Page 12 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Although significant errors persist (Taos is placed very far south, for instance - south of Socorro, and California is still an island) this map represents a major step forward.
Father Eusebio Francisco Kino
1695. There are reports that he followed the Gila River to its headwaters, he may have only followed it to Casa Grande.
Juan M. Menchero
1747. Fr. Menchero turned west from the Jornada del Muerto and travelled into the Gila, then north to Acoma.
Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco
1758. Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco was one of the most important cartographers in New Spain (if not the most important) during this era. By 1743 he had settled in El Paso but moved to Santa Fe in 1754.
His map “Map which Don Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle, Governor and Captain General of this kingdom of New Mexico, ordered drawn” was widely used during the colonial period and is shown below. Note the following in the detail: The existence of the Sierra del Cobre Virgen north east of the Sierra Florida and the Rio de las Mimbres between the two. (The Rio Mimbres is shown flowing into a lake.) North of the Sierra Florida is Cerro de las Remedies, which refers to what is now known as Cooke’s Peak. (Cooke’s Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui - A Focus on United States History in Southwestern New Mexico, p. 19. )
Map of Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco
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