Things to know about: Blazed trees

One of the ways we can find old paths taken by "trailblazers" is... wait for it... blazed trees! ; )
A little bit about everything you ever wanted to know on the subject is available here at Wikipedia.

Mule Trains!

Thanks to OST researcher Bob Leonard, we now know what a pack mule train of the Hispanic era might look like. This one was in Cuba.

Trail Characteristics by Category

Water Resource Property Types

abajo - downstream

agua de – headwater

aguage - water hole

arroyo - wide intermittent drainage with inset bed – suitable for pack trail

“Arroyo de los Hayatas” – Mohave River

boca del - mouth of

cienega - marsh

hedionda - stinking [sulpherous]

“Canon de agua hedionda” – Pah Tempe Springs

laguna - lagoon, pond

ojito - spring source, seep usually in lateral or side slope

rio - river

rito - stream, small river

“Rito del canon de la ceja”; stream in the canyon of the ridge; Paria River

salado - salty

“Arroyo salado”

salitroso - very salty

“Rio salitroso” - Salt Creek

vado - ford, crossing

“Vado de los Padres”

 Topography Property Types

artenesales de piedra - Crafted stone [ Comb Ridge]

artenejal - sculpted, crafted, worked

 “Artenejal de la ceja Colorado” – Cockscomb

bajada - descent

canada - gentle sloped narrow drainage pack trail w/ easily ascended laterals

canon - Steep walled gorge – difficult or impossible to ascend laterals

canoncito - short steep walled canyon with periodic ascents and descents

“Canoncito del arroyo de Chelli” – steep, short canyon with drainage suitable for packtrail

ceja - ridge, brow

fragoso - rough, craggy trail

laguna sin agua - dry lake, playa

llano - plain

“Llano del Coyote” – Pipe Valley

mesa - tableland

milpitas - little corn fields

montuosa - wooded mountain slopes

“La ceja montuosa” – Buckskin Ridge

picacho - pinnacle, peak

Pueblo Colorado - red house rock [red top?]

puerto - opening, pass through, saddle

punta - point, headland

sierra - mountain, mountain range

subido - ascent

Substrate Property Types

caloso - limey, caliche

“Canon Caloso” – un-named west of Canaan Gap

malpais - bad country, lava field

Travel Property Types

camino – road

cruzamos – (we) crossed, crossing

huella - track

jornada - day’s trip

“Jornada sin agua” – Day’s trip without water

parage/paraje- camp site, camp ground

“Parage de San Jose”

pueblos - small towns

“Pueblos de Cucha Payuches y Hayatas” – perm. Settlement of Chemehuevi and Mohave

rancheria - settlement with impermanent structures

“Rancheria de Navajoes”-

“Rancheria de Payuches”-

“Rancheria de indios con zarcillos en las narices”-

rancho - farm settlement

“Rancho San Bernardino” – mission farm

vieja - witches cap rock formation

“Agua de la vieja” – headwater at the witches cap – Moccasin Springs or Pipe Springs

UT - Holt Canyon: Bibliographical References

 By Mark Henderson and edited by Rachel Preston Prinz

Adler, Douglas D. and Karl F. Brooks (2007). A history of Washington County: From Isolation to Destination. Second Edition. Springdale UT: Zion Natural History Association.

Armijo, Antonio (1830). ‘Diario que formo Antonio Armijo para el Descubimiento del Camino para el punto de las Californias de Territorioo del N. México.’ Registo Official del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Año 1, Tom II, Sábado 19 Junio de 1830,Numero 34, pages 205-206.

Armstrong, Augustus K., Cole L. Smith, George L. Kennedy, Chales Sabine, Ronald T. Mayerle (1987).Mineral Resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California. USGS Bulletin 1709-C. Denver: USGS.

Auerbach, Herbert S. (1941). “Old Trails, Old Forts, Old Trappers and Traders.” Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 9, Numbers 1 & 2, pages 13- 63.

