November 9 arrives in Red River as a quiet early-winter Monday, with ski season drawing close and the mining country settling into cold nights. This date holds three verified anniversaries for the Enchanted Circle country. On November 9, 1840, Padre Antonio Jose Martinez of Taos signed his account of his life and ministry in Durango. On November 9, 1875, a Santa Fe newspaper told the territory that Cimarron was in the hands of a mob. On November 9, 1976, the original Smokey Bear died, a bear whose rescuers included firefighters from Taos Pueblo.
Click to see more photos of Cimarron and the Colfax County War
Red River Town & Main Street
No verified November 9 anniversary survives for Main Street itself, so this is honest context rather than an anniversary. In November 1875, there was no platted town of Red River City yet, because the townsite was not laid out until 1895. The valley was prospecting and ranching country, tied by wagon road to Elizabethtown and Taos. When the gold camps boomed, the settlement grew to about three thousand people by the late 1890s, then shrank and rebuilt itself around visitors, fishing, and skiing. Early November was the hinge between the last fall work and the first winter snows.
Mining & the Gold Rush
The fight that reached Cimarron grew directly out of mining country. Gold was found on Willow Creek and Baldy Mountain in 1866, and Elizabethtown rose as New Mexico's first incorporated town and an early seat of Colfax County. Lucien Maxwell built the Aztec Mill in Cimarron to grind grain for the mining settlements, and he controlled the vast Maxwell Land Grant until he sold it in 1870. New owners, backed by the Santa Fe Ring, tried to collect rents from miners and farmers who had settled the grant. By the fall of 1875, that land and mining dispute had turned violent.
Founding Families, Characters & Legends
On November 9, 1840, Padre Antonio Jose Martinez signed his autobiography in Ciudad Victoria de Durango, writing his name beneath an account of his studies, ordination, and ministry. Martinez was born on January 17, 1793, in Abiquiu and was ordained a priest in February 1822. He became the priest in charge in Taos in 1826, operated a printing press, and published his earlier autobiography in Taos in 1838. The shorter 1840 version was prepared for his church superiors during a sabbatical in Durango, the city where he had studied for the priesthood.
Skiing & Winter
No exact November 9 ski anniversary is verified for the Circle, so this section is seasonal context for this week of the year. Early November is preseason in Red River, when crews prepare slopes and lodging and the town watches the forecasts. The Red River Ski and Summer Area first opened in December 1959, built by Stokes and Billie Bolton with lift towers made from oil derricks. The area has long aimed to open around Thanksgiving, and this year its planned opening day is Wednesday, November 25. Winter, in other words, is close enough to feel.
Enchanted Circle Towns & Places
Here is today's lead story, and it is an exact-date anniversary. On November 9, 1875, the Santa Fe New Mexican informed the public that Cimarron was in the hands of a mob. Weeks earlier, on September 14, 1875, the Reverend Franklin Tolby, a critic of the Santa Fe Ring, was shot in Cimarron Canyon near Clear Creek. On October 30, a masked mob reportedly led by Clay Allison and the Reverend Oscar McMains hanged Constable Cruz Vega. Guards were posted at the entrances to Cimarron, and no one could leave without permission. McMains led the vigilantes in name, although most people believed Allison was the true leader.
The Land, Weather & Wildlife
On November 9, 1976, the original Smokey Bear died at the National Zoo at the age of twenty-six. He had been found in May 1950 as a badly burned cub after the Capitan Gap fire in the Lincoln National Forest. Firefighters from Taos Pueblo, the Snowball crew, helped rescue him, and crew member Adolph Samora remembered holding the cub, whose paws were blistered. Game warden Ray Bell flew him to Santa Fe for care, and he became the living symbol of wildfire prevention. He retired on May 2, 1975, and after his death his body was returned to Capitan for burial.
Roads, Stage Lines & Travel
Travel itself became part of the Cimarron story in the fall of 1875, and this is the road context for today's date. The road through Cimarron Canyon, between Elizabethtown and Cimarron, was where Reverend Tolby was shot on September 14. By November, guards stood at every entrance to Cimarron, and travelers could not leave town without the permission of the vigilante ring. Cimarron also sat on the mountain route of the Santa Fe Trail, the route the National Park Service still interprets at the Aztec Mill today. A closed road, in a mountain town, has always been powerful news.
Living History & Heritage
The buildings of that era still teach the story today. Lucien Maxwell's Aztec Mill in Cimarron, built in 1864, now serves as the Old Mill Museum, filled with exhibits on ranches, mining, and founding families. The Cimarron Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 3, 1973. In Red River, the Little Red Schoolhouse, which closed as a school in 1942, now houses the Historical Society museum. Smokey Bear Historical Park in Capitan was dedicated on May 15, 1976, months before Smokey's death, as his final resting place.
So November 9 in the Enchanted Circle holds a priest in Taos signing his life story, a mining town under a mob, and a famous bear rescued by a Taos Pueblo crew. None of those stories began in Red River itself, and that is the point. Red River has always lived inside a larger circle of neighboring towns, forests, and families, and its history makes the most sense when the whole circle is kept in view.