A-Brief-History-of-Urban-Trees-in-NM

By the time American settlers came to Santa Fe along the Santa Fe Trail, both the fruit trees and native shade trees were largely gone.. The railroad brought general economic development

a brief history of urban

trees in New Mexico

A BRIEF HISTORY OF URBAN TREES IN NEW MEXICO

Completed by Van Citters: Historic Preservation, LLC in cooperation with Groundwork Studio

and Prepared for State of New Mexico, Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department,

Forestry Division Contract I.D 17-521-0410-0159 Funded by the U.S Department of Agriculture Forest Service

were in the region, such as New Mexico locusts (Robinia neomexicana), Rocky Mountain

maples (Acer glabrum), Arizona sycamores (Platanus wrightii), honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), netleaf hackberries (Celtis laevigate var reticulata) and Arizona ash (Fraxinus velutina)

Imported trees first came to New Mexico with Spanish colonists From 1598 until 1848, through the Spanish and Mexican periods, more than 100 fruit tree cultivars were brought into the area along the Camino Real During that time, the colonists kept to the Rio Grande valley region and used the trees they found there for fuel and shelter, but overused and severely denuded the

riparian forests By the time American settlers came to Santa Fe along the Santa Fe Trail, both the fruit trees and native shade trees were largely gone These settlers started transplanting native cottonwoods and other riparian species in the area for shade

In 1850, as the U.S won the Mexican-American war, the Catholic church established the

vicariate apostolic of New Mexico, and named Father John Baptist Lamy as bishop Lamy grew

up and entered the priesthood in France, during a time when there was a frenzy of European enthusiasm for botany and trees He served as a missionary in Ohio and Kentucky before coming

to Santa Fe, and lived amongst the stately shade trees of the Ohio River Valley He felt that trees were critical to grace and civilization and was responsible for bringing in new species of shade trees and many fruit trees, in addition to transplanting and cultivating native shade trees in urban landscapes Notably, he was the first person documented in the research for this report to

introduce the elm and horsechesnut genera to New Mexico, that are still part of New Mexico’s urban forest today Lamy personally planted and shared trees throughout the community of Santa

Fe, bringing about the shaded town that the railroad saw when it entered the town in 1880 Lamy was finally joined by the first tree nursery in New Mexico, which appeared in Santa Fe in 1868

A nurseryman from Rochester, New York arrived via stagecoach, took orders and coordinated their delivery to Santa Fe While the nursery primarily traded in fruit trees, they also offered

“maple”, “mountain ash”, and other “ornamental trees”

The railroad brought enormous change to New Mexico and made a lasting impact on the

landscape The railroad brought general economic development, promoted irrigation and the development of agriculture, increased the numbers of fruit trees into the hundreds of thousands, and brought new shade and evergreen tree species to the area Agents of nurseries back east would travel to New Mexico, take orders, and then deliver the trees in the springtime via rail Over time, local nurseries began to develop, and for out-of-state purchases, catalogues became the norm and offered a multitude of exotic tree species and cultivars Railroad stations, wanting

to provide a comforting stop for passengers, built depot parks with trees for shade, and were some of the first parks of New Mexico The railroads were eventually augmented by a network

of engineered roads that were used by automobiles and trucks This greatly increased mobility and speed, and imported trees began to make their way to smaller communities in New Mexico The railroads ushered an influx of not only tree species, but research, and people from other areas of the country that had a deep interest in and ideas for tree planting, species selection, and tree care Exotic tree species that had been imported and cultivated on America’s East Coast in the latter half of the 1800s arrived in New Mexico, native tree species from other areas of the country were introduced, the US government established experimental nurseries and the New Mexico land-grant college, and acres of fruit trees were provided to Deming, the Rio Grande valley, the Pecos valley, and the Four Corners area In the early 1900s, horticultural and

beautification organizations emerged across the state, and advice on selecting tree species and tree care appeared in newsletters and newspapers The earliest urban forest management efforts

of New Mexico emerged to address the growing issues that the cottonwoods presented to urban life, as their cotton created a nuisance and their health suffered as available water decreased

As New Mexico moved through the mid-1900s, the role of the government in promoting the planting and selection of trees became pronounced The U.S Forest Service gave away hundreds

of evergreens to residents, and experimental nurseries run by the Forest Service, Soil

Conservation Service, and the Agriculture College sold trees to New Mexico towns and

developers Government recommendations for tree species led to booms statewide in the planting

of black locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia), only to see them discouraged for planting to instead make way for “Chinese elms” (primarily Siberian elm, Ulmus pumila) Clyde Tingley, during

his administrations as governor of New Mexico and mayor of Albuquerque, promoted the

planting of hundreds of thousands of trees statewide (mostly Siberian elm, Ulmus pumila) by

taking advantage of Federal New Deal funding programs, and establishing a nursery in

Albuquerque that raised and gave away tree seedlings As part of national Arbor Day

celebrations, many cities in New Mexico handed out thousands of trees to residents To stay competitive in this age of giveaways, commercial tree nurseries provided trees and planting advice in conjunction with landscape design

By the late 1950s, tree giveaway programs were on a significant decline Cities began investing

in developing and maintaining their park systems, and the Beautification Act of 1965 provided investment for efforts on public lands At the same time, the new residential ranch house designs

in vogue had landscaping that favored lower-growing plants with fewer shade trees The Siberian

elm (Ulmus pumila) was distinguished as a nuisance tree, with no new replacement promoted or

provided in its wake As the interstate highway system was developed, a huge number of new species, cultivars, and varietals traveled throughout the U.S

Tree Species

Most of the trees that were brought into urban areas between 1598 and 1943 were deciduous shade trees After 1943, a plethora of evergreen species began to find their way into New

Mexican cities, as well as lower-growing shrubs

The primary shade trees in New Mexican urban environments through most of the history were cottonwoods, black locust, and Siberian elm (called Chinese until the 1950s) The cottonwoods were used by settlers, as they were native shade trees that were easily propagated, but as more

people came to New Mexico and towns expanded, the water table decreased, and the

cottonwoods began to die, particularly in Albuquerque, Alamogordo, and Roswell Around the same time, the black locust had been tested at experimental stations and seemed to be a miracle tree with which the cottonwood could be replaced New Mexican communities could not get enough of the tree until it was threatened by a borer The Siberian elm was identified to fill the void, imported to New Mexico through research stations Throughout the 1930s and into the 1950s, the Siberian elm was the tree of choice for New Mexican towns: it was inexpensive, propagated easily, grew fast, and provided shade Although it was the favorite, other species continued to come into New Mexico and be sold through local nurseries, a process that is

ongoing today

Below is a table that identifies the species that were planted or available in New Mexico as urban trees, organized by fruit/nut trees, deciduous, and evergreen, and then roughly by genera They are identified in the time period in which they were first mentioned in the research There may be other trees that came to New Mexico that failed; arrived, but were not in the project

documentation; or are noted in a document that was not discovered during the course of research for this project Species first mentioned in the research after 1943 are not included in the table, as this time period saw a huge influx of species Those species that have been documented in the tree inventory portion of this project are noted

Table 1 Summary of trees found during research and fieldwork

Source: Groundwork Studio, State Forestry Division, and data in this history This table was compiled by Jennifer Dann of the New Mexico State Forestry Division

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

1598-1850 1850- 1879 1879- 1912 1912- 1930 1930- 1943 Notes During Found

Inventory Fruit and Nut Trees

Over 100 heirloom cultivars may still exist

in New Mexico, and hundreds more cultivars and varietals exist in the urban landscape today, including many ornamental species

of Heaven’, this species

is now classified as a noxious weed in New Mexico

X

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

Arizona ash (Fraxinus

velutina), there are

several species of ash native to the east and Midwest of the U.S., as well as species from other countries, that are now present in New Mexico

X

Native X Native to southwestern New Mexico, this is the

first time it was mentioned as an urban tree

X

Basswood/Linden

X

The genus Tilia contains

several species of deciduous trees native to other parts of the United States

as being used as a deciduous urban tree during this time period

X

Cottonwood NM

Native X?? X While several species of cottonwood exist

natively in New Mexico, they were first documented as being intentionally planted as urban trees during this time period

X

probably American elm

(Ulmus Americana), a X

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

native tree to the east and midwest

(Ulmus pumila) and Chinese elm (Ulmus

parvifolia) were

imported during this time period, although the literature refers only

to “Chinese elms” until the 1950s

(Celtis laevigata var

reticulata) are native,

but those first planted were likely Common hackberries, deciduous trees native to the U.S

Hippocastanacae family

of plants, or to the deciduous tree species

Lamy planted were most likely Black locust

X

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

X

Native

Box elders, a species in

the Acer genus, were

The common name

‘mountain ash’ can refer

to a number of tree species, but the nursery’s import may

have been a Sorbus

species native in other parts of the United States

mulberry (Morus rubra)

is native to the east and midwest of the U.S

X

of deciduous oak trees found in New Mexico, including the native

Gambel oak (Quercus

gambelii) and other

“Live oaks” may refer

to Southern live oaks,

Quercus virginiana,

common to the southern United States

X

commonly called olive trees in New Mexico are true olive trees

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

species of these exotic deciduous trees found in New Mexico

(Platanus acerifolia) is

a common sycamore hybrid in the recent New Mexico landscape

X

(Juglans major) is native

to southern New Mexico, and other walnut species native to the eastern U.S have a New Mexico presence

