Page 7 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

late 1700’s and early 1800’s Joseph Banks was the person who pulled the strings when it came to the study of natural history in the British Empire. In the United States during the 1800’s, Spencer Fullerton Baird played that role. Many of the naturalists associated with the expeditions and surveys were part of his “network”.
Following the major expeditions, a good deal of the “natural history work” done in New Mexico was performed by the Biological Survey of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and by various universities.
This is a general survey; it does not pretend to be comprehensive. Indeed, what may characterize it more than anything else is what is not here. Absent access to hard copy records at the Smithsonian and Library of Congress, obtaining information about the work which might have been done in the Black Range of New Mexico is difficult, especially for the early periods.
The Mimbres
Like many of the people who live in, or visit, the Black Range, the Mimbres people (and the other Mogollon people) took an interest in the natural world. It is fair to say that their interest was more of a gut thing than many of us have today. For whatever purpose, however, the natural world was recognized in much of their art. It is not uncommon to find rock carvings in the Black Range which are easily recognized to species (preceding page), and much of what has made Mimbres pottery so valued by collectors is the depiction of the animal life of the area, whether it be human or non-human. Volume 3, Number 1 (January 2020) of the Black Range Naturalist focused on the natural world as seen through Mimbres eyes.
Native Americans had worked the mine now known as Santa Rita since about CE 900. Artifacts of copper from this mine were
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