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Harding
County History |
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On
March 4th, 1921 Harding County was created by the New Mexico Legislature. It was
formed from parts of eastern Mora County and southern Union County. It was
named after then-President Warren Gamamiel Harding. Word came from Santa
Fe that breezy day in March of 1921 that Harding had been created and
Mosquero was the county seat. The
Mosquero School was to become the
county courthouse. Teachers and enthusiastic students paraded
through the dusty streets behind a banner proclaiming "Just Born:
Harding County", while they sang patriotic songs to announce the
momentous event. Today the
courthouse is still in use. Built around the rock L shaped school it is now a
two story structure housing the present
county government.
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At that time approximately
5,000 people lived in Harding County, but the county has been losing population
ever since. Like other agricultural communities in the American
Southwest, Harding County has never recovered from the Great Plains Dust
Bowl. Based on the 1996 population of 946 persons, Harding is the least
populous and second least densely populated county in the state. |
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This was
one of the last vast unpopulated areas in the U.S. and had, at its peak, supposedly 7000
people. Many of the ranches were established by homesteaders who received
from 160-320 acre homesteads of free land under the Expanded Homestead Act. |
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As you drive across the county,
don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking about Wells Fargo Stage
Coaches and little houses on the prairie. This is the West of our
national mythology too often imprinted only through the magic of movies.
And though Hollywood's interpretation of the old West is often severely
distorted, it's based to a large degree on a profound reality -
reflected under the harsh skies of
northeastern New Mexico. |
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Here is where the plains
met the mountains, the Cheyennes met the Apaches and Kiowa, west-bound
ambition and determination often met dismal failure and death. As
well, though, it is where that ambition met success, where a unique
American spirit - part Spanish, part Indian, and part Anglo - was born
of a necessity to survive. |
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Wagon ruts - a hundred
years old - are still visible in the prairie hardpan and Indian
artifacts can be found by those willing to search hard enough. |
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The land itself is
ancient. Sixty-five million years ago, dinosaurs sloshed through
lush, prehistoric gardens. Later, when the water had receded, the
land was a veritable caldron of subterranean fury, with volcanoes
spewing steam and molten lava from the earth's bowels. |
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The land is also one of
ancient people. Ten thousand years ago, descendants of some of the
earliest immigrants from Asia roamed these plains hunting mastadons,
woolly mammoths, and other animals now long extinct. |
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Just a half century after Columbus
"discovered" America, Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado pushed his
way through this part of New Mexico, looking for the fabled Seven Cities
of Cibola. By then, the Apaches, along with the Navajos, who
settled on the other side of the southern Rockies, had arrived from the
north, and by the 18th century, when the Spanish colonizers began
establishing settlements in the outlying areas of Santa Fe, the Indians
had a homeland to protect. |
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The Indians didn't
discriminate between the Spanish settlers and the Anglos, who began to
appear from the east in the mid-19th century, and northeastern New
Mexico was the site of hundreds of skirmishes and several major
confrontations between natives and newcomers. As more and more
supply wagons passed through, the Indians became more and more
threatened and angry. |
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The Indians were no match
for the Iron Horse, though. By the late 19th century, the
railroad
had opened up the West, and the Indians, sadly, were pretty much licked.
Some found refuge and solace on reservations. Some tried to make
it in the white society. Still others wandered in an emotional and
cultural limbo, their identities and senses of self lost somewhere
between the two worlds. |
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From the late-19th century to
the mid-20th centuries, northeastern New Mexico depended largely on its
rangeland - sheep and cattle grazed on the the prairies, and wool and
beef were shipped to points throughout the West. By the 1970's the
area had begun to open up to tourism. State parks were established
and motels were built. |
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Still, this is a
wonderful and often-overlooked part of New Mexico. Don't be put
off by the barrenness of the countryside flanking the highways.
Get off the main routes and do some exploring. Imagine what it was
like in the past, when dinosaurs trudged through the swampland, the
Cheyenne followed the buffalo, and massive herds of cattle were driven
to the railhead. The
Goodnight-Loving Cattle Drives passed through Harding County in years past. |
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