12,000 years of hunting, gathering, raising, growing, cooking, marketing &
Eating in New Mexico: Anglos & Others
Territorial and Statehood Eras

Introduction | Kit Carson | SF Trail | Mills & Ranches | Eklund restaurant |
Cattle Drives & Cowboys | Chuckwagons | Cattle War | NM foodies | Grocery history |

The US government officials and soldiers (shown here at a Fort Marcy banquet in 1887)
were early Anglo residents of Santa Fe.

Anglos in New Mexico roughly refers to any person of Non-Hispanic or Native American ancestry. The term "Anglo" refers to people who came into New Mexico from the eastern or western parts of the USA. English, not Spanish, was their first or second language.

Anglos and others began moving into the territory of New Mexico from the northeast and later from the west, first as trappers, hunters and explorers, second along the Santa Fe Trail and starting in 1860 when the railroad arrived.

The Americanization of New Mexico meant expedited development and exploitation of the territory's resources. Anglos and others were active in the mining, cattle, farming, milling, banking, mercantile and manufacturing businesses.

Indian "flour ration day" Cimarron Mill operated by Anglo immigrants to the New Mexico territory.

They were behind the expansion of the trade routes, roads, railways, and more recently tourism and scientific research. The Anglos upset New Mexico's centuries old agrarian-based economic balance worked out by the Hispanics and Native Americans.

Kit Carson: an illustrious early Anglo immigrant to New Mexico

Kit Carson perhaps exemplified the worst and the best of the early Anglo temperament. A native of Kentucky, Carson went West as a young man and first worked as cook before becoming a fur trapper and guide. He had a deep respect for Indian ways, learning their languages, and his first two wives were native, one Arapahoe, one Cheyenne. In 1840 he was the chief supplier of meat for Bent’s Fort in Colorado and soon thereafter became the primary guide for John C. Fremont. Following service in the Mexican-American War he became a sheep rancher in Taos.

With the outbreak of the Civil War Carson fought on the Union side. Soon Carson was charged with “subduing the natives.” Why? Navajo people who once had been farmers, turned to sheep herding with the arrival of the Spanish. By the 19th c. the tribe’s dependence on herding led to Indian raids of animals held by Hispanics and others. Carson’s battles with the Navajos—his troops destroyed their livestock, burned their cornfields, and cut down their orchards, though Carson refused an order to kill all the Navajo men—led to the brutal “Long Walk” or forced march of 7000 men, women and children from Arizona to New Mexico where those who survived were imprisoned in Bosque Redondo for four years. Bosque lands proved too arid for growing crops so the U.S. government finally released the Navajos and allowed them to return to their own lands.

Santa Fe Trail & the Santa Fe Railroad

Traders, trappers, soldiers, and railroad men and their wives and families poured into New Mexico, as did merchants selling canned goods and foodstuffs from the east, along with milling and processing equipment.

"Journey's End" sculpture group at entrance to Santa Fe's Museum Hill complex
located not far from the actual Santa Fe Trail route into the capital city

Many Anglos opened stores and restaurants across New Mexico and in the 20th and 21st centuries have been in the vanguard of developing preservation and environmental organizations dedicated to supporting the rich heritage of farming, ranching and eating in New Mexico.

Learn more about William Becknell and the Santa Fe Trail here.

Santa Fe Trail map (source)

Read about the history of the Santa Fe Railroad here.

Santa Fe passenger train, 1890's (source)

A Few "Anglo" Food Heritage Sites

Cleveland Flour Mill, Cleveland

Constructed of adobe on a well-laid stone foundation, the Cleveland Flour Mill was erected in 1877 by Joesph Fuss, retooled in 1893, and acquired by Daniel Cassidy in 1914. The first buhrstones were imported from France, but the present roller mill was installed in 1892, when the large waterwheel of metal was added. The mill remained in operation until 1950, after which time the declining agriculture of the valley could no longer provide sufficient grain.

The Cleveland Roller Mill Museum is located in a flour mill built at the end of the 19th century and operated until the early 1940's in the beautiful Mora Valley in northeastern New Mexico. The mill's machinery remains intact and has been restored significantly to the point that it can be operated for demonstration purposes. The museum preserves the history of milling in northeastern New Mexico through photographs, documents and physical exhibits and makes this unique history available to all who wish to see it. We now are placing this history and images on the web in order to enrich the lives of people who are unable to travel to the mill site to view the museum in person.

A 'molino' (Spanish for grist mill), on loan from the Palace of the Governors in Sante Fe is located on the mill grounds and open for public inspection. The Spanish first mentioned their use of molino technology in New Mexico in a report dated from 1601.