Bagley, Will (2002). Blood of Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Baxter, John O. (1987). Los Carneradas: Sheep Trade in New Mexico 1700-1860.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

UT: Holt Canyon: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson and edited by Rachel Preston Prinz

Joseph Walker, Chief Walker and the Uintah connection.  
As Jackson and Spence (1970:694) note, the detail of Frémont’s narrative deteriorates after leaving Mountain Meadows.  This is at the same time that Joseph Walker joins Frémont, apparently by chance, probably at Pinto Creek (Jackson and Spence 1970:694) and becomes the principle guide for the rest of the expedition to Bents Fort (Gilbert 1983:200). Though Frémont does not mention it, Walker was driving a herd of horses for sale (Gilbert 1983:208) which was core to his business since 1840(Hafen and Hafen 1993:242-247).  Whether Frémont planned to depart from the Spanish Trail before engaging Walker as guide is unclear.  In any event it is probable that Walker’s presence helped guarantee safe passage through Ute territory, including an exchange of gifts with Chief Walkara, Frémont giving up a blanket from Vancouver for what he considered an inferior “Mexican” blanket (Frémont 1845:272). Joseph Walker guided Frémont back to Bents Fort by a well known trail via Antoine Robideau’s trading Fort Uintah (Gilbert 1983:198-216).

UT - Holt Canyon: Significance

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

After leaving the New Mexico frontier community of Abiquiu, arriving at Las Vegas de Santa Clara, or Mountain Meadows, was possibly the most important milestone after crossing the Colorado River near modern Green River, Utah.   The Las Vegas de Santa Clara was important to merchants on the Spanish Trail because it marked the last place with abundant forage before entering the Mohave Desert.  Travelers across the Mojave sometimes resorted to eating their animals, not only as a result of lack of food sources, but also the inadequacy of forage at desert springs.  Effusive descriptions of the suitability of Las Vegas to feed thousands of head of livestock were true, until a combination of wheeled vehicle passage cut the turf subjecting the meadow to erosion and overgrazing damaged the meadows.   Current conditions in Holt Canyon provide an unparalleled opportunity to understand the impacts that historical livestock has had on the watersheds and vegetation starting with the passage of hundreds of pack animals each fall and thousands of head of horses and mules each spring by the commercial caravans on the Old Spanish Trail.

The Holt Canyon route segment of the Old Spanish Trail is representative of the following 

historic contexts: Context 1: Mexican Period and the Beginning of International Trade and Commerce, 1821-1848 and Context 3: The Old Spanish Trail:  The Main Route as defined in the Multiple Property Documentation Form Old Spanish Trail AD 1821-1848. 

This historic site is eligible for listing under Criterion A as a property associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history during the Mexican and Territorial Periods of under these areas of significance: commerce, economics, exploration/settlement, social history, and transportation. 

UT - Holt Canyon: Narrative

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary

The seventeen mile Old Spanish Trail landscape from the mouth of Pinto Creek at Newcastle, Utah to the southernmost extent of Mountain Meadows includes the divide between the interior draining Great Basin and the Colorado River drainage to the Pacific, which John C. Frémont (1845:270) and later observers of the “Rim of the Basin”  took considerable notice of.  This jornada, or day’s trail journey, for the first seven miles after leaving Pinto Creek passes at the toe of the wooded Pine Valley Mountains to the southeast on the margin of the Escalante Desert, before turning south up Holt Canyon.  At the mouth of Holt Canyon, travelers would encounter the Las Vegas de Santa Clara (later “Mountain Meadows”) described by Frémont as ten miles of lush valley and watersource - an important layover for eastbound travelers from New Mexico to California to “recruit” - or water, feed and/or rest - their livestock (Frémont 1845:270).  Later travelers saw the same potential for forage but also a decreasing area of meadow resulting from erosion and a dropping watertable.  Today, because of water and vegetation manipulation, Mountain Meadows might appear similar, but are further modified from what would have been observed by the last Old Spanish Trail period travelers in 1848. Representative of the landscape property type this historically documented section of the “rim of the basin” corridor of the Old Spanish Trail is nominated under the Multiple Property Documentation Form, Old Spanish Trail  AD 1821-1848, historic contexts 1 and 3, Mexican Period and the Beginning of International Trade and Commerce, 1821-1848 and The Old Spanish Trail:  The Main Route, as defined in the MPDF and in the following areas of significance: commerce, economics, exploration/settlement, social history, and transportation. 

