History La Plata A Publication of The La Plata County Historical Society .BZ t7PM99 La Plata County History A-Z ------------- History La Plata 2 May 4, 2014 Vol. xX '30.5)&%*3&$503 ABOUT US $BSPMZO#PXSB -B1MBUB$PVOUZ has the most bringing readers a potpourri of stories interesting history! We are never at a loss on serious topics, as well as some fun for topics to research, stories to fnd or subjects. To organize such a variety of artifacts to track down. And as much fun topics we turned to a timeless device… as it is to do research, the real fun begins the alphabet. Volunteers have created when we craf exhibits and publications stories from A to Z to tell the history of to share with you what we have learned. La Plata County. We hope they are as In this edition of History La Plata we are much fun to read as they were to write. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ,BUIZ.D,FO[JF am sure some of you remember an exercise at school where you were given a word Ilike MOTHER and were asked write to a poem called an acrostic. Each line began with a letter in the featured word. In keeping with the theme of this issue we ofer our Standing; Carolyn Bowra - Museum Director. version of that idea. Seated; (lef to right)Kellie Cheever - Museum Assistant, is for being the LOCAL source of our county’s history Susan Jones - Interim Curator of Collections, Jan Postler - Curator of Collections, L Orianna Keating - MFA Grant Project Assistant and Lauren Butero - MFA Grant P is for the thousands of PHOTOS of our area available in our collection $ is the irreplaceable items found in our COLLECTIONS and the stories they can tell MUSEUM HOURS H is for the HELPING HANDS of our committed volunteers 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday (May – October) S is for the generous community SUPPORT we receive 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday (November- April) No matter how you spell it or the letters and words you use the La Plata $ounty The Animas Museum is located at 3065 West 2nd Avenue Historical Society is an organization dedicated to preserving our county’s history. in Durango on the corner of 31st Street and W. 2nd Ave. Without your continued fnancial contributions, memberships and generous donations tBOJNBTNVTFVN!GSPOUJFSOFU of time and materials, the Animas Museum could not continue to function as an invaluable resource for this area. To join the histori- BOARD OF DIRECTORS cal society visit our website at www.animasmuseum.org or call the Kathy McKenzie, President Jeff Johnson Museum at 970-259-2402. Tank you for all the ways you help the Rani Holt, Vice President Bruce Spining Animas Museum and the LPCHS. Gay Kiene, Secretary-Treasurer Marilee Jantzer-White Cheryl Bryant Duane Smith (emeritus) 0OUIFDPWFS Back when paper could be expensive, children practiced their writing Charles DiFerdinando and did arithmetic on small chalkboards. Tis child’s slate frame is from the Animas Museum’s permanent collection. Photo courtesy of La Plata County Historical Society A Publication of the la plata County historIcal society History La Plata 3 May 4, 2014 Vol. xX Animas: Nothing Perdidas About It t was 1765, and New Mexico the San Juan River, originated from IGovernor Tomás Vélez Capuchín Rivera’s party, while other names was curious. Rumors had reached were Spanish language versions of the Governor’s office in Santa Fe of Ute names. As they proceeded west, a Ute Indian who traded a piece of the group crossed the Piedra River, silver to a blacksmith in Abiquiu, which he named Río de la Piedra New Mexico, offering a tantalizing Parada for the nearby Ute-named possibility that there might be more landmark of Standing Rock. They of this precious metal in Spain’s forded the Río de los Pinos (which relatively unknown distant territory we know today as the Pine River), to the north. The Governor decided adapting the Ute name to Spanish. to sanction an expedition to track On July 4, eleven years before down the rumored source of the that date would evoke patriotic silver. He authorized Juan Maria fervor among colonists of the fledg- Antonio Rivera to lead this search. ling United States, the Spanish ex- Capuchín’s order sponsored the pedition reached a “quite pleasant” first official venture into this north- river, and named it Río Flórido, the ern extent of New Spain. While it Spanish language version of the Ute was not well-known to government name, River of Flowers. officials, the far flung region was The party crossed the River of This image of the Animas River ca. 1911 shows the spirited