Native X A member of the Juglans genus, this is

also commonly called white walnut

as importing exotic X1

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

“English walnuts”, a species still present in central New Mexico

to New Mexico, including the Peachleaf

willow tree (Salix

Other Species/

Genera These genera and species were mentioned

in the research, but do not have a common presence in New Mexico today

Balm of Gilead U.S

Native X A deciduous tree, sometimes called the

Balsam poplar, more typically found in moist riparian areas of mountain forest

contains several species

of shrubs

species in warm, southern areas of the U.S

Common deciduous tree

to the Midwest

Siberian pea Exotic

X An introduced deciduous shrub found

in the northern U.S

Evergreen Trees

X

Bishop Lamy’s garden was documented as containing

“evergreens”

Arborvitae X Arborvitae refers to the

genus Thuja, which

includes several evergreen species

X

California Pepper

Tree Exotic X Invasive evergreen species in warm,

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

southern areas of the U.S

genus Cedrus are

exotics and include a few species found in New Mexico

Cupressus are found In

New Mexico, including both native and exotic species

X

Native

the first documented use

of this species in an urban landscape was during this time period

X

Native

coast of California; not commonly found in New Mexico

Eucalyptus

X

Broadleaf evergreen found more commonly

in southern New Mexico

X 1

Euonymus

X

Genus of both deciduous and evergreen shrubs, including species still found in New Mexico

X 2

contains many species

of trees, both native and exotic

X

Native

X

Not actually part of the

Abies genus, and so not

a “true” fir Native to New Mexico, this is the first reference of this species in urban landscapes

X

Native X Native to New Mexico, this is the first reference X

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

of this species in urban landscapes

New Mexico species of evergreens in the

Juniperus genus, as well

as some introduced exotics

X

Native X Native to New Mexico, this is the first reference

of this species in urban landscapes

species of pine common

to New Mexico urban landscapes, both native and exotic

X

Native X Native to New Mexico, this is the first reference

of this species in urban landscapes

In the Western U.S., the term commonly includes Ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine

X

native species of the

genus Picea are found

in New Mexico urban landscapes

X

Tree Type Exotic

or Native

as being used in the urban landscape

Tamarisk

X

More commonly found

in riparian areas of New Mexico than urban landscapes, this tree was recommended as a hedge tree, but is now classified as a noxious weed in New Mexico

1 Documented in other recent available tree inventories

2 As a shrub, would not be counted during this inventory effort, but known to exist

ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS

A&P Atlantic & Pacific Railroad

AT&SF Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad

CRI&&P Chicago, Rock Island & El Paso Railway

EP&NE El Paso and Northeastern Railroad

PV&NE Pecos Valley & Northeastern Railroad

Southern Pacific Southern Pacific Railroad Company

Stark Brothers Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards Co

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY i 

Significant Events i 

Tree Species ii 

ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS 12 

1.0  INTRODUCTION 1 

1.1 Project Scope 1 

1.2 Terminology 2 

1.2.1 Tree Taxonomy 2 

1.2.2 Tree Origin 2 

1.2.3 Urban Trees and Forest 2 

1.3 Project Methodology 3 

2.0  SPANISH ORCHARDS AND U.S IMPORTS (1598-1850) 4 

4.0  TERRITORIAL SETTLEMENT AND NURSERIES (1850-1879) 8 

5.0  RAILROADS, AGENTS AND NURSERIES (1879-1912) 14 

5.2 Transcontinental Routes and the Influx of Trees 15 

5.2.1 Raton to Las Cruces 16 

5.2.2 Tucumcari to Gallup 18 

5.2.3 Lordsburg to El Paso 19 

5.3 Regional Routes and Irrigation 19 

5.3.1 Pecos Valley, Irrigation, and a Railroad 20 

5.3.2 Santa Rosa through Carrizozo and Alamogordo 21 

5.3.3 Aztec and Urban Acequias 22 

5.3.4 The Belen Cutoff and Clovis 23 

5.4 Agents and Nurseries 23 

6.0  STATEHOOD AND SHADE TREES (1912-1930) 30 

6.1 Changes in Cities & Commerce 30 

6.2 Suburban Development 35 

7.0 THE ELM AND THE NEW DEAL (1930-1943) 46 

8.0 POST RELIEF (1943-1976) 53 

8.1 Federal Government Changes 53 

8.2 Highways and Street Trees 55 

8.2 Beautification 57 

9.0 SUMMARY 61 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 62 

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Artesian well at Roswell 20 

Figure 2 Alameda Park in 1907 22 

Figure 3 Fully productive Pecos Valley Orchard, 1920s 25 

Figure 4 College of Agriculture, road from depot to college, 1906 26 

Figure 5 Carlsbad c 1920s 32 

Figure 6 Spruce Park in the 1980s 37 

Figure 7 Lover’s Lane in Roswell, c 1900 39 

Figure 8 Section of 1934 Shelterbelt 47 

LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Summary of trees found during research and fieldwork iii 

Table 2 Tree types recommended by U.S Forest Service for New Mexico in 1927 41 

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Modern American cities are “a great place to look at and learn about trees, because this

fundamentally unnatural environment has a far bigger variety than any crowded real forest.”1 In the modern U.S city, citizens are ensconced in a sea of hundreds of species of trees, many that are not native to the geographic area, and yet most never consider how these trees came to be a part of the urban environment

We may appreciate their shade in the summer, colors in the fall, and other qualities, and may even develop great affection for them, but to most they are strangers We do not recognize the journeys rom far flung lands that some have taken to arrive here; the efforts from the top of the American political hierarchy taken to save some of them from pests and disease; the key figures that influence where and when they arrived; the campaigns launched to eradicate some of them; and, the simple acknowledgement that trees are as susceptible to age disease, and politics as are humans

This report is the story of the urban trees in New Mexico, and their journey from 1598-1971

1.1 Project Scope

This report is part of a statewide project to assess the condition of some of New Mexico’s oldest community trees in public spaces, and provide recommendations for their management Trees are often at the core of New Mexico’s historic districts, providing significant cultural,

environmental, aesthetic, and economic contributions New Mexico State Forestry received a grant from the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service to develop an approach to tree management in historic districts, transitioning into resiliency while maintaining the integrity

of our cultural landscapes

Tree inventories are being conducted by Groundwork Studio in each of the 33 New Mexico county seats to gauge the overall composition and health of the urban forest in historic districts and/or areas with social, cultural, and economic interest to the community Van Citters: Historic Preservation, LLC was contracted by Groundwork Studio to develop a brief historical narrative

of urban trees in New Mexico to document their role in New Mexico’s cultural landscape

The urban forest health data and historical narrative will be used to complete in-depth urban forest management planning The project goals include:

1 Provide communities a consistent, logical approach to historic district tree management

2 Improve the health and composition of our historic district forests

3 Better connect communities with the benefits that historic district forests provide

1 Jill Jonnes, Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape, (New York:

Penguin Books, 2017), p xvii

1.2 Terminology

The terminology used in the historical record was basic and very different from the terminology for plants and trees today Below is a brief description of the differences and how terms are represented in this report

1.2.1 Tree Taxonomy

In tree taxonomy, trees that are closely related and share similar characteristics are classified in the same genus (plural genera) Trees are further classified into species, which identify the

particular tree Species scientific names are the combination of the genus and the specific epithet

(e.g., Ulmus pumila) Species can be further divided into forma, cultivars, and varietals Hybrids

are a cross between two species In this research, sometimes only the genus of the tree (e.g.,

“elm”) was found, sometimes species (e.g., “English walnut”), and in other cases, hybrid,

cultivar or varietal names were found (e.g., “Canaerti”)

The use of common names instead of scientific names in arboriculture often leads to

inaccuracies For example, Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) was called Chinese elm until the 1950s, and this misnomer is still verbally used today Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia) is its own species,

now commonly re-branded Lacebark elm In this report’s research, common names (e.g.,

Chinese elm) were almost exclusively found

As another complicating factor in historical documentation, as taxonomy techniques have

improved, particular species have been correctly classified into different genera For example, the term “red cedar” appears in the research for this report This is likely what is now commonly

called “Eastern red cedar” (Juniperus virginiana), which in the same genus as other juniper species, but there is also a commonly named “Western red cedar” in New Mexico (Thuja

plicata), included in the same genus as arborvitae (Thuja)

In this report, tree names are provided exactly as written in the research If the author deduces a species from context, the discussion reflects both the common and scientific name

1.2.2 Tree Origin

Trees are discussed in this report as native, exotic, and naturalized:

– Native species are those that occur naturally in an ecosystem; in the report discussion, trees are referred to as native to New Mexico, or native to other parts of the U.S

– Exotic species are those introduced from other parts of the world, that can survive in cultivated landscapes

Species of trees may also be referred to as invasive in this report; these are trees that have

naturalized to the point that they can aggressively take over entire landscapes and displace other species

1.2.3 Urban Trees and Forest

The term ‘urban’ is used in this report to describe areas with relatively high population density compared to surrounding areas ‘Urban trees’ include both those on private and public property within an urban area An ‘urban forest’ includes all of the trees within an urban area ‘Urban Forestry’ refers to the care and management of the tree population within an urban area

1.3 Project Methodology

This study documents the trail of trees to New Mexico from fruit trees brought by the earliest Spanish colonists to evergreens in a modern subdivision To document the history of trees in New Mexico the author visited the University of New Mexico, Center for Southwest Research; Palace of the Governors Photo Archives; and New Mexico State Records Center and Archives Online resources and numerous books about the history of trees, New Mexico, and transportation were also used to complete the study Information from these resources were analyzed and

integrated to develop this report

The report is organized by historical periods Spanish Colonial, Territorial Settlement, Railroads, Statehood, the New Deal, and Post Relief The original temporal parameters were 1598-1967, Spanish entry into what would become New Mexico until 50 years prior to the date of the report,

a standard cutoff date used in National Register of Historic Places evaluations However, there were important events with the Chinese elm and Dutch elm disease that affected New Mexico that extend the report to 1971

Most of the history after the introduction of the Siberian elm to New Mexico, the author uses the term “Chinese elm.” This was used because New Mexicans did not seem to know or care about the difference between the Chinese and the Siberian elm until the 1950s Once that difference is defined in the historical record, the author uses the term “Siberian elm.”