The Holt Canyon site is the topographic and landscape feature along which the pack trail and livestock trail traversed, as documented first by Frémont in 1844 and by several others over the period of significance, ending with Orville Pratt in late 1848, just after the last herd of horses and mules were driven back to New Mexico from California.  This is also the canyon passage that Addison Pratt travelled in 1849 accompanying seven wagons of emigrants bound for California on the “Spanish Trail.” 

NV - Mormon Mesa: Major Bibliographical References

Auerbach, Herbert S.

            1941                 Old Trails, Old Forts, Old Trappers and Traders. Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 9, Numbers 1 & 2, pages 13- 63.

Baxter, John O.

            1987                 Los Carneradas: Sheep Trade in New Mexico 1700-1860.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Brewerton, George Douglas

            1993                 Overland with Kit Carson: A Narrative of the Old Spanish Trail in ’48. Introduction by Marc

                                    Simmons. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Brooks, George R., editor

            1977                 The Southwest Expedition of Jedediah S. Smith: His Personal Account of the Journey to California, 1826-1827.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Frémont, John C.

            1845 [1988]       Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-1844. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, Reprint with an Introduction by Herman J. Viola and Ralph Ehrenberg.

NV - Mormon Mesa: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Historical Descriptions

I. Precursors to 1829

Jedediah Smith October 1826 (Brooks 1977:56-71) and July 1827 (Sullivan 1992:28-29)

Jedediah Smith made two trips down the Virgin River drainage, first in October 1826 with 18 men and 28 horses (Brooks 1977:37-39) and then returned in July of 1827 (Sullivan 1992:27-28).  In both instances, he notes Indian “lodges” on the Santa Clara River (the tributary of the Virgin to the northwest which Smith calls “Corn Creek” and Armijo calls “Rio de Las Milpas” [“Cornfields River’]) where the inhabitants were  growing corn and pumpkins (Sullivan 1992:28, Brooks 1977:57-59). Since Smith’s objective was commercial beaver trapping, he stuck close to the river courses where this resource is found.  Smith therefore makes note of the absence of beaver in the Virgin River Gorge in the fall, but evidence that they had been present in spring (Brooks 1977:59). Smith provides considerable detail on native economy, trade and relations.  Smith also observes (Sullivan 1992:27) that a nearly starved group on their way to Taos had passed through the “Corn Creek” villages on their way east in the spring of the previous year (1826).

II. Period of Significance (1829-1848)

NV - Mormon Mesa: Significance

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

The Mormon Mesa trail segment of the Old Spanish Trail is representative of the following historic contexts as defined in the Multiple Property Documentation Form Old Spanish Trail AD 1821-1848 under these areas of significance: commerce, economics, exploration/settlement, social history, and transportation.

The major historical support for the significance of the Mormon Mesa trail segment is the account of John C. Frémont’s “Second Expedition” to the west which was intended to scout routes to the Pacific.  Fremont in this expedition named the established route he followed “the Spanish Trail.”  Frémont specifically recognized the Spanish Trail as an important corridor when he states in his report entry for April 18, 1844 (Frémont 1845:258-259):

NV - Mormon Mesa: Narrative

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary Paragraph

The Mormon Mesa trail site of the Main Branch of the Old Spanish Trail is a site distinguished by an unaltered landscape described and mapped by John C. Frémont in spring of 1844 as he travelled the “Spanish Trail” through Nevada, during the 1829-1848 period of significance of the Old Spanish Trail. The proposed canyon segment is an intact historic landscape and contributes to the National Register for the 1829-1848 period of significance, with three contributing segments of trail that functioned as a packtrail and livestock driveway.  Twolater roadway alignments, a highway and a wagon road trace, are noncontributing to the period of significance. The segment is intact for 10 of the approximately 18 miles of the jornada - “a day’s journey” - between parajes - water and camp sites - at the Virgin River to the east and the Muddy River to the west.  Mormon Mesa is a tableland in the Mojave Desert over which historical documents indicate the packtrail and livestock driveway passed between New Mexico and California.  This nomination constitutes addition of a contributing resource to the existing Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road National Register District in Nevada which includes the landscape associated with the 1829-1848 alignment of the commercial packtrail and livestock driveway on Mormon Mesa as contributing to the National Register District.  

Environmental Setting. 