water as it might have been quite familiar to the underground Flowers and arrived at the banks of seen by early explorers. Photo courtesy of Animas Museum Photo Archives trading network of New Spain. what Rivera described as “a river Clandestine buying and selling be- so copious and big that we called cross the Animas. They made their rumored silver. By July 22, they tween the Spaniards and the Indian it the Río de las Animas.” Spanish way across with water coming up were convinced that the Sierra de la tribes had been going on since Don language experts can interpret the to their saddles. On the far side of Plata was a misnomer and returned Juan de Oñate led the first colonists name Las Animas a couple of ways. the river was a Ute encampment home to Santa Fe. to the Rio Grande River in 1598, The singular of animas is anima, where they met the Ute leader, Rivera’s reports of his findings but Spanish law set very high taxes which means either soul or spirit. Coraque, and asked if he could help and of the many tales he had heard on trade goods, and prohibited The plural can also mean souls them find the person who could from the Indians about the lands trade with certain Indian tribes, so in purgatory. One historian has take them to the source of the silver even farther to the north intrigued publicly acknowledged trade was argued that given the context of a trade piece. Coraque sent them Governor Capuchín. He commis- minimal. Many members of the ex- swift and big river, Rivera probably south to other Ute camps located sioned Rivera to take a second jour- ploration party had surreptitiously meant “spirited” or lively when he on the Animas. From this point, ney a little later that year. Eleven travelled the route before. settled on the plural Animas. Rivera’s diary describes a meander- years after Rivera’s second trip, the The Rivera party left Abiquiu at Romantic travel writers, dating ing 14-day-long journey, ending Dominguez-Escalante Expedition the end of June 1765. His diary of back to the 1880s, have attempted at the base of what he termed the followed much of Rivera’s route, the trip was discovered in 1964 and to jazz up the river’s name by add- Sierra de la Plata, which eventu- reinforcing the names and locations briefly chronicles the first formally ing the word “perdidas” (which ally became known as the La Plata identified by Rivera, and producing recognized venture through what means lost or astray) to conjure up Mountains. an authoritative map. By the time we now know as La Plata and Mon- the idea of lost souls. Romantic as For two days, the men scoured the land became part of the United tezuma Counties, and beyond. The that may sound, Rivera and other the hillsides of the Sierra de la Plata States and new settlers arrived from expedition followed a trade route to explorers of the 1700s, including taking note of numerous veins of the east in the 1870s, the 100-year- the northwest, crossing the Chama Dominguez and Escalante, never colorful minerals. “It can be said old names were established parts of and San Juan Rivers. While travel- used the word perdidas when they without exaggeration that the our local history. ❦ ling, Rivera bestowed names that documented and mapped the Río entire mountain is made of pure are still used today for many of the de las Animas. metal.” Rivera noted in the diary. By Jill Seyfarth, an archaeologist geographic features encountered It took the expedition the entire Much to their disappointment, and historian in Durango on the trip. Some names, such as next day to find a good place to the men found lead instead of the A Publication of the la plata County historIcal society History La Plata 4 May 4, 2014 Vol. xX #aker’s Bridge – Lasting Legacy of the Baker Party aker’s Bridge has been an im- New Mexico, Baker’s followers had Joseph Freed, an early Animas 1989. A popular tradition of jump- #portant landmark in La Plata made crude improvements to this Valley resident and La Plata County ing of the bridge into the river came County for over 150 years. route to permit wagon travel. Te road overseer, supervised the re- into vogue during this time and While the bridge has long played passage from Abiquiu followed the building of the bridge in the 1880s. became a rite of passage for mostly a role in our history, its namesake, Old Spanish Trail, diverting up the Te Flood of 1911 completely de- teen-aged males. Charles Baker, is one of the least Florida River and entering the Ani- stroyed it. Te bridge that replaced it A better known leap into the known characters from our past.