West by Southwest Ernie Bulow

GHOST TOWNS OF THE ZUNI MOUNTAINS MY FRIEND ED ABBEY WOULD TELL ME NOT TO SHARE

dward Abbey

Ewas my generation’s voice for wilderness. I got to know him in Salt Lake City in 1970. Many of his readers were put off by his criticism of a wilderness for all attitudes. Abbey believed that access wasn’t for everyone for obvious reasons. Today our hidden mountains are riddled with roads any car can navigate. Ed would definitely hate the logging.

Many local folk have had an exchange like this: Statement: “There are bears in the Zuni Mountains.” Reply: “What mountains?” They don’t see peaks. We all know that mountains have to have peaks—and trees, and critters, and maybe a few wild flowers.

Crossing America, the roads and tracks are located in the easiest terrain pos- sible. Technically, a railroad cannot be steeper than a four per cent grade. If you look constantly to the south between Gallup and Grants there is no clear look at the mountains because of a blockage of site lines. You can only see the Zuni Mountains properly in the high country. I was prompted to do this piece because last week I visited an aspen grove where I saw an abandoned railroad grade. There is now a wide, graveled logging road down that little canyon. For the most part the grade is gone. And to add

1908 WINTER LOGGING WITH OXEN, SOUTH OF THOREAU KNOWN AS RED ROCKS. insult to injury, I saw one deer and only three hen turkeys. I have OXEN SHOE THE GUAM STATION AND WAREHOUSE.

Ernie Bulow

WEST BY SOUTHWEST

never seen so little wildlife.

Once again the mountains are being logged. Who needs trees?

As the rails of the transcontinental route approached Gallup in the early 1880s, a

major camp was established just east of the continental divide at a place called Crane’s Spring, or just Crane. Crane had been a scout with Kit Carson. Be- fore long there were three towns in close proximity—Coolidge, Thoreau and Guam. At that point, a number— more than twenty, less than one hundred—of grades suitable for trains [some narrow gauge] were built to invade the Zuni Mountains.

Local folklore has it that the reason for this amount of tree harvesting was the need to finish the transcontinental railroad. The transcontinental railroad passed through Gallup in 1882 and was completed shortly there after. Gallup was established primarily to exploit the coal. It is true that cross ties to hold the rails use up a lot of trees per mile.

But the main thrust of logging started twenty years later. Around 1901 the Mitchell Brothers began logging in earnest, followed by half a dozen other lumber companies. American Lumber was one of the biggest with mills in Albuquerque. Between 1901 and 1931 a couple dozen “towns” sprang up in the Zunis. Mostwere just camps, but McGaffey, for one, had its own mill in the mountains.

The three largest and most important of these towns were Sawyer, Diener and Copperton. Yes, copper was actually mined here, though not very successfully. Frank Cushing searched for the Zuni “turquoise” mine

THE ASPEN GROVE IS MARRED BY THE LITTERED SLASH.

SHIRLEY NEWCOMBS VINAGE PHOTO SHOW THE OTHER INDSUSTRY IN THE MOUNTAINS. SUMMER RANGE COMPLETE WITH COWBOYS.

one winter and almost lost his life. In the 1870’s settlers had been working the copper site. Turquoise and copper exist together quite often. Today, the only semiprecious stones coming from the Zunis are azurite and malachite, used in both jewelry and fetishes.

From my reading, I concluded that a “camp” became a “town” when it had its own bar, so there were a lot of towns up there.

One of the great Lost Treasure tales involves the Zuni Mountains. A man named Adams found a fabulous gold strike and then couldn’t remember where it was. People have looked for it ever since, including some citizens of Ramah. He vaguely pointed them towards the Zunis.

Runners, bikers and hikers have known the secrets of the Zuni Mountains for a long time, but have kept it to themselves. For a little known part of local geography—ending for most at McGaffey lake—there is a lot of history up there. During the Dust Bowl era a bunch of Texans homesteaded the mountains, but a couple of severe winters drove the cattlemen out.

Sadly, the loggers are back in a big way. Every road we took up there had all of the trees of any size wrapped with orange stripes or bands. A cutter up there said those were the trees NOT to cut, but there are miles of fresh “slash” which is the trees not worth taking down the mountains. Wildfire food.

days—and the fabulous fauna and flora, is enough. Those mountains abound with deer, elk, turkeys and bear. Up until now I could always see plenty ofcritters. Shirley Newcomb Kelsey shared a photo with me some years ago of a loaded logging wagon drawn by oxen. Fun Fact; Oxen were shod the same as horses, but having a split or cloven hoof, their shoes were in two parts. Most of the ones I have collected are pretty worn, or rusted away. The one pictured here is the left half, the IT IS CLEAR THESE CROSS-TIES WERE NOT MEANT TO BE PERMANENT. THE COULD opposite one curved the other way, JUST PICK UP EVERYTHING AND WALK AWAY. NOTICE THE SIZE OF THE LOG. of course. In spite of the relatively late date historically, these camps, like Gallup, were the authentic Wild West, with the usual shootings and the like. A colorful Mayor of Gallup, Gregory Page, had some of the action. Another famous figure, Arthur Seligman had been Governor of New Mexico and has a town in Arizona named for him. He was one of three Jewish brothers important in New Mexico history. I can’t help wishing I had seen it all sooner. There are ruined remains of bridges, trestles, cabins and the like all over the place. One trail sports the stump of a ponderosa more than five feet across. You won’t find those anymore except in the most remote areas. The Zuni Mountains are one of Gallup’s greatest treasures, ones that hardly anyone knows.

- ernie@buffalomedicine.com

LOGS PILED FOR REMOVAL--JUST WAITING FOR TRACK.

One thing about ghost towns is that they produce a lot of junk worth finding a hundred years later. For most of us just being at the higher elevation (as if Gallup isn’t high enough) with the cleaner air—there are good