Inscriptions El Morro National Monument New Mexico

May 5, 2007

We are staying in the Blue Spruce RV Park $13.50 for 50-amps, water & Cable TV with central dump. Blue Spruce is located on the south west corner of the I-40 exit 81 intersection.

While staying in Grants we visited Ice Cave, Bandera Crater and the western side of El Malpais National Monument. As you will recall it was all about volcano activity and what they left behind. This afternoon we visited El Morro National Monument located 30-miles south of Grants, New Mexico on State Road 53.

I wrote this travelogue in two parts because there was too much to cover in just one. This log starts at the pool of water that attracted ancient travelers to this spot. Click here for the other El Morrow National Monument Travel Log.

Pool at El Morrow National Monument

This is the pool that brought early travelers to this spot in this arid region.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

These inscriptions were located by the pool.

Pool at El Morrow National Monument New Mexico

This is the back wall of the water hole where the water falls off the sandstone cliff above. It is this pool of clean water that attracted explorers to El Morrow.

Sandstone cliff above pool at El Morrow National Monument

This is looking up at the cliff face from the water hole.

Inscription Rock at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

From the water hole the entire length of this sandstone cliff is covered with inscriptions. Picking out the important ones is difficult.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

Mr. Long, whose signature is one of the most elegantly crafted inscriptions, was a member of Lt. Edward F. Beale's 1857 caravan that was testing the usefulness of camels in crossing the deserts of the Southwest.

Two other members of Beale's caravan signed their names close by.

Try and put this 1857 date into perspective:

1850 is when California entered the Union (became a state).

1851 is when James Savage become the first white man to enter Yosemite Valley.

1852 is when Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, galvanized public opinion against slavery.

1853 is the year Mexico agrees to the Gadsden Purchase, selling a strip of land running along Mexico's northern border between Texas and California
for $10 million. That agreement was consumated in the city square in Old La Mesilla located on the southern outskirts of current day Las Cruces.

1858 Saw the first nonstop stage coach from St. Louis to arrive in Los Angeles, completing the 2,600 mile trip across the Southwest in 20 days.

1859 Was the year John Brown was hanged for his attempt to incite a slave uprising at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

1860 Is when the Pony Express completed its inaugural delivery, delivering mail over the 1,966 miles from St. Louis to Sacramento in 11 days.

1861 The Civil War begins when Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.

Now you can better understand the time period when Beale's caravan passed this way and inscribed their names on the sandstone wall at present day El Morro National Monument.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument

Mr. Engle, who was with Beale's caravan, chose to inscribe his name in block print.

Engle was Beale's second-in-command.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

Mr. Bryn, also with Beale's caravan chose to inscribe his name in script. As far as I am concerned it is very hard to read.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

P. (Peachy) Breckinridge, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, rode across the continent to California as a young man. Later in 1857 Breckinridge was in charge of the twenty-five camels used by Lt. Edward Beale in his expedition. Breckinridge arrived back in Virginia and enlisted in the Civil War. He was killed during a skirmish at Kennon's Landing, Virginia in 1863.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

I wonder how these hand prints were made.

Spanish inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument

This one is in Spanish translated, it reads:

On the 25th of the month of June, of this year of 1709, passed by here on the way to Zuni - Ramon Garcia Jurado.

Senor Jurado's name can be found in old Spanish documents.

In 1728 he was the "alcalde mayor" of the Keres district, not far south of Santa Fe.

Another blackened inscription nearby, that did not turn out in photographs, translated as follows: "By here passed Pedro Romero on the 22nd of August, year of 1751." While Andres Romero is unknown the date is important because it is apparently the last Spanish inscription before the coming of the Americans in 1849.

Spanish inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument

One Spanish inscription read: We passed by here, the Sergeant Major and Captain Juan de Arculeta and Adjutant Diego Martin Barba and Ensign Agustin de Ynojos, the year of 1636.

The "Sergeant Major" was not an enlisted man as now -- he was an officer in direct command of troops. The ensign was the standard bearer corresponding in grade to a second lieutenant. Archuleta was among the first colonists to come to New Mexico with Don Juan Onate in 1598. Archuleta and Barba were implicated in a plot to assassinate the colonial governor and were beheaded on Santa Fe's plaza in 1643.

The oldest and most famous inscription at El Morro was done by the first governor of New Mexico, Don Juan de Onate, in 1605. (don't fly by that date--it is fifteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock). And to think that Onate inscribed his name on this rock, in the deserts of New Mexico, a full 15-years before the Pilgrims landed on the east coast. Totally unbelievable! Yet here it is.

In 1604, Onate rode south with thirty men to the Gulf of California. On his return the next year, he made his inscription, which reads:

Passed by here the Governor Don Juan de Onate, from the discovery of the Sea of the south on the 16th of April, 1605s

Translated as:

Passed by here the Governor Don Juan de Onate, from the discovery of the Sea of the south on the 16th of April, 1605.

By "Sea of the South," Onate meant gulf of California, an arm of the Pacific Ocean.

He was not the first Spaniard to pass by here but he is the first one to inscribe his name.

