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1. Traveling the Camino U.S. 380
- University of Nebraska Press
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1 1. Traveling the Camino U.S. 380 One hundred miles downstream from Albuquerque, New Mexico, the sluggish Rio Grande slams up against a series of volcanic mesas and dark, foreboding mountains. As if to avoid the desolate place, the mighty river swings in a long, wide arc to the west. Two parallel chains of mountains form a 120-mile-long barricade that isolates a vacant, inhospitable, 50-mile-wide jumble of black rock, dry lake beds, flesh-colored sand, and desolation. This is the Jornada del Muerto, the Journey of the Dead. Although so named because of a particular death centuries ago, many other illfated travelers have wandered the Jornada; mysterious ancient people in cli√-top fortresses, Spanish conquistadores come to reap heathen souls and uncounted riches, Apache warriors, Mexican farmers, and cowboys yodeling classical poetry to their cows. Many of these died here, while other travelers, like me, wandered the Jornada while on some longer journey. Each tale from this wild and rugged land is the story of a life, well lived or not, set under a burning desert sun. The earliest Europeans to see this land – Spanish men and women from Mexico who came seeking domination, converts, and wealth – referred to the distance between reliable sources of water as a jornada, a single march, a journey. Because following the river meant traversing a series of deep canyons and sharp-edged arroyos, travelers detoured across the dry Jornada del Muerto. By the early 1600s the Spanish had established regular travel between Mexico City and Santa Fe on a road that cut across the Jornada. From then until the twentieth century, when an automobile road along the river made the old road unnecessary , much of the human history of North America marched across this wasteland. San Acacia Lemitar Socorro San Antonio Carthage Fort Craig Trinity Site George McDonald Dave McDonald Flo Martin Lava Camp Deep Well Camp Buckhorn Ranch Water Canyon Stallion Range Black Mesa O sc ur a M ou nt ai ns Lava Gate Mockingbird M a g d a le n a M o u n ta in s Rio Grande R i o G r a n d e Area of enlargement The Camino U .S . 3 8 0 Malpais Valverde Malpais T h e C a m i n o New Mexico White Sands Missile Range Extension (co-use) Valley of Fires State Park Armendaris Grant Bosque del Apache N. W. R. Note: Travelers on the Camino Real had several approaches to the Jornada from the Rio Grande. The Jornada del Muerto. [3.237.32.143] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:47 GMT) Aleman Rincon Las Cruces Ojo Caliente Engle Truth or Consequences Rhodes’s grave P o i s o n H i l l s Caballo Mountains Hembrillo Basin Victorio Peak Point of Rocks Gap Rhodes Canyon Fr a C ri to be l M ts . San Andres Mountains Elephant Butte Reservoir Caballo Reservoir Elephant Butte Dam Caballo Dam R i o G r a n d e Railroad T h e C a m in o The Camino Malpais U.S.D.A Experimental Range White Sands Missile Range Armendaris Grant Note: The railroad and the Camino Real follow roughly the same route. The railroad is shown only where their routes differ significantly. 0 10 Miles 4 Traveling the Camino U.S. 380 Except for a few isolated wells, there is no reliable source of water on the Jornada. Even today, no one – not cowboys in pickup trucks or missile technicians in white, unmarked government cars – travels without life-giving water. The Jornada is the northern extent of the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest arid region in North America. The Chihuahuan Desert extends for over twelve hundred miles: from the Jornada del Muerto to the Mexican state of Zacatecas. What rain there is on the Jornada falls mostly from July to September, when moist, warm air from the Gulf of Mexico piles high above the San Andres, the Caballo, and the Fra Cristobel ranges in massive clouds. Then the air turns a deathly black and dark, ominous curtains of rain hang down from the sky. Violent, widely scattered, and isolated summer storms bring brief, torrential showers. Lightning stabs the air; the dry arroyos flash to sudden flood; playas of sand and clay turn instantly to axle-breaking quagmires. Then heat waves reappear and soon are shimmering across the desolation. After a summer cloudburst, you can see so far in a single...