CA: Emigrant Pass: Bibliographical References

Armijo, Antonio (1830). ‘Diario que formo Antonio Armijo para el Descubimiento del Camino para el punto de las Californias de Territorioo del N. México.’ Registo Official del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Año 1, Tom II, Sábado 19 Junio de 1830,Numero 34, pages 205-206.

Armstrong, Augustus K., Cole L. Smith, George L. Kennedy, Chales Sabine, Ronald T. Mayerle (1987).Mineral Resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California. USGS Bulletin 1709-C. Denver: USGS.

Auerbach, Herbert S. (1941). “Old Trails, Old Forts, Old Trappers and Traders.” Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 9, Numbers 1 & 2, pages 13- 63.

Baxter, John O. (1987). Los Carneradas: Sheep Trade in New Mexico 1700-1860.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Beckwith, E. G. (1855). Report of the Exploration of a Route for the Pacific Railroad, Near the 38th and 39th Parallels of Latitude, from the Mouth of the Kansas to Sevier River, in the Great Basin. 33rd Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives Executive Document No 129. Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer.

Boyle, Susan Calafate. (1994).  Comerciantes, Arrieros, Y Peones: The Hispanos and the Santa Fe Trade. Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 54. Santa Fe: Division of History, Southwest Region, National Park Service.

Brewerton, George Douglas. (1993). Overland with Kit Carson: A Narrative of the Old Spanish Trail in ’48. Introduction by Marc Simmons. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Major Bibliographical References

Adams, Eleanor B. and Fray Angelico Chavez (1975).  The Missions of New Mexico, 1776. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Adler, Michael A. and Herbert W. Dick (1999).  Picuris Pueblo through Time: Eight Centuries of Change at a Northern Rio Grande Pueblo. Dallas: William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.

Anderson, Allen (1864 [reprint Museum of New Mexico Press, no date]).  Map of the Military Department of New Mexico. Accompanying Report of Brigadeer General J. H. Carleton Series I Vol XLVIII. US Government Printing Office.

Bauer, Paul W. (2004).  There’s Gold in Them Cliffs…or is There? The Fleeting (and Fleecing?) Glen-Woody Mining Venture. In Geology of the Taos Region, Edited by Brian S. Brister and Others. Page 69. Albuquerque: New Mexico Geological Society.

Bennett, C., Dickson, P., Ramsay, B. H., & Ramsay, J. B. (no date). The "Winter" Route between Velarde and Taos before 1875.

Bloom, Lansing B. (1927). Early Weaving in New Mexico. New Mexico Historical Review Vol 2, No. 3: 228-238.

Blumenschein, H. G. (1968). Historic Roads and Trails to Taos. El Palacio , 75 (1), 9-19.

Boyle, Susan Calafate. (1994).  Comerciantes, Arrieros, Y Peones: The Hispanos and the Santa Fe Trade. Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 54. Santa Fe: Division of History, Southwest Region, National Park Service.

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Historic Narrative specific to the “Apodaca Trail”

The “Apodaca Trail” on the Cañada de Apodaca drainage has been documented as part of the “North Branch” of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail (Kessler, 1998; Nelson, 2003; Colville, 1996; Hafen & Hafen, 1993). The only known historical accounts which specifically document the trail connecting Taos to Santa Fe during the Old Spanish Trail period of significance of 1829-1848 are related to the Insurrection Against the Military Government in New Mexico (McNierney, 1980). The first treatment of historic roads and trails into Taos was prepared by Helen Blumenschein in 1968. John Ramsay has prepared two manuscripts reporting fieldwork tracing the “winter route” or “Apodaca Trail” between Velarde and Pilar [Ramsay, Bennett, Dickson, & Ramsay, 2002; Bennett, Dickson, Ramsay, & Ramsay, no date]. Corky Hawk has reported on trail traces between Taos south to Pilar and Picuris.

