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Pagosa Springs History and Culture:
Before 1860
by Larry Larason, Four
Corners Excursions
I consulted two different Colorado history books
while writing this page and Pagosa Springs wasn't mentioned in
either. I think that's because the history of Archuleta County
is mostly quiet stuff, people settling in to live their lives
in a beautiful part of the country. Such low-key drama doesn't
make great history.
Much has been written about gold strikes and boom towns
at Summitville, Creede, Silverton, and so on, but Pagosa Springs
shared little in that kind of excitement. Although a Fench expedition
about 1790 apparently found gold on Treasure Mountain, no one
since has discovered the source or the trove they left behind.
There are hints of bad times when Anglos began challenging Hispanics
for control, but events in that era seem poorly documented. The
local historical society is beginning to piece together the history
of the area. Maybe in the future someone will write a comprehensive
book. In the meantime, here's some of what I've learned.
Juan Maria Rivera led two expeditions in 1765 that went
into the La Platas, if not the San Juan Mountains. On July 29th
of 1776 an expedition left Santa Fe in search of a route to link
that city, the capital of the "Kingdom of New Mexico",
with Monterey, the primary Spanish settlement in California. The
group of explorers was led by Fray Francisco Dominguez, and Fray
Francisco Velez de Escalante. Some of the men who had been on
Rivera's earlier journeys acted as guides.
The fathers did not travel to the present site of Pagosa
Springs, but they came close. Notes in their diary indicate that
La Piedra Parada ["Rock Parade", now called "Chimney
Rock"] was already a well known landmark to others in their
party. These knowledgeable guides suggested the trail leading
by Piedra Parada was too rough, so, on August 4th, they traveled
a ways up the river, also named Rio de la Piedra Parada [now called
simply "Piedra River"] before turning west. Whether
the hot spring along the San Juan River was known to the Spaniards
is not mentioned. Although they failed in their goal of finding
a route to California, defeated by the rough terrain of Utah,
the Dominguez-Escalante expedition provided one of the earliest
written records of the landscape and inhabitants of a good portion
of the Four Corners.
Captain J. N. McComb, who led an expedition in 1859, provided
the next written record of this region. His expedition produced
the first modern map of the area it traversed between Santa Fe
and the junction of the Colorado and Green Rivers. Following roughly
the same route as Dominguez and Escalante from Santa Fe to near
the present Colorado state line, the group went farther north
before turning west. Their twelfth camp was at Pagosa Hot Spring.
J. S. Newberry , a geologist accompanying the expedition, commented
that the spring was "well known, even famous, among the Indian
tribes." He continued, "There is scarcely a more beautiful
place on the face of the earth." Leaving in the spring, McComb
led the expedition west along the present route of US 160 to camp
two days later on the banks of the Piedra River, where Newberry
described and sketched Chimney Rock. A lithograph of his sketch
was included in the report.
The western portion of Colorado was Ute territory. Although
Spanish rule forbid trade with the Indians, the settlers in Abiquiu
and the Chama Valley engaged in such pursuits, and some illegal
expeditions apparently did mining on a seasonal basis, especially
in the La Platas. After 1830, the "Old Spanish Trail"
was in use from Santa Fe to Los Angeles; in the Pagosa Springs
area it followed a similar path to that used by Dominguez and
Escalante. The Capote Utes, seemed resigned to the incursions
of the strangers and left them alone for the most part.
Then gold was discovered in the San Juans.
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