟s Sidings, the small community where Bandelier stayed, was just one example of the changes the railroad brought to Pecos. Besides being a railroad passenger, Bandelier was also an academically trained professional who utilized scientific knowledge in his studies of the Pecos landscape. A reliance on science to manage land came to characterize many people‟s interactions with the Pecos environment in the twentieth century. As the government set aside forest reserves, professionally trained land managers began transforming the valley. Bandelier also traveled to Pecos as a tourist, interested in experiencing Puebloan culture firsthand. Tourism, too, became an important force in the valley that altered people‟s relationship with the environment. Bandelier may have been interested in the past, but when he wandered over the pueblo ruins in August of 1880, he represented the valley‟s future. 98 Crossroads of Change Public Lands History Center Pecos, 1880-1925 The Santa Fe Trail had connected Pecos to eastern markets

Load more