Page 244 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

districts had tried unsuccessfully to create new coun-
ties and to separate the area containing Deming and
Cooks from Grant County. Between 1888 and 1901,
bills were introduced to create a new county, called
at various times Logan or Florida. Finally on March
16, 1901, they succeeded, but the newly defined area
was named Luna County for Solomon Luna, a
dominant political figure at the time. Unfortunately,
after deducting more than $13,000 in railroad bonds,
the new county still owed its predecessor nearly 17
$38,000.
Soon there was new excitement, however, and
Luna and Grant counties temporarily set aside their
it provided a new danger to the rancher. The rail line was not fenced, and cattle frequently strayed onto the tracks at the wrong time. Several cattlemen offered to build the fences, that they claimed the railroad was required to construct, if the company would furnish the materials. One man hired an extra cowboy for $30 a month to ride the tracks but still
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lost several head of cattle.
Even though the initial heyday was over for Cooks,
the community stabilized somewhat until about
1905. There was a mill (actually a dry concentrator)
(Figure 67), post office, grocery store, saloon, and
boarding house (including a restaurant) which, with
private homes, totaled at least 30 semipermanent
structures (Figure 68) on the eastern slope of the
2
mountain. " In addition to the Poes, McDaniels,
Grovers, Orrs, and other longer-time residents of
Cooks, there also were, or soon would be, the Gas- 93
saways, Onstotts, and Ragsdales."
Neither the property owners nor development in-
vestors were destined to make money from oil dis- coveries, but the activities at the mines, which had been tapering off for two or three years, revived and flourished through about 1905. A Mr. McDermott (probably W. C.) was shipping good ore from his lease of the Kansas City Company’s property and employed 16 men to remove ore from his lease on
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Captain G. W. Magee (locally known as “Silver Peg”) and partner T. A. Nagle had secured financial backing in the east and planned to sink a 300-foot shaft on their
25 Bullsnake Mine.
Other miners and leasees were recovering good quality surface ore and digging tunnels that en- countered stringers, vugs, and caves of extremely rich ore. D. Bauman was having such success in the
monetary differences.
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From mid-April until June,
rumors were rife that oil existed in economically
recoverable quantities near the base of Cooke’s
Peak, and speculators quickly formed several com-
panies and rushed to acquire leases and sell stock.
Companies included the El Paso Oil and Coal Com-
pany, the Luna Oil Land Company, and the Luna
County Oil Development Company. The rumors
turned out to be just that, and about the only one to
profit from the turmoil was Willard C. Wallis who
surveyed some of the tracts for the prospective oil
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magnates.
The railroads that had brought so much prosperity
to Deming and Cooks continued to fulfill the func- tion of the old road through Cooke’s Canyon. On April 6, 1901, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company advertised that for $25 an in- dividual could ride from Deming to California. Two
20 years later, the price increased to $35.
The railroad did not benefit everyone. Previously it had eliminated scores of major and minor busi- nesses, such as stage lines, freighting outfits, and small stores and hostelries, along the old road. Now
the El Paso Company’s claims.
Mining and Ranching Around Cooke’s Peak
Figure 66. Fort Cummings - circa 1904. Photo courtesy of the Museum of New Mexico, #1836.
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