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PREHISTORIC NATURAL HISTORY
By BILL CAVALIERE
Hidalgo County is rich in both natural and human history. One of the earliest signs of prehistoric animal life in the area is that of a duck-billed dinosaur skeleton found just across the Hidalgo County line, in neighboring Grant County, which probably dates to the Jurassic age. Near the dinosaur was a piece of its fossilized skin, one of only a few specimens ever found in New Mexico. The skeleton was partially excavated by paleontologists in the late 1990s and the retrieved portion put on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque. In May 1962, the fossilized skeletons of two extinct mammoths were unearthed at Lordsburg.
Paleontologists dated them at 10,000 years old. Another prehistoric specialty, found in the southern part of Hidalgo County, is the shoreline of an ancient lake, which is a remnant from the pre-Pleistocene era. Here, the implements of early man, including a tool called an atlatl, have been recovered.
Indian ruins are found throughout Hidalgo County. In general, these sites belong to both the Casas Grande and Mimbres cultures. These cultures flourished from 100 AD until 1400, with little evidence found afterwards. An exception to this is found at the ruins on Deer Creek in the Animas Mountains (on the present-day Gray Ranch), where artifacts have been carbon-14 dated from 1565 to 1620. Indeed, early Spanish expeditions mention encountering these particular Indians.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS
The first expedition of Spaniards into this area was the Coronado expedition in 1540. Several others followed in the years afterwards. Authorities are not sure of Coronado's exact route, which consisted of about 300 of his men and several hundred Indians, but it is believed that they traveled through the San Simon valley, past the present-day town of Rodeo.
THE NATIVE AMERICANS
The Indian tribe that Hidalgo County is perhaps best known for are the Chiricahua Apaches. The Apaches arrived in this area in the 1500s. Cochise is one of the best-known Chiricahua chiefs, and his friendship with his blood-brother Tom Jeffords, a white American, is a well-known story. After Cochise's death in June 1874, his eldest son Taza was elevated to chief. While on a tour of Washington DC in 1876, Taza died of pneumonia, and Cochise's remaining son, Naiche, became hereditary chief of the Chiricahuas.
The US Cavalry fought for many years against the Apaches, with many battles occurring in Hidalgo County, most notably in the areas of Stein's Peak, Doubtful Canyon and near Animas Peak. Cochise signed a peace treaty, negotiated by Jeffords, in 1872. However, in 1875, only one year after Cochise's death, the US government violated the treaty, causing the Apaches to once again wage war against the Americans.
On Sept. 4, 1886, after years of being pursued by both the American and Mexican armies, Geronimo, along with Chief Naiche, surrendered to General Nelson Miles in Skeleton Canyon, which is situated half in Hidalgo County and half in Cochise County, AZ. The surrender forever ended the Indian wars in the United States.
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLERS
Southern Hidalgo County was crossed in 1846 by Lt. Col. Phillip St. George Cooke, leading the 500-man Mormon Battalion (though not a Mormon himself) to California to fight in the Mexican War. One of Cooke's guides was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea of Lewis and Clark fame. Charbonneau signed on with the Mormon Battalion in Albuquerque. The Guadalupe Mountains were memorable to the battalion because of the canyon that the men had to lower the wagons down, by rope, in order to continue, as well as for the grizzly bear that Charbonneau killed to provide meat for the men. This same trail forged by the Mormon Battalion was later used by some of the 49ers en route to the goldfields of California in 1849.
During this period, what is now known as Hidalgo County was still part of Mexico. This all changed in 1853, with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase, adding to the United States the area between the Gila River and the present border with Mexico. Not long after, the Butterfield Stage route was laid out, with one of its stage stations located near the current ghost town of Shakespeare.
Near the east end of Skeleton Canyon, which runs through the Peloncillo Mountains, the Clanton family had a homestead of sorts, which consisted of two dugouts. From this base, Newman "Old Man" Clanton, along with his sons, raised, and some say rustled, cattle. In July 1881, "Old Man" Clanton, along with sons Ike and Billy and five outlaw friends, ambushed a Mexican mule train smuggling silver coins through Skeleton Canyon. Some say that the coins were buried and never recovered, and thus remain one of the southwest's most famous buried treasures. The following month, "Old Man" Clanton, along with some cowboy friends, were killed by Mexicans in Guadalupe Canyon, in the extreme southwestern part of Hidalgo County (near border monument #73). This incident is generally believed to have been committed by Mexicans in retaliation for the Skeleton Canyon massacre, in which their relatives were killed. The Clanton boys would eventually become famous for their involvement in the shoot-out at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Clanton Canyon, located in southern Hidalgo County, was named for the family.
Several ghost towns are found throughout Hidalgo County, most notably Steins and Shakespeare. Steins was the scene of a train robbery by outlaw Black Jack Ketchum. In Shakespeare, outlaw Sandy King and horse thief Russian Billwere hanged from the rafters of the Grant House dining room, due to the lack of trees. A member of the lynch mob explained to startled stage passengers that Russian Bill was hanged for stealing a horse and Sandy King was hanged for "being a damned nuisance". After Shakespeare's postmaster received a letter from Russian Bill's mother inquiring of his whereabouts, he sent her the diplomatic reply that her son had died "of throat trouble". Billy the Kid also spent time in Shakespeare, as a youth, where he was employed washing dishes. And Lew Wallace, author of "Ben Hur", stayed at the Grant House while visiting Shakespeare.
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