Land of Enchantment: Memoirs of Marian Russell Along the Santa Fe Trail

347 Pages·1985·1.48 MB·English

by  Marian Russell

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Page i
Land of Enchantment
Memoirs of Marian Russell
Along the Santa Fe Trail
As dictated to
Mrs. Hal Russell
Illustrated Facsimile Edition
with
New Photographs,
a New Map,
and a New Afterword
by Marc Simmons
University of New Mexico Press · Albuquerque
Copyright 1954 by the Branding Iron Press. University of New Mexico Press edition reprinted by
arrangement with Noreen Stringfellow. Afterword copyright © 1981 by the University of New Mexico
Press. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.
International Standard Book Number 0-8263-0571-7.
International Standard Book Number (paperback) 0-8263-0805-8
Sixth paperbound printing, 1997
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Russell, Marian Sloan, 1845-1937.
Land of enchantment.
Reprint. Originally published: Evanston, Ill.:
Branding Iron Press, 1954.
Includes index.
1. Santa Fe Trail. 2. Frontier and pioneer lifeSouthwest, New. 3. Overland Journeys to the
Pacific. 4. Russell, Marian Sloan, 1845-1937. 5. PioneersSouthwest, NewBiography.
6. Southwest, NewBiography. 1. Title.
F786.R96 1981 917.8 80-54564
ISBN 0-8263-0571-7 AACR2
Page vi
Richard D. Russell 1839-1888
Marian Sloan Russell 1845-1937
From a picture taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico about 1867,
soon after their wedding.
Page vii

Page viii
Copyright 1954
The Branding Iron Press
Evanston, Illinois
Page ix
Between the Covers. . . .
Down the Trail vii
Chapter I 1
The Old Northwest
Chapter II 1
On the Santa Fe Trail
Chapter III 31
Life in Santa Fé 1852-1856
Chapter IV 59
Fort Leavenworth 1856-1860
Chapter V 77
Back to New Mexico 1860
Chapter VI 85
Land of Enchantment 1860-1866
Chapter VII 115
Tecolote Traders 1866-1871
Chapter VIII 131
Stonewall Valley Ranch 1871-1936
Notes 145
Index 149
Page xi
Down the Trail. . . .
Few of the great overland highways of America have known such a
wealth of color and romance as that which surrounded the Santa Fé
Trail. For over four centuries the dust-gray and muddy-red trail felt
the moccasined tread of Comanches, Apaches, Cheyennes, and
Arapahoes. These soft footfalls were replaced by the bold harsh clang
of the armored conqueror, Coronado, and by a host of Spanish
explorers and soliders seeking the gold of fabled Quivira. Black and
brown-robed priests, armed only with the cross, were followed in turn
by bearded buckskin-clad fur traders and mountain men, by canny
Indian traders, and lean, weather-beaten drovers with great herds of
long-horned cattle. There were the tireless freighters marching
alongside or driving heavily laden, mile-long wagon trains; and eager,
profit-conscious merchants with trade goods for the Mexican villages
of New Mexico.
Over the years soldiers explored, surveyed, and protected those who
traveled on the slender wavering ribbon which linked precariously the
quiet pastoral culture of hispanic New Mexico and the dynamic
restless culture of the blossoming French, Spanish, and then American
settlements a thousand miles to the East. It was a colorful handful who
accepted such grave responsibility: armor-clad conquistadores of
imperial Spain, Mexican lancers, American dragoons, infantry, and
Negro cavalry. There were Texas militiamen, Kansas guerrillas fresh
from the farms, and Colorado volun-