1: The ill-fated Fort Thorn, established to protect trade and travel against the Apaches [Davis, W.W.H.] Harper and Brothers, 1857.
2: Members of the Wheeler Surveying party 1869 [Digitized by Cornell University Library, Making of America Collection] Smithsonian Institution Archives, George P. Merrill Collection
3: Train station at Laguna Pueblo [Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library] Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library.
4: Jemez man on horse, next to car [Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library]
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"...the time has come when hypothetical geography should cease, particularly when the graphic representation of a country is confided to the hands of officers of the United States army."-- William H. Emory, Commissioner of the Second United States-Mexican Boundary Commission, 1854.
The coming of the Americans brought the Age of Technology, and its accompanying changes to New Mexico. Although American ingenuity connected New Mexico to the rest of the world in a way it had not been before, Americans often mistook their ability for cultural superiority.
First the military, and later the U.S. Topographic Survey, mapped the state carefully; although initial errors in the international boundary, and later river meanderings, required several adjustments. Meanwhile, the U.S. established numerous military posts for protecting trade and waging war against the Apache and Navajo.
Then, the Southern Pacific Railroad and the AT&SF brought rail service through the state, and finally the U.S. built roads. Great portions of the newly-surveyed lands were opened to homesteading, and Americans began arriving in great numbers, via the railroad and later by road. Some were there to settle, some to trade, and thanks to the efforts of Fred Harvey and the railway companies, many came to appreciate the unique cultural spice of New Mexico.
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William H. Emory, Major, 1st Cavalry, and then United States Commissioner for the Boundary Survey directed preparation of this Map of the United States and Their Territories Between The Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean And Part of Mexico Compiled From the Surveys Made Under The Order of W.H. Emory...And...
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U.S. Topo Bureau: Old Territory and Military Department of New Mexico : 1867 Old Territory and Military Department of New Mexico, compiled in the Bureau of Topographic Engineers of the War Department chiefly for military purposes under the authority of the Secretary of War- 1859 - partially revised and corrected to 1867 was based on a list of Authorities from Fremont, 1848 through...
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With the Gadsden Purchase, the Southern Pacific Company was able to build a line from New Orleans, through Texas, to California, and up the Califonia coast. On that route, they held title to millions of acres of land near the tracks. In order to boost ridership and land sales, the Southern Pacific...
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Rand, McNally & Co.'s business atlas map of New Mexico. : 1897 The Homestead Act, passed by Abraham Lincoln (see below) opened up the possibility of free, or nearly free land to the teeming masses coming over from Europe. The American military had subdued the native residents, both Hispanic and indigenous, and the railroads had connected remote New Mexico to the...
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Rand McNally & Co.: Auto Trails Map Arizona New Mexico : 1925 While the first state highway, NM 1, was designated along the historic Camino Real three years before statehood, most New Mexico roads remained no more than bumpy ruts through the desert. In 1921, the Federal Highway Act provided funding for state highway agencies, like the newly-created New Mexico...
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Credits -- 1: [Written, narrated, recorded, directed and produced by Jack Loeffler]; 2: [Written, narrated, recorded, directed and produced by Jack Loeffler]; 3: [Written, narrated, recorded, directed and produced by Jack Loeffler]; 4: [Written, narrated, recorded, directed and produced by Jack Loeffler]; 5: [Written, narrated, recorded, directed and produced by Jack Loeffler]
Hear more about the Age of Technology
El Indio Vitorio: performed by Juan de la O
Camino Real and Interstate 25: Stephen Fosberg
Coming into Santa Fe: Marc Simmons, historian
TIMELINE: AGE OF TECHNOLOGY
1846
President Polk declares war with Mexico; US forces led by General Stephen Kearny seize New Mexico, which surrenders without a shot being fired. Colonel Doniphan writes code for governing the Territory of New Mexico. New Mexico designated Ninth Military Department.
1847
Philip St. George Cooke blazed the first wagon road from New Mexico to the West Coast.
New Mexico formally annexed; slavery issues had prevented formal annexation until this point.
1848
Mexico signs the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which cedes lands in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico to the United States (Statute 922 App I). The international boundary designated as the intersection of 32º N and the Rio Grande to intersection of Choctaw Creek with Red River.
1849
Simpson made a map previously shows town of Rito- Rito is a ruin by the time Whipple arrives because the upstream people took all the water. He traveled through Albuquerque to Pueblo de la Laguna and passed Covero (Cubero), Mount Taylor (named by Simpson in 1849 for Zachary Taylor), and Agua Fria, the last spring before the Continental Divide. Whipple used Sitgreaves' 1851 map as a reference also Walker's 1851 map.
1850
New territories admitted, including New Mexico (including modern Arizona), purchase of additional lands from Texas, boundaries adjusted. El Paso becomes part of Texas.
1851
Sitgreaves' official report, Report of an Expedition Down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers in 1851, was published in 1853. The report explored possibility of using this route for military transport.
1852 Survey
1st international boundary commission established in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Emory is the designated astronomer. The survey run into difficulties, which are resolved with the purchase of more land from Mexico.
