Apache Tejo
Apache Tejo (sometimes 'Tejoe') was a white settlement and watering stop in the New Mexico Territory on the ruins of an abandoned army post named Fort McLane, 12 miles southeast of Silver City, and just off U.S. Route 180. There are hot springs called the Apache Tejo Hot Springs.[1] It is about 3 miles south of modern Hurley, New Mexico, and 2 miles east of the Grant County Airport.
In the context of the Apache Wars, the Apache chief Mangus-Colorado held a council here with the white settlers in about 1863, where the Apache were promised provisions in return for peace, according to Geronimo. Mangus-Colorado and his people duly arrived and were "foully murdered after he surrendered".[2]
In 1877, Billy the Kid joined a group of "thieves and rustlers" known as the Boys here.[1]
Dean Duke "did and said many things which reminded me of the Virginian"
— Owen Wister
author of The Virginian[3]
Owen Wister, "father of western fiction", visited the Apache Tejo ranch in 1895. He described it as "a little oasis of hay field, cottonwoods, a spring, and some flowers and grass in front of the adobe house".[4] The foreman of the ranch, Dean Duke, was one of the inspirations for the protagonist of Wister's The Virginian.[3]
The large tailings pond of the open-pit Chino Mine lies 1 mile to the southeast.
Notes
- ^ a b Michael Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride, 2008 ISBN 0393075435
- ^ Geronimo, S.M. Barrett Geronimo: The True Story of America's Most Ferocious Warrior, 1906, republished 2011 ISBN 1616087536, p. 73-74
- ^ a b Paul Green, A History of Television’s The Virginian, 1962–1971, 2009 ISBN 0786457996, p. 13
- ^ Gary Scharnhorst, Owen Wister and the West 2015 ISBN 0806149868, p. 88f