      Mexican Territorial (1821-1845) and early American Territorial (1846- 1875) Commerce

At the time of Mexican Independence, the frontier trade center and commercial functions at Taos Pueblo were being supplanted by commercial trapping, particularly for beaver pelts harvested from the Great Basin by Spanish, English and French speaking entrepreneurs based in the agrarian settlements in the Taos Valley. The pre-Columbian aboriginal network of footpaths had been reorganized to accommodate draftdraft animals including both horses and mules and for transport of commercial items produced in new settlements based on European-style market economies. The nature and quantity of the commodities being transported, the centers of production (supply), the locales of consumption (demand) and the technology for transport required different vernacular “design criteria” for the “pack trail” and “livestock driveway” transportation technology. The Cañada de Apodaca trail was known as a particularly difficult obstacle situated between the impassable Rio Grande Gorge and the rugged Picuris range in the connection between Taos on the northern frontier and the core settlements and governmental administration at Santa Fe in the Mexican Territorial Period.

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Significance

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

National Register Criteria

Criterion A. Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; 

The Cañada de Apodaca is documented to be the primary link between the northeastern Mexican frontier portal settlement of Taos, the core weaving settlements in the Española Basin, governmental administration in Santa Fe, and the northwest portal for the California trade at Abiquiu. The role of the Cañada de Apodaca trail was not to transport fabrics to California, which probably did not occur on the “North Branch” of the OSNHT.  Rather, Taos was the source of guides, scouts and traders who had geographic knowledge required by the merchants and packers, or arrieros, transporting woven woolen goods through the northwestern frontier portal at Abiquiu to California.  By 1829 “Americano” expatriate trappers and traders had also placed their imprint on the commercial interests of the Taos Valley, and through the isolation afforded by the treacherous route to Santa Fe, could manipulate government permits, licenses and taxes administered from the government center there.  The route of the Cañada de Apodaca Trail -through fantastic colorful rock formations between the choked “Embudo” of the Rio Grande - avoided the nearly impassable Rio Grande Gorge - offering both an obstacle and an asset for the Taos entrepreneurs.  The Cañada de Apodaca provides an outstanding opportunity to see a

NM - Cañada de Apodaca: Narrative

By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary 

The Cañada de Apodaca is a distinct topographic and geographic segment of the historic commercial goods pack trail and livestock driveway that connected settlements and Spanish Colonial towns in the Espanola Valley to the agrarian “plazuelas” in the Taos Valley and on to markets in “Nuevo Mexico” and beyond, during the Spanish Colonial, Mexican Territorial and early US Territorial periods. The corridor, established in the 1720s, followed aboriginal foot paths (Blumenschein 1968) along the Rio Grande and then followed those paths to turn slightly eastward to avoid the fragoso, or rugged, Rio Grande Gorge. The “high road” – Camino Alto or “Summer Route” – passed through the mountain Colonial settlements of Chimayo, Truchas, Ojo Sarco, Las Trampas, and Chamisal as well as Picuris Pueblo, which were placed alongside pre-Columbian aboriginal settlements and trade routes. 

The Apodaca trail occurs on the “low road” alignment – the Camino Abajo or “Winter Route” – one of two major routes between Santa Fe and Taos before, during and after the Old Spanish Trail period of significance of 1829-1848. Roque Madrid wrote in 1705 of the passage through the area, though it is unclear which route he took. Catholic Friar Francisco Atanasio Dominguez (Adams and Chavez 1975:101-113) wrote specifically about each of the two routes in his account of 1776. As a wintertime connector between Santa Fe and Taos, the Apodaca trailis associated with the  “North Branch” as well as the “Main Route” of the Old Spanish Trail.  Taos was the information center where guides could be hired to navigate the trails from Abiquiu in New Mexico through vastly varied and often complicated terrain, as well as establish positive relationships with the many different tribes along the trail to California. The “low road” between Taos and Santa Fe fell into disuse with the completion of a US military road in 1876 in the Rio Grande Gorge (Ruffner 1876:9). By the early 20^th century, the Cañada de Apodaca route was relegated to “historic trail” when the route to the Harding and Copper Hill Mines and the modern highway from Dixon to Penasco was developed on a bypass to the south. Subsequent use of the Cañada as “commons” for pasturage, woodcutting and – in the lower portions – refuse dumping, continues today.  The contributing site is a largely intact historical landscape which includes a contributing structure of braided trail that features an intact packtrail alignment. Non-contributing features include portions of intact improved grades constructed after the period of significance. The Cañada de Apodaca segment of the “North Branch” of the Old Spanish Trail provides visitors with the opportunity to experience the setting which has changed little since its original travelers transported goods, services, and people to markets near and far. 