Initial point on the Rio Grande (determined by Commissioners Condé and Bartlett according to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo) proves to be in the wrong place. Surveyor AB Gray says 32º 22' is wrong, 31º 52' is right. Commissioners Emory and Salazar (astronomers from the first Boundary Commission) later determine the starting point of the line at 32º47'.
1852
New Mexico legislature passed a single act creating two new counties, redefining five of the original counties to extend across the limits of the territory, and eliminating all non-county area.
1853
Gadsden Purchase from Mexico resolves boundary issues, and give the U.S. the land necessary to build a southern transcontinental railroad. (GP Statute 1031 App II).
1855 Survey
US Commissioner: William H. Emory
Mexican Commissioner: José Salazar y Larregui
Emory and Salazar survey the entire Mexican-American border, including the new area included by the Gadsden Purchase.
The Americans made nearly a dozen monuments along the border to mark the sites, but many were destroyed by surrounding tribes, so the Mexicans rebuilt many and added some. Later surveys added over two hundred more, and rebuilt them as more permanent monuments.
1855 railroad surveys
The U.S. Government commissioned a number of surveys, spaced along parallels, to determine the best route for a transcontinental railroad.
Emory & Parke: 32nd parallel
Whipple & Ives: 35th parallel
Beckwith & Gunnison: 38th-39 parallel
1857 and 1858
Ives' Report upon the Colorado River of the West
1859
Marcy publishes The Prairie Traveler
1861
Colorado territory established; New Mexico's northern boundary reduced.
Residents of the Mesilla Valley declared their allegiance with the Confederacy and separated from the Union. They hoped the Confederacy would recognize them as the state of Arizona, which they imagined would reach to the Colorado River.
Civil War starts. Confederate troops gather at Fort Bliss and take Fort Fillmore. The plan is to seize New Mexico, and then march on to take the gold fields of Colorado or California. Indian raids on settlements step up as U.S. Army soldiers turn their attention to other matters.
1862
Homestead Act: free 160 acres offered after 5 years cultivation. Later modified to offer 320 acres, and the Desert Lands Act offered 640 acres.
Henry H. Sibley, commander of a brigade of mounted regiments from Texas, marched from Fort Bliss near El Paso up the Rio Grande: taking Fort Fillmore, defeating Union troops at Fort Craig, taking Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and finally meeting the Union troops in battle at Glorieta Pass near Pecos. The Confederates lost about 350, 73 wagons, as well as their provisions and supplies. Starving and without clothes or ammunition, the Confederate troops retreated back to Fort Bliss.
1862-1871
Railroad Land grants: the Federal government gives away 128 million acres of land to the railroad companies, as an incentive to build railway lines all over the country. The railroad companies sold many of these parcels to homesteaders.
1863
Arizona Territory created by the United States from the western portion of New Mexico Territory and a part of present Nevada. Present New Mexico-Arizona boundary established.
1864-1866
"Long Walk"- Navajo and Mescalero Apache forcibly relocated to Bosque Redondo reservation. The Apache eventually escaped, and the Navajo signed a treaty of nonagression and returned to their homeland in 1868.
1864-1890
Indian Wars throughout the West. Destruction of the bison herds.
1867
Hayden, King, Wheeler, Powell Surveys map the west comprehensively, while cataloguing flora, fauna, and geology.
1868
Navajo chief Barboncito, along with numerous other leaders, sign a treaty with General William T. Sherman, agreeing to peace with the Americans in exchange for rights to return from Bosque Redondo to their new reservation: a small area within their traditional homeland.
1869
Fort Bliss renamed Fort Bliss.
Cochise and Apache guerrillas active 1871- 1879.
The war to save the buffalo 1874-1880.
1878-1879
Fort Bliss permanently established in current location.
1878
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (AT&SF) railroad crosses the Raton Pass into New Mexico, reaching Las Vegas, its first destination in New Mexico, in 1879.
1879
USGS established.
1880
The Southern transcontinental railroad traversed the region.
Geronimo & Chiricahua Apaches active in southern New Mexico and northern Mexico, 1880-1886.
1884
New boundary treaty: the boundary, where marked by the Rio Grande, adheres to the center of original channel as surveyed in 1852 even if the course of the river changes. Boundaries on international bridges at center point.
1886
Geronimo surrenders to General Crook in southern New Mexico. The remaining members of the Chiricahua and Mimbres bands are removed first to Florida, and finally to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
1889
US/Texas/ New Mexico/Mexico border resurveyed; discovered bancos or alluvial deposits changing land mass on either side of the border.
1891
Forest Reserve Law, designating forest preserves; forerunner of current National Forests.
1905
National Forest service created.
1906
Antiquities Act. Allows a president to protect areas of public land by executive order.
New treaty with Mexico on water rights for irrigation
1912
New Mexico becomes the forty-seventh state of the Union.
1916
National Park Service created.
1924
Gila Wilderness established.
1925
U.S. Supreme Court decision in New Mexico v. Colorado dismisses New Mexico's claims and establishes current boundaries between the states.