Many genera and species were referenced in the historical record Some may be known by

different names today The author used the terms as they were presented in papers, letters, and newspapers There were many recommendations throughout the years for trees that “should” be planted by New Mexico residents and many lists of trees that “were” planted by residents One should keep in mind the difference while reading the history

Once the draft report was complete, Jennifer Dann of the New Mexico State Forestry Division helped to develop the Executive Summary and using the text of this report, results from the fieldwork, and her general knowledge compiled the table of trees in New Mexico (Table 1)

2.0 SPANISH ORCHARDS AND U.S IMPORTS (1598-1850)

The first people to import trees to New Mexico were the Spanish The documented native species that were in the area prior to importing included: piñon, cottonwood, oak, and Douglas fir The piñon was used by Spanish settlers to make plowshares and spinning wheel legs; cottonwood was used to make wine barrels and cart wheels; oak for stirrups and cart frames; and Douglas fir

for plow shafts, timbers for bridges, and vigas for roof structures.2 In fact, trees were so

important to the colonial development that by 1839, an Anglo-American visitor noted that there had been significant deforestation near Spanish settlements Josiah Gregg, an explorer and trader, wrote:

…on the water courses there is little timber to be found except cottonwoods, scantily scattered along the banks Those of the Rio del Norte [Rio Grande] are now nearly bare throughout the whole range of the settlements, and the inhabitants are forced to resort to the distant mountains for most of their fuel.3

Sixteen years later, in 1855, it was noted that while the Spanish had access to plenty of woodland when they settled, there remained barely a tree for shade.4 The Spanish were using the wood resources, and over-using them, but they were also altering the landscape with new plants to provide fruit and vegetables from Spain In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate followed an established route and claimed the land that would become New Mexico on behalf of the King of Spain Because of his journey, the route officially became the Camino Real: it extended 1,500 miles from Mexico City to Santa Fe and became the lifeblood for the Spanish colonists Oñate traveled north to Ohkay Owingeh where he ultimately put 1,500 tribal members and settlers to work digging what is believed to be the oldest acequia in New Mexico.5 With land division, products arriving via the Camino Real, and the development of acequias, a sustainable Spanish colony was established in New Mexico

When Santa Fe was founded in 1610, the Mexican viceroy told the governor to formally found

La Villa Real de Santa Fe and directed him to, “mark out for each resident two lots for house and garden and two suertes [parcels] for vegetable garden and two more for vineyard and for an olive grove and four cavallerias [about 400 acres] of land, and for the irrigation thereof the necessary

water.”6 The laws stated that the colonists should begin their gardens before constructing homes and that each settler should bring their own breeding stock which might have included cattle, horses, sheep, and chickens It is doubtful that any olive grove that may have been planted when they arrived would have survived in the climate of Santa Fe, and there is no textual data that the trees were actually planted, or archaeological evidence of olive pits But, one can appreciate the

2 Robert MacCameron, “Environmental Change in Colonial New Mexico,” Environmental History Review, Vol 18,

No 2, (Summer 1994): 25

3 Ibid

4 Ibid

5 William W Dunmire, Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America, (Austin:

University of Texas Press, 2004), pp 168-69; and Juan Estevan Arellano, “Fruit of Their Labors: The Agricultural Revolution in New Spain,” <http://newmexicohistory.org/people/fruit-of-their-labors-the-agricultural-revolution-in- new-spain>, accessed September 26, 2017

6 Gardens of New Spain, pp 174-175

desire to include the tree that produced a product that was so integral to the Spanish diet While there was no official requirement for orchards, Spanish varieties of fruit trees were planted and survived The trees arrived at the new settlements with other goods that traveled the Camino Real.7

Often a single fruit tree was shared between two or more families These trees were precious shared resources: individual branches were documented and passed on to heirs.8 According to Ron Walser, a horticulturist with New Mexico State University, there could be more than 100 heirloom cultivars of fruit trees that are associated with the Camino Real The fruit trees included apple, nectarine, apricot, pear, cherry, plum, and peach.9 Historians believe that the apricot, cherry, nectarine and peach were in New Mexico as early as 1630 Apples were growing in Manzano as early as 1633 (surely the reason the village was named after the fruit), but the pear is not mentioned in New Mexico until 1776.10

In addition to developing agriculture and providing rules on land division, the Spanish began to construct towns The Laws of the Indies provided rules on how to establish a town center, which included a fortified plaza with a church and a defensible perimeter Although the formations of plazas followed the law and were there to provide protection of the citizens, during resettlement

of New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt, most of the Spanish settlers chose to develop small

ranchos (a farm with enough stock and agriculture to maintain the family) connected to acequias

(ditches) that flowed with diverted water from a nearby river These larger sites away from the

plaza would provide the necessities for their families The land for the ranchos developed in long

strips perpendicular to the river with a road connecting the community at the top edge of the

river valley, which were referred to as cordilleras (objects in sequence, like a series of knots in a rope) The ranchos that developed in this dispersed, linear fashion along the river and roads were

particularly susceptible to Indian raids.11

Concurrent with the Spanish resettlement of New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt, during which the Spanish granted land, established farms, and developed orchards, the east coast of America was being settled by Europeans and the science of botany was on the rise By the 18th century, botanists and the more affluent Europeans had become obsessed with developing encyclopedias with paintings, plant identification, and descriptions of species from far flung lands, as well as collecting exotic specimens for European gardens During this period, thousands of American trees were being shipped from the east coast to Europe The European desire for American trees was insatiable, which was continually fueled by a growing interest in natural history and the landscaping fashion that was sweeping the nobility of Europe: the landed set required romantic, naturalistic environments into which they could place diverse, exotic plants and trees One

collector planted 10,000 American trees on his estate Within 50 years, “[America] had furnished

7 Ibid

8 Gardens of New Spain, p 276

9 D’Lyn Ford, “Colonial Heritage Orchard Preserves Old Fruit Varieties in Northern New Mexico,” 12/09/2002,

<http://newscenter.nmsu.edu/Articles/view/6649>, accessed September 26, 2017; and Gardens of New Spain, pp

xiii-x Grapes are mentioned in Spanish writings about New Mexico in the 1620s and appear to be the first fruit planted in the new territory

10 Gardens of Spain, p 175

11 Chris Wilson and Stefanos Polysoides, editors The Plazas of New Mexico, (San Antonio: Trinity University

Press, 2011), pp 20-26

England with a greater variety of trees than [had] been procured from all the other parts of the world for more than a thousand years past.”12

During the period that America was a British colony, the American elm was prolifically planted

in American villages and as town forests André Michaux, a French botanist, called the elm, “the most magnificent vegetable of the temperate zone.” 13 When English settlers first arrived, they recognized the American elm as the cousin of the English elm at village greens, and because it reminded them of home, they quickly cultivated the species as the tree type to shade their new homes Prior to the American Revolution, wealthy citizens funded large elm plantings in their towns While elms were taking hold in villages and towns and American trees were being

purchased by Europeans, the leaders of the young country, including George Washington,

Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, were cultivating and collecting their own specimens for their estates They had a profound interest in botany and understanding the trees of their young country To better understand the resources of the continent, in 1803, Lewis and Clark were chosen to spend three years exploring America Jefferson had insisted that Lewis take lessons in botany before they set out, as documenting natural history was a critical component of the

mission The team sent home numerous specimens, including the Osage orange.14

After independence from Spain, the Mexican government encouraged trade with the U.S In response to the new economic potential, on September 1, 1821, Captain William Becknell left Franklin, Missouri with four companions and goods to trade He arrived in Santa Fe on

November 16 and the endeavor provided him with an enormous profit His trip began what became known as the Santa Fe Trail In 1825, the U.S government negotiated a right-of-way through Osage territory and that action officially established the trail as a national highway Opening the Santa Fe Trail unlocked a vast economic opportunity and many new cultural

influences for New Mexico

An article in the Albuquerque Journal reprinted an account of a traveler on the Santa Fe Trail

During his trip he realized that the vast plain included no trees until he came to a water source

He saw trees at streams that included “willow, poplar, cotton trees [cottonwood], elm, oak, wild plum, and a few fruit bushes, wormwood, and artemis.” 15 In larger river valleys he saw

chestnuts, ash, Chinese lilac, mesquite, and willow, but noted that there wasn’t any undergrowth other than long grass The traveler’s account was of a great solitary expanse with buffalo,

panther, antelope, otter, beaver, turkey, grouse, quail, and partridge.16

As immigrants were moving into New Mexico, exotic trees were taking over the east coast of the U.S In the early 19th century, the obsession with collecting exotic species took root in America The affluent who were interested in botanical gardens, traveled afar and sent trees home and shared trees between themselves Trees that were brought back included the Ginkgo biloba, paper mulberry, sycamore maple, Lombardy poplar, and ailanthus The ailanthus and ginkgo were hardy and resistant to pollution, and because of these qualities, they became prodigious

12 Eric Rutkow, American Canopy: Trees, Forest, and the Making of a Nation, (New York: Scribner, 2012), pp 40-44

13 American Canopy, pp 218-19

14 American Canopy, pp 48-50

15 Paul A.F Walter, “Yesterdays In the Spanish Southwest, Sketch No 137”, Albuquerque Journal, May 20, 1929, p 4

16 Ibid

American urban trees.17 It in fact, the ailanthus supplanted the horsechesnut, linden, and other street trees in New York City during the 1830s, because it had a large canopy and was resistant

to insects; it could provide shade, but did not encourage the bugs that plagued the townhouses of New York prior to the invention of window screens One citizen who was against the chopping down and replacement of American trees stated that uptown New York had become “completely orientalized [sic]”.18 In an effort to update the city, the native American trees had been cast aside