Every year since 1987, on the Saturday and Sunday of the Labor Day weekend, the museum hosts a millfest which consists of an arts and craft show, music, food, and historical presentations in front of the museum and the operation of the mill and its machinery.

Learn more about this unique food heritage site and take a virtual tour of the museum here.

St. Vrain Mill, Mora

Some of the later flour mills, like this one and the famous Aztec Mill of 1864 at Cimarron, were constructed of stone. Illustrated here is the mill erected for Ceran St.Vrain by Oliver Smith, which was already in operation by 1864. St. Vrain had gained fame as a soldier and merchant and big shareholder in the Mora Grant. He also owned a gristmill in Taos; that burned in August 1864.

This two story stone mill with gambral roof stood in the heart of the Mora Valley. The region was famous for its hard wheat, which made particularly good flour. Much of the flour ground at this mill in its early days was sold to nearby Fort Union or to agents who contracted with the federal government to furnish food for Indians. Learn more about this endangered mill here.

Phoenix Ranch is one of the cattle ranches located on the prairie just east of the mountains. It is appreciably larger than most holdings in the mountain valleys. The main house, erected in 1864 for William Kroenig, a merchant and rancher who had emigrated from Germany seventeen years earlier, is characteristic of the large dwellings built on some of these ranches. Surrounded by an elaborate wooden veranda of two levels, this structure exemplifies the idea of a mansion as conceived in New Mexico during the later nineteenth century. Read a description of this property when it was for sale recently here.

The above descriptions and photos come from Of Earth and Timbers Made: New Mexico Architecture by Bainbridge Bunting with photos by Arthur Lazar, U of NM Press, Albuquerque, 1974.

Historic Eklund Hotel & Restaurant in Clayton, New Mexico

Clayton is a nifty small town, once a place the museum’s enthusiastic director, D.Ray Blakeley, as a teenager,“couldn’t wait to get out of.” Today the town boasts a thriving citizenry who banded together just a few years ago to buy the historic Eklund Hotel.

A major watering hole for generations, the Eklund was crumbling, its dining room still open but its hotel closed. ( Eklund has been serving food continuously since the turn of the century, which makes it an important community food heritage site.)

We came aross a menu from the Eklund at the Herzstein Museum, dating back to Thanksgiving 1917. This bit of paper ephemera tied in perfectly with our food history theme. As you can see below, oyster cocktail tops the list--in those days fresh oysters were shipped by rail in barrels and the oysters were "fed" with corn meal to keep them alive on the long trek west. Celery hearts, a food from the Eastern hemisphere, came after the oysters, along with olives, another native of the other side of the world. Then, tomato soup created from one of the western hemisphere's most delectable fruits. The main offering, of course, is turkey, a favorite native game.

Now the Eklund is renovated and lively, welcoming visitors who tend to make it a regular stop on their way somewhere else.

Cattle Drives, Cowboys & Chuckwagons

After the Civil War even though the Apaches continued to defend their lands for another twenty years, big ranching moved solidly into the southwest including New Mexico. Col. Charles Goodnight and his partner Oliver Loving blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail from Texas into New Mexico and up the west bank of the Pecos River to Fort Sumner and on to Pueblo, Colorado and the cattle yards of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.

The chuck wagon was the cowboy's portable kitchen and back porch, providing the coffee, beans, and biscuits that over-filled hungry stomachs. The chuck wagon is named for cattleman Charles Goodnight.

John Chisum arrived in New Mexico at South Spring with ten thousand longhorns and established a ranch tow hundred miles lon, from the Texas line to Fort Sumner. He ran about 80,000 head and became the "Cattle King of New Mexico." Near Deming was the Diamond A cattle ranch, one of the a seeries that belonged to Haggin and Tevis, interstate operators. At Gila, New Mexico, the Lyons and Campbell Ranch and Cattle Company, claimed a range of a million acres, on which they herded 80,000 head.

These Anglo-operated Southwest ranches, besides raising stock, produced grain, potatoes, cabbages, fruit and hogs. Pete Kitchen's El Potrero Ranch was famous for his bacon and ham.

Chuckwagon History & the Hubbard Museum of the American West

The Hubbard Museum of the American West is one of the most respected museums in the state, housing an extensive permanent collection and ever-changing schedule of shows and activities. The Hubbard Museum houses the Museum of the Horse and the Anne C. Stradling Collection and is affiliated with the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Featuring a magnificent collection of carriages, wagons,

Display of a conestoga wagon of the type that came over the Santa Fe Trail.

saddles, fine art and Indian artifacts, the role of the horse in the American West is highlighted in great detail.

