HOUSE MEMORIAL 16

55th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2021

INTRODUCED BY

Gail Armstrong

A MEMORIAL

CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF CATRON COUNTY.

     WHEREAS, settlement in the Catron county region dates to some of the earliest in the Americas; and

     WHEREAS, during the Clovis period between 10999 B.C. and 8000 B.C. and the Folsom period between 7999 B.C. and 5999 B.C., the Ake site was occupied near Datil; and

     WHEREAS, Bat Cave, near Horse Springs, was occupied around 3500 B.C.; and

     WHEREAS, the Mimbres culture was part of the Mogollon people, who lived throughout the Catron county area from 1000 to 1130 A.D.; and

     WHEREAS, the art of the Mimbres culture is renowned for its beauty; and

     WHEREAS, in 1598, the region was declared part of a province in New Spain and remained in Spanish control until Mexico's declaration of independence in 1821; and

     WHEREAS, Mexico ceded the region to the United States in 1848; and

     WHEREAS, in 1880, Sergeant James C. Cooney was the first person to find silver and gold ore in the mountains of Catron county; and

     WHEREAS, four years later, self-appointed Sheriff Elfego Baca was the hero of the Frisco shootout in San Francisco plaza; and

     WHEREAS, in the mid-1880s, Butch Cassidy and his wild bunch gang holed up at a ranch near Alma, New Mexico, and notorious outlaw Tom Ketchum also lived in Catron county around that time; and

     WHEREAS, writer and cattle rancher Agnes Morley Cleaveland authored the critically acclaimed No Life for a Lady about growing up on a New Mexico ranch in the late 1800s; and

     WHEREAS, Agnes helped manage her stepfather's ranch near Datil, and Agnes died in Datil in 1958; and

     WHEREAS, Catron county's lands were part of Socorro county from the creation of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico until February 25, 1921; and

     WHEREAS, Catron county was named for Thomas B. Catron, a leading figure in New Mexico statehood and New Mexico's first United States senator; and

     WHEREAS, Catron county is the largest county in land size in New Mexico, but has the third smallest population of approximately three thousand five hundred people; and

     WHEREAS, Catron county covers almost seven thousand square miles and contains mostly rugged mountainous terrain; and

     WHEREAS, less than twenty percent of the land in Catron county is privately owned, with the balance being public land;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the centennial anniversary of Catron county be celebrated; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the independent and resourceful residents of Catron county be joined in recognizing Catron county's long and fascinating history; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the members of the board of county commissioners of Catron county.

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