CO - Wells Gulch: Major Bibliographical References

Beckwith, E. G. (1855). Report of the Exploration of a Route for the Pacific Railroad, Near the 38^th and 39^th Parallels of Latitude, from the Mouth of the Kansas to Sevier River, in the Great Basin. 33^rd Congress, 1^st Session, House of Representatives Executive Document No 129. Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer.

 Boyle, Susan Calafate. (1994).  Comerciantes, Arrieros, Y Peones: The Hispanos and the Santa Fe Trade. Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 54. Santa Fe: Division of History, Southwest Region, National Park Service.

Brewerton, George Douglas. (1993).  Overland with Kit Carson: A Narrative of the Old Spanish Trail in ’48. Introduction by Marc Simmons. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Brown, Margie Coffin (2005). Historic Trails.  National Park Service Olmstead Center for Landscape Preservation Landscape Lines Volume 15. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.

Colville, R. M. (1996). La Vereda: A Trail through Time. Del Norte: The San Luis Valley Historical Society.

Carvalho, Solomon Nunes (2004 [1858]).  Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West with Colonel Frémont’s Last Expedition.  With Introduction by Ava F. Kahn. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Chronic, Halka (1980).  Roadside Geology of Colorado. Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company.

CA - Emigrant Pass Route Segment: Significance

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

The Emigrant Pass route segment constitutes a verifiable landscape through which a mule and horse pack trail (later known as the “Spanish Trail”) passed and can be historically linked with the trade in commercial products between the Mexican Territories of Alta, California and Nuevo Mexico in the period of 1829-1848.  This conclusion is based on evidence of the trail passing over this area as described in the journals and maps created by John C Frémont   in 1844 as well as the published journal of George Douglas Brewerton, who passed through the area with Kit Carson in 1847.  Documents made by emigrant wagon train travelers on the “Spanish Trail” in 1849 immediately after the trade in woolen fabrics woven in New Mexico and packed by mule to California and traded for draught animals for the eastern territories ceased, confirm “Emigrant Pass” as the known transportation corridor during the last decade of Mexican jurisdiction of the trade and territory and beyond.  The Emigrant Pass route segment is a historic site eligible at the State Level for listing to the National Register under Criteria A for its association with the Old Spanish Trail and events between 1829 – 1848 that have made an important contribution to the history of the region between New Mexico and California. Also eligible under criterion D the site has the potential to yield information important to understanding the commerce/trade network that developed from 1829-1848 between New Mexico and California. This site is nominated under the Multiple Property Documentation Form, Old Spanish Trail  AD 1821-1848, and is representative of (include historic contexts from MPDF) and areas of significance: commerce, economics, exploration/settlement, social history, and transportation. 

The Emigrant Pass route segment of the Old Spanish Trail is representative of the following historic contexts as defined in the Multiple Property Documentation Form Old Spanish Trail AD 1821-1848. This historic site is eligible for listing under Criterion A as a property associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history during the Mexican and Territorial Periods of under these areas of significance: commerce, economics, exploration/settlement, social history, and transportation.

CA - Emigrant Pass Route Segment: Narrative

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary

The Emigrant Pass Old Spanish Trail segment is a well-established “choke” or pinch point in a high mountain gap in the Nopah range, nearly equidistant between Stump (formerly Escarbado) Springs to the east and Resting (formerly Archilette or Hernandez) Springs to the west - two well established water sources and “camp sites” (or “parajes”) in the Mojave Desert on the main route of the Old Spanish Trail, a pack trail and livestock driveway between New Mexico and California.  John C. Frémont   wrote a clear historical account of travel over Emigrant Pass during the 1829-1848 period of significance in the papers from his “Second Expedition” in 1844 (Jackson and Spence 1970:684-685, Johnson 2009).   The pass between the two desert springs is topographically notable because it affords dramatic views of the expansive desert landscape east and west of the craggy mountain pass.  The location is archeologically interesting because the landscape constriction allows for the possibility of physical evidence that may survive from the period of use, nearly two centuries after it served as part of what later became known as the Old Spanish Trail.  Also, because of an incident of Paiute attack on an advance group of Frémont ’s 1844 return caravan at Resting Springs, this 22 mile long corridor  with approximately 2 mile long intact retracement provides a particularly prescient opportunity for modern visitors to appreciate the historical difficulties of living and working on the Mexican frontier.