The Hubbard Museum features this h orse drawn plow and other agricultural history displays

Visit the museum's website here.

The museum's chuckwagon cookoff information is here.

Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County Cattle War

The Lincoln County War was a 19th century conflict between two entrenched factions in America's western frontier. The "war" was between a faction led by wealthy ranchers and another faction led by the wealthy owners of the monopolistic general store in Lincoln County, New Mexico. A notable combatant on the side of the ranchers was William Bonney, who is better known to history as Billy the Kid.

John Tunstall was a wealthy 44-year old English cattleman, banker and merchant who had employed Bonney and several other younger hands as cattle guards. Alexander McSween, a lawyer, John Chisum, a famous cattleman with huge herds in the area, and Tunstall led a faction of roughnecks against another powerful faction in the county that was led by two Irishmen, Lawrence Murphy (founder of L. G. Murphy & Co.) and J.J. Dolan (James Dolan).

John H. Riley also became a partner with Murphy and Dolan in their mercantile and banking operation. Dolan and Riley owned a large general store called The House in the county's seat, Lincoln, which was the focal point for a virtual monopoly of the county's trade.

In the fall of 1877, shortly after Bonney was hired by Tunstall, violence broke out. The House proprietors Dolan and Riley obtained a court order to seize some of Tunstall's horses as payment for an outstanding debt. When Tunstall refused to surrender the horses, the Lincoln County sheriff, William Brady, formed a posse, led by deputy William Morton, to seize the horses. After protesting the presence of the posse on his land, Tunstall was shot in the head by Morton.

Read the full history of this conflict between rival cattle and mercantile interests in 19th century NM here.

Read more about Billy the Kid here.

Some "Anglos"contributing to awareness of New Mexico food

Clockwise from upper left: Paul Bosland, Dave Dewitt, Deborah Madison,
Willem Malten, Katherine Kagel, Mark Miller

Paul Bosland , professor of horticulture and director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, has a reputation as one of the top chile breeders in the world. Paul, smiling and soft spoken, continues his work of developing new varieties of chile that overcome environmental challenges from every quarter.

Concentration at NMSU is on five breeding programs: green varieties, red varieties, paprika (used for food coloring), cayenne, and different colored ornamental varieties. The goal is to give New Mexico farmers a three-year edge on the competition because the seed will be ultimately made available to other growers, even in other countries.

"And," as Paul explains, "I am still a professor and I work closely with my graduate students in their masters and doctorate programs. I have had students from all over the world; currently I have graduate students from Hungary, Nepal, and Senegal. It is a good feeling to see these students develop into scientists who will help to solve some of the world’s food production problems."

Paul recently won a distinguished Regents Professorship, an award that recognizes faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the university’s mission as a land-grant university. The award carries an annual $12,500 stipend. Paul, in addition to developing numerous varieties of ‘NuMex’ chiles, is the coauthor of The Pepper Garden and Peppers of the World.

Dave Dewitt is one of the foremost authorities in the world on chile peppers and spicy foods. Dave researched and wrote numerous magazine and newspaper articles on chile peppers in the late 1970's. In 1984, St. Martin's Press published his first cookbook, The Fiery Cuisines, co- authored with Nancy Gerlach. That book is still in print more than seventeen years later by Ten Speed Press. In 1987, Dave and Nancy approached a local publisher, and the three launched Chile Pepper magazine with a mere 212 subscribers.

By 1995, with Dave as the editor-in-chief, the magazine had surpassed 50,000 subscribers with a total circulation exceeding 80,000. The magazine was sold in1996 and Dave launched Fiery Foods & Barbecue Business Magazine, a trade publication. The earlier Chile Pepper magazine project led to numerous books, including The Whole Chile Pepper Book (Little, Brown, 1990), which now has nearly 100,000 copies in print and recently had its tenth printing.

Dave has 31 published books to his credit and continues to write books at the rate of one or two a year. He is also producer of the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show, the trade show for the multi-billion dollar Fiery Foods and Barbecue industries, now in its 13th year. His book The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia (William Morrow, 1999) won the award “Best Spice Book in English” at the 1999 World Cookbook Awards at Versailles. His latest book, again with Nancy Gerlach, is Barbecue Inferno: Cooking with Chile Peppers on the Grill (Ten Speed Press, 2001).Other notable books by Dave and his co-authors include: The Pepper Garden, Peppers of the World, Hot & Spicy & Meatless, The Healing Powers of Peppers, and The Hot Sauce Bible. In 1995, his book, A World of Curries, was nominated for a James Beard Award. Dave is co- producer, writer, and host of Heat Up Your Life!, a three-part video documentary series on chile peppers and spicy foods that will run on PBS or a cable channel. He is also publisher of the Fiery Foods & Barbecue Super Site, at www.fiery-foods.com.

