Page 47 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

William G. Peck
Peck was with Stephen W. Kearny but left the march west to remain in New Mexico, to conduct survey work. He worked primarily in the northern part of the state, and Abert relied on his mapping and studies in that area. Peck and Abert drafted the map on the previous page together.
George Archibald McCall
During 1850, McCall served in New
Mexico as a member of the U. S. Army.
His “Some Remarks on the Habits of
Birds Met With In . . . New Mexico...”
was published in the Proceedings of
the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, Vol. V, pp. 213-224. He
notes (p.222) that Wild Turkey “was
found on almost every stream margined with timber...”
His Report of The Secretary of War, Communicating In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, Colonel McCall’s reports in relation to New Mexico, February 10, 1851, contains an interesting assessment of the territory. An excerpt from the report is shown above, describing the Rio Grande Valley east of the Black Range.
“Report of The Secretary of War, Communicating In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, Colonel McCall’s reports in relation to New Mexico”, February 10, 1851, p. 7.
His report was focused, primarily, on two topics. The first was an assessment of the agriculture of the territory and the possibilities of increasing agricultural production. The second was an assessment (generally hostile) of the indigenous tribes, the number of warriors, their disposition etc. - and what it would take to “reclaim” or subdue them. The latter part of the report was a cold, hard assessment of what it would take, militarily, to “civilize” the land, with or without the indigenous peoples.
Samuel Washington Woodhouse
During 1850-51, Woodhouse was a member of a U.S. Army expedition, the Lorenzo Sitgreaves Expedition, which traveled from El Paso to Santa Fe. During this expedition he collected a Scrub-Jay, the species which is now named after him (Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay). Among the species which he first described is the Cassin’s Sparrow.
A daguerreotype of Woodhouse - 1847.
McCall in about 1862
46