Page 55 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

route west, and the Cooke’s Peak area would have had little historical significance. Cooke noted that many old Indian trails converged on the area (with his previous experience, he should have been a good judge of this) and that the grass was unusually poor and the water inadequate for their large group. Firewood was completely lacking, but the men made
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tered so extensively.
Mimbres village (San Miguel) there, the men made
no mention of any ruins as they did earlier and later on the march.
On November 17, 1846, Cooke took up the march early but did not progress far because the guides reported no more water, except for a small spring near the west end of the canyon (today named Frying Pan Spring) and the Rio Mimbres, another 18 miles away. Accordingly a halt was called by mid-morn- ing. Of the march through the canyon, Cooke grumbled:
Another bright morning, with a cold northwester [the wind has been shifting to the northdroppingthetemperature]. Imarchedto the southwest, up a winding valley and over the ridge, downtonearthevergeoftheopenprairie beyond; up a ravine to the right of the road (going to the north ) is the water. In this mouth of the pass I was compelled to encamp a little after ten o’clock, having marched only three miles."
Cooke also noted that the ridge was covered with fine, hard, brown sandstone (Sarten sandstone) and that there were new plant varieties including an oak and Spanish bayonet. He also observed a flock of previously unnoted slate-colored “partridges” with
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plumed heads (California quail).
It was fortunate that the day’s progress was cur-
tailed so early for it provided the men an opportunity to hunt, explore, and observe their surroundings in much greater detail than almost anywhere on the entire journey, and of even greater value, to record what they had observed. Perhaps most important to the Mormons was the discovery of the Massacre Peak Mimbres site adjacent to their campground. Henry Standage (Company E) wrote that
Close to our camp is some traces or proof of theNephitesoncelivinghere. Largeentrances into the rocks and several pestles and mortars
found made of rock, also some pieces of an- cient crockery ware, showing that a people has once lived here who knew how to make such things, whereas the Indians who now inhabit thesepartsdonotunderstandsuchthings. We
found a great many hieroglyphics engraven in the rocks, which resembled thosefound in Pike Co.Illinois. Itakethisforgoodcircumstantial evidence ofthe Divine authenticity ofthe Book ofMormon}^
Daniel Tyler (Company C) was perhaps not as well rounded as Standage, because when he recorded that “there were at least thirty holes cut in the solid rock, from ten to fourteen inches deep, and from six to ten inches in diameter,” he attributed the Indian grinding mortars to be “for the purpose of catching and retaining water when showers occurred.” Tyler also observed that mining had occurred there for
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precious metals.
misinterpretation of the Indian cave entrances or that the mortars might have been used for grinding ore. Tyler, however, was better informed when it came to flora and fauna, because he made much the same observations as Cooke regarding the quail,
• 103 oak, and Spanish bayonet.
Sergeant Coray believed it to be indeed a strange land but went exploring nevertheless (or perhaps because of this). He, Captain Hunter, and their wives climbed a mountain to the south that towered 2,000 feet above the valley. The peak was deeply split at the top and the wind rushing through the gap
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Most likely they had climbed Massacre Peak. There are two important issues here: first, this was one of the rare references to any of the four Mormon women ac- companying the Battalion beyond Santa Fe, and second, in view of the everpresent dangers, they
were highly adventurous.
Not all of the comments by the men who made a
record of the march were so adventurous or positive. Tyler noted that one of the guides (Cooke called him Tesson) had brought in two goats he had killed and that both were ear marked (a form of branding). Indians did not normally do this, so the animals must
have “strayed from some passing herd or been stolen
do with brush, weeds,
Again they noted that there was much broken earth- enware littering the ground but did not speculate by whom it might have been made or why it was scat-
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and Spanish bayonets.
Despite there having been a
Chapter 2
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made it almost impossible to stand.
and then lost by some Indians.”
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Still of a culinary
°
Perhaps this was a further