History & Geography
Tracing The Tracks and Trails of Northeast New Mexico
Looking towards Miami, NM from Hwy 58 east of Cimarron
Photo by Teresa Norris
A long lush memory is embedded in the windswept plains, on the mesa tops and in the secluded mountain canyons of northeast New Mexico. The land has kept a careful record of tracks and trails to present a multi-generational morality play, the ultimate American Western. Stand on top of Capulin Volcano, which erupted sometime between 56,000 and 62,000 years ago, for a reminder of the inevitable force of geography. An ancient inland sea with sandy beaches was the obvious place for plodding hadrosaurs and sprinting pterodactyls to leave three-toed tracks embedded in sandstone. Folsom Man had to cross an intercontinental ice bridge and half a continent to hunt bison and other game, only to leave his mark for a curious cowboy to find many centuries later. Droughts forced the Anasazi to migrate south and west to fertile river valleys, establishing grand settlements such as the now-abandoned Pecos Pueblo.
Northeast New Mexico is a history lesson of what happens when two empires meet. The older north-south Spanish Empire ended in Santa Fe and the younger, brasher east-west American Empire reached no further than Independence, Missouri. A grand 600-mile prairie lay in between, with mountains to pass and rivers to ford. Wagon after wagon would follow the Santa Fe Trail, leaving a legacy of tracks that can still be seen today.
When the railroads came, they left tracks of another kind. Both left deserted forts and numerous historic buildings, plazas and streets. Route 66 left traces of a different era of American history. Northeast New Mexico attracted the honorable and the infamous. Fortunes were made and lost; mansions built and abandoned; cultures thrived, then sometimes died. Northeast New Mexico history was dramatic, romantic, sometimes sad, but never boring.
As the wind sweeps through the tall grama grass today, if you listen carefully you can still hear the pterodactyls screech in frustration as they try to fly. The winds bring the whisper of Folsom Man's spears flying through the air, the clip-clop of horses carrying Spanish conquistadores searching for the Cities of Gold, the woody creaks of wagons following the Santa Fe Trail. Listen for the mournful wails of distant railroad horns and the thrum of '56 Chevies on Route 66. Does it seem that history in sleepy, dreamy northeast New Mexico is taking a siesta? Well, the edge is still here. So get out of your car and stay for a while. Be a part of history being made today in northeast New Mexico!