In addition to the import of shade trees, the U.S government had begun to collect foreign

‘useful’ plants in 1819.19 But it wasn’t until 1836 that the federal government’s effort to bring useful plants to America took off The effort was under the Patent Office of the State Department and in 1839, Congress appropriated funds to support the activity That year the Navy sailed to the South Seas, with a side mission to collect plants, and three years later it returned with exotic plants that were housed in a greenhouse in Washington, D.C.20 Concurrent with the introduction

of foreign plants that was increasing and becoming a cause of the federal government, urban landscapes in major cities were being altered, and native trees were being taken down During that period, a new horticulturalist entered the picture: Andrew Jackson Downing Downing had

an incredible, enduring effect on the development of American urban landscapes, using a design philosophy that became known as the picturesque movement 21

Downing had published A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening,

Adapted to North America in 1841 At the time, newspapers noted the irony that cities would cut

down all their trees, and then name streets after them In response to the lack of trees, Downing subscribed to the European aristocratic landscape design that had been so dependent upon the acquisition of American trees He developed the principals into an American aesthetic and

espoused a naturalistic setting that relied on “…artifice to imitate an ideal, almost imagined, wilderness.”22 Of the utmost importance in his design philosophy was the inclusion of trees The passion for trees and development of naturalistic landscapes was spreading across the U.S and into new city parks, zoos, and streetscapes For it to develop in New Mexico, there was first

a vast area of land that had to be tamed

17 Urban Forests, pp 7-8

18 Urban Forests, pp 8-9

19 Knowles A Ryerson, “History and Significance of the Foreign Plant Introduction Work of the United States

Department of Agriculture,” Agricultural History, Vol 7, No 3 (July 1933): 113

20 “Foreign Plant Introduction Work of the United States,” pp 116 In 1843, the U.S Patent Office distributed 12,000 packets of seeds, and in 1848, a formal international seed exchange system was begun The next year the operation was transferred from the Patent Office to the Department of the Interior

21 Urban Forests, p 5; American Canopy, pp 48-50; and Philip Pregill and Nancy Volkman Landscapes in History:

Design and Planning in the Western Tradition, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993), pp 402-407

22 American Canopy, pp 85-87

4.0 TERRITORIAL SETTLEMENT AND NURSERIES

(1850-1879)

The Territory of New Mexico was organized on September 9, 1850 A few months before this new standing, in July, the first mail stage coach traveled to New Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail The trail also began to provide freighting service that included about 500 wagons and 5,000 animals for each trip.23 While New Mexico was being developed as a territory of the U.S with increased immigration of Anglo-Americans via the Santa Fe Trail, landscape architects back east continued to promote romantic and picturesque principals in landscape design, which reflected nature in a pastoral setting of trees to take advantage of the natural contours/geography of the landscape.24 In fact, this type of design eventually spread to parks throughout the U.S As part of the movement, Downing had also espoused the planting of trees throughout cities:

…if our ancestors found it wise and necessary to cut down vast forests, it is all the more needful that their descendants should plant trees…The first duty of an inhabitant of

forlorn neighborhoods…is to use all possible influence to have the streets planted with trees 25

This type of landscape spread throughout New England and town greens were lined with the American elm as communities followed the picturesque ideal with the ideal American tree This movement took hold with a focus on nationalism that swept through President Andrew Jackson’s U.S At the time, Italian Lombardy poplar and Chinese ailanthus were no longer acceptable for cities; new plantings had to be American By the end of the 1800s, the elm had ‘completely colonized’ New England.26 Although the American elm had conquered New England, its fate would not be the same in the west A larger effect in New Mexico would be made by a French member of the Catholic faith

During the Mexican War, the Catholic church had been considering creating a bishopric for New Mexico After the war, on July 19, 1850 Pope Pius IX established the vicariate apostolic of New Mexico and four days later issued a papal bull that named Father John Baptist Lamy––who had been born in France and was currently serving the church in Covington, Kentucky––as the

bishop.27 When Lamy arrived in Santa Fe, he found a town “with the appearance of untended poverty––the color of dust over all, the crumble of dried mud between the annual seasons of replastering with new, wet earth, the straggle of animals loose in the earthen alleys, the meagre flyblown markets.”28 There was a distinct lack of education, the churches were constructed of mud, and the greatest concern of the citizens of New Mexico at the time was the continual Indian raids All of this was overlaid with territorial boundary disputes with Mexico

23 Kenneth Fordyce, “Early Transportation,” June 17, 1939, p 3, Works Project Administration Collection, File

#127, on file at New Mexico State Records Center & Archives

24 American Canopy, pp 89-90

25 Urban Forests, p 9

26 American Canopy, pp 220

27 Paul Horgan, Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), pp 70-75

28 Lamy of Santa Fe, p 117

In 1862, a mechanism that would affect land ownership and the landscape of New Mexico was enacted: U.S Congress passed the Homestead Act Under this act, any citizen who had never born arms against the U.S government, was the head of family, and was over 21 could obtain

160 acres of land after five years by building a “12-by-14” dwelling and growing crops.29 It required continuous residency and paying a registration fee of $26-34 (a value of over $1,000 today) Alternatively, the land could be acquired by paying $1.25 per acre after 6 months of residence (approximately $40/acre in today’s dollar or $6,400 for the entire 160-acre parcel) Under the first, lower cost scenario, after five years, the resident could file for a patent by

submitting proof of residency and improvements to the local land office The local office would then submit the paperwork with a final certificate of eligibility to the General Land Office in Washington, D.C.30 A decade earlier the U.S had acquired 525,000 square miles of land and now that land was open to anyone who could immigrate, withstand the conditions, and settle it While the land in New Mexico had become open to settlers, Lamy was developing his bishopric

in Santa Fe As part of that he felt that gardens and architecture were important Although the Spanish had planted and cultivated fruit trees in New Mexico, by the time that Lamy arrived in Santa Fe during the early 1850s, virtually none of the trees had survived.31 To alleviate the lack

of trees, he planned a garden to the south and east of the adobe church Lamy relied on the

grandeur he knew in Europe, so his garden was designed in a romantic, flowing manner with flowers, shrubs, and fruit and ornamental trees It was to be a contemplative and civilized place, two things Lamy felt that Santa Fe was lacking when he arrived

Around the time he was planting his garden, botanical gardens and nurseries had begun to

develop on the east coast In the late 1800s, these botanical garden/nurseries began to appear near populated areas, but purchasing plants remained in the realm of specialists: botanists and horticulturalists working for cities or well-off clients In Santa Fe, by default because he was focused on creating grace and had a spring and the land to work with, Lamy’s garden became a version of this The garden was lined with adobe walls with a main entrance of carved granite and it included a fountain; sundial; formal walkways lined with trees, plants and arbors;

meandering walks that led through flowers with benches in shady areas; and views to Fort Marcy and the Jemez Mountains The natural spring at the south end fed a pond that spanned over an acre The pond included two islands with bridges leading to them The water was filled with trout and there was a small area where fish were raised, the shores were lined with flowers, and water lilies floated on the surface.32

Lamy planted much of the garden on his own and would bring wild flowers to his cultivated beds

to ensure there would be color throughout the warm weather He imported garden stock from Auvergne, France and brought trees and seeds over the Santa Fe Trail when he was returning from trips to the East He planted fruit trees and continually grafted and cultivated to create larger, better fruit Each of these trees would cost him $10-15 with an additional $10 per pound

29 The law did not specify whether this was in feet or inches, so some saw this as a loophole to build a very small structure and still meet the requirements

30 Jeffry B Morris and Richard B Morris Encyclopedia of American History, Seventh Edition, Revised and

Updated (New York: Harpers Collins Publishers, Inc., 1996), p 612

31 “Environmental Change in Colonial New Mexico.”

32 Lamy of Santa Fe, pp 410-411

freight fee to transport them to Santa Fe Although they were incredibly expensive, it was well worth it, the espaliered pear tree produced 115 pears one season; the cherry tree could bear two crops of black oxheart cherries per season; the peaches weighed up to 5 ½ ounces each; and the plums were as big as a ‘hen’s egg.’ In an effort to increase the gardens in the town, whenever he shared a peach with a visitor he would request that they would plant the pit.33

The bishop also cultivated shade trees His garden included elm, maple, cottonwood, locust, and weeping and osier willow In the shade of his garden retreat, he also planted smaller fruit and a vegetable garden He brought Malaga grapes from California, which had been transported north

by Spanish Colonial missionaries He planted red and white currants, as well as all manner of vegetables Although the garden was a spiritual retreat for Lamy, he shared it with the citizens of Santa Fe and visitors He said that the purpose of the garden was to “…demonstrate what could

be done to bring the graces and comforts of the earth to a land largely barren, rocky, and dry.”34

He wasn’t content with having one garden in town, so to help others create gardens, he would provide gifts of saplings, seeds, fruits, and vegetables from the garden He was sharing grace with his fellow citizens

