BOOKS By Jack Purcell

Hell Bent For Santa Fe - The Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841

Poems of the New Old West

Desert Emergency Survival Basics

The Lost Adams Diggings - Myth, Mystery and Madness

  Here are some of our favorite links:

Progeny software: 

 the free download used to create the Chronology of The Lost Adams Diggings page

and the History of the Southwestern US page.  Handy, user-friendly software. 

http://www.progenysoftware.com/.

Learn more about the men in Hell Bent for Santa Fe?

Jacob Snively

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/SS/fsn7.html

http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/c_t/History1/SNIVELY%20EXPEDITION.cfm

http://www.maricopa.gov/parks/lake_pleasant/history.asp

http://www.treasurenet.com/forum/treasurehunting/archives/20000126/messages/1001778.shtml

http://www.ghosttowns.com/jeromes/jeromesapril2002.html

Jack Swilling

http://members.aol.com/Gibson0817/swilling.htm

http://www.rayrilingarmsbooks.com/cgi-bin/rrb455.cgi/4213.html

http://jeff.scott.tripod.com/phoenix.html

http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/show.pl?name=2000_06_18

http://phoenix.about.com/library/weekly/aa090801b.htm

http://jpc-training.com/vulture.htm

John Sutton

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/SS/fsu9.html

Matthew (Old Paint) Caldwell

http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/caldwellmathew.htm

http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasHistory/TexasHistoricTrees/SeguinRangerOak.htm

The Mier Expedition where Fitzgerald and many others in this book died

http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/miersalado.htm

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/qym2.html

http://www.earlytexasfamilies.com/stories.legends/mier/mier_expedition.html

Horace Bailey Carroll was the head of the history department at University of Texas for many years.  He did his thesis on the route of the expedition and based it in part on doing what I did three decades later..  His thesis was useful to me until I began to compare his notes and the terrain he described with the actual country.  Evidently he took a short cut or two.

TEXAN SANTA FE EXPEDITION

Lesson 53: The Texas Santa Fe Expedition - (Part VII)

Jose Antonio Navarro

The George Wilkins Kendall Narrative

Lost Adams Diggings links - You learn a little about the legend from these.

Lost Adams Diggings

LOST ADAMS DIGGINGS

Adams Diggings, promise of gold, New Mexico

NIGHT RIDE TO NAVAJO GOLD

Albuquerque Tribune Online: Arts

When I first began writing about the Legend I posted a lot of it here.  This is some of my earlier work:

TreasureNet Treasure Hunting Forum - Re: Who were the men of the Lost Adams Diggings?

Gold Prospecting?

 The Golden Caribou Mining Club - Come join us for mining in the Feather River Canyon!

The fight to save Zuni Salt Lake

http://www.zunispirits.com/saltlake.html

http://www.zunispirits.com/rebecca.html

Zuni's earlier court battle over land

Zuni and the Courts

Care to see what happens when you turn the strip miners loose on an area?  Click this one and scroll down the page.

http://www.geo-images.com/clifton.jpg

These are bigger than they look.  They can be seen from the moon.

THE HOPIS

Hopi-Volume 12

One of our favorite New Mexico pottery artists:  Horace Cordova. 

http://www.zianet.com/hcordova/

This is the most thought-provoking site we've seen in a while:

The box at the top gives constant changes worthy of quotes if you click it.  The articles are great.  Use the pull-down menu at the top for a complete list of articles.

http://www.arachnoid.com/

Hard to find books you never thought of looking for:

http://www.loompanics.com/

Book searches:

BookFinder.com  

A book by an old friend who happens to be the best writer we've ever known.

http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0%2D595%2D22532%2D2

We're not crazy about Tony Hillerman, but we love New Mexico mysteries.  This is a big one:

http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/loslunas.html

http://www.webcom.com/mhc/archaeology/decalogue-introduction.html

http://www.unitedisrael.org/loslunas.html

http://www.xpeditionsmagazine.com/magazine/articles/Gene/G2.html

http://www.over-land.com/trbefore.html

The whole issue of pre-Columbian visitors is a fascinating one.  If this stone is authentic, and it might or might not be, it still raises more questions than it answers.  It's a long way from the Puerco River to the Atlantic, or the Gulf of Mexico.  We'll probably never know.  The Isleta tribe recently purchased the tract with casino money and placed a regional garbage dump next to the mountain. 

