Cowboy Spur Maker: The Story of Ed Blanchard

Afterword Ranching in Blanchard Country, Then and Now

Afterword [ 132 ] A F T E RWO R D Ranching in Blanchard Country Then and Now by Tom Kelly The people who populated the Magdalena country of New Mexico, where Ed Blanchard and I grew up and where I still live, were in the most part ranchers, sheepmen, mining men, prospectors, and of course, the merchants, who supplied everything they all needed. The Santa Fe Railway made life easier in 1885, when it completed a line between Socorro and Magdalena to haul goods and passengers as well as ore and stock. The railroad operated from 1885 until 1971 and was a lifeline to all the people of the area. However, it was ranching that influenced my life and Ed Blanchard’s life the most. During the 1870s and 1880s, if a man had a few cows and a couple of horses, he could become a rancher. He first had to find a spring of water, dig it out, and build a log house or rock shack and a small corral , and then he changed from cowboy to cowman. To stay in business, he kept up a running fight with the mountain lions, bears, wolves, coyotes, and everything and everyone else who was hungry. There were no fences, so the rancher herded his livestock during the day and shut Afterword [ 133 ] them up at night in the corral next to the house. The cows stayed in or near the mountains, since there was no water out on the flats. If a man needed more cattle, he could likely find a neighbor who did not take care of his animals. He kind of “borrowed” a few of the neighbor’s unbranded calves or yearlings and put his own brand on them. Now if he liked his neighbor and they got along, he didn’t do this. This neighbor might have a few extras that came from farther north, and the rancher had some show up accidentally from down south, so they might make a trade. Once in a while, either one might borrow a fat yearling from the other to eat just as a joke to see if the other was staying on his toes. If the rancher had a neighbor that no one especially liked, he’d let him steal a cow just to prove the man was a thief. Then the rancher felt justified in stealing three or four of the neighbor’s cows to replace the one he had stolen. Before he did that, he made sure he had more nerve and was a better cowboy than his neighbor was. One old-timer might be eating dinner with another. The first one says, “John, how do you like that steak?” John, to be polite, says, “Sure is mighty tasty.” “Well, John, it was one of yours. Don’t you recognize it?” “It sure could be,” John says. “Come to think of it, I never ate one of my own before!” Neither one would ever know for sure who was telling the truth, but probably both were. It wasn’t long before eastern people came to the country, as they had in Texas. They bought up water holes or just claimed them and turned thousands of cattle loose on the open range. These cattle scattered all over the country for miles, and of course, the newcomers didn’t or couldn’t take care of them. The rancher who was already here with the few cows, a log shack, and two horses had a head start. Soon, more and more of the easterner’s cows drank the rancher’s water and ate the grass since the land was not fenced. Before long, there was not enough grass or water for the rancher’s cows, so the ranchers who were here to begin with started thinning out the easterner’s herd. The easterner couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t make money in the cattle business, and he soon went back where he came from. Of course, his cattle stayed in New Mexico with new brands on them. Afterword [ 134 ] As time went by, these first cowboys bought the water rights from the government by using forty-acre land scrip. This made each of them the proud owner of forty acres, probably little more than a pile of rocks. He still ran his cattle on open range. He worked himself to death every day, half starved, and...