On one trip across the Santa Fe Trail, Lamy carried horsechesnuts in a pail of water and

transported over 100 elm saplings from the east to Santa Fe He gave these trees to the citizens of Santa Fe, so the town would have shade Undoubtedly, some were planted at the plaza One day, the wife of Santa Fe merchant Spiegelberg, looked out her window and found the bishop planting

a pair of willow saplings at her front gate After he finished planting, he blessed the trees Lamy also brought English walnut trees and helped to set out over 1,000 fruit trees in town.35 It may seem incredible that a man who was in charge of a diocese that had spanned over Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado had time to focus on the aesthetics of gardening, but it was an integral part of his mission to bring spiritual calm and grace to a town that had been fraught with poverty and fear of Indian raids when he arrived Trees and the garden were a critical component in Lamy’s view to civilize a land where “man’s works were largely the result of mixing water, earth, straw, and the heat of the sun, shaped by the palm of the hand, whether to become shelter, chapel, or cathedral.”36 Shade emerged under the touch of Lamy, and at a time when

communication with the rest of the world was difficult and travel was both difficult and

incredibly expensive

During the mid-1800s in other areas of the U.S., seed stores began to open, and tree imports rose Tung-oil trees were brought from Japan; sesame seed, carob, and pistache trees were brought from Palestine; and date palm, live, and cork oak, ornamental trees, and many other plants

traveled to American shores.37 In 1862, as the Civil War broke out, the Department of

Agriculture was established, and one of its missions was “…the collection, testing and

distribution of seeds and plants.”38 That same year Congress passed the Morrill Act that

established land-grant colleges These were institutions that were granted federal lands that were

33 Ibid

34 Lamy of Santa Fe, p 412

35 Ibid

36 Lamy of Santa Fe, p 333

37 “Foreign Plant Introduction Work of the United States,” p 117

38 “Foreign Plant Introduction Work of the United States,” p 118

to be sold to endow the college and the mission of the new colleges was to focus on teaching agriculture, science, military science, and engineering At the end of the Civil War, settlers moved west, and the land-grant colleges began to develop Twenty years later, state experiment stations would be connected with the institutions

In 1868, trees arrived in Santa Fe via the first documented agent and nursery in New Mexico J Blaisdell, an agent of the Commercial Nurseries in Rochester, New York arrived in Santa Fe via stage coach He notified the newspaper that he was taking orders for trees would return to

Rochester to supervise the packing of fruit trees and plants to bring them to Santa Fe for sale.39

When he returned, he set up a nursery called Plummer Blaisdell & Co It is unknown whether Blaisdell sold trees to the intrepid Lamy, but it is likely that they overestimated the market, as by

1870 the company had put their nursery into the hands of their lawyer and through the newspaper notified Santa Fe residents that they could purchase their plants directly from him A year later, Plummer, Blaisdell & Co was trying to sell the nursery, which at that time included over 5,000 apple trees, 800 pear & plum, 200 peach and apricot, 500 cherry, 200 Siberian crab, 500 maple and mountain ash, some ornamental trees, and 50 quince and grape.40 While a decade earlier, when Lamy arrived in Santa Fe there had been but a few fruit trees, there were now thousands of fruit and shade trees available for planting

As Lamy’s garden was developing and the first New Mexico nursery was being established, homesteaders were arriving to New Mexico, and a gentleman in the Las Cruces area began to

cultivate fruit trees to sell to the newcomers An article in the Santa Fe New Mexican pondered

that folks back east may have cultivated only the choicest varieties of fruit, but wondered

whether they could exceed the skills of Col Sam J Jones of the Mesilla area who had imported the best select varieties of fruit trees, grafted them at his nursery, and was providing new fruit to the ‘intelligent’ farmers of southern New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Mexico Jones cultivated apple, pear, peach, almond, apricot, and cherry trees, as well as raspberry, gooseberry, currants and strawberries.41

While a new nursery was being developed in southern New Mexico, J Sterling Morton, a

Nebraska homesteader with a passion for horticulture, delivered an impassioned speech about planting trees and then set forth a resolution that resulted in Nebraska establishing Arbor Day on April 10, 1872 During that first Arbor Day, two million trees were planted.42 By the mid-1880s some form of Arbor Day had spread to most states In the 1890s it was said, “No observance ever sprang into existence so rapidly, favorably, permanently, and now so near universally throughout the whole civilized world as that of ‘Arbor Day.’”43 Morton believed that this was because Arbor Day was not a day about the past, but rather it was a day about the future

Before Arbor Day had been established, in Lamy’s Santa Fe, every day was Arbor Day He was continually handing out saplings and seeds from his garden, and planting trees with his own hands In addition to planting trees for his neighbors, by 1865, trees had been planted in the

39 The Santa Fe New Mexican, August 18, 1868, p 1

40 “Nursery for Sale,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, January 11, 1871, p 1

41 “Pomological: La Mesilla, New Mexico, March 4, 1871,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, March 11, 1871, p 21

42 American Canopy, pp 131-133

43 Ibid In 1891, the governor of New Mexico Territory established Arbor Day under New Mexico, chapter 35, 1-3

Santa Fe plaza Although not documented, it is highly likely that these trees were stock that came across the Santa Fe Trail with Lamy At that time, the plaza included diagonal and rectilinear pathways, with agricultural rows of plants between them, but by 1876, the plaza was described as: “a public square with…its shaded walks…is the very acme of perfective bliss to the minds of many.”44 At that time, Lamy’s garden had matured and included rare flowers, at least 50 varieties

of fruit trees, and nurseries with saplings The author of a Santa Fe New Mexican article about

the garden noted that he was immensely pleased with the “appearance of everything, particularly with the smooth, glow and healthy appearance of the body of the trees, and especially with the remarkable quantities of fruit hanging to all their limbs.” 45 By then, the walls were climbing with Malaga grape vines and evergreens had been added The garden had developed into a

sylvan forest in the midst of Santa Fe

While Lamy brought trees to Santa Fe and Col Jones was bringing trees to southern New

Mexico, an Ed Branford was cultivating berry plants and ‘choice’ fruit trees in Albuquerque Branford felt that his trees would be better than those that were brought from the eastern U.S because they would be acclimated to the New Mexico environment To ensure his trees would sell, he planned on marking them at a lower price than those that were imported.46 Nurseries were developing in the larger towns and trees were being planted in those communities

As Lamy was working on his mission to civilize Santa Fe and nurseries were emerging in larger towns, ranching was becoming important to the development of New Mexico Sixteen years after the area became a territory, large scale cattle drives began to move through, buffalo hunters decimated the native buffalo, the Army moved the Indians from the plains, and homesteads and ranches began to appear on the landscape In most cases, a ranch would become an oasis with the only trees for miles around Generally, the groves that ranchers planted were transplanted

cottonwood and other riparian genera from nearby streams and rivers Some ranches were also supplemented with fruit trees

The most significant of these ranches to urban tree history was the ranching area that became Roswell at the junction of the Pecos and Hondo rivers and had been a camping place on the eastern plains for centuries In the American west, it became a grazing and watering spot for cattlemen on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, which provided beef to Fort Sumner The site included cattle pens and two adobe buildings In 1869, Van C Smith––who hailed from Omaha, Nebraska and was a professional gambler––arrived in the area with a business partner, Aaron O Wilburn They acquired the buildings at the river junction and operated them as a general store, post office, and rooms for paying guests to stop overnight Smith filed the land claim on March 4,

1871 and he chose his father’s name for the settlement: Roswell Six years later, in 1877, Captain

44 Photo by the U.S Army Signal Corps, “Santa Fe looking east at center of plaza, ca 1865-66,” on file at Museum

of New Mexico, photo number 87929; and Nicholas Brown, photo of Santa Fe plaza, on file at Museum of New Mexico, photo number 82867.10-4 “A Fairy Scene, The Archbishop’s Orchard and Garden––Fruits––Flowers––

Shade Trees––Vegetables––the Lake––Cuba, etc.,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, July 27, 1876, p 1

45 “A Fairy Scene.”

46 “From Fort Selden to Santa Fe,” Weekly New Mexican, February 20, 1877, p 1

Joseph Calloway Lea purchased Smith’s claim and he and his family owned the town for the next decade.47 A forest was about to be created on the eastern plains of New Mexico

47 Francis L and Roberta B Fugate, Roadside History of New Mexico, Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing

Company, 1989, pp 295-97

5.0 RAILROADS, AGENTS AND NURSERIES (1879-1912)

Railroads first came to New Mexico in the 1880s as part of U.S expansion to grow the economy and settle new territory They brought sweeping cultural changes, thousands of trees, and made a lasting impact on the landscape During this period, in the larger towns, local nurseries began to grow and competitors arrived But even as local sources developed, agents of nurseries from afar were rigorously pursuing the sale of trees and seeds to New Mexico farmers and residents

Nurseries from New York, Colorado, Kansas, California, and Texas were all vying for the New Mexico market Most would hire local agents that would travel around the state with catalogues

to take orders for product that would ship in the spring The local nurseries would raise fruit and shade trees, and vegetables in gardens and greenhouses for sale to farmers and city dwellers Imported trees and multitudinous varieties of fruit trees were delivered to Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Socorro, Deming, and Las Cruces during the Territorial era The imports extended

to other towns, but the focus of the dealers was transporting their stock at the primary

transcontinental railroad delivery points

Railroads required division points and subdivisions to maintain the engines and rails A division was a length of rail under one superintendent with a large locomotive maintenance yard at either end Within a division there were a series of subdivisions with an associated crew that

maintained a section of rail line As railroads were being established, they either placed the division points and subdivisions in existing towns, if they could negotiate a good rate for the land, or they would develop entirely new railroad towns that met their needs As a result, many New Mexico towns were created when rail lines were built through the Territory.48