The ancient Mimbres/Anasazi/Mogollon cultures of New Mexico are largely ignored outside the area.  Naturally, as locals, we would wish more people were interested in them.  Tens of thousands of people pass within a few miles of ruin-sites along IH 10, IH 40, and IH 25 every day without pausing for a look. 

http://www.mimbres.com/

http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/southwest/mogollon/mogollonbrown.htm

http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/swchron.html

http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~laej/historypapers/Burley3/Burley3text.html

http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_mog.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues96/nov96/sierramadre.html

http://www.jonniehead.com/see-and-do.htm

http://www.hanksville.org/voyage/misc/puye.html

This place is just a few miles off IH 10.  Strange place, great for a break from the freeway for you and the kids.  Those long desert miles across Arizona and Texas call for a reward.  This one is worth the stop.  The photos don't do it justice.

http://www.gilawilderness.com/travel/cityofrocks.htm

http://www.desertusa.com/ctsrocks/cityrock.html

http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/nmparks/PAGES/brochures/parks/CITYROCK.pdf

Another attraction that's a bit further off the beaten path is the Catwalk.  A strange, refreshing experience for the explorer/traveler.  It's worth the visit, and there are a lot of other interesting attractions nearby and along the way.  Take a daypack with a swimsuit and a bota of drinking water.  You'll want to dip your feet or take a plunge in the icy mountain spring water from the Gila Wilderness.

Link went dead.  Looking for another on this one.

A hop-skip and jump off IH 40, Exit 117 between Grants and Albuquerque there's a place to create some memories of your trip through New Mexico.  If you are a hiker, there's an ancient 7 mile hiking trail across the lava flow, marked by cairns put there by natives hundreds of years ago.  Probably one of the strangest, most unique hikes in the US.  If you aren't a hiker, there's a scenic overlook just down the road that's worth a picnic, and a window rock a little further down the road that is probably the most spectacular in New Mexico.  La Ventana.  That whole road from IH 40 to La Ventana is one of the prettiest you'll see for a while.

http://www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/el_malpais_lavabeds/national_monument.html

http://www.desertusa.com/elmalpais/

http://gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_nm/nm/hik_elma.htm

http://www.grants.org/home.htm

This one's posted higher on the page, too.  Just didn't want you to miss the good pics:

http://www.jonniehead.com/see-and-do.htm

Ancient Cities

Hovenweep - our personal favorite Anasazi site http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/hovenweep.html

Mesa Verde:  http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/mesa_verde.html

Canyon de Chelle:  http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/chelly.html

Chaco Canyon: http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/chaco.html

A great overview of ancient sites in the southwest:  http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/#sw

http://desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_ana.html

Here's a strange one on the Continental Divide

It's down toward Zuni.  Some of the earliest Spaniards scratched their names on this rock, and later a lot of pioneers, Civil War soldiers, and visitors.  There's a pueblo ruin at the top of the mesa, worth the hike, too.

http://www.nps.gov/elmo/

http://www.vivanewmexico.com/nm/nwelmorro.html

Los Gigantes, pictured several times on this site, is about 5 miles down the road.  Great day trip to Zuni, Los Gigantes, El Morro, The Ice Caves ( http://www.icecaves.com/ ), the Caldera (cauldron), and if you like, spend the night camping in the Zuni Mountains!

Valle Caldera

Just about the biggest volcano anyone could ever wish for.  When you travel north out of Jemez, every rock you see from there back to the Rio Grande was formed or altered by this giant.  From the ground, you'll never behold a more beautiful sight than this one any time of year.

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jnd/newmex.htm

The first time I ever saw this I couldn't believe what I was seeing, nor understand what I was seeing.  I've sometimes wondered how many wrecks it's caused, coming out of the mountains on US 60 west of Magdalena, suddenly seeing the high desert of the Plains of San Augustin filled with giant sunflowers or something weirder.

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/intro/vlapix/vlaviews.index.html

I've seen it countless times since, and am always awed by the spectacle.

