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[New Mexico Photo Archive.]

[New Mexico, 1890s.]. 93 original photographs, mostly bromide prints, (approx. 2.25” x 3.25” to 4.75” x 6.75”), most on paperboard mounts; 14 images with early inscriptions on verso.

An evocative photo archive documenting the rugged frontier-life of settlers, miners, ranchers, and cowboys in multiple New Mexico locales, as well as the interactions of its racially diverse inhabitants.

This intriguing group of ninety-three images captures the integrated life of Native American, Mexican, and white peoples and cultures in various New Mexican frontier towns. In light of the inscriptions, it appears some (possibly many) of these shots were taken in and around the towns of Engle and Watrous, New Mexico—both of which were stations on the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe railway, and are located some 300 miles apart. Pictured in this lot are mining scenes, ranch life, camps, logging, stockyards, towns, homesteads, group shots, Native American dances, marketplaces, gathering places, animals, men crowded around saloons, transportation, as well as various excursions—including herding cattle on the plains, camping out, “A Sabbath Gathering,” and more. A handful of individuals recur throughout the images. Some of the inscriptions read as follows: “20 miles from Watrous at J.S. Ranch”; “Stockyards at Engle, N.M.”; “Branding calves in corral”; “Mt. Capulin”; “The Ranch Force”; “Johnnie Brunk, Fred Shires, Walter Nelson, E. Clark”; “Manuel from the East”; “Blind and Starving”; “Gem Mine—the Open Cut”; “Gem Mining, Camp Turquoise Looking West”; “Gem Mine from the main tunnel”; “Manuel from road from Turquoise Camp,” etc. A handful of shots are double-exposures; one of these images shows a market or fair held at a pueblo. Another shot pictures Capulin Mountain, which is located in northeastern New Mexico. While many of the subjects pictured are either unidentified or obscure, further research accessing resources not available online would doubtless bring much to light.

Established in 1879 and named after the train engineer R.L. Engle, the town of Engle, New Mexico is located in Sierra County on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro trade route. After the White Sands Missile Range was established nearby in 1945, Engle essentially became a ghost town—with the exception of the Ted Turner headquarters, a few vineyards and a train stop. Watrous, New Mexico in Mora County is also a semi-ghost town situated on the old Sante Fe Trail. In 1884 it was named after the early settler Samuel B. Watrous (1809–1886) who donated land to the New Mexico and Southern Pacific R.R. Co., which later became the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway.

REFERENCES: Weiser, Kathy. The Life & Mysterious Death of Samuel B. Watrous at legendsofamerica.com; Engle New Mexico at sierracountynewmexico.info

CONDITION: Photos fair to good, but generally good, some photos faded.

Item #5497

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