Gold Rush

If you have ever driven Interstate 25 down from Colorado toward Raton, Cimarron Canyon, and Red River, you have crossed Raton Pass — and in the 1800s, that gateway had a gatekeeper. He was Richens Lacy Wootton, a Virginia-born mountain man known as Uncle Dick, and he built a toll road over the roughest stretch of the Santa Fe Trail and charged every wagon that rolled through. Born on May 6, 1816, in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, Wootton lived one of the great character stories of the southern Rockies.

Read more about Uncle Dick Wootton: The Mountain Man Who Charged a Toll Over Raton Pass

Recent photograph of the Big Five (Oro Fino) gold mine site on Bitter Creek above Red River, New Mexico: rusted remains of the 1921 waterwheel power plant in the foreground, a pond, and the mine cabin standing on the hillside

A visitor's 1970 jeep tour sparked a fresh look at the Big Five gold mine above 10,000 feet on Bitter Creek, where the cabin, pond, and rusted 1921 waterwheel plant still stand.

Read more about The Big Five: Bitter Creek's Stubborn Gold Mine

The wooden flume that carried Red River water toward the Elizabethtown gold workings, photographed in the 1910s or 1920s.

Henri Lambert cooked for President Lincoln and General Grant before heading west to Elizabethtown, where he fed miners instead of prospecting and built the St. James Hotel.

Read more about From Lincoln's Kitchen to Elizabethtown: Henri Lambert and the Legend of the St. James

The underside of a wooden mining flume in the mountains near Red River in the 1910s.

Eight miles northeast of Red River, the gold camp of La Belle rose in four months in 1894 to some 80 buildings and 700 people, then vanished within six years of its founding.

Read more about La Belle: The Gold Camp That Rose in Four Months and Vanished in Six Years

The historic Melson-Oldham cabin, a log home from Red River's mining era.

Mining-era Red River remembers Rebecca 'Aunt Becky' Coffelt for her magazine-papered cabin walls and a famous flower garden of towering delphiniums, columbine, and poppies.

Read more about Aunt Becky Coffelt: The Mining-Era Woman Who Made a Garden Bloom in a Gold Camp

A wooden mining flume carries water toward Elizabethtown across the mountainside above Red River in the 1910s.

Prospectors following placer gold uphill found the Aztec lode on Baldy Mountain in 1868, and the mine produced an estimated $1.25 to $1.5 million in gold in its first years.

Read more about The Aztec Mine: How Baldy Mountain's Million-Dollar Lode Sparked a Rush and Built a Town

The Complete History of Red River, New Mexico

Red River, New Mexico, is a picturesque resort town nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains within Taos County. With a population of 542 as of the 2020 census, it serves as a year-round destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering activities like skiing, hiking, fishing, and mountain biking.

Read more about The Complete History of Red River, New Mexico

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