Dedication of the Official Historical Marker In Gallegos, New Mexico June 16, 2018 Delivered by New Mexico State Historian Rick Hendricks* Jesús María Gallegos, founder of the Gallegos Ranch (also known as Rincón Colorado), was from Montón de Los Álamos, located thirteen miles northeast of Las Vegas, New Mexico.He…
From February 1889 until the summer of 1891 a clandestine organization of night riders known as Las Gorras Blancas cut the fences and burned the barns of ranchers enclosing the Las Vegas Land Grant commons and destroyed railroad ties and burned bridges in a related effort to disrupt the…
This interview was taken by Edith L. Crawford as part of the Federal Writers' Project. The Project was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under the New Deal. Interviews with 'old timers' and prominent citizens were recorded for posterity. Topics varied but were meant to encompass the history…
The History Bureau of the Museum of New Mexico conducted an oral history project covering the way of life of the Hispanic sheepherder of the states eastern plains. The following account is based on the authors interviews at the History Bureau with Mariano Chavez, the son of a traditional…
Life with New Mexico’s Mule King By Arleen Gaba It was February of 1961 when I arrived in New Mexico with my two-month-old son. I had left the verdant valleys of northern California to join my husband and begin our life together on his grandfather's ranch, two hours north…
Robert D. Martínez In the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives at the New Mexico State Commission of Public Records in Santa Fe, there is a document that gives great insight into the lives of these New Mexican Gallegos people. It is the last will and testament of…
W. M. Emery 2/5/37 Years ago, when the citizens of Clayton were still depending on the ever faithful Dobbin as a means of local transportation, and the automobile had not yet been introduced in the town, the town people organized a company known as the “No-Cow Cattle Company,” whose…
The stereotypical cowboy most people think of today actually began with Spanish traditions, and before that, the Moors. During the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions as well as both horses and domesticated cattle to the Americas, starting with their arrival in what…
By Linda Tigges Immigrants from the Basque country that lies between France and Spain have come to New Mexico in a tradition that extends at least as far back as Onate in the 1600s and Anza in the 1700s. Two Basque settlers who arrived in the United States around…
By Aleta J. Lawrence The area surrounding Bear Spring that includes the Sheep Lab Historic District became a major area for Navajo settlement in the eighteenth century. The spring was one of a few dependable water sources in the region. Historical records date use of the Bear Spring area…