Katherine Kagel is the founder of Cafe Pasqual, named for the folk saint of Mexican and New Mexican kitchens and cooks, San Pasqual. The historic pueblo-style adobe is located one block southwest of the plaza, in the heart of downtown Santa Fe. The festive dining room is lined with hand-painted Mexican tiles and murals by the renowned Mexican painter Leovigildo Martinez, depicting the moon reveling at her fiesta. Pasqual's is a small cafe by any standards, seating only fifty at a time, but each day the kitchen makes enormous quantities of food. They bake dozens of loaves of bread, churn gallons of ice cream, create chile sauces by the potful, hand-chop the ingredients for crocks of salsas, and perform countless other operations.

Deborah Madison, founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, has garnered high praise from some of the luminaries of the cookbook world. Marion Cunningham has said, “If I could have only one book on the subject of vegetables, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone would be it.” Alice Waters says, “She writes the same way she cooks and gardens: with passion and knowledge.” And Martha Rose Shulman writes, “Her recipes bring so much flavor, beauty, and excitement to the plate, but with so little fuss.”

Willem Malten owner of Cloud Cliff bakery, organic food promoter and filmmaker was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1955. From 1981-1984 he lived, worked and meditated as a Zen Monk at the Zen Center and at the Tassajara Zen Monastery in California

In 1984 Willem Malten started the Cloud Cliff –bakery, café, artspace -in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Cloud Cliff has grown into a thriving business with about 40 employees. It specializes in organic produce. As long term board member of the Santa Fe Farmers Market and manager of Cloud Cliff, Willem Malten was instrumental in setting up the Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project, a rural revitalization program for small family farmers aimed at preserving genetic diversity and fertile farmlands. It started in 1994 and is still very active. In 1998 Malten was commissioned by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to make a movie about the Wheat Project called ‘The Staff of Life’. It won immediate statewide acclaim, and stimulated similar projects in Northern California, Oregon and also Vermont.

Mark Miller, the founder of Coyote Cafe and promoter of Southwest/New Mexican cuisine world-wide.

Groceries & Supermarkets: an example of Anglo influence

When the Love brothers moved to southeastern New Mexico in 1900, they founded the City of Lovington. Lovington is located on the land that Robert F. Love homesteaded in 1903. The first business in Lovington was the Jim B. Love Grocery Store, built by Robert's brother in 1908, and the post office was set up in the store.

In 1910, a successful attempt to draw new settlers was made by offering free lots to families with children. Lovington was appointed as the county seat in 1917, which assured the community's future prosperity. The city was incorporated in 1918. It was the initiative of leaders of the community that brought rail service to the area. Initially, their efforts did not entice the railroads; but the discovery of oil and gas did. The impact of the oil industry was most prevalent during the 1940's and 1950's with a 12,000 foot deep oil production well, the "Sawyer Discovery."

Before the discovery of oil and gas, the community was primarily involved in ranching and farming. Lovington's lifestyles and labor force were shaped by the new industry. The oil and gas industry eventually declined, leaving a lasting impression. However, many businesses survived and others provided gradual but steady growth.

Kaune Foodtown: a venerable Santa Fe grocer

When Henry Spencer Kaune established a grocery store in downtown Santa Fe, N.M., in 1896, he introduced a sparkling new specialty food—Coca Cola. Offering a selection that included “dried beans to caviar,” the transplanted Illinoisan’s food store has been central to the Santa Fe community for 108 years. “Kaune’s is a Santa Fe tradition,” says Cheryl Pick Sommer, who purchased the 8,300-square-foot market in November 2003. “My first food memory is of doughnuts from Kaune’s. This is a part of Santa Fe’s history that needs to adapt to remain an important piece of the future.” Read the full article here.

Continue to the next part of the exhibit about
the food heritage sites of NM.

Click on the images below to visit all the New Mexico Food Heritage Exhibits.

New Mexican Cuisine	NM Food Heritage Home	NM Food Heritage Sites
First New Mexicans Foods	Spanish & Mexican Colonial	Territorial & Statehood
Santa Fe Food Heritage	Albuquerque Food Heritage	Las Cruces Food Heritage