Kay Beth Faris Avery - Along the Huerfano River

IMAGES
of America

ALONG THE
HUERFANO RIVER

HEADWATERS OF THE HUERFANO, C. 1968. Carrying his daughter in his arms, Alfred Newman Jr. climbs the north face of Mount Blanca. He approached the top of the mountain by way of the Lily Lake Trail. Today, this area is part of the Sangre de Cristo National Wilderness. (Carolyn Newman.)

ON THE COVER: THE THATCHERS CHUCK WAGON. Ranchers in southern Colorado raised thousands of cows during the 1870s and 1880s. Two of the wealthiest livestock owners were John Albert Thatcher and his brother Mahlon D. Thatcher. Here, the grandson of John Albert stands beside a chuck wagon that boldly displays the Thatcher brand. For more details, see . (Pueblo County Historical Society.)

IMAGES
of America

ALONG THE
HUERFANO RIVER

Kay Beth Faris Avery

Copyright 2016 by Kay Beth Faris Avery
ISBN 978-1-4671-1700-5
Ebook ISBN 9781439658727

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number:

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To Carolyn Newman, who offered so much assistance in the making of this book, and to my husband, Charles W. Avery.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to extend my appreciation to all who contributed images and information to this project. I am especially grateful to those individuals who offered materials from their private collections. Each of them has been noted beneath the particular image they contributed.

In addition, I must thank local historian Carolyn Newman, Huerfano County Historical Society president Sharon Vezzani, chapter nine consultant David Perkins, Nancy Christofferson at the Francisco Fort Museum, William Bechaver at the Alton Tirey Local History Center, Pat Schall at the Monte Vista Historical Society, Christopher J. Schreck at the Steelworks Center of the West, Marie Steinbach at the Pueblo County Historical Society, Emily Brock at the New Mexico History Museum, Coi Drummond-Gehrig at the Denver Public Library, and Maria E. Tucker, Tammi Moe, and Charlene Garcia Simms at the Rawlings Library within the Pueblo City-County Library District.

Images for which no courtesy line has been provided come from the authors collection. In addition to material from private collections, images also appear courtesy of Huerfano County Historical Society/Alton Tirey Local History Center (HCHS/ATC); Huerfano County Historical Society/Francisco Fort Museum (HCHS/FFM); Huerfano County Historical Society/Walsenburg Mining Museum (HCHS/WMM); Pueblo City-County Library District, Special Collections (PCCLD); Pueblo County Historical Society (PCHS); Steelworks Center of the West (Steelworks); Monte Vista Historical Society (MVHS); Denver Public Library Western History Collection (DPL), US Library of Congress (LOC); US Geological Survey Denver Library Photographic Collection (USGS); and Palace of the Governors Photo Archives New Mexico History Museum/Digital Collection Archives (NMHM/DCA).

INTRODUCTION

The 113-mile-long Huerfano River originates at Lily Lake on Blanca Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Colorado and joins the Arkansas River in Pueblo County just south of Boone. It is a short tributary by most standards, but the historic trail that winds along its banks boasts a rich and varied history much older than the state of Colorado.

In the millennium prior to Europeans entering the Southwest, Utes, Apaches, and other Native American tribes used the trail along the Huerfano for hunting game or raiding one anothers camps. By the late 1300s, the Pueblo Indians around Taos, New Mexico, had a well-established system of hunting and trading trails extending into southern Colorado, including the one that wound north into the San Luis Valley, ascended Sangre de Cristo Pass east of Blanca Peak, snaked down Oak Creek on the north side of the pass, and followed the Huerfano to its confluence with the Arkansas.

By the 18th century, Spanish explorers were quite familiar with the Sangre de Cristo Pass Trail and all routes that crossed over the Huerfano River. In 1806, Lt. Zebulon Pike became the first American explorer to enter Colorado. After erecting a temporary stockade at the site of present-day Pueblo, Colorado, and making an unsuccessful attempt to scale the mountain that now bears his name, Pike followed the Arkansas River to about the Twin Lakes area, descended into the Royal George, and in the dead of winter trekked painstakingly mile by mile through this chasm until his men at last climbed back to level ground near present-day Caon City.

Leaving a string of starved, half-frozen men along the way, Pike marched up Grape Creek into the Wet Mountain Valley, traversed Medano Pass, skirted the Great Sand Dunes, and reached the mouth of the Conejos River, where he built temporary shelter and awaited rescue. Eventually Spanish dragoons found him, rounded up all his men, placed them under arrest, and took them to Santa Fe for questioning. They spent several months incarcerated at a prison in Chihuahua before they were finally allowed to return to the United States.

Zebulon Pikes intrusion into Nuevo Mexico alarmed the Spanish viceroy in Mexico City so thoroughly that he suggested the building of a military lookout post to protect against American intruders. Gov. Fecundo Melgares established this Spanish fort in 1819 on South Oak Creek near the top of the Sangre de Cristo Pass, less than five miles above the Huerfano River. It lasted only a few months before the Spanish soldiers manning it were overrun by Indians.

Two years later, in January 1822, Jacob Fowler wrote in his journal about passing by the remains of this fort. Fowler was taking a trapping crew from the upper Arkansas River to Taos, New Mexico, by way of the Huerfano River and Sangre de Cristo Pass. He and his partner, Hugh Glenn, had come west to trap beaver so they could pay off debts they had accumulated during the financial panic of 1819. Many more adventurers would follow in their footsteps. In fact, so many mountain men frequented the trail over Sangre de Cristo Pass that it became known as the Trappers Trail. Travelers taking this route often wanted to avoid customs officials in Santa Fe as they smuggled trade goods into Taos and smuggled out their pelts.

After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the citizens of New Mexico welcomed American-made merchandise into their country. William Becknell, as the first American vendor to reach Santa Fe in the spring of 1822, managed to exchange $300 worth of trade goods for $6,000 of Mexican silver. Becknells dazzling profits inspired other businessmen to attempt the long and hazardous journey along the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to New Mexico. By 1843, annual traffic had swelled to 230 wagons hauling merchandise as far south as Chihuahua.

A key element of the expanding commerce was a booming business in beaver pelts and buffalo robes. To acquire these products, American fur traders began building trading posts along southern Colorados waterways. John Gantt constructed an adobe fort on the Arkansas River. However, Gantts venture was soon dwarfed by the Bent brothers success. William and Charles Bent, in partnership with Ceran St. Vrain, established a larger, more popular adobe fort at a site near modern-day La Junta in 1833.