Bee5 Wheat, and Biology
1880-1990 D u r i n g the course of San Juan history, three events emerge as perhaps the most colorful and best-known symbols of the county's heritage. The first two-the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition and the Posey "War"-are fabled. This is not to deny that they happened but only to suggest that the events have become a standardized, mythologized cover that is sometimes difficult to peek under. They are important in explaining what it means to be from this area and in understanding what historian Charles Peterson has recognized as a conscious effort to foster a "San Juan mystique.'" The third of this mythic triad involves the early cattle industry and the rough-and-tumble cowboys associated with it. Although they were controlled by such wealthy entrepreneurs as Edmund and Harold Carlisle of the Kansas and New Mexico Land and Cattle Company, most of the emphasis placed on this period focuses on their antics and rough-shod ways. In a broader sense, this period of San Juan history-though very different in some particulars-may also be considered representative of general patterns that occurred throughout the West. Indeed, American popular culture has insisted