Environmental Setting

CA - Emigrant Pass Route Segment: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Historical Descriptions

Aboriginal Trails, Trade and Commerce (horse Trails) Trade

Anthropologist David Earle (2005) has done extensive research on the aboriginal occupants and associated exchange systems in the Mojave River Basin.  Ethnohistoric research on Southern Paiute occupants in the Amargosa Valley has been sparse compared to that for Southern Paiute groups on the Arizona Strip (Kelly 1934). Anthropologist Julian Steward (1970:180-182) takes issue with Kelly’s intermixing of Southern Paiute bands in the Las Vegas Valley with those on the Amargosa and Pahrump Valley and thinks that John Wesley Powell’s distinguishing these as separate groups is more likely.  The distinctiveness of this and other Paiute geographic groupings may be very important in the different nature of interactions that European travellers through the Mojave Desert report in the 19th Century.

Armijo 1830

On January 14, 1830, Armijo encounters a village, stating (Hafen and Hafen 1993:164):

At the River of the Payuches, where a village was found: nothing happened for it was gentle. 

AZ - Big Bend of the Virgin River: Major Bibliographical References

Alder, Douglas D. and Karl F. Brooks (2007). A history of Washington County: From Isolation to Destination. Second Edition. Springdale UT: Zion Natural History Association.

Armijo, Antonio (1830). ‘Diario que formo Antonio Armijo para el Descubimiento del Camino para el punto de las Californias de Territorioo del N. México.’ Registo Official del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Año 1, Tom II, Sábado 19 Junio de 1830,Numero 34, pages 205-206.

Armstrong, Augustus K., Cole L. Smith, George L. Kennedy, Chales Sabine, Ronald T. Mayerle (1987).Mineral Resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California. USGS Bulletin 1709-C. Denver: USGS.

Auerbach, Herbert S. (1941). “Old Trails, Old Forts, Old Trappers and Traders.” Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 9, Numbers 1 & 2, pages 13- 63.

Baxter, John O. (1987). Los Carneradas: Sheep Trade in New Mexico 1700-1860.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Beckwith, E. G. (1855). Report of the Exploration of a Route for the Pacific Railroad, Near the 38^th and 39^th Parallels of Latitude, from the Mouth of the Kansas to Sevier River, in the Great Basin. 33^rd Congress, 1^st Session, House of Representatives Executive Document No 129. Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer.

AZ - Big Bend of the Virgin River: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson, edited by Rachel Preston Prinz

The demise of Baptiste Tabeau. The Frémont (1845:268-269) account is the only detailed description of the nature of the trail in the Virgin River between Halfway Wash and Beaver Dam from the period of significance:

For several days we continued our journey up the river, the bottoms of which were thickly overgrown with various kinds of brush; and the sandy soil was absolutely covered with the tracks of Diggers, who followed us stealthily, like a band of wolves; and we had no opportunity to leave behind, even for a few hours, the tired animals, in order that they might be brought into camp after a little repose.  A horse or mule left behind, was taken off in a moment.  On the evening of the 8^th [May 1844], having travelled 28 miles up the river from our first encampment on it [on east bank across from mouth of Halfway Wash], we encamped at a little grass-plat, where a spring of cool water issued from the bluff [site of current Littlefield?].  On the opposite side was a grove of cottonwoods at the mouth of a fork, which here enters the river.  On either side the valley is bounded by ranges of mountains, everywhere high, rocky, and broken.  The caravan road was lost and scattered in the sandy country, and we had been following an Indian trail up the river.  The hunters the next day [May 9, 1844] were sent out to reconnoiter, and in the mean time we moved about a mile farther up, where we found a good little patch of grass.  There being only sufficient grass for the night, the horses were sent with a strong guard in charge of Tabeau to a neighboring hollow, where they might pasture during the day; and to be ready in case the Indians should make any attempt on the animals, several of the best horses were picketed at the camp.  In a few hours the hunters returned, having found a convenient ford in the river, and discovered the Spanish trail on the other side.

