Page 40 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Philip St. George Cooke
1846: Cooke travelled through the southern end of the Black Range in November 1846. The photograph of him (to the right) was taken just over 10 years later.
The January 3, 2020 issue of the Black Range Naturalist includes an article about the natural history of the trail Cooke and group used to cross the Range south of Cooke’s Peak.
Volume 7 of Exploring Southwestern Trails 1846-1854, contains a transcription of Cooke’s personal journal (not the official report of the march). This volume of the series, edited by Ralph P. Bieber, was published in 1938. At pages 26-28, part of the editor’s summary of Cooke’s Personal Journal, the following quotations occur:
“On October 15, when Kearny left the Rio Grande and marched southwest, he assigned Cooke ‘the task of opening a wagon road to the Pacific.’ The same day Lieutenant Emory, of the topographical engineers, recorded that ‘several intelligent guides were detached to look up a road further south’ by which Cooke might ‘turn the mountains with his wagons.’“ (Correspondence from Kearny to Jones, October 11, 1846) “Upon reaching the Copper Mines three days later, Kearny held a council with some Apache Indians and made further arrangements to provide guides for the
Page 40 of Cooke’s Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui - A Focus on United States History in Southwestern New Mexico 39