This was not even Onate's first visit to El Morro -- on December 13 1598, he passed here from Zuni with a group of Spanish soldiers, traveling to the Rio Grande via Acoma.

And this folks is the earliest know inscription here and to think he could have made an inscription in 1598 but didn't.

Spanish inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument

This inscription looked interesting but I couldn't find any history on it.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

In this inscription you can see a church and R. H. Orton. Orton, was the adjutant general of California after the Civil War.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

It looks to me like Comins was traveling with Orton. They are not only close together they look very similar.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

This inscription and others with it are unique because they are so high. The ground level was higher then, as shown by the tree, which is growing on a mound of sand now. Surely it did not begin growing on top of that mound!

Spanish inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument

Translated this inscription reads:

Here was the General Don diego de Vargas, who conquered for our Holy Faith, and for the Royal Crown, all of New Mexico at his own expense, year of 1692.

Twelve years earlier, in 1680, the Pueblo (Indian) revolt had taken place. Many Spanish were killed and the remainder fled to El Paso. In 1692, de Vargas returned to reestablish Spanish control of the pueblos. He was later imprisoned for three years in the governor's palace an when released, restored as governor. He died in Bernalillo in 1704.

Below this inscription were three names, Williamson, Holland, and John Udell, all with the same date of 1858. Unfortunately the picture was not useable. These men were members of the first emigrant train to try this new route to California.

A good account of the trip can be found in the Journal of John Udell, a Baptist preacher who, with his sixty-four-year-old wife, decided to visit his children in Sacramento. The party, consisting of forty families and their equipment, finally reached the Colorado River, only to be attacked by the Mojave Indians. Several members of the group were killed and practically all of their equipment stolen or burned.

The survivors, including the elderly Udell and wife, returned to Albuquerque walking most of the way. They passed El Morro and arrived in Albuquerque nearly starved, in November 1858, remaining there for the winter. Udell and some of the others again started for California in 1859 in the company of Lt. Edward F. beale, famous for his camel caravan of 1858, which also came west by way of El Morro.

They had no difficulty reaching California and finding their children in Sacramento. Mr. Udell is known to have died in the Golden State a very old man.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

The first emigrant train was led by Mr. L. J. Rose. He was born in Germany and moved to New Orleans in 1830. he later moved to Iowa where he became wealthy in the dry-goods business. Rose was wounded by Mojave Indians in the attack mentioned by Udell. After recovering from his wounds he went to Los Angeles and became one of its leading citizens.

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

Some of the carvings have the letters UPR written after them. In 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad ran a survey through here, but the project was never carried out. The development of the Santa Fe Railroad twenty-five miles to the north effectively ended the use of El Morro as a stopping place.

One inscription in Spanish had a funny ring to it especially if you are an enlisted man. The first two lines of the inscription read:

"The 14th day of July 1736 passed by here the General Juan Paez Hurtado, Inspector."

The second two lines, no doubt added when the good general's back was turned, read:

"And in his company, the Corporal Joseph Trujillo!

You have to wonder what if anything happened to Corporal Trujillo-----but I love it. VBG

Spanish inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument

The longest and one of the most interesting inscriptions on Inscription rock at El Morro was supposedly done by Governor Eulate:

I am the captain General of the Providence of New Mexico for the King our Lord, passed by here on the return from the pueblos of Zuni on the 29th of July the year 1620, and put them at peace at their humble petition, they asking favor as vassals of his Majesty and promising anew their obedience, all of which he did, with clemency, zeal, and prudence, as a most Christian-like (gentleman) extraordinary and gallant soldier of enduring and praised memory.

The word crossed out appears to have been "gentleman." Somebody who knew the old boy apparently took exception to all this high-flown praise. (That the erasure was done before 1849 can be proved).

Inscriptions on rock face at El Morro National Monument New Mexico

Lt. J. H. Simpson,. an engineer for the army, and Mr. R. H. Kern, a Philadelphia artist who rode around with the army drawing pictures, were the first English-speaking people to make a record of Inscription Rock (El Morro).

They spend two days copying the inscriptions, and stated that when they were here, not a single English inscription could be found on the rock.

Another Spanish inscription was done by one of three Spanish soldiers left to "guard" two thousand Zuni Indians in 1699.

It reads:

I am of the hand (that is, written by) of Felipe de Arellano on the 16th of September, soldier.

In 1700, the Zunis apparently thought the odds in their favor were good, so they killed the three Spaniards.

To the right of Arellano's inscription is a marvel of Spanish "shorthand." A good scholar translated it for us. Here it is:

They passed on the 23rd of March, 1632, to the avenging of the death of the Father Letrado.-----Lujan

About the year 1629, Father Letrado built the earliest mission chapel at what we call today Salinas Pueblo National Monument (near Mountainair, New Mexico, southwest of Albuquerque).

He was transferred to Zuni in February of 1632 and was killed just a week later. On hearing the news in Santa Fe, Lujan and a party of soldiers reached Zuni in remarkably fast time.

There was so much to see and do at Inscription Rock but it was snowing and very cold with the wind blowing at almost gale force. We did not walk to the top to view ruins. That will have to wait for another visit.