Preservation Inspiration I: Landscape and Context How a National Register Landscape-based Nomination Reframed our View of Historic Architecture

This past summer, I was asked to be part of a unique team brought together to produce nominations of 6 high-potential route segments of the Old Spanish National Historical Trail (OST) for the National Register of Historic Places. Each site would be located in, and approved by the SHPOs & THPOs, plus BLM, Forest and Park Services of each of the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

What made these projects highly unusual was that of the entire 2700 mile length of the Old Spanish Trail, which is actually a network of many trails, it was only in ONE location that we had absolute, undisputed evidence of the trail passing by a particular point during the period of significance. ONE documented, proven, archaeologically unquestioned place – a short series of rock steps cut into an impossibly steep canyon wall in Arizona. As I was the only architectural designer/historian on the team, I watched as period historians and archaeologists tried and failed to document this historic trail system by traditional means.

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AZ - Big Bend of the Virgin River: Significance

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

The Big Bend Route Segment Key Observation Point (KOP) is the topographic feature along which the Old Spanish Trail pack and livestock trail is indicated in historic accounts to have passed over starting with Armijo in 1829 and ending with Orville Pratt in late 1848, just after the last herd of horses and mules were driven back to New Mexico from California.  This topographic feature and the associated landscape compose the significant characteristics that travelers on the trail would have encountered between 1829 and 1848 when pack caravans passed through on the way to California and equine livestock was driven back to New Mexico. Significanct under Criteria A, the site is associated with the historic contexts for the Armijo and Main Routes of the Old Spanish Trail as defined in the The Old Spanish Trail, AD 1821-1848: A 19th Century Commercial Route Linking Hispanic Settlements in Northern New Mexico and Upper (Alto) California Multiple Property Documentation Form.  The site is representative of the areas of significance related to commerce, economics, exploration/settlement, social history and transportation. The areas of signficance for the site have been defined broadly for the trail in the MPDF.

Because of the paucity of first-hand accounts of the caravan traffic between New Mexico and California, there are only a few instances where specific events are associated with traffic along the trail.  The section of trail in the vicinity of Beaver Dam is one of the exceptions,

AZ - Big Bend of the Virgin River: Narrative

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary

The Big Bend of the Virgin River route segment of the Old Spanish Trail is located in the Basin and Range physiographic province (Thornbury 1965) as well as the Mojave Basin and Range Ecoregion (US EPA 2011).  The Virgin River is on the eastern margin of the Basin and Range system, with the Virgin Mountains marking a transition zone in physiography (Billingsley and Workman 2000:1) and biology between the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert.  Because of a series of deep lateral drainages on both sides of the Virgin River, the Big Bend creates a major topographic obstacle in the 30 mile stretch between two established “camp sites” (or “parajes”) at Beaver Dam on the North and Halfway Wash on the south in the river travel corridor as it passes through the northwest corner of Arizona.  Antonio Armijo passed from a camp presumed to be at Beaver Dam on December 25, 1829 to a camp presumed to be halfway to the confluence of the Muddy River and the Virgin River the following day.   John C. Frémont wrote a clear historical account of travel over of this section of the Spanish Trail in his “Second Expedition” on May 8, 1844 (Fremont 1845:293, Jackson and Spence 1970:688-691, Steiner 1999:102-108). This is the first section of the pack trail and livestock driveway travelling west after leaving Abiquiu, New Mexico where the Old Spanish Trail “Main Route” and “Armijo Route” share a common corridor.  No trail remnants have been located in this property attributable to the 1829-1848 period of use for fall pack animal trade caravans to California or spring stock drives of horses and mules back to New Mexico[t1] .  However, the Big Bend Key Observation Point (KOP)[t2]  proposed in this nomination provides an excellent opportunity to experience the natural setting of river beds and desert benches through which the trail passed, and where subsequent intrusions do not dominate.

Environmental Setting

The Big Bend of the Virgin River route segment of the Old Spanish National Historical Trail is located in the Basin and Range physiographic province (Thornbury 1965) as well as the Mojave Basin and Range Ecoregion (US EPA 2011).  The Virgin River is on the eastern margin of the Basin and Range system, with the Virgin Mountains marking a transition zone in physiography (Billingsley and Workman 2000:1) and biology between the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert.  This environmental distinction was important to people traversing the Spanish Trail.  Coming from east, it meant the hardships of a month in the “hot desert” with