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, 3 miles south of Hurley, and 2 miles east of the Grant County Airport. It is just off U.S. Route 180, about 12 miles west of the mail route crossing of the Mimbres River[1] and on the old Santa Rita-Janos (Chihuahua) trail.[2] There was a railroad siding here once.
The etymology of the name is unclear. It may have been derived from the name of a Chihenne leader of the 1770s, Pachiteju,[3] but other accounts called it Apache de Ho(o), which might mean 'Apache water'.[2]
The U.S. Army's Fort McLane was established here in 1860, on the bank of a small spring. The commander reported that it had sufficient "water, timber, and grazing" to support the fort.[4] 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.[2]
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".[5]
In 1877, Billy the Kid joined a group of "thieves and rustlers" known as the Boys here.[6]
[Dean Duke] did and said many things which reminded me of the Virginian
— Owen Wister
author of The Virginian[7]
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".[8] The foreman of the ranch, Dean Duke, was one of the inspirations for the protagonist of Wister's The Virginian.[7]
The Apache Tejo Hot Springs, with water issuing at 94°F, were used as a water source by the Chino Copper company for the Chino mine; the company built a pumping station and a wooden pipeline to Hurley.[9] The spring no longer flows.[10][6] As of 1916, this water was also used as the domestic water supply of Hurley.[11] The large tailings pond of the mine lies 1 mile to the southeast.
Notes
- ^ Sweeney, p. 396
- ^ a b c Robert Hixson Julyan, The Place Names of New Mexico, 1996 ISBN 0826316891, p. 135
- ^ Edwin Russell Sweeney, Mangas Coloradas, Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, p. 526n10
- ^ Sweeney, p. 396
- ^ Geronimo, S.M. Barrett Geronimo: The True Story of America's Most Ferocious Warrior, 1906, republished 2011 ISBN 1616087536, p. 73-74
- ^ a b Michael Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride, 2008 ISBN 0393075435
- ^ 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
- ^ Hercules Powder Company, The Explosive Engineer: Forerunner of Progress in Mining, Quarrying, Construction 18:55, 1940?
- ^ James C. Witcher, "Faywood Hot Springs", GHC Bulletin, December 2002, p. 46
- ^ Donald Francis MacDonald, Charles Enzian, Geological Survey (U.S.), Prospecting and mining of copper ore at Santa Rita, New Mexico, Govt. print. off., 1916 [1]