Located 15 miles southeast of Gallup at Ojo del Oso (Bear Springs), near the headwaters of the Rio Puerco Fort Wingate (Historic District) Fort Wingate, McKinley County On July 4, 1903, Gregory Page, a Gallup businessman, wrote an essay protesting a possible closure of Fort Wingate, an aging 1860s…
Fort Stanton; Lincoln County; Fort Stanton, Lincoln County National Register of Historic Places, SRCP #60 Statehood period of significance: c.1855-1912 Associated themes: Military; Federal Government; American Indian; Civil War Remotely situated in a small valley along the swift Rio Bonito in Lincoln County, Fort Stanton was established in…
Cathy Williams or William Cathay? Source: St. Louis Daily Times, January 2, 1876 "My Father was a freeman, but my mother a slave, belonging to William Johnson, a wealthy farmer who lived at the time I was born near Independence, Jackson county, Missouri. While I was a small girl…
By Miguél A. Torrez The years following the 1846 Mexican-American War brought New Mexicans adversity through the loss of land and political exploitation by Anglo Americans. Many struggled to adapt to American ways. For others, it proved extremely challenging. The descendants of Nicolas de Espinosa were a Nuevomexicano family…
By Linda Aldrich In 1942, when the WWII Manhattan Project took over the Los Alamos Ranch School and adjoining ranches and homesteads on the Pajarito Plateau, the Corps of Engineers was responsible for setting up and operating the town of Los Alamos and the Project facilities. The University of…
By Robert J. Torrez Spanish missions were churches established by Franciscan Friars in Indian villages called pueblos, the Spanish word for town. The purpose of these missions was to have a place in each pueblo where the Indians could be taught about Christianity. When New Mexico was settled by…
“Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.” –Major Howard Conner, 4th Marine Division Association Reunion, Chicago 1969 By Suzanne Stamatov When armies and marines engage in combat, they need a communications system to remain in contact with their fellow troops and their…
By Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint The Spanish-American War of 1898 was short-lived and successful for those Americans in favor of a Cuba Libre, a free Cuba. Its famous battle cry was “Remember the Maine.” The war itself, however, had antecedents in the United States’ desire to widen…
By Dwight T. Pitcaithley In 2011, this nation began a four-year-long commemoration of the American Civil War. Few who participate in the activities of that event will pause to consider the importance of New Mexico’s central role in the coming of the war. Few will be aware that the…
Suma Rebellion-1711 by Rick Hendricks During the first week of November 1711, General Antonio de Valverde y Cosío, captain of the presidio of El Paso and alcalde mayor of its jurisdiction, received a delegation of local Indians at his headquarters in El Paso. Their leader, the Suma cacique, Felipe,…
