Page 63 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Charles (Carlos) Wright
1851: Charles Wright (photo right) is one of the great botanical collectors of his age. He did substantial work in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as Japan, northeast Asia, Cuba, and Haiti. He is generally regarded as one of the “super-collectors” of the 1800’s, discovering hundreds of new species. Several plant species have been named in his honor. He worked with, and was recognized by, George Engelmann and Asa Gray.
E. O. Wooton reviewed Wright’s field notes and specimen sheets and summarized his activities in "Southwestern Localities Visited by Charles Wright", Elmer Ottis Wooton, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, November 1906, Vol. 33, No. 11, pp. 561-566.
In 1851-1852, Wright was associated with the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. He joined Col. J. D. Graham in San Antonio, Texas, in May 1851 and traveled with that expedition to El Paso along the southern wagon road. In July he and Graham left El Paso to join Boundary Survey Commissioner Bartlett at the Santa Rita Copper Mines. On July 28, he was in the Rio Grande Valley at Doña Ana. On July 29, he started west via San Diego and Santa Barbara. San Diego was a river crossing (perhaps 11 miles north of Doña Ana), and Santa Barbara was perhaps another 15 miles north of the crossing. Santa Barbara (founded in 1851, or just before Bartlett and later Wright passed through) was located at the site of present-day Hatch. (Some sources state that it was north of present-day Hatch, which was founded in 1875.) Bartlett describes this section of the trip (leaving Doña Ana),
“...we continued on our course towards the north, and soon struck the great Jornada del Muerto, on the Santa Fe road, which we followed for 9 miles, when we turned off to San Diego, the old fording place”.
Earlier, Bartlett’s party had crossed the Rio Grande and traveled 8 miles north on the west side of the river, where they camped. From there they traveled north along the river for 14 miles, to Santa Barbara. From Santa Barbara, Bartlett reported that it was 20 miles to Mule Springs.
Wright was always collecting. On July 30, somewhere on the “stony hills between Santa Barbara and Coppermines” he collected the specimen of Eriogonum abertianum shown on the following page. Note the field number of the specimen (#91). Asa Gray, who compiled Wright’s collection from this expedition and published it in Plantæ Wrightianæ - Texano-Neo-Mexicanae: An Account of a Collection of Plants Made by Charles Wright... was not always diligent in keeping Wright’s specimen sheets and his field note numbers in sync. In this case, he was. Part II of the cited work covers the year 1851.
The English common name for Eriogonum abertianum is Abert’s Wild Buckwheat. It was first described by Torrey in Emory’s expedition account, the type specimen being collected in 1847 between the “Del Norte and the Gila”.
Eriogonum wrightii, Wright Buckwheat (photo right), also common in this area, was named in his honor by Torrey.
From Santa Barbara, Wright travelled to Mule Spring and south from there to Cooke’s Spring on July 31.
Both Bartlett in April and Wright in July went to Cooke’s Spring via Mule Spring.
Fort Thorn was established at Santa Barbara in 1853, and abandoned in 1859. Santa Barbara was abandoned the following year, 1860.
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On July 4, 1862, Lt. Col. Edward E. Eyer of the 1st Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry, described the route from