Accompanying the development of railroads throughout the U.S was the development of

agriculture Agriculture was critical to the settlement of the West and the economic health of the railroads In fact, succeeding at agriculture became the “most overriding common interest of the pioneers and carriers [railroads].”49 Without agriculture, the settlers would have difficulty

surviving and without goods to travel the rails to distant markets, the railroads would fail To encourage farmers, the railroad industry developed systematic real estate marketing, provided farming advice, seeds, seedlings, purebred livestock, soil amendments, and constructed silos adjacent to tracks They were responsible for alfalfa fields in Nebraska, orchards in Illinois, tomatoes in Mississippi, and strawberries in Louisiana The railroad companies also planted trees

to keep snow from drifting onto tracks, prevent erosion, and to beautify rural areas.50 Several railroads enacted agricultural departments within their organizations.51

As railroads opened new territory, economic activity increased, and in turn greater geographical area was affected by the new economy Railroads spurred the first era of organized road and bridge construction and administration in the New Mexico Territory and the new roads thrust farther inland to facilitate railroad construction, settlement, and development These new roads

48 Donald B Robertson, Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History: The Desert States, Arizona, Nevada, New

Mexico, Utah, (Caldwell, Ohio: The Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1986), pp 7, 18, and 50-51

49 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, p 99

50 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, pp 99-100

51 In 1910, the AT&SF and Chicago, Rock Island & El Paso Railway both hired their own agricultural experts

would become the means by which trees were delivered to smaller communities, as well as a means by which those communities were connected to the larger world

5.1 Transcontinental Routes and the Influx of Trees

Transcontinental routes through New Mexico connected the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

(AT&SF) and the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (Southern Pacific) to Chicago, New Orleans, and cities in California Goods no longer came into the Territory over the Santa Fe Trail

or the Camino Real, because railroad rates were lower, shipping was faster, and the quantity and variety of trees that came into New Mexico was greater Depots were constructed at division and subdivision points, and generally the depot became the center of activity; town residents would come to the station to see who was arriving and watch the goings-on Depots were critical to the life of a community and it became important that the station and environs be nice The railroads developed brick or stucco depots at county seats, which were grander than the wood stations in other counties Many towns began to add depot parks adjacent to the stations to provide a nice entrance to the town and a place for travelers to spend some time as trains refueled and took on water.52

As the railroads were thriving in New Mexico, Congress passed the Hatch Act in 1887, which resulted in the establishment of state experimental stations that would be used to develop

systematic methods of testing newly introduced plants A few years later, the U.S government also became concerned with the nation’s forests The Forest Reserve Act was passed by

Congress in 1891, which allowed the President of the U.S to “set apart and reserve…public land bearing forests…or in part covered by timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations.”53 This act began the National Forest system, however, it wasn’t until

1897 that Congress passed the Forest Management Act to establish management provisions and set aside funds for the management of forest reserve lands The lands were managed under the Department of the Interior, General Land Office.54

On June 4, 1897, President William McKinley signed the Sundry Act One of the amendments, the Pettigrew Amendment, allowed for the care, protection, and management of forest reserves and provided an organization to manage them One of the first General Land Office employees hired in the summer of 1897 was Gifford Pinchot, who was employed as a special forestry agent

to make further investigations of the forest reserves and recommend ways to manage them.55

Pinchot’s philosophy was that the forests should be managed and used On February 1, 1905, Pinchot unified all Federal forest administration under the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau

of Forestry and then in July, the U.S Forest Service was officially established.56

That same year, the Forest Service developed a nursery in New Mexico on Stephen’s Ranch three miles north of Fort Bayard, as an experiment Two to three acres were rented by the

government to plant pine, Kentucky coffee tree, and Himalayan cedar seedlings and the

52 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, pp 27-29

53 Gerald W Williams, The USDA Forest Service––The First Century, (Washington, D.C.: USDA Forest Service,

Office of Communication, 2005), p 8

54 The USDA Forest Service, p 8

55 The USDA Forest Service, pp 10-11

56 The USDA Forest Service, pp 17-20

seedlings were protected with individual wire mesh structures Ten years later, the Forest Service planted 50,000 yellow pine seedlings in the Gila National Forest using trees that had been grown

at the Fort Bayard nursery The goal of the project was to restore the Cameron watershed that had been partially denuded and was part of the watershed that supplied water to the fort site.57

Twenty years after the nursery near Fort Bayard was planted, in 1907, B.E Fernow, Chief

Division of Forestry, developed a plan to import desirable new trees for introduction to

American forests Eventually, special facilities were developed for the safeguarding from new disease and pests, included inspections and treatment of imports At the turn of the century, there were numerous expeditions to Europe, Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and China to bring home cereal, forage, fruit, and ornamental plants, with the greatest focus on plants that would support economic pursuits Once the exotic trees and plants were in the U.S., the endeavor was to focus on propagation and cultivation to develop resistance to pests, survival of extreme weather, and an increase in crop yields Two of the ornamental trees that were brought back during this period that would eventually have a great impact on New Mexico were the Chinese and Siberian elm.58

5.1.1 Raton to Las Cruces

On December 7, 1878, the first railroad car passed into New Mexico, near the stage forage stop

of Willow Springs (now Raton) By July 1879, the AT&SF line had reached Las Vegas and speculators there had developed a railroad town grid near the tracks, but away from the Spanish Colonial plaza During the next three years, agents for nurseries in Denver, New York, Kansas City, and California focused on Las Vegas and advertised that they could sell everything for one’s orchard, garden, lawn, and street The agents would travel to town to take orders at hotel or bank lobbies, and all promised to have the best stock to beautify homes.59

The rail line reached Santa Fe on February 9, 1880.60 That year a S.W Marshall in Santa Fe received a shipment of trees from the Gould Brothers nursery in Rochester, New York and stated that it was the “finest lot of fruit trees ever brought to Santa Fe.”61 Three years later, Grant

Rivenburg advertised in Santa Fe that he had “Trees! Trees!! Trees!!!” In the ad, he stated that he had leased the “Archbishop Garden” that had been begun by Lamy and that his nursery had the finest lot of native grown stock in the country The advertisement noted that he had fruit,

ornamental trees, shrubs, strawberries, and many more plants.62 The garden that Lamy had

nurtured for the betterment of Santa Fe had been leased by the Catholic church as a commercial

57 “Forestry Experiments at Fort Bayard,” Albuquerque Journal, August 4, 1905, p 2; “Fort Bayard Forestry

Nursery Flourishing,” Albuquerque Journal, August 28, 1906, p 7; and “Forest Planting to Begin on Extensive Scale in Near Future,” Albuquerque Journal, January 21, 1915, p 3

58 “Foreign Plant Introduction Work of the United States,” pp 124-128

59 “Nursery Notice,” November 8, 1881, p 4; “Fruit Trees and Shrubbery,” June 22, 1881, p 4; “Notice to the

Public,” August 5, 1881, p 4; and “J Rock’s Nurseries,” April 4, 1882, p 1, all articles in the The Las Vegas

Gazette

60 David F Myrick, New Mexico’s Railroads: A Historical Survey, Revised Edition, (Albuquerque: University of

New Mexico Press, 1990), pp 1-7

61 “Trees for Sale,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, December 7, 1880, p 4

62 The Santa Fe New Mexican, March 22, 1884, p 1

enterprise; although the charitable aspect had changed, the site continued to supply trees to the citizens of New Mexico’s capitol

After reaching Santa Fe and establishing Raton, AT&SF officials approached leaders of

Bernalillo to obtain land to develop the town as a division point, with yards and shops, on the line They planned on changing the small town into a ‘shining metropolis’ and the foremost city

in New Mexico Railroad engineers Kingman and Robinson stopped at Bernalillo for a private meeting and offered the going rate of $2-3 per acre for land, but the largest landowner in town, José Leandro Perea, who clearly did not like the railroad men, priced his land at $425 per acre

As a result of the brief 45-minute meeting, AT&SF chose to bypass Bernalillo and develop the yards in Albuquerque where there were already commercial facilities available to support the yards.63 As with Las Vegas, the new division point was constructed away from the original town site and a new Anglo-American brick town with Victorian architecture began to rise along the tracks And, also mirroring Las Vegas, the town needed trees

Cottonwood cuttings were taken from the river area and planted near the Albuquerque station creating the narrow Depot Park By 1883, the park included a fountain, gas lights, and two

bronze statues Ten years later, many of the trees were removed to make room for a new baggage room.64 By 1884, Franklin Nurseries advertised that pear, cherry, peach, currant, apple, and plum trees were for sale in Albuquerque Franklin was not, however, a local nursery with plants grown

in Albuquerque, but rather the company had a local agent, Felipe Garcia & Co in Old Town Albuquerque that sold the trees on behalf of the nursery.65 It was a change from the traveling salesman to a local presence for an out-of-Territory nursery

The AT&SF line arrived in Socorro in 1880, resulting in a population growth from 1,200 to 4,500 that included people of all nationalities There was a general rift between the residents that had been in town before the railroad arrived and the immigrants that arrived after and wanted their town to be the most magnificent in the West.66 By 1883, a local nursery had been

established by Thomas J Fleeman and he traveled New Mexico to sell his trees.67 By the 1880s, the Socorro town plaza had been fenced in and planted with saplings Because local funding was required to make improvements to the town, Dr L.E Kittrel became involved in maintaining the plaza and he helped to update the fencing as the trees matured.68

Las Cruces was established in 1848 when the first justice of the peace for Doña Ana County asked the U.S Army to set up a new town to alleviate the crowding in Doña Ana that was being caused by Anglo-American immigration to the new territory The town included farms, nearby ranching, and mining at the Organ Mountains Cowboys, miners, and soldiers all came to town to

63 Marc Simmons, Albuquerque: A Narrative History, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), p

215 and 217; Francis L and Roadside History of New Mexico, p 101; and no author, Application for Registration,

New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties, State Planning Office, Santa Fe, “Las Cocinitas”, SR-37

64 Albuquerque, p 343; and “Track and Train,” Las Vegas Daily Optic, December 17, 1890, p 6

65 “Fruit Trees The Franklin Nurseries, Agency at Albuquerque, NM,” Albuquerque Journal, March 18, 1884, p 2

66 Myra Ellen Jenkins and Spencer Wilson, “Socorro: Facts not Fancy,”

<http://newmexicohistory.org/people/socorro-facts-not-fancy>, accessed October 13, 2017

67 The Las Vegas Gazette, August 18, 1883, p 1

68 John P Conron, Socorro: A Historic Survey, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1980), p 24 Kittrel

was so connected to the plaza park, that in 1916 when he passed away, he was buried there

let off steam: shooting in the street and hangings were common until the railroad arrived in

1881.69 Seven years later, the community was concerned with what types of trees to plant A circular from the USDA, Office of the Forest Commissioner identified types for three different locales in the U.S.: plains, native areas, and irrigated areas.70

5.1.2 Tucumcari to Gallup

In 1881, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad (A&P) was constructed across New Mexico It

connected with the AT&SF south of Albuquerque, at a junction at Isleta Pueblo The Atlantic & Pacific Railroad contracted with three brothers to construct track from Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico to Needles, California The three brothers were Augustus, Lewis, and John Grants and they hired 4,000 men (mostly Irish), used 2,000 mules, established a camp near a homestead that was referred to as “Grants Camp.”71 This area had first been established in 1872 by Jesus Blea who filed for a homestead on the south side of San Jose Creek and called his claim Los Alamitos (little cottonwoods) In 1883, the rail line had extended to California and connected with the Southern Pacific at Needles After the railroad was complete, the Grants Camp became a coaling stop called, “Grant Station.”

A small town to the west of Grant Station had originally been an Overland Mail station, but the railroad quickly replaced stage coaches, freight wagons, and the express riders A year after the railroad was constructed, the town included 22 saloons, two dance halls, a population who

primarily lived in tents The town had expanded to accommodate the westward moving Grant brothers’ 4,000 Irish railroad workers, as well as lumberjacks, miners, and cowboys from the surrounding who all came to partake in the good times As the town was developing, David L Gallup was the paymaster for the Atlantic & Pacific and the men who worked the railroad would say, “I am going to Gallup’s [to collect wages].”72 When the U.S established a post office there, they used the common name and the town became known as Gallup In 1897, the Atlantic & Pacific was purchased by the AT&SF in a foreclosure sale and at that time the western rail line ran from Mojave to Isleta, where it picked up the north/south AT&SF railroad.73

At the east side of the Territory, a railroad that would eventually link with the one the Grant brothers was building was being constructed Tucumcari was established to support the Chicago, Rock Island & El Paso Railway (CRI&P) railroad.74 By 1907, there were 20 small towns

scattered about the area near Tucumcari, made from those that were coming to homestead and be near the rail line During the same period, to the southwest of Tucumcari, the Forest Service developed the Rio Bonito Tree Nursery near Fort Stanton, to support the settlers in the area by

69 Roadside History of New Mexico, pp 40-42; and Anthony Pennock, National Register of Historic Places

Nomination Form, “Mesquite Original Townsite District of Las Cruces,” May 10, 1980, Section 8, Pages 1-3

70 “Growing Artificial Forests, Important Circular Issued by the Forest Commissioner,” Rio Grande Republican,

March 10, 1888, p 1

71 Robert Julyan, The Place Names of New Mexico, Revised Edition, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico

Press, 1998), p 154

72 Roadside History of New Mexico, p 384

73 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, p 75

74 Place Names, p 171; There are several stories about the name, but it seems that the most likely is that it is based

on a Comanche word that means “to lie in wait,” as Tucumcari Mountain was a place that the Comanche war parties used as a lookout

supplying trees to conserve the watershed.75 Farther west on the CRI&P line, Don Celso Baca owned land that included what would become the site of Santa Rosa In 1901, the CRI&P

connected with the Southern Pacific at the town During that time, there were 4,000 construction workers in the area, a proliferation of saloons, and the trees in town were native piñon that

appear to have been in place before the town buildings were constructed.76

5.1.3 Lordsburg to El Paso

In the southwest part of the New Mexico Territory, Lordsburg was established in 1880 as a subdivision point for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of New Mexico, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific that was headquartered in San Francisco To gain dominance in western

commerce, the company was developing a rail line that would run from San Francisco to

Galveston, and eventually New Orleans.77 The Southern Pacific Railroad Company of New Mexico was incorporated in April of 1879 and in September of 1880, construction began on the main line that was to run from the Arizona Territory border to El Paso The Southern Pacific subsidiary developed three points across New Mexico: Lordsburg, Deming, and Aden By

October of 1880, the railroad company had established service between Tucson and Lordsburg, and by December, the line extended to Deming.78

When the railroad reached what was to become Lordsburg––halfway between Tucson and El Paso and three miles north of a significant mining locality––the area was “…but knee-high grass, cactus luxuriating, and coyotes in swarms serenading [the railroad’s] advent.”79 But, as the local newspaper reported four years after the Southern Pacific created the railroad subdivision point,

“…the locomotive carries the torch of progress and where ever it goes magical changes ensue.”80 After December 1880, Deming became known as the ‘City of Windmills’ as residents worked to have water, and by 1891, the Deming area had developed many orchards.81 When the Southern Pacific had first arrived, the station was called Mimbres Junction, but soon it was known as

“Deming,” after Mary Ann Deming who was married to Charles Crocker, one of the Big Four railroad industrialists Although the town was named after her, Mary Ann and her husband never lived in Deming, they were residents of Sacramento, California and important in the Bay Area

5.2 Regional Routes and Irrigation

The transcontinental routes resulted in the development of towns and cities in New Mexico, and had an inadvertent impact on the land that comes with economic development The regional routes had a massive and purposeful effect on rapid landscape development These railroads

75 “Forest Service Finishes Rio Bonito Tree Nursery,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, June 7, 1907, p 1

76 Santa Rosa photographs in Adella Collier Collection, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives; the trees

in the photographs are clearly piñon

77 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, pp 81, 104, and 236

78 Chris P Fox, “The First Railroad Bridge Across the Rio Grande,” Password, The El Paso County Historical Society, Vol XXV, No 1, (El Paso, Texas, Spring 1980): 81; Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, pp 81,

supported agricultural development, zoos, and parks, all of which resulted in the planting of trees

5.2.1 Pecos Valley, Irrigation, and a Railroad

The primary activity in the Pecos Valley during the 1880s was ranching and it brought not only neighboring Texan ranchers, but entrepreneurs from back East The Eddy brothers were from New York and traveled to the Seven Rivers, New Mexico (near Artesia) to go into the cattle business Almost immediately, they realized that there was also the potential for large-scale water reclamation in the region that could support farming In 1887, Charles teamed with Pat Garrett (who had recently killed Billy the Kid) and began the Pecos Valley Land and Ditch Company During that time, U.S government policy was to encourage private development of reclamation projects and private developers had ‘free rein’ to develop the economic and

engineering possibilities.82

In 1888, a new Anglo-American ranch was established in Lincoln County to the north of Roswell and about 1½ miles from what would become the center of Portales The H Bar W ranch was settled by Dr Caleb Winfrey who brought his sister, Mrs Easley, and his brother Hadley to the west in hopes that it would help Hadley’s health The family planted peach trees and a vegetable garden, as well as cottonwood to provide shade The first trees died, but the family was

determined to have shade and dug new holes and planted new trees, which ultimately survived For years, the cottonwood grove at Winfrey’s H Bar W ranch were the only trees in the Pecos Valley.83

In 1891, Nathan Jaffe discovered that unlike many neighboring towns, Roswell had plenty of water, because it was over an artesian water source (Figure 1) After this discovery, the area

around the town opened to farming and in town streetscapes and landscapes began to miraculously bloom with cottonwood and willow.84 At the Goss Military Institute in town, a pleasant landscape developed with a circular artesian fountain

surrounded by a lawn with a grove of cottonwoods that was set adjacent to parade and drill grounds The school also included a small orchard with a zoological garden.85 While other

communities were corralling surface water to support the development of agriculture and parks, the community of Roswell was over an artesian water source and could draw copious amounts of water to support their needs

Figure 1 Artesian well at Roswell

Source: Adella Collier Collection, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives

84 Historic photographs of Roswell at Palace of the Governors photo archives

85 “Early History of New Mexico Military Institute.”