If you've never seen a million birds behaving uncomfortably like people, you probably haven't been here.  It's on the migration paths, and spring and fall, the giants fight for places and fish.  Just down the road from the Trinity Site. Those birds must have gotten quite a thrill watching the first mushroom cloud ever, and feeling the rain of radioactive ash that followed, unanticipated by the scientists.  The small town people nearby probably did, too.

http://donb.furfly.net/bosque_del_apache/

http://www.mauricekphotography.com/bosque%20nwr.htm

I once landed a 1947 Cessna 140 at Houston, Hobby. That must be how those guys feel.

New Mexico History Major Events Capsule

http://www.rootsweb.com/~nmbernal/time.htm

http://www.cia-g.com/~rockets/spanishperiod.htm

Most people have forgotten that the first Atomic Bomb detonation was a New Mexico event.  You can visit the site one day a year, and get within a relatively short distance of it anytime you like, if you've had all the kids you want, or would like any future ones to be unusual.

http://members.aol.com/JTankard/trinity/home.html

http://www.dannen.com/decision/trin-rad.html

http://jollyroger.com/library/U.S.ProjectTrinityReportebook.html

Strangely, it didn't do as much damage, nor make as big a crater as the strip mine at Santa Rita.

The Uranium Rush of the 1950s

http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/Change/uranium.htm

http://www.ratical.com/radiation/UraniumInNavLand.html

http://www.sea-us.org.au/evilmoney.html

The Roswell, NM UFO phenomenon

Roswell's UFO museum is a refreshing break from the desert, if you are traveling west, and something to think about over those long, empty miles if you are traveling east.

http://popularmechanics.com/popmech/sci/9707STSPP.html

http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/roswell.html http://users.cihost.com/ata/fringe.htm

http://www.crystalinks.com/roswell.html

http://www.skepsis.no/english/subject/ufo/roswell/kjetil3.html

http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/roswell.html

I was a 4 year old pre-school kid a few miles down the road when this happened.  Consequently,  I'm in a better position than most to judge whether it's truth or fiction.  My conclusion is that it might be, or it might not, depending on what actually went on at the time.  Our believing in it, or not believing in it doesn't have much bearing on what happened, so I've managed not to form an opinion.  Hope that clears it up for you.

Having to travel the long pavement between Lubbock and Roswell?  Visit the County Fairgrounds in Portales for a break.  It's the only surviving World War 2 prisoner of war camp in the United States.  The stockbarns were the barracks.  Up the road toward Clovis is Black Water Draw, where Clovis men ambushed wooly mammoths 12000 years ago.  Most Portalesians don't remember the POW camp, (nor the wooly mammoths) but they can direct you to the county fairgrounds.

http://portalesnm.areaguides.net/

Heavy reading about ancients visiting Blackwater Draw,  New Mexico, et al: http://www.wfu.edu/~cyclone/THE%20SOLUTREAN%20CONNECTION%20QUESTION.htm

Texas is only a score of miles to the east... Maybe these ancients visited there too:  http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/c_t/History1/EXPLORATION.cfm

Strange views on the Clovis Man:  http://wovoca.com/hidden-history-human-race.htm

Here's another weird one.  Maybe you can figure it out.  I can't.

Might be a good site for a casino.

http://www.aics.org/BM/bm.html

Spanish Occupation - pre-1680 Pueblo Revolt - Missions and Ruins

http://www.nps.gov/sapu/quarai.htm

http://www.nps.gov/sapu/abo.htm

http://www.nps.gov/sapu/quivira.htm

http://www.newmexico.org/ScenicAttractions/missions.html

http://gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_nm/nm_salin.htm

Massacre Canyon:  A great backpack trip from McKnight Canyon on the Mimbres side.

http://www.zianet.com/wblase/courier/ambush.htm

Victorio taught the US Army the meaning of the word, "ambush" here.  You can still see the pockmarks in the boulders those soldiers huddled behind.  The only way in for most of us is over the Mimbres divide, on foot.  From the east it's all private land.  Park at the top of McKnight Canyon.  It's a long, steep downhill going in, much longer climb getting out by the same trail.  Go light, or take a team of llamas. 

There's a dead tree about midway down that's an invitation for a leaning rest.  Don't do it.  There's a wild beehive inside full of ricochets and direct hits.

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