Bell Ranch (New Mexico)
|
Bell Ranch Headquarters
|
|
 
|
|
| Nearest city | Tucumcari, New Mexico |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°31′46″N 104°6′0″W / 35.52944°N 104.10000°WCoordinates: 35°31′46″N 104°6′0″W / 35.52944°N 104.10000°W |
| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000407 |
| NMSRCP # | 133 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 6, 1970 |
| Designated NMSRCP | November 21, 1969 |
The Bell Ranch is a historic ranch in Tucumcari, New Mexico, United States of America.
Lying along La Cinta Creek near the Canadian River, the ranch is bordered by Conchas Lake in San Miguel County, New Mexico about 30 miles (97 km) from Tucumcari, New Mexico. The land originally totaled 656,000 acres (2,655 km²) of rolling grasslands bordered by red rimrocked canyons and flat-topped mountains called mesas. It now spans 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of land.
The Native Americans, Comanche, Kiowa and Apache, hunted the buffalo and ground their corn in well-placed grinding holes where they could scan the horizon for friend and foe. Pictographs carved in the red cliffs indicate the native Americans may well have been living there a long time before the 16th century.
The ranch originated from a Mexican land grant held by Don Pablo Montoya in 1824, only three years after Mexico had gained independence from Spain. In 1875, it was named after the bell-shaped mountain on its land by then-owner Wilson Waddingham. Upon acquisition of New Mexico Territory, the U.S. Cavalry established a temporary post at the Bell Ranch Headquarters for a time, using a part of the manager's house as a "map room" and post office while surveying the surrounding area. Charles Goodnight of the Goodnight Cattle trail utilized one of the prominent mesas of the ranch, Gavilan, to navigate on the way to Colorado with his cattle herds.
The ensuing century brought a some pioneering individuals. One person, British-born John H. Culley, came as a young man to learn about ranching in northeastern New Mexico. He served as assistant manager in the late 19th century. Educated at Oxford, he recorded the ranch life in his book Cattle, Horses and Men. He wrote "It is -for I know it- a world where the summers are long and hot and if in winter a flurry of snow comes, it is gone by noon; where things grow readily in the loose red soil and the rim rocks are vermilion. A world where few pines are to seen,[sic] but the hill and mesa sides are covered with juniper and the flats with mesquite, and the sunflowers grow higher than a man on horseback in the bottoms."
...
Wikipedia