Initial work on Eddy’s Pecos Valley Land and Ditch Company irrigation system began near the growing town of Roswell, with smaller canals in a community to the south The community we now know as Carlsbad had been organized in 1888 as a town called “Eddy” by John A and Charles B Eddy Not only were the brothers vested in irrigation and the development of a new town, they were promoting the construction of a railroad and developing town sites along the envisioned rail corridor.86 As ranches and towns were taking hold of the eastern New Mexico plains, the Pecos Valley Land and Ditch Company was taking on new investors, which included James John Hagerman, a Colorado Springs capitalist that was involved with railroads, mining, and iron processing In 1890, to complete the Eddy brothers’ vision and capitalize on the farming that would result from providing water for irrigation, Hagerman established the Pecos Valley Railroad that would provide shipping for the agricultural products that were produced in the valley.87

Hagerman’s Pecos Valley Railway was constructed northward from Pecos, Texas, which linked the new rail line to the Texas & Pacific, which connected the new town of Eddy and its planned million acres of irrigable land to markets in El Paso, Dallas, and New Orleans.88

5.2.2 Santa Rosa through Carrizozo and Alamogordo

The townsite for Alamogordo was purchased by J Arthur and Charles B Eddy in 1898 The brothers had previously purchased a spring from Oliver M Lee that included a pool of water and

a grove of cottonwoods that created 150’ of shade They envisioned using the area to provide water for a railroad they were planning After establishing Eddy and working on irrigation in the Pecos Valley with Hagerman, they became promoters of a rail line for the Pecos Valley and Tularosa Basin.89 Charles convinced some Eastern capitalists to travel to New Mexico to see the potential line In May of 1897, the investors provided the capital and that same month Eddy incorporated the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad (EP&NE) A year later, Alamogordo was purchased, and trading goods, ranching, and lumbering became the primary business of the new town

When the brothers founded Alamogordo, and constructed the train station, they also invested in a park It is likely that it was placed at the original spring, as it already provided a pool and

cottonwood shade trees They brought swans, ducks, and deer and created a zoo to serve as an attraction for passengers as they waited for the train to refuel By 1902, cottonwood trees in Alamogordo began to die.90 It isn’t clear if these were street trees or trees within the park Even with the loss, the zoo eventually grew into a 13-acre park At the time the Alamogordo park was developed, Americans were looking for romantic landscapes with formal promenades through which they could meander, and railroads and American cities were providing them.91 And the Eddy brothers provided it for Alamogordo

86 Place Names, p 27; Roadside History of New Mexico, pp 328-330

87 “Carlsbad Irrigation District,” Page 2

88 William D Middleton, George M Smerk, and Roberta L Diehl, Editors, Encyclopedia of North American

Railroads, (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007), p 1180

89 Place Names, p 4.; and Place Names, Revised Edition, pp 8-9

90 “Alamogordo,” Albuquerque Citizen, October 22, 1902, p 6

91 Landscapes in History, pp 491 and 513

The Eddy brothers established their EP&NE division point onto the plains at Carrizozo In 1906, the town was platted by the Alamogordo Improvement Company (a subsidiary of EP&NE) as

‘Carrizo’, which is the Spanish vernacular for reed grasses James Allcook, foreman at a nearby cattle ranch, added the extra ‘zo’ to signify the extensive abundance of the reed grass That same year Ira O Wetmore, a nearby rancher from Iowa, took over the platting project with an entity called the Carrizozo Townsite Company, laid the town out on a grid, and began to develop.92 In 1908, the citizens of Carrizozo worked with the town

development company to plan a park between El Paso Avenue and the railroad tracks In

anticipation, the company cleared deteriorated buildings.93

Figure 2 Alameda Park in 1907

Source: Alamogordo News, August 17, 1907

5.2.3 Aztec and Urban Acequias

Aztec was planned in 1880, adjacent to the Rio de los Animas, and was named after the American name for the nearby ruins Some of the first farmers near Aztec were George and Frank Coe, who had been part of the Lincoln County Regulators, and associated with Billy the Kid After the Lincoln County War, around 1884, they had moved north and rented land in the San Juan Basin They had left the trials of Lincoln County behind and with their new land, they planted wheat and brought the first thresher to the area The town of Aztec developed into a trading center for farmers and ranchers As the population increased, a group of citizens bought

Anglo-40 acres to establish the Aztec Town Company After which, the new community determined that there was a need for a water system in town In 1889, they established the Los Animas irrigation ditch that was specifically meant to support the development of orchards, shade trees, and gardens The Aztec ditch reflected the acequia system and cultural structure that had been established by the Spanish The community constructed laterals from the main canal that

extended to each street,

…so that homes would have irrigating water for their gardens…these ditches were

neighborhood projects built to cover the lands of the owners under a share agreement

92 Roadside History of New Mexico, p 336

93 Encyclopedia of American History, p 371; and John Murphey, National Register of Historic Places Nomination

Form, “Carrizozo Commercial Historic District.” September 15, 2015, Section 9, Page 30

with water proportioned to the amount of land that each shareholder held for

irrigation…each shareholder contributed labor according to his assessed share.”94

Although the town was officially established in 1890, it wasn’t until 1905 that it was

incorporated under the laws of the New Mexico Territory That same year, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) arrived The railroad was narrow gauge and connected the mines of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, and transported agricultural products as well During the height of agriculture around Aztec, residents of Aztec proclaimed the area as the best apple country on earth Because of this, at that time, the D&RG was named ‘The Red Apple Flyer.’95

5.2.4 The Belen Cutoff and Clovis

The A&P-constructed line at Tucumcari and Santa Rosa was connected with the east/west

AT&SF route at Belen, when the AT&SF created the ‘Belen Cutoff.’ Construction on the new line began in 1905 by the Eastern Railway Company of New Mexico under contract with the AT&SF to build track from Texico to the Rio Puerco During this construction, in 1906, Clovis was established Once the east/west rail line was operating, shacks sprouted up at the cutoff and the railroad siding became known as Riley’s Switch Originally, Portales was targeted as the division point for the new line; however, as had happened in Bernalillo, representatives from the town were labeled by the AT&SF as ‘greedy’ and the officials moved the division point to

Riley’s Switch.96 After the division point was established and the town was named Clovis, the new settlement became part of the east/west railroad across the U.S., as well as a north/south track that ran through Roswell, Carlsbad and into Pecos, Texas.97 The new railroad town of Clovis ultimately became a city that was surrounded by one of the largest crop production areas

in New Mexico

5.3 Agents and Nurseries

With the plethora of railroad construction, irrigation, and nursery sales agents, New Mexico had developed the need for an organized group that understood cultivation, agriculture, and trees As

a result, the New Mexico Horticultural Society had been formed to promote practical knowledge

on cultivation and packing/marketing grain, fruits, and vegetables The president noted that folks

in Lincoln County had purchased 13,870 fruit trees and shrubs from a nursery in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Santa Fe had set out 10,000 fruit trees that year; it seemed like Socorro would plant about the same number; and that, of course, the ‘fruit-and-flower section’ in the Mesilla valley would also plant large numbers He also advised that Bernalillo County, the Animas valley, and Tierra Amarilla were seeing unprecedented numbers of fruit trees being planted.98 Mr A.S Clough, a representative from the Council Bluff’s nursery had been delivering trees throughout the

Territory and estimated that he would sell 100,000 trees that year He stated that “the territory

94 Aztec Museum Association, “Historic Aztec: Self-Guided Walking & Biking Tours,” 2010

95 San Juan County Index, April 20, 1906, p 4; and “Farmington Branch Still Tied Up,” Albuquerque Journal,

November 22, 1911, p 6

96 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, p 208; and Place Names, p 37

97 Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, p 208

98 Arthur Boyle, “Horticultural, President Boyle’s Address to the Fruit Growers of New Mexico,” The Weekly New

Mexican, April 15, 1886, p 4

must eventually become a grand fruit-producing country, and [Council Bluffs was] striving to catch [their] full share of the trade.”99

Nursery agents were crawling across the New Mexico Territory and making record numbers of sales to towns and farmers By 1887, the distinction between a sales agent for a nursery outside the New Mexico Territory and a nursery with locally grown stock began to become important Agents were quick to clarify that their trees were imports, and the locals capitalized on

promoting products that were ‘acclimated’ to New Mexico.100 The distinction did not seem to slow general sales to New Mexicans by outside companies, but it probably did give local

nurseries an advantage in their home towns By 1890, Grant Rivenburg, who had leased Lamy’s gardens and then developed a supplemental nursery on the Tesuque River, was calling his

nursery the Santa Fe Nursery, and he advertised that the stock was acclimated.101

By 1895, whether for urban planting or farming, the difference between locally grown stock, honest agents with stock from back east, and agents trying to make a fast dollar became clear That year, J.R Johnson of the Southern Gem Nurseries in Dallas, Texas apparently sold inferior fruit trees to 30 of Farmington’s ‘leading citizens.’ At the state fair, the citizens had spent

thousands of dollars to order trees and grapes that were supposed to be of exceptional quality that would bear large fruit However, it was felt that Johnson was a fraud and that the trees were

‘wretched’ with an ‘inferior class of fruit.’ The purchases were based on the sample fruit that Johnson had shown them, and the locals felt that if they planted the trees, their orchards would regress resulting in market loss and ruined reputation.102 A number of agents selling trees in New Mexico had the same issue

By 1899, the New Mexico Agricultural College was advising orchard owners to purchase their stock at a nursery as close as possible to their orchard, even though there were only a few

nurseries established within the Territory.103 Outside salesmen continued to ply their trade, but as the call for acclimated stock began to be heeded, more nurseries began to appear in New Mexico, and eventually spread to smaller towns (Figure 3)

These local nurseries were emerging, as residents were beginning to look for appropriate shade trees to plant at their homes Many were contacting nurseries back east in hopes of finding the perfect tree In 1903, a Mr L.M Lasley of Albuquerque was discussing the purchase of young basswood trees for his home The nursery he contacted was in Kentucky and it had informed him that the trees would grow rapidly, were shapely and ornamental, and that they were superior to

99 “100,000 Fruit Trees, How New Mexico Goes to the Front in Horticulture,” The Weekly New Mexican, April 15,

1886, p 4

100 “A Matter of Justice,” The New Mexican Review, December 15, 188, p 3; and “Park Avenue Nursery,” The

Socorro Chieftain, May 9, 1888, p 4

101 “Santa Fe Nursery!”, The Santa Fe New Mexican, April 29, 1890, p 4; and “Santa Fe Nursery,” The Santa Fe

New Mexican, April 17, 1894, p 2 Rivenburg sold his nursery on the Tesuque River in 1894 and had excess stock

for sale He noted that the trees were ‘choice’ as they were acclimated, large, well-formed, and would bear fruit soon

102 The San Juan Times, October 18, 1895, p 4

103 Charles A Keffer, “Order Nursery Stock Now, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and

Experiment Station,” October 19, 1899, reprinted in The New Mexican Review, October 26, 1899