Apache Tejo
32°38′46.08″N 108°07′41.1″W / 32.6461333°N 108.128083°W
Apache Tejo (sometimes 'Tejoe' or 'Teju') was a white settlement and watering stop in the New Mexico Territory, 12 miles southeast of Silver City, and just off U.S. Route 180. It was located on the old Santa Rita-Janos (Chihuahua) trail.[1] There was a railroad siding here once.
The Apache Tejo Hot Springs no longer flow.[2][3] It is about 3 miles south of modern Hurley, New Mexico, and 2 miles east of the Grant County Airport.
The etymology of the name is unclear. It may have been derived from a Native American's name, Pachiteju, but other accounts called it Apache de Ho(o), which might mean 'Apache water'.[1]
The U.S. Army's Fort McLane was established here in 1860, on the bank of a small spring. It was originally named Fort Floyd, after Secretary of War John B. Floyd. After Floyd joined the Confederacy, it was renamed to honor a Captain George McLane, who had been killed by Navajos. It was finally abandoned in 1864.[1]
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".[4]
In 1877, Billy the Kid joined a group of "thieves and rustlers" known as the Boys here.[3]
Dean Duke "did and said many things which reminded me of the Virginian"
— Owen Wister
author of The Virginian[5]
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".[6] The foreman of the ranch, Dean Duke, was one of the inspirations for the protagonist of Wister's The Virginian.[5]
The large tailings pond of the open-pit Chino Mine lies 1 mile to the southeast.
Notes
- ^ a b c Robert Hixson Julyan, The Place Names of New Mexico, 1996 ISBN 0826316891, p. 135
- ^ James C. Witcher, "Faywood Hot Springs", GHC Bulletin, December 2002, p